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news
Chris Froome in the ChunnelVideo: Chris Froome v the Channel Tunnel
Chris Froome has become the first person to ride a bike through the Channel Tunnel from England to France.
Ironically, the video of Froome taking on the tunnel was released on the same day as passengers had to be evacuated from the tunnel - and in to the service tunnel Froome used for his ride - because of a power failure on a train at 06:20am this morning. Disruption is expected all day, luckily the riders are flying back, but some of the Tour's support vehicles may have a problem getting back across the Channel.
Riding his Pinarello time trial bike, Froome completed the 50km crossing in about 55 minutes, a mark that someone determined to get into the Guiness Book of Records will no doubt want to beat.
Froome’s ride actually took place on June 1, but with the Tour de France crossing from England to France this evening after stage 3 finishes in London, Team Sky have released a video of the ride today, as you do.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- Boopop 2 sec ago
Bravo! I'd love to know what modifications were made to it. I would hope going up huge hills means he had lower gear than standard.
- mitsky 3 min 16 sec ago
"A man who deliberately knocked a Metropolitan Police officer off his motorcycle, leaving him with life-changing injuries, has been jailed for five...
- mdavidford 8 min 3 sec ago
We might equally pertinently ask: does this stuff come with less rubbish/trash/litter/landfill/etc. than an equivalent product that comes in...
- brooksby 22 min 25 sec ago
I think that they are 'access' or 'deliveries only'. Seems weird that these people appear to think that cyclists are a death-causing menace...
- Paul J 44 min 39 sec ago
Where do you get those numbers? I have their Power Shield Pro and Power Shield RPM pages open here now and I read this, C&Ping from the pages...
- Beatnik69 1 hour 32 min ago
I have a funny feeling that Translink don't allow bikes on trains before 9am, which is ridiculous. They ned to bring back the guard van that used...
- Daveyraveygravey 1 hour 40 min ago
+1 for my Proviz jacket. It's a proper one although I think I got it half price for £50....
- eburtthebike 2 hours 5 min ago
Much better than what I was trying to concoct.
- chrisonabike 2 hours 22 min ago
Was it you that stole my bike?...
- brooksby 3 hours 4 min ago
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23 comments
Car tunnels/pedestrian tunnels? You're doing it wrong. 5km-long disused rail tunnels are the way forward. Ideally with a pint at either end.
It would be a novel thing to do as part of a TDF stage.
If I got the chance I'd be up for it boring and hypnotic or not.. it would be a once in a life time experience.
This is interesting - couldnt quite beleive he actually did it....
Didn't MBUK ride through the Channel Tunnel shortly after it opened? Or possibly during construction? There was definitely a feature along those lines. Maybe they didn't go all the way across...
Genuinely thought for a moment that he'd draft the train... Aaaaand then remembered that's stupid and got back in my box of despair...
Apparently the Daily Mail and Express are shitting pork pies over the new danger of wave upon wave of illegal immigrants riding £8,000 time trial bikes down the tunnel to flood our shores. They have taken drastic action and employed the newly formed but highly effective New Forest Resident Anti Bike Association as guards which as we know are full of loads of little pricks.
You could end up with tunnel vision doing this.
If he'd done it France to Britain there would have been an illegal clinging to his bottom bracket
.
Wasn't Wiggo always faster doing time trials? Why would you use Froome to do this except to get his profile higher for the TdF?
Sooner Wiggo he finds another team that values him the better methinks.
Well as mentioned above the ride looks mind numbingly boring, which suits Froome as he is mind numbingly boring himself.
Apparently the eurotunnel closed this morning. Reports that the driver swerved and derailed to avoid a cyclist in a black skinsuit have not been confirmed.
Apparently the eurotunnel closed this morning. Reports that the driver swerved and derailed to avoid a cyclist in a black skinsuit have not been confirmed.
i so want to do this now!
You seriously expect us to believe no Eurotunnel staffer has ever done this before?
Jeez, he wasn't quicker than the train? He'll never win the TdF with form like that.
Not only must that have been a v boring ride but also quite sick inducing - with a lack of clear features to focus on, no horizon and, as mentioned, the hypnotic lights. Apart from the stat, I am not sure that there will be a stream of people wishing to do this. (That said, it might have been a good start to the Wiggle French Revolution I did a couple of weeks ago!)
That would be very hypnotic, the ped tunnel under the Tyne is bad enough...
Was gonna make a comment about Sky under the Tyne (rather than fog on it), but beaten to a mention of the tunnel already.
I bet it doesn't stink of p*** like the ped tunnel under the tyne
Pedestrian Tunnel?
You're doing it wrong:
http://vimeo.com/79725863
http://velocitystreetracing.com/
https://www.facebook.com/VelocityStreetRacing/photos_stream
Is it just me that thinks this must have been a mind numbingly boring ride?
Is it just me that thinks this must have been a mind numbingly boring ride?
No it's not just you.
No transfer needed tonight at the tour de France!