Tory Party special – Jeremy Hunt: Cycling the answer to air pollution; Iain Duncan Smith: "You're more likely to die on a bicycle than from Covid-19"; Cyclist’s Strava response to Melbourne’s ‘Karen’; Wiggo rocks summer look + more

It's great to see more people cycling these days... but I'm not sure this is the best place for it. from r/melbourne

Another from Melbourne, this time it's a cyclist with a deathwish as they appear to be riding against the flow of traffic on the inside lane of a motorway. 

The road is reportedly the M1 motorway, and while the backpack does appear to belong to Deliveroo, the food delivery company told Yahoo News that they didn't believe the cyclist was working for them. 

A spokesperson said: “Our data does not show a rider making a delivery at that time on that road, and therefore assume that while the pack looks to be a Deliveroo bag, the person was undertaking a delivery for another platform. 

“Deliveroo riders, like many other couriers, are self employed. We therefore only have information about riders’ GPS location and movements when they are logged into our platform and actively completing a delivery.

“We communicate regularly with riders to remind them of their obligations to abide by the road rules at all times and will soon be launching an online Safety Hub." 

 

 

 

 

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🌈👕🌟 ¡El Maillot Solidario de Movistar Team, en la @strade_bianche del 1 de agosto! Es un placer mostraros el diseño final del kit @alecyclingofficial y el casco @abus_cycling StormChaser que llevaremos en la primera prueba #UCIWT tras el regreso a la competición. #SeguimosConectados⠀ ⠀ 🤗 Un diseño elaborado por @gobolodesign, que será firmado y subastado a favor de @cruzrojaesp. ¡Pronto os anunciamos dónde y cómo conseguirlo! #VuelveElCiclismo⠀ ⠀ 👏 Gracias a ALÉ, @telefonica y ABUS por su implicación para esta iniciativa solidaria. #RodamosJuntos ⠀ ⠀ -- --⠀ ⠀ 🤩 We've now got a date set to wear our Charity Jersey: the Strade Bianche, on August 1st! And we're pleased to show you here the final design of the ALÉ Cycling kit and the ABUS StormChaser helmet we will use at our first #UCIWT race back. #SeguimosConectados⠀ ⠀ 👨‍🎨 A jersey created by Italian artist Loris Gobbi, which will be put up for auction in support of the Spanish Red Cross. We'll tell you where to participate really soon! #VuelveElCiclismo⠀ ⠀ 🙏 Thanks to ALÉ, Telefónica and ABUS for their efforts to support this initiative. #RodamosJuntos!

A post shared by Movistar Team (@movistar_team) on Jul 21, 2020 at 1:36am PDT

Unfortunately for Movistar it's not because they have any world champions in their ranks (not at the moment anyway)... but this new jersey design is for a good cause, and it will be used by the team at the rearranged Strade Bianche in August. It was born out of a competition for fans to design their own jersey, which was won by Italian artist Loris Gobbi who gets to see his creation come to life. 

One of the jerseys will be auctioned too, with all proceeds going to the Spanish Red Cross. 

After Sir Iain Duncan Smith's comments (scroll down), Hunt's approach to cycling is far more encouraging.

Hunt, writing in the Farnham Herald, says that he has always been a "keen cyclist", using two wheels to get to "parliament from my base in Pimlico." In the article, Hunt is asking for feedback on a proposed cycle lane in Farnham town centre which he describes has having "been blighted for too long by pollution and traffic."

Speaking of his experiences of cycling in London for over a decade, the Tory MP for South West Surrey says he believes "that the more people cycle, the easier and safer it is."

He also suggests that figures showing "as many as 6,000 people per day" using certain cycle lanes in London has contributed to "making London cleaner, greener and much more pleasant."

Apidura, among the biggest names in bikepacking, has launched a new City Messenger bag that's available in two different sizes.

The City Messenger comes in both 11-inch and 13-inch versions, each featuring an internal sleeve for your laptop or tablet.

"The City Series is not a ruggedised, adventure-inspired range, but rather takes influence from the ‘less is more’ design philosophies [we have] developed through creating lightweight, technical bikepacking gear," says Apidura. 

"The result is a technical, lightweight and waterproof carry solution for seamlessly transitioning through the city. Both messengers have a stable, anatomical fit on and off the bike, with an easy one-handed zipless opening and are fully waterproof."

The bags are made from Apidura's bespoke CT420 Marle fabric – a nylon core with TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) coatings – with welded seams. They're low profile and feature reflective elements that are intended to be subtle when you're off the bike, but eye-catching when caught by headlights. You also get slits for attaching a rear LED.

To us, extending the range from bikepacking bags to city bags seems like a natural progression for the London-based brand. 

"[We have] a great deal of experience creating technically advanced, lightweight gear for riders in some of the planet’s most challenging environments and events," says Apidura. "Now, [we have] applied this precision-crafted, adventure-proven expertise to the urban environment to offer a simple, durable and versatile carry solution for city life."

The 11-inch City Messenger is £129 while the 13-inch version is £144.

They're available now over at www.apidura.com 

We spotted this one on the forum and it got us thinking; could the confused look on other rider's face simply be down to being new to cycling? 

It might even be a positive sign of an influx of new riders! Best keep waving at people...

via GIPHY

Not content with beating sprinters in flat finishes, winning hilly classics, dominating cyclocross and being good at mountain biking too, Dutch pro cyclist has added HC mountains to the places that he can drop you (and me, and just about anyone).

During a training ride on Alpecin-Fenix's altitude camp, Van der Poel took the 23.8km Col de Petit St Bernard, ascending 1,090m in 51:19 at an average speed of 27.9km/h. To do this he averaged 379W at 164bpm. If his weight on Strava is to be believed, this was a 5.1w/kg effort. Impressive stuff.

Let's just fire up the rumour mill for fun. Could we see Van der Poel going for yellow at the Tour any time soon?

Met this guy with panniers this morning in Stockbridge, he was cycling home to Cornwall from Greece, made our day out seem a bit tame. pic.twitter.com/z9rYJVMRZR

— Binstedman 🚴 (@binstedman) July 20, 2020

Just your casual Greece to Cornwall commute home.

It's only about 3,000km. With the Alps in the way. And a bit of water. Best put an extra pannier on.

Getting back to enjoying how it all started! Riding with mates and the boy x pic.twitter.com/Gj32qq9q9P

— Brad Wiggins (@SirWiggo) July 20, 2020

...Sir Wiggo was spotted out for a pedal looking summery in a British Champion's Motorola jersey and Le Col bibshorts.

He's certainly setting a style trend with the sleeveless look, leg warmers with no arm warmers and lack of socks. Will this be the hot new style for summer 2020? 

We jest, it's nice to see him back on the bike.