Visma-Lease a Bike earn plaudits for "nice gesture", giving water to Tour de France pro on another team; Latest mind-boggling Pogačar mountain destruction; Olympic athlete photos or police mugshots?; Stolen cargo bikes appeal + more on the live blog

Great sportsmanship on display earlier today.

Visma team car helping Sean Quinn with a water bottle. 👏 #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/0yvICCiU5x

— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 19, 2024

It's actually fairly common practice for teams to offer help to other teams' riders, even more so when it comes to the grupetto, after all another day it'll be the cleat on the other foot and your rider needing some help from a rival.

Of course, the front of the race and the battle for GC victory or stages is a completely different matter, but for the most part when the pressure's off (like here with dropped EF Eduaction-EasyPost domestique Sean Quinn) teams will help each other out. On mountain stages the cars can get especially strung out due to crowds or fast descents, so overall it's just a nice thing to be nice... plus you might get it caught on camera and shared online to win you some new fans...

Tadej Pogačar had some bidon-related fun to pass the time before his inevitable attack later on Isola 2000, opting to discard of an empty bottle... by lobbing it into Intermarché–Wanty's team car Angry Birds-style.

Thanks for the bottle Tadej #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/dCgyCxWCgh

— Intermarché-Wanty (@IntermarcheW) July 19, 2024

Clearly Tour de France queen stages are a bit boring when you've got his legs, the yellow jersey having to keep himself entertained early on...

Classic prank perfectly executed 😂

Tadej Pogačar joking with his old team-mate Davide Formolo on Stage 18 of the Tour de France.

Watch full Stage 18 on-bike highlights: https://t.co/zgTdqzvi3e
__________
🇫🇷 #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/nC7lEPDc7z

— Velon CC (@VelonCC) July 19, 2024

With five minutes to spare, the image everyone wanted to see. Things are looking less good for Arnaud Démare who is well behind this Astana trio.

🇫🇷 VIDEO OF THE DAY: @LeTour

Tired? Well, looks like not really 😅@MarkCavendish #TDF2024 #AstanaQazaqstanTeam pic.twitter.com/NWgt4EEX60

— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) July 19, 2024

I told you so🤔🤔🤔

— mou (@mou55981652) July 19, 2024

Poor John-Lee Augustyn, the former Barloworld and Sky rider who will always be most synonymous with the Bonette for that famous crash back in '08...

Whenever I hear Cime de la Bonette, the first thing that pops in my mind is the crash of John Lee Augustyn in 2008. The legend says that his bike is still rolling down the cliff... #TdF2024pic.twitter.com/6L5uXzn9KA

— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) July 18, 2024

Fingers and toes crossed for no repeat of that today. A break of six including Richard Carapaz, Simon Yates, Jai Hindley, Cristián Rodríguez and, curiously, Visma-Lease a Bike duo Matteo Jorgenson and Wilco Kelderman is up the road, currently enjoying a four-minute advantage on the lower slopes of the mythical climb.
 

Bath's former Bicycle Mayor has asked for help getting two cargo bikes back after they were stolen from her garage in a "clearly targeted" burglary. It has been reported to the police and marked as stolen with Bike Register, the two bikes taken an Urban Arrow and a Bike43, both of which RRP at around £6,000.

She said: "It was clearly targeted (no other bikes were taken and none of the neighbours were broken into) and could have been due to my profile as Bicycle Mayor (formerly) and councillor."

Our 2 cargo bikes were stolen from our garage overnight 😭 - an Urban Arrow and a Bike43.

Please share if you're in Bath - they can't be far!!

This has been reported to police and have marked as stolen on @bikeregister pic.twitter.com/G3zq9rOupl

— Saskia Heijltjes (@SaskiaHeijltjes) July 17, 2024

> Is the new Canyon Aeroad truly aero? Canyon unveils all new Aeroad CFR, an all-rounder yet "the fastest bike in the WorldTour peloton"

It got 9/10 from chief reviewer Stu too, "Stunning performance right across the board from this versatile aero machine."

> REVIEW: Canyon Aeroad CFR AXS 2024

The yellow jersey belting out Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, We are the Champions and more? Oh, sorry, you meant Tadej Pogačar's upcoming performance on the Tour de France's queen stage... not a "mind-bender" showing at a Queen stage performance... got you...

There is still no ID on who 'Mou' is, the anonymous social media voice who shot to prominence within the cycling world this week amid suspicion they are a mole close to UAE Team Emirates, before they became increasingly outspoken online as old posts on Cyclingnews' forum surfaced, essentially predicting Pogačar's outrageously dominant season (from Strade Bianche to the Tour) step by step.

Mou had been scathing in criticism of Pogačar's old coach, Inigo San Millan, and since February has been spreading word online that the Slovenian's new partnership with Javier Sola would unlock his true potential — better climbing performances, less prone to bad days in the third week, less prone to bad days when the weather's hot, better TTing etc. etc. In short, he claimed: "Pogačar is a Ferrari in which diesel was poured for five years, now when gasoline is poured into it, we get what we are looking at in 2024."

Now, plenty of his predictions have largely come true and the anonymous 'mole', who also shared screenshots of Pogačar's secret training data as 'proof' he has inside knowledge, is becoming more and more confident, outspoken, and some would say "arrogant"...

Unpopular opinion:
This Mou is really starting to get on my nerves with his arrogant and know-it-all writing. I hope this saga ends soon and he goes back into hibernation.

— Andreas Maier (@AndiMaier99) July 18, 2024

For what it's worth, Pogačar addressed the rumours and social media storm, saying: "I have no idea who this guy is. But yeah, I've heard in the last two days he's getting a lot of attention. I think he gets some things right, but mostly he gets it also wrong.

"I don't know who this guy is and what's his purpose. I think he just tries to be important on Twitter and forums or whatever, but I don't follow, I just heard a lot. People are asking. Maybe we will all together find out who the guy is."

Fast forward to today and the queen stage of this year's Tour de France, a monstrous traversing of Alpine giants — three ascents exceeding 2,000m, including the 2,800m Cime de la Bonette — time to test Mou's claims out...

Oh, and they're not holding back with one final (well, until they get bored and need more attention in an hour's time) prediction...

Tomorrow you will watch a show of power as the GOAT toy with the soon-to-be ex-two-time TDF winner, it will be such a mind-bender that Vini will think back to his old job, packing fish at Glynore market

— mou (@mou55981652) July 18, 2024

Classy. Although if it is Pogačar's big day of dominance ahead, surely he's the "soon-to-be ex-two-time TDF winner". Sorry, Mou. We've got to be pedantic...

They added: "Some things are obviously still not clear to people: Vini [Jonas Vingegaard] is not better on the hill than Pog, Vini does not have a better third week than Pog, Vini is not better than Pog in any segment except in aerodynamic position on TT bikes.

"Pogačar's pain was high temperature and that drained his energy from stage to stage, that is no longer the case after the introduction of the Core device in training. Now that all his flaws caused by his disastrous training have been ironed out, you're looking at exactly what I said you'd be looking at back in March."

Perhaps unsurprisingly at the end of a long week, some have had enough...