Aggressive drivers make London among worst cities for cycling, according to survey; Cav hasn't raced his last race; Jumbo-Visma + Mitchelton-Scott withdraw from Giro... remainder of race in doubt; Sagan wins Giro stage 10 + more on the live blog

First of all, London is big so I suppose it depends on whether the article / participants were classed as central London or not. Anything outside of that area is essentially a large town / small city worth of people that has no real infra compared to the centre so more chance of impact. Then you also have the ones who realise they will be in a crawl in the centre so speed or go fast further out to make up time lost before the congestion. And then finally, even with the infra, you still get cars turning left across cycling lanes without looking which is a common occurence on NMotD or in the blog. So I can see why London was narrowly ahead of others even with the good infra and low speeds where you commuted \ cycled.

peted76 wrote:

On another hill climb note, I see that the RTTC National HC comp organised by Reading CC is charging £28 to enter! That's a lot of loot for less than 5mins racing. Seems wrong to capitalise on a lack of racing by upping prices like that.

It has precisely nothing to do with capitalising on a lack of racing. The entry fee was settled a year ago, race handbooks and all that. CTT takes (I think the figure is) £14 a head from the entry fee. Reading CC is paying for the event out of the remaining £14 a head and that includes a full road closure on Streatley for the duration of the event on top of many other expenses. I can tell you there are 480 entrants of which about 140 are female.

I bow to your knowledge of this and would ask, is it normal to charge this sort of money for a national HC? (Could well be for all I know.)

I guess you'd need st johns, maybe a new course assessment (maybe not) a few paid for marshalls and some the timing chip expense.. and if that comes out of the organising clubs £14 then that would seem reasonable enough. 

Local HC's and TT's are about £2 near me, maybe £4 if there's tea provided. I know that sounds flippant, but I know what goes into organising a road race, CX race and I'm genuinely curious as to where the money goes and whether this is normal.

Is it normal to charge this sort of money for a time trial National Championship: yes, it is. I don't have the CTT handbook to hand but all the national champs, 10, 25, 50, whatever, charged around £28 entry this year. As I say, CTT takes half of that off the top. Running a National is a much, much bigger event than usual, there are more riders with greater expectations of facilities. Reading CC is not making any money off this event.

For me the million dollar question is how much Reading CC would pay me to climb Streatley?  I'm getting tired of doing it for free!

But seriously, kudos to everyone who takes the huge amount of time and effort to organise these events - at any level.

Miller wrote:

Is it normal to charge this sort of money for a time trial National Championship: yes, it is. I don't have the CTT handbook to hand but all the national champs, 10, 25, 50, whatever, charged around £28 entry this year. As I say, CTT takes half of that off the top. Running a National is a much, much bigger event than usual, there are more riders with greater expectations of facilities. Reading CC is not making any money off this event.

Thanks for the reply!

peted76 wrote:

On another hill climb note, I see that the RTTC National HC comp organised by Reading CC is charging £28 to enter! That's a lot of loot for less than 5mins racing. Seems wrong to capitalise on a lack of racing by upping prices like that.

It's a national championship, they are all a similar price. There's only one chance a year to pit yourself against 239 other unhinged lunatics.

Or should the 24-hour cost £14,000 on the basis that you can ride for 24 hours? (it's about 500x the duration of this year's national hill climb).

TTs and hill climbs are still cheaper than road races or sportives. There are lots of open events that cost about £10 to enter while club events are usually £5 or less and you can just turn up (though from this year a working rear light is mandatory).

EDIT: only just noticed your further comment. Club TTs won't be £2 now, the levy is £3 for club events, £4 for opens.

Velophaart_95 wrote:

Can't say I'm surprised - pro cycling is organised shambolically; still stuck in another era. 

Last man standing may well win this Giro.....

According to this article at Cycling Tips, "Jos van Emden explained on The Cycling Podcast that earlier this Giro d’Italia several teams were in the same hotel, along with motorbike police, Shimano neutral service, and regular guests. They all shared the same hotel dinner buffet."

A comment below the article:

"Listened to an interview with Kruijswijk yesterday and he was saying how bad the Giro/RCS Covid protocols were—multiple teams staying in the same hotel with other, regular guests. Social distancing and masks not enforced, shared buffets etc. He blamed the UCI, too, which is a fair call."

RCS organisers not making the same effort as ASO? That's nothing new.

rkemb wrote:

Why are hotels doing buffets at all at the moment?

Precisely. And why are big budget teams playing along? Poor show from them too.

Velophaart_95 wrote:

Last man standing may well win this Giro.....

I knew I should've ridden this year 😔

Why are cyclists eating hotel food, don't they have teams of nutritionists and cooks to ensure they have a meticulously balanced diet and to hide the pills inside the sausagemeat?

... or a Sade album

Jumbo have now departed as well. It'll be interesting to see what Sunweb now do.

So Matthews has tested positive and Sunweb only pulls him?? Yet only three days ago...

"Unfortunately, Tiesj Benoot won't start at Gent-Wevelgem tomorrow after coming into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Tiesj is currently symptom-free, feeling well and will go into quarantine before having PCR tests next week."

done the right thing ? eventually maybe, but Yates tested positive for Covid 3 days ago, how did anyone not think it was likely Mitchelton Scott would quickly produce more positive Covid tests ? and what that might have meant for the other teams and spread of the virus across to them.

why werent the same protocols/rules from the TdF enforced for the Giro ? (yes I know different organising bodies but its not beyond the wit of man or the UCI, to note what worked so lets keep doing the thing that worked rather than try something a bit different)

Awavey wrote:

done the right thing ? eventually maybe, but Yates tested positive for Covid 3 days ago, how did anyone not think it was likely Mitchelton Scott would quickly produce more positive Covid tests ? and what that might have meant for the other teams and spread of the virus across to them.

As soon as Yates tested positive, the whole of the Mitchelton team were retested and no more positives came up, so I think it was fine for them to carry on, thinking it was an isolated case. As soon as that was not the case, they have pulled out. Jumbo have slightly different protocols as a team and have pulled everyone incase that same happens as Mitchelton.

Sunweb are another story, pulled a rider the other day because he'd sat at a table on a TV program with another rider who later tested positive, Benoot to my knowledge hasn't tested positive, where as Matthews has and the whole team should have been pulled under Sunweb's protocol...

Awavey wrote:

why werent the same protocols/rules from the TdF enforced for the Giro ? (yes I know different organising bodies but its not beyond the wit of man or the UCI, to note what worked so lets keep doing the thing that worked rather than try something a bit different)

The rules are the same, one team per hotel floor, team bubbles, no public in race hotels, keeping riders and race staff separate. That is all meant to be happening. The UCI aren't enforcing it and the RCS are playing on that. I fully understand that it might not have been as possible on Sicily, but they could have kept the public out at least. 

all the tests Mitchelton Scott took after Yates positive, was prove none of them had developed the virus sufficiently yet for it to be detected, and its believed the test can only produce positives 1-3 days before symptoms develop, whilst it can be 5-6 and even upto 14 from infection developing to symptoms,and during that period you are potentially unwittingly spreading the virus even if you feel ok.

so I guess Im surprised that they seem surprised that theyve then had more people on the team test positive, given that we know Yates test was as the result of reporting symptoms, and that just feels completely inevitable.

the thing the rules say though if no public are allowed in the same hotels, why are riders then complaining about the public being in the same hotels ? but then Im not sure I get why youd even be in the breakfast room of a hotel having a shared buffet at the moment, is it really that complex to serve weetabix or ready brek on the team bus ?

Awavey wrote:

the thing the rules say though if no public are allowed in the same hotels, why are riders then complaining about the public being in the same hotels ? but then Im not sure I get why youd even be in the breakfast room of a hotel having a shared buffet at the moment, is it really that complex to serve weetabix or ready brek on the team bus ?

That is the confusing thing, the rules also state that teams should have different areas to eat in their own bubbles. I get why hotels would serve buffet food, it means they are just cooking everything at once to scale, but having everyone in the same dining area isn't supposed to be happening, the same as public aren't supposed to there. This is RCS, UCI and CPA not cracking down on the rules and forcing them to be met.

A number of teams, I'll point to NTT and Quickstep as I've seen what they are doing, have their food trucks on-site and are using those for food, sometimes riders/staff are having meals in their rooms, sometimes on the team bus, sometimes just standing around the team vehicles. (depending on what role you play in the team). 

I would assume some other teams will be doing the same.

If I ran a cycling team in the current climate, I'd say screw the UCI rules on having to stay in their chosen hotels and hire a tour bus or two, you know the ones, with 16 beds to a coach, each rider has a bunk. Then park them up away from towns every night. That way keeping the bubble intact.

I can't see how, once any rider tests positive, there can be any other option than to pull the whole team. When Yates tested positive and was pulled, the position from MS was basically that the rest of the team have been retested and are negative so fine for them to continue. Except (as I understand it) there is a time gap between being exposed to the virus and the point at which a test would come back positive. Surely a positive test for one rider on a team inevitably means that all other team riders will have been exposed, and are therefore at risk of having and passing on the virus. Of course, the case could be made that the riders are in such close proximity (regardless of any hotel sharing) that once one rider has tested positive the whole peleton will have been exposed and should isolate. I can't see any way the Giro can hope to fiinish.