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Cycling Video roundup: Epic crashes, spider bikes & dodgy cops

The video round-up also watches Rapha take on beer & the Ardennes + what an lightless cyclist looks like in the dark

If you'd like to finish your week off sat infront of a series of great cycling videos, you've come to the right place.

If you're like us and you're a bit of a morbid type that gets a little wave of fear and excitement when you see a particularly gnarly crash, you've also come to the right place.

In today's video round-up we've got a cyclist's perspective on one of those brutal entire peloton crashes that we see every so often in bike races. The aftermath of this one is comparable to a deep fantasy battle field. Crazy.

We're also joined by a couple of American police forces. One features an officer that's doing the force no favours by harassing a law abiding cyclist, and the other is an odd public service warning about the dangers of not wearing lights while you're out on your bike.

The video treats then come to an end in the shape of the incredible Spiderbike, and Rapha's tour of the breweries in the Ardennes.

 

Mega crash in Minnesota pro race

This is brutal.

Riders taking part in the North Star Grand Prix, part of Minnesota based North Star Cycling Festival, had a pretty rough afternoon on stage 3 last week.

This panoramic view of the entire crash makes morbidly compelling viewing.

 

Cop harasses cyclist taking the lane

Do you know your rights on the road?

Do you know your rights as well as this guy?

Would you be able to keep your cool and argue with a police officer who is pretty insistent that you're in the wrong?

Most of us here at road.cc would've lost our cool and escalated this situation, but YouTuber Bicycle Driver, who's based in Ohio, US, managed to.

He wrote in the description of the video above: "I can take the whole traffic lane any time it is unsafe to be at the right. I only have to move right to allow passing when it is safe to do so. It is the motorist's/passer's responsibility to pass safely."

Fair play.

 

Bizarre road safety video - unrepresentative?

Now we're taking this video with a fist-sized grain of salt.

Either that's a ghost, or it's genuinely a cyclist, either way, we're not sure the video's findings have much traction.

The cameraman appears to be in a car that either does not have its headlights on, or has those dim day-time headlights on.

Sure, the second cyclist is all but invisible, and we reccommend that if you're going out in the dark you wear lights - hell, it's the law here - but we're not sure how much we support the dishonest way Peel Police Department in Southern Ontario, Canada's point is being made.

 

Spiderbike, Spiderbike, does whatever this thing is doing...

Walking? We're not sure that counts as walking.

Either way, this is a pretty cool concept, but we don't expect to see production models any time soon.

 

Rapha tackles beer and the Ardennes

Finally, cycling clothing brand Rapha took a group of cyclists on a beer tour of the Ardennes region in Belgium.

Lucky bastards.

They also took a camera and filmed this really compelling video that explores the region and their beer brewing practices.

Anyone fancy a trip?

 

 

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5 comments

Avatar
whobiggs | 8 years ago
0 likes

In the bike crash the last bike passed on the floor has no rear wheel, maybe that's what caused the crash? 

Avatar
Roadie_john | 8 years ago
1 like

It's odd. The first cyclist's legs are lit up, and the well-defined shadow is in the right place for lighting from a following car, but there's no reflection from the reflective bands on the jersey. The unlit rider has a much less well-defined shadow, even when both are next to each other. 

Avatar
OldRidgeback | 8 years ago
1 like

The strandbeest bike looks a bit of a beast, but maybe isn't that efficient

 1

Avatar
DaveE128 | 8 years ago
3 likes

I'm pretty certain that they have actually darkened the second cyclist in the "road safety" video - theyre surrounded by a dark haze. They look brighter initially as the other cyclist moves out (15-16s), then they look darker (17s onwards).

I'd certainly advise anyome cycling in the dark or light to use lights, but that is so lame.

The "shared responsibility" rankles a bit. A bit too close to victim blaming, especially if they are faking it to make the cyclist look more invisible than they really are!

Avatar
seiklmeikl replied to DaveE128 | 8 years ago
1 like

DaveE128 wrote:

I'm pretty certain that they have actually darkened the second cyclist in the "road safety" video - theyre surrounded by a dark haze. They look brighter initially as the other cyclist moves out (15-16s), then they look darker (17s onwards).

True. Can not think of any way to produce a result like that with any natural or artificial light. Edited for sure.

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