11 things we've learned this week

1. If you want to draw attention to the sport of cycling... legs

"Why so veiny?" "What's wrong with him?" "It's not healthy"... in terms of  mainstream media attention Pawel Poljanski's legs (above) probably did more for the sport of cycling than most of the drama from this year's Tour de France. 

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2. Being visible from space has took on a whole new meaning

13-year-old Liam Mewis of Burton unwittingly became part of an experiment by tech startup See.Sense, after they sent a bike light 92,000 feet into space to see how it would work in extreme environments and the light landed back down on earth on the boy's route to school attached to a parachute. See.Sense are sending Liam a set of lights after being informed he had found it. 

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3. Not many would bet against Froome now

Though we don't wish to speak too soon, it would take something very unscripted to deny Froome a fourth Tour de France victory now. With no GC contenders able to match him over a tricky time trial on paper, is it a foregone conclusion that Froome will be in yellow on the Champs-Élysées tomorrow? 

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4. British Cycling needs to act to ensure success for the next generation

On the subject of success by British cyclists, it's clear that British Cycling need to act in order to safeguard their funding to develop future generations of talent. You had various ideas, it's time something was actioned. 

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5. Make sure collectors items go to true fans, or you'll get burned

Fair game and a fact of modern capitalism, or should Raleigh have done more to prevent their reissued Raleigh Burner bikes being stuck on Ebay minutes after they were sold? Some of you expressed dismay at how unfair it was, others conceded it's inevitable. We'd begrudgingly accept with the latter... 

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6. And that wasn't the only Raleigh story making the news...

...after Dave Sims excruciatingly climbed the equivalent distance of Mount Everest on a Raleigh Chopper by ascending Hunters Hill 92 times. Sims complained of "swollen knees", but raised £1000 for charity and aims to scale Mount Ventoux on his faithful Chopper next time. 

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7. The Vuelta organisers deserve commendation for trying to change attitudes

Whether you agree or not, the news that this year's Vuelta a Espana won't include pecks on the cheek for stage winners and will see male podium hosts as well as females will be an interesting move to challenge sexist attitudes.

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8. Clarkson and cycling have never really mixed

Appearing happy to play the pantomime villain amongst the cycling community, Clarkson was at it again in a strongly-worded Sun article claiming that cyclists are 'waging war on normality'. You didn't much care for his views, understandably... 

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9. Dave Brailsford doesn't do himself any favours

After telling Barry Ryan of cycling news to stick a UK Anti-Doping investigation "up his arse", the Team Sky Chief is doing little to appease his doubters. More transparency and clearer answers to questions on the subject of doping might be the way forward, if no one has mentioned this to Sir Dave yet...

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10. A lot more needs to be done to tackle bike theft

As a BBC investigation revealed that up to 75% of bike theft cases close with no suspect, Cycling UK say that police need to focus more on where the bikes are sold on to in order to cut the problem at its source. Sam Jones of Cycling UK said: "Bike theft and the tracing of stolen bikes has long been a problem which plagues both the police and cyclists. While Cycling UK understands the difficulties of hunting down individual bikes, we believe targeting the market itself would be a more effective use of police time and resource."

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11. If you're feeling good, take a look at the 'rest days' of the Tour de France pros to being you back down to earth...

It looks like a good day in the saddle for most of us: but this 47km ride with 1000m of climbing was during the second rest day of Le Tour for Dimension Data rider Scott Thwaites. What a slouch...

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