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There seem to have been quite a few thefts during races recently. I think the teams need to up their security game.
It happens at pretty much every big race now.
Women's Tour of Britain got hit either earlier this year or the previous edition, can't remember which. One of the teams had to go round begging and borrowing spare bikes from other teams in order to actually start.
It's organised crime at this level, it's not a couple of scrotes having a go. It requires full on angle grinders, a large van to take all the kit and some kind of disposal network to get rid of it all; this is not just (eg) a couple of set of basic carbon wheels or a mid-level road bike, it's 40 absolute top end wheels or bikes, quite possibly not even available to buy.
Teams are contractually obliged to stay in the hotels provided by the race organisers. Part of organising a WorldTour event is that the organiser puts up the teams. It can be anything from a real dive on the outskirts of an industrial estate right through to actually quite nice places. But parking up a load of highly branded trucks is like raising a big neon sign advertising £250,000 of bikes and kit.
Eight riders on a team, each rider will have probably 3 road bikes, 2 TT bikes - it's not easy or quick taking 40 bikes through to hotel rooms (multiplied by 23 teams). You could have a mechanic sleeping in the truck with them but that's just endangering one individual who is going to be of limited use when 4 masked thieves cut through the side of the truck with welding gear.
Really needs a secure compound with armed guards but again, there's the logistics of finding space for all that, the money to secure it all and the general race logistics because mechanics will routinely be working on the bikes until quite late at night then they'll want to go to their hotel room so having a secure compound 5 miles from all the hotels is a non-starter too. There's no easy solution other than to take all reasonable precautions and hope that one of the other teams is an easier target. Much like when locking your bike up in public. The aim is not to make your bike un-steal-able, it's to make it considerably less steal-able than the other bikes near yours!
Standard size vehicles carrying the bikes, parked up back to back and side to side, with empty vehicles alarmed well around the outside of the "blob."
Just need to build suitably sized carparks at each overnight venue now. 😉
I’m not sure the organisers of the race have quite under the concept of the tour of Spain. We were driving from Briancon to alpes dhuez yesterday and seemed to be about 2 hours ahead of the race. Not quite Spain
They've finally made it to Spain today!
I enjoyed "Big Ben" winning yesterday, huge turn by Kwiato to keep him in position. I did wonder if Ben would get relegated as he did cut Ethan Vernon up a little, but he seemed to be in front at that point so I guess that counted in his favour. JP was blocked by his own leadout!
TTT next...
It can be anything from a real dive on the outskirts of an industrial estate right through to actually quite nice places.
yeah when the Itzulia is on, teams are generally in the same hotel multiple nights as it's not logistically that big. One team will be in the Costa Vasca in San Sebastián, big posh hotel in the middle of a residential area, with many other guests coming and going all night. Another team gets the budget flat roof hotel between the train tracks and the motorway with little through traffic.
I have yet to see team buses outside the Hotel María Cristina, which is a grand a night!
Well you got a few points today.
I too have Ayuso. My main picks are doing OK - 4 expensive riders. Of the others, one retirement, a couple have got points from breaks and one has done nothing. Given quite a few will have similar expensive ones I need one of my randoms to win a stage.
Potentially stupid question, but can someone explain why the bikes the riders are on never get a mention? Other than Lidl Trek, they only refer to the team/sponsor name but I never hear mention of this teams on Cervelo, that teams on Specialized etc
Never get a mention from who?
The bikes are just equipment the teams use. I doubt many fans really care, they're more interested in the riders or the teams.
Never get a mention from who?
The commentators and pundits
If you watch the DH coverage the bikes get a lot of discussion but they never seem to get a mention in road racing coverage
One road bike is pretty much like another. And I reckon most viewers of DH ride MTBs and are interested in them, compared to viewers of road racing and road bikes. Probably more variation and more to discuss around DH bikes too.
Also, it's pretty obvious what bikes they are on. Massive logos on the downtube.
They do sometimes discuss stuff like the Lidl-Trek 1x setup, and Jonas crank length, and the Classified (is that the name?) hub. But the rest seems pretty standard (to me).
They do sometimes discuss stuff like the Lidl-Trek 1x setup, and Jonas crank length, and the Classified (is that the name?) hub. But the rest seems pretty standard (to me).
Quite often at the start of a TT, they'll post a graphic on-screen of the gear ratios in use.
I agree, I'd love more technical stuff about the bike set-up but it's very difficult in road racing because as you're talking about that, someone will attack or crash, there'll be some chateau or historic monument that the local tourist board have mandated the commentators to talk about...
It's easier in DH where it's one person and you can get in at least a brief mention that they're using this shock or that set of wheels because [xxxx].
Quite often teams are fairly tight lipped about their equipment too, sometimes only releasing info after a race.
Trek / SRAM put out an interesting article about going 1x for the Classics:
https://racing.trekbikes.com/stories/lidl-trek/sram-red-xplr-1x-drivetrain-classics-mads-pedersen
But much of that is not the sort of thing that commentators would know at the time.
Good finish by Pidcock today, better than I expected.
Views on Pidcock sprinting for second after Almeida did the vast majority of the work? Felt a bit off to me, but I'm not a pro cyclist.
Typical Pidcock, especially claiming (on CyclingNews) that he didn't share the work because he "didn't have the legs", but still had enough to sprint for second. Apparently Almeida told him to grow some balls...🤣
Views on Pidcock sprinting for second after Almeida did the vast majority of the work? Felt a bit off to me, but I'm not a pro cyclist.
Absolutely fair play in my opinion. If bike racing was just about who can pedal hardest it would be pretty boring.
Apparently Almeida told him to grow some balls
Almeida does seem to be a bit chippy generally but I think he had a point there; Piddles didn't do much pulling at all
Question regarding the Tour of Britain please. It's coming through our village and I wondered how much of a circus will precede the peleton? I'm assuming not on the scale of the TdF but will there be freebies flying about?
Nothing apart from some police outriders stopping the traffic. I watched them come through locally last year and the whole thing’s literally over in a flash. Hoping to pop down to the start in Woodbridge on Tuesday.
Question regarding the Tour of Britain please. It's coming through our village and I wondered how much of a circus will precede the peleton? I'm assuming not on the scale of the TdF but will there be freebies flying about?
No freebies along the route although you can often pick up hats, flags, balloons etc at the start/finish villages (more aimed at kids but it's amazing the lengths people will go to to nab something free!)
Along the route - police motors stopping traffic, clearing the route, a Forward Announcer vehicle with speakers on the roof giving info about the race so far (again, the nature of staying 10 minutes in front of the race means that the snippets of info you hear from the car may not be what is actually happening once the race passes by if for example the break they have carefully described has been caught!). A few more motos, advance police and convoy vehicles, the flash and whirr of 120 bikes and riders then a seemingly endless stream of team cars.
There's always good crowds though; villages and especially schools get some good engagement before the race and they do make a thing of it.
I'll be driving one of the race officials so don't stand too close to the kerb... 😉
Veloganes are running a Fantasy Tour of Britain comp
https://www.velogames.com/tour-of-britain/2025/
As a reminder, if you have previously joined the STW mini league, any team you enter into the fantasy ToB will join it automatically - if you have not entered the mini league but wish to do so then the league code is 170623027
Absolutely fair play in my opinion. If bike racing was just about who can pedal hardest it would be pretty boring.
Yes there's a great deal of kidology in road racing.
I'm in Velogames Britain.
There are some interesting rider names:-
Storm Ingebrightson -Uno-X Baptiste Veisstroffer - Lotto Loe Van Belle - Visma lease a bike Matteo Vanhuffle - picnicPostNL
Zac Marriage - Israel premier tech Reef Roberts - Groupama FDJ Toon Aerts - Lotto.
ITV coverage of the ToB has started, looks like full coverage of every stage!
https://www.itv.com/watch?channel=itv4
They are riding through the neutralised start already so racing should begun soon as the fight for the break begins
Just got back from Woodbridge, not much in the way of swag, but G did sign my cap. Great to see Lou Lou, Remco, Degenkolb, Geaghegan-Hart and if course Geraint. We cycled back through Melton and watched them on the left hand turn on the way to Butley. Watching it on telly now, these are all roads local to me.
Off out again tomorrow to watch them as they come eastwards.
The Oakley man turned up to give G some new gold sunnies to go with his bike!
See that Ayuso is being released from his contract in order to manage 'group harmony '
Who will take him after that glowing reference?
Lidl-Trek are favourites apparently, followed by Ineos. He's still young and probably feels he's not getting the attention he wants as a GC leader. Be interesting to see if he finishes the Vuelta, and how he rides if he does.
Watching it on telly now, these are all roads local to me.
I know a lot of those roads from many years of doing the Dunwich Dynamo. Driving it was interesting.
Good stage today - fairly classical in terms of racing, just a case of: let break go, hold it at 2-3 minutes, pull it back, have sprint.
So a lot of the time the bunch weren't really "racing" as such although they switched on in the final 3km. Sizeable crowds along the route, all enthusiastic. We saw the same people on a number of occasions, obviously folk who'd flitted across from one vantage point to another as the race took in quite a convoluted route.
Brilliant - I'm currently top of the Singletrack Vuelta league and bottom of the ToB league 😂😂😂
crazy-legs are you driving Rob Ellingworth's car?
AD I'm at the top of the velogames ToB league and slowly falling toward the bottom of Velogames Spain, losing Valentin Paret-Peintre and Ollie Knight hasn't helped.
Well.. was Tom robbed of the win? I'd be quite annoyed if I was him but I guess there wasn't another option to set up a finish line at 3km with the timing/photo gear.
Well robbed of the chance to win for sure. And I'm disappointed for him. But realistically given the situation the organisers did they best they could, I don't think given the time they could have set up an official finnish line at the 3k mark.
I also agree with Tom's comment that endangering riders isn't the correct way to protest
What a shame for Tom, He's been looking on top form the last few days.
Loving Lulu bidon squirting a young lad riding alongside the peloton in the ToB, (he also squirted a tanker semi blocking the road). I loved it in Le Tour when he took a fan's cardboard sign to use as a protection, on a cold descent. He's such a charismatic character.
Loving Lulu bidon squirting a young lad riding alongside the peloton in the ToB
see comment from Ric Brewin whose son it was, Lulu said hello after the race
Loving Lulu bidon squirting a young lad riding alongside the peloton in the ToB, (he also squirted a tanker semi blocking the road). I loved it in Le Tour when he took a fan's cardboard sign to use as a protection, on a cold descent. He's such a charismatic character.
There was a woman roadside yesterday holding a cardboard sign saying "you can take MY sign Julian!"
We saw the kid racing alongside the peloton - we'd been past at the front of the race and he was there getting himself set up to go.
Lovely morning in Milton Keynes after some torrential rain last night and first thing this morning.
Maybe IPT should put rider safety first and pull out of the race.
Maybe the organisers should pull the team with Israel billboards on their back for their own safety, and that of the rest of the race. It's so massively politicised at the moment that using the excuse of 'only sport' isn't acceptable.
It’s Loulou I believe 😉
Watched to stage yesterday here:
(shocking bit of road, I wince when I wobble round it) then wizzed up to Horham to see them pass there (not long after the sprint in Stradbroke).
Maybe the organisers should pull the team with Israel
I was at the finish of Stage 2 (Alba - Limone Piemonte) and thought it interesting that Israel Premier Tech didn't have their name on the team bus, nor their cars...
They had a stylised Star of David that wasn't obviously a Star of David at first glance.
Quite a few of the IPT riders got some abuse from the crowds. Lots of f's-an-culo's.
It’s Loulou I believe
Heehee oh yes, I'm showing my age Lulu the singer was very popular on the wireless when I was a lass.
Angliru in the Vuelty tomorrow... Pidders to drop the other GC riders and take the lead? 😀