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"At least my gym work is paying off": Hill climber launches huge effort... snaps frame; Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer, Jumbo merger rumble on (+ Amazon sponsorship reports) + more on the live blog

Let's all keep our fingers crossed for a normal Friday of live blog action (and no need for bad gateway memes in the comments section), Dan Alexander is here for your round-up of all the cycling action in the world today.....
Fri, Sep 29, 2023 09:18
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"At least my gym work is paying off": Hill climber launches huge effort... snaps frame; Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer, Jumbo merger rumble on (+ Amazon sponsorship reports) + more on the live blogHill climb frame snap (Calum Brown/Instagram)
29 September 2023, 07:54
"At least my gym work is paying off": Hill climber launches huge effort... snaps frame

Ever had so much power you've written off your frame?

It's a no from us too on that question, obviously...

"High torque from a standing start, did it within the first pedal stroke and just slid to a stop undramatically," Calum Brown explained on Instagram.

Hill climbs are short events at the best of times, let alone if you don't make it past the 10m mark. Fortunately seems like the wrong word when we're talking about this level of damage, but fortunately this was only Calum's recce of the Monsal Hill Climb course, up the painfully steep but invitingly short Monsal head ascent, where he's won the event twice.

Perhaps the hardest part of this year's will be finding something to ride it on? Nah, scratch that, the hardest bit will definitely still be the standard hill climb double-digit gradients, lungs burning, tasting blood, legs like cement, collapse to the roadside...

"End of an era for that frame, was ridden to over 20 course records. Not good prep for the weekend but at least my gym work is paying off," he joked.

While we're on the topic, that's a quite impressive level of damage... snapped chainstays and seat stays, take a bow.

What's worse, this has happened to Calum before. In 2017 he completely destroyed a crankset at the Bank Road hill climb. Don't worry Shimano, he was using SRAM that day, modified with chainrings not recommended by the manufacturer and leading SRAM to amusingly comment, "the configuration is outside of the Red crankset's intended use" but "2000+ watts is an incredibly impressive amount of power to generate and we applaud Calum's strength".

29 September 2023, 15:52
Investigating Shimano's snapping cranksets: What happened, unanswered questions and an engineer's report

A piece of work that's been a long time coming...

Investigating Shimano’s snapping cranksets Sept 2023

> Investigating Shimano's snapping cranksets: What happened, unanswered questions and an engineer's report

29 September 2023, 14:38
"Proper cyclists don't need cycle lanes": Locals blast "woke" bike lane works, as rugby club claims fans can’t get to matches during "chaos"
Broom Road cycleway works, Rotherham (Rotherham Titans Rugby Club, Facebook)

> "Proper cyclists don't need cycle lanes": Locals blast "woke" bike lane works, as rugby club claims fans can’t get to matches during "chaos"

29 September 2023, 14:00
Milan forces bus and lorries to have sensors to reduce cycling collisions
Milan (CC BY 4.0 Deed | Attribution 4.0 International/ Flickr/Alejandro)

The city of Milan has introduced a policy whereby lorries and buses will be required to instal blind-spot sensors in a bid to reduce injuries and fatalities, Reuters reports. From Monday, vans, buses and lorries will be banned from large parts of the city from Monday to Friday during working hours, unless they have the sensors.

> "In her name hundreds of lives will be saved": Cyclist safety cited as campaigner celebrates law change on lorry design

"It is very dangerous to ride a bicycle, there are several obstacles such as cobblestones, tram tracks, and the city was not designed for cyclists. Add to that the heavy traffic and the high level of stress motorists endure," Eleonora Ciscato, a Milanese cyclist said of the dangers of riding in the city.

The changes come after a string of fatalities, five this year, leaving the mayor to say the "problem is how to make cyclists safe" and that his concern is "someone, perhaps even legitimately, may be afraid and no longer use bicycles".

29 September 2023, 11:27
Rishi Sunak's 'Plan for Motorists' will "rob people of choice" and force them to drive, say cycling and walking campaigners
Rishi Sunak official portrait

> Rishi Sunak's 'Plan for Motorists' will "rob people of choice" and force them to drive, say cycling and walking campaigners

29 September 2023, 11:12
Stelvio returns to Giro d'Italia in 2024
Stelvio hairpins

According to Italian news site Tuttobiciweb the Stelvio is back on the Giro d'Italia route for next year and will make an appearance in the final week of the race. Stage 16 has been touted, on Tuesday 21 May, with the legendary climb appearing mid-stage before a finish in Val Gardena.

Pray to the weather gods that the route will actually be useable, the 2,700m monster prone to terrible weather and snow well into the early summer...

29 September 2023, 09:12
Bike in Vogue: From bikepacking to gravel riding – the cycling trends from yesteryear that are now back in fashion
Cycling trends that are back in fashion

> Bike in Vogue: From bikepacking to gravel riding – the cycling trends from yesteryear that are now back in fashion

29 September 2023, 09:11
Unreleased 2024 bike tech! | Road & gravel highlights from Sea Otter Europe bike show

29 September 2023, 09:01
Ever had that much power?

Me and you both Shaun, but I think the pothole gets the credit for mine... 

29 September 2023, 08:35
Cycling silly season continues: Roglič transfer and Jumbo merger rumble on (Amazon reportedly to sponsor the team in 2024)
Primož Roglič, 2023 Vuelta a España (Luis Angel Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency)

[Luis Angel Gomez/SprintCyclingAgency]

So, where are we up to this morning?

The big report since yesterday is that Amazon, yes our online shopping overlords, will step in as a new sponsor for Jumbo-Visma to the tune of approximately €15 million, leaving a €25 million hole to be filled. It has been suggested Primož Roglič's sale could help, yep that's right no Amazon Primož for the Dutch team... (credit to Ryan for that one)...

Talking of Roglič, he's available for transfer as soon as the start of 2024, with Ineos, Movistar and Lidl-Trek linked. With the Slovenian's contract running until the end of 2025 it means whichever team comes out on top will have to pay a buyout fee to Jumbo, and while the three aforementioned teams appear to be leading the race, Bora Hansgrohe and Israel-Premier Tech have also been linked, with Bahrain Victorious and Jayco AlUla denying interest...

Oh, and while all this is going on...

Another normal day of pro cycling...

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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7 comments

Avatar
ridein | 1 year ago
0 likes

Sea otter video is flawed with a bike shown and a cantilever brakes is used as part of the description. The brakes shown are most definitely centerpull brakes, not cantilever ( or "canti's") brakes as described. Fifty years ago centerpull brakes were on most of the top racers bikes, since Campagnolo didn't release their superior Super Record sidepull brakes till 1974

Avatar
Matthew Acton-Varian | 1 year ago
4 likes

"Proper cyclists don't need bike lanes"

That's a new one for the anti-cycling bingo.

But to counter-point, for argument's sake:

Bike lanes are not designed for "proper cyclists". They are designed for the regular average joe to have a safe alternative to cars for short journeys that are beyond walking range. As in everyone else.

It's a shame you can't tax/cure/criminalize stupidity.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Matthew Acton-Varian | 1 year ago
0 likes

Nah - it's the historical oddity that is "vehicular cycling" back from the past, like L-shaped cranks. ("Cranks" being apt in this case.)

A small correction - "cycle paths" please rather than lanes! Separate from the main road, with none of the protection that isn't eg. paint or wands and orcas you can hit. Nor the inevitable road crud, leftover potholes and corduroy road at bus stops... Also taking more than an afternoon to "rip out"!

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

What's a 504 error?  Is that a consequence of a DDOS created by Howard Cox?

Avatar
Mr Hoopdriver replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

It's a timeout error - the back end server isn't sending a response back quickly enough.

Could be due to traffic congestion in the internet superhighway 2

The irony's not lost.

It's beginning  to look like incompetence the length of time it's been going on for.

Avatar
Left_is_for_Losers replied to Mr Hoopdriver | 1 year ago
0 likes

Mr Hoopdriver wrote:

It's beginning  to look like incompetence the length of time it's been going on for.

Either that or they are being hacked - could be a ddos issue. 

Avatar
Tom_77 | 1 year ago
3 likes

Sunak expected to limit powers of councils in England to curb car use

Apparently 20mph speed limits are against British Values®

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