“We don’t want to live in a snitch society”: Mr Loophole takes aim at camera cyclists and Cycling Mikey (again); Clip of shocking Tour de France crash raises questions about concussion protocols; Jumbo-Visma’s Vuelta super team + more on the live blog

A fan-made video from last month’s Tour de France, which captures the moment Ineos rider Carlos Rodríguez crashed heavily on the descent of the Ballon d’Alsace, taking down Sepp Kuss in the process, has prompted a social media debate this morning concerning cycling’s approach to its concussion protocols.

The harrowing crash, which took place on the first descent of the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour, in the Vosges mountains, saw Rodríguez – who was linked with a move away from the British team this winter, but now appears set to stay – lose control of his front wheel while riding behind the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard.

The 22-year-old then proceeds to skid along the road, face down, as Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss attempts and fails to jump over the falling Ineos rider, flying over his handlebars in the process. Pello Bilbao, meanwhile, manages to, somehow, just about avoid riding straight into Rodríguez’ head.

In the clip, we can see a clearly shaken Rodríguez stagger to his feet, stumbling along the road, as riders stream past and teammate Omar Fraile waits with his bike.

As a badly bloodied and bruised Rodríguez continued racing after his fall on the descent, finishing 12th on the day, just 52 seconds behind stage winner Tadej Pogačar, and managing to retain his top five placing on GC, the worrying nature of his reaction to the crash, clearly shown on the fan’s video, has this morning raised questions about how Ineos and the Tour’s medical team responded to the 22-year-old’s physical state during the stage.

 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

“I don’t understand why the protocol was not activated for when they fall and get up like this. I also don’t understand how long the medical car took to get to him,” one Spanish Twitter user wrote. “It’s a miracle (no other word after watching this) that Carlos Rodríguez didn’t leave his face and all his teeth right there.”

“Where’s the concussion protocol when you need it?” asked David. “Someone staggering like that shouldn’t be put back on a bike.”

“Rodríguez not being able to walk in a straight line but allowed to continue riding,” Fabrizio noted.

> UCI publishes new concussion protocol as other sports face lawsuits from retired athletes

The debate around Rodríguez’ return to action after appearing to show signs of concussion will add further weight to the argument proffered by some that cycling continues to have a “concussion problem”.

In December 2020, the UCI published a new concussion protocol – which recommends that riders do not return to competition for at least a week after their symptoms have gone – following a warning from brain charity Headway that cycling is “lagging miles behind other sports” when it comes to dealing with sports-related concussion.

And last year, a study conducted at the University of Northampton found that four out of five competitive cyclists were unaware of the limitations of helmets when it comes to protecting them from concussion.

Earlier this year, Ineos Grenadiers did, however, act swiftly when one of their riders showed signs of concussion, withdrawing Tom Pidcock from the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico following a nasty crash.

A few days later, the team issued a statement confirming that the Yorkshireman, who was continuously monitored by the team’s doctors after his crash, had been displaying symptoms of mild concussion, resulting in a prescribed period of rest, line with the British squad’s established concussion protocols, that caused him to miss Milan-San Remo and some cobbled classics.

> Why pro cycling needs to ditch its ‘hardness’ obsession

Of course, concussion remains a difficult issue in a sport where riders prepare for months for major targets like the Tour de France, where money, contracts, and UCI points are constantly on the line, and where riders can often be back on their bikes before a member of the medical team – tasked, in these instances, often to save a rider from themselves – can even reach them.

And, if some of the replies to today’s original tweet are anything to go by, it seems that riders remain unfairly burdened by the expectation that they’re the toughest of all athletes, and that they should just get up and get back on their bikes, regardless of how a crash had impacted them. Cycling’s concussion problem, it seems, tends to go hand in hand with its attitude problem, too.

While Carlos Rodríguez’s crash at the Tour de France – and his worrying stumble back to his bike – has cast some light on pro cycling’s continuing issues around concussion protocols and its obsession with ‘hardness’, a revealing interview with his fellow up-and-coming Spaniard, Juan Ayuso, has offered a revealing glimpse into another of the sport’s concerning obsessions: weight.

For a sport often decided, especially on its iconic mountain passes, to some degree anyway by the simple calculation of power to weight, it’s no surprise that cycling has long had an unhealthy obsession with the scales.

The enduring image of the skeleton-esque cyclist was exemplified, perhaps, by the sticklike, Tour de France-winning figures of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, but stretched back long before the Team Sky marginal gain era (remember Lance Armstrong boasting about pinching his rivals’ waists to see if they’d gained any additional winter weight, or Jan Ullrich’s constant struggle to shed the pounds as the Tour approached? Which he always, somehow, managed to achieve, of course).

And now, one of the so-called ‘new generation’ has revealed how much worrying about food, and the numbers on a scale, can dominate a pro cyclist’s life.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Speaking to Spanish website Diario del Triatlón, UAE Team Emirates’ exciting prospect Juan Ayuso – who finished third overall as a teenager at last year’s Vuelta a España – explained that he only has “four days in which I can eat anything I want” throughout the entire year.

The 20-year-old, who at 1.84m tall weighs just 63kg at race weight (for comparison, five-time Tour winner Miguel Induráin is just four centimetres taller than Ayuso, but weighed 78kg at his leanest), told the website: “I always have the scales to weigh the food and to weigh myself nearby.

“Now I live in Andorra alone, but when I lived with my parents I started to weigh my food. At the age of 17 in my second year as a junior, that’s when I started working with my nutritionist Gorka. Up until then I was like any other kid, and now it doesn’t cost me anything just to take the food, put the marker on the scale to zero, and eat.

Ayuso, a winner of two stages at this year’s Tour de Suisse, continued: “To reach the top, you have to make great sacrifices, but whoever wants something has to pay the cost. Now, for example, I come home for Christmas and they give me free rein. I eat everything for four days, bloating myself which takes its toll, but that means that when I have to sacrifice myself I don’t care.        

“It’s useless to do everything right on the bike, to be in spectacular shape if you don’t take care of your diet afterwards. It’s better to train less and take more care of food and other things. It is a fundamental part and you have to take care of it.

“It is not difficult for me to sacrifice myself foodwise, because I know that I need discipline and I know that it is useless to train four or five hours of training and spoil everything. But it is true there are people who try to make everything perfect but there comes a day when they can’t take it anymore and they spoil everything, because they eat in one day what they have avoided for a whole month.

“Before doing that, you have to indulge yourself and try control it. The permission they gave me at Christmas is enough for me and now I don’t have the need to sin. For example, I ate a good lamb.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Of course, the fact that Ayuso appears happy with his monk-like regimen at 20 – and one that he has been living with for three years already – doesn’t mean he can necessarily sustain it long-term, a factor noted by many when assessing the unprecedented success of younger and younger riders in recent years.

One retired rider acutely aware of the sacrifices required to become a pro, Alejandro Valverde, told the site that the strict discipline outlined by Ayuso is “mentally hard to endure for many years” and could potentially lead to burn out for his talented generation of riders.

Let’s just hope that Christmas lamb can help sustain Ayuso throughout the Vuelta…

STATEMENT | Ben Foster announces retirement from professional football

All the very best, @BenFoster - thank you very much for your contributions in both spells with the Football Club, and congratulations on an incredible career 🧤

🔴⚪ #WxmAFC

— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) August 21, 2023

Cycling’s most famous shot stopper is finally hanging up his gloves after a successful 20-year career between the sticks for the likes of Manchester United, Watford, West Brom, and Wrexham.

(Although, considering the current news, it probably wasn’t the best day to release a football statement in retrospect…)

The 40-year-old’s decision to retire in the wake of Wrexham’s Hollywood promotion back to the Football League means he can spend more time where he truly belongs, on the bike, preferably on the Puig Major or in the Alps – but, considering his YouTube experience, could we see him pop up soon enough in the GCN cube? I for one would love to hear Foster’s opinion on who’s going to win the 2024 Tour of Flanders…

Manchester here, emerging with a serious contender for the coveted ‘Most pointless bike lane in the UK’ award with this cracker:

Well at least they tried, this little tiny bike lane. 😁 pic.twitter.com/aGdTqwMXYN

— PeteDPVlogs (@EriolPlusEV) August 18, 2023

Meanwhile, other parts of Greater Manchester are currently enjoying the fruits of a, shall we say, more modern approach to cycling infrastructure:

On Saturday we toured some of GM's newest walking and cycling infrastructure with @StockportMBC councillors Frizzell, West and @GeoffAbell1 - thanks for coming along! See alt text explaining what we saw along the way👀 pic.twitter.com/zqXByTB5x6

— Walk Ride GM (@WalkRideGM) August 21, 2023

Quality cycle infrastructure:
✅Clear separation between pedestrians, bike riders and motor vehicle drivers
✅Coloured asphalt
✅Wide and straight
✅Priority for bikes crossing side entrances
✅SuDS for drainage

Well done Salford. pic.twitter.com/gTinvnJE5N

— Iain Roberts @slowbikeiain [at] urbanists.social (@slowbikeiain) August 20, 2023

The sad, but slightly confusing, tale of the demise of the longest-running team in the women’s peloton, EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, has taken another twist this morning, with the news that this year’s Paris-Roubaix winner, and lover of Canadian coffee chains, Alison Jackson has secured a contract at the new, and entirely different, EF Education-Cannondale setup.

As we reported at the weekend, the original EF Education team, a WorldTour outfit run by former pro Linda Jackson (and which holds no formal links with the men’s team of the same name, owned by Jonathan Vaughters), is set to fold after losing sponsors TIBCO and Silicon Valley Bank in the wake of much-documented financial crises, while EF Education are also set to jump ship to the new women’s Conti team that will fall under the JV umbrella.

Keeping up?

> “Just as women’s cycling finally made it, my team failed”: Longstanding Paris-Roubaix winning women’s team set to fold at end of 2023 after losing key sponsors

 (Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

Jackson’s signing, reported by cycling’s Fabrizio Romano, Daniel Benson, makes her the second EF Education (Old) rider to be snapped up by EF Education (New), following the capture of highly-rated American climber Veronica Ewers earlier this month.

2017 Tour of Flanders winner Coryn Labecki will also join from Jumbo-Visma, while Irish rider Megan Armitage will make the move from Arkéa–Samsic.

The future of other current EF riders, such as British wonderkid Zoe Bäckstedt, remain unclear.

> Want to own Fausto Coppi's custom 1946 Bianchi road bike? This masterpiece is yours for £103,505

Anyone got a spare hundred grand they don’t mind sending to me?

Anyone? Anyone at all…

I don’t know whether it’s down to the Super Worlds filling up the usual post-Tour de France downtime, but how is it already time for the Vuelta a España?

The Spanish Grand Tour kicks off in Barcelona this Saturday (anyone want to send me over to cover it? No? Okay…), and Jumbo-Visma – like the playground bully who keeps coming back for your lunch money even when you’re whimpering in the corner – have named a stunningly strong squad as they aim to secure an unprecedented Giro-Tour-Vuelta triple for a trade team in the modern era:

We've conquered 🇮🇹 and 🇫🇷. Now we want 🇪🇸 as well.

This is our team for @lavuelta. pic.twitter.com/fWRlyJZZvp

— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) August 20, 2023

This year’s Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, this year’s Giro winner Primož Roglič, climbing super-super-super domestique Sepp Kuss, Wilco Kelderman, Attila Valter, Dylan van Baarle, Jan Tratnik, and good ol’ Robert Gesink – frankly, that’s too strong a line-up if you ask me. It’s almost cheating (not cheating in the ‘your young kid pops a positive’ kind of cheating, but you know what I mean…).

Anyway, UAE Team Emirates have opted for youthful exuberance – and no Pog – in the fight against the Jumbo juggernaut, with João Almeida and wonderkid Jaun Ayuso leading the charge, ably supported in the mountains by Jay Vine and Marky Marc Soler.

#LaVuelta23 Here we come! Here’s our lineup for the final Grand Tour of the year:

🇵🇹 @JooAlmeida98
🇪🇸 @juann_ayuso
🇳🇿 @finnfisherblack
🇨🇴 @sebasmolano_
🇵🇹 @IvOliveira96
🇵🇹 @roliveira57
🇪🇸 @solermarc93
🇦🇺 @JayVine3 #UAETeamEmirates #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/u5sLt50kan

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) August 21, 2023

Go on, Ayuso, take it to those Jumbo bullies…