"I'm done with the internet for the year": Cyclists despair at Facebook "hack" claiming you can ditch your pump and instead inflate tyres with a syringe; Jeremy Vine's cycling new year's resolution; Festive 500... in one ride + more on the live blog

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Alpecin-Deceuninck (@alpecindeceuninck)

Mathieu van der Poel's ongoing rib problems have caused him to withdraw from tomorrow's cross in Koksijde. Alpecin Deceuninck said it is also unclear if he'll be fit to ride the World Cup round at Dendermonde on Sunday, a decision on his fitness to be made on Saturday.

"This is really disappointing because Koksijde is one of my favorite races," Van der Poel said. "It's where I won my first world title, but it's just too soon. I hope to be ready for Dendermonde, although I fear it will be a close call."

The Cycling Academy, a Scottish-based racing team, will not be continuing in 2025. Sharing the news on social media, The Cycling Academy highlighted the end of its deal with Arnold Clark and "the 1,500 hours a year of team manager duties" becoming "hard to mix with actual work".

The post continued: "Four brilliant seasons on the tarmac, mud and wood delivered loads of Scottish Champs, Scotland's first British Junior Road Champ and some nice podiums in the UK and Europe. We also nudged some riders down the line of pro careers, enjoyed some proper digging in, and benefited from an amazing group staff and volunteers. Spending time with young folks striving in the worlds hardest sport is an incredible privilege and unbeatable experience."

The British Continental also noted the closure of West Yorkshire-based A.Fawcett Racing.

Accell Group posted a 10 per cent drop in revenue in its finalised 2023 accounts, Bike Europe reported. The business, which owns Lapierre, Raleigh and numerous other bike brands, is "well on track" to recovery, according to its CEO Tjeerd Jegen.

"2024 was a challenging year for both the bike industry and Accell," he said. "However, we've normalised stock levels, made significant progress with our recapitalisation and are proud to see one of the key Accell brands, Lapierre, return to the UCI World Tour. As we look ahead, we are well positioned to benefit from the favourable macro trends and continue building on this momentum in the new year.

"All brands now benefit from joint stock management, and the stock levels of finished bikes, which peaked at the end of 2023, have now been brought back to normalised pre-Covid levels. The majority of the stock now consists of models produced in the past year. The inventory of parts and accessories had been brought back to normalised levels earlier in the year. We see sales to customers in our key markets increasing again."

In June, Accell's credit rating was downgraded for fourth time in a year, the blow coming at the same time that the group's cargo bike company Babboe was criticised for a "shambles" recall of faulty frames.

The group also made job cuts to streamline its European production, with two facilities merging and some production relocated to Hungary and Turkey. In October, the major Dutch cycling company did hint at its recovery, Accell reporting that parts and accessories inventory is already back to normal and bike inventory levels are expected to reach the same point by the end of 2024.

Before Christmas we shared Lloyd Collier's story with you on the live blog. Well, he was one of a group of riders to complete the Festive 500 in a single ride at Herne Hill Velodrome over the festive break. Chapeau, that's a lot of laps... more than 1,000 in fact. 

Lloyd was riding in memory of Annette 'Netty' Collier who sadly took her own life last year. He raised funds for the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance who attempted to save Netty that day.

"Each time the helicopter flies it costs almost £3,000, with EHAAT's monthly total cost coming to approximately £1,000,000," Lloyd told us. "They rely solely on charitable donations so I'm hoping to raise enough funds for their next three or four missions — wouldn't it be wonderful if, with funds raised in memory of Netty, they can get to the next Netty, or Hetty, or Harry, in time.

"The family and I ask that her death also be a rallying call to all of us to be vigilant to our loved ones and their state of mind — a fleeting moment of weakness can last forever."

The fundraiser had already hit the £6,000 mark before Christmas and is now at £9,200, approaching double the original target.. You can read more about Netty's story, Essex & Herts Air Ambulance's work, and donate to the fundraiser here.

My new year’s resolution is not to get cross when I'm cycling and drivers do things like this.

🎥Filmed 31.12.24 #HappyNewYear2025 pic.twitter.com/IH21aFFQoA

— Jeremy Vine | thejeremyvine.bsky.social (@theJeremyVine) January 1, 2025

 2024 wouldn't have been complete without one final Jeremy Vine video perfectly summing up some of the dangers and annoyances cyclists face riding every day in urban areas such as London. In this case it was a van driver turning across a cycle lane, not giving the rider priority as the Highway Code advises, the incident fortunately just about only resulting in a case of inconvenience and Vine having to turn off the route, rather than what could have happened if he was a couple of seconds further along the cycle lane.

The video then reveals the broadcaster was riding his penny farthing and Vine stops for a word with the driver of the van, who suggests he had seen the rider and it was safe. Anyway, one wave and an apology later and Vine was back on his penny farthing, explaining the apology "means everything" and elaborating that "if somebody even just waves an apology, it's all fine".

The video has been viewed more than a million times on Twitter/X, most of the comments really not worth getting into. Anyway, Vine has made it his new year's resolution "to not to get cross when I'm cycling and drivers do things like this", and fingers crossed some others have made it theirs to not do those aforementioned things that caused the video...