Live blog: Aaah… round the world cycling kitten, Panini making Tour de France sticker album, Betfred pulls £500-stake Virtual Cycling game, Wiggins calls out Lefevere for “too fat” comments about Evenepoel + more

A Scot who set off in September on a solo round-the-world bike ride now has a travelling companion – a kitten he rescued when he found her abandoned in Bosnia.

27-year-old Dean Nicholson said on his Go Fund Me page: "On the 1st September I left Dunbar, Scotland with the ambition to cycle the world. Three months and nine countries later I was coming up to the Bosnia-Montenegro border when I heard a little kitten meowing her heart out, chasing me trying to get my attention.

"We were 12 miles from the nearest town and it was soon clear by her friendly nature and desperate hunger her owner had intentionally dumped her.

"After a trip to the vet, her gender was confirmed and the names for her came rolling in. Pussy Galore. Meowtenegro. But with her feisty and loving personality Nala was clearly the best fit.

"At seven weeks old she was chipped, wormed and rabies shot,” he continued. “From then on it was set, Nala was to be my new travel companion, riding up front with the world ahead of her.

"Through Montenegro we explored abandoned villas and hidden beaches, with Nala on my shoulder through the good and the bad.

"Across the border into Albania Christmas soon came and we made our home in the Himara hostel brewing Raki and exploring what Albania had to offer.

"27 days later the weather improved, and it was time to move on into Greece.

"Nala and I want to continue travelling the world on our bike," added Nicholson, who regularly updates his 121,000 followers on Instagram about their adventures.

 

 

 

 

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Much better day cycling today, although they werent the best roads for Nala as she hates the bumps but i managed to keep her distracted by attacking her with a clothes peg! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We had 1 big hill to climb but done that alot quicker than expected and then the desent down into Athens was beautiful, untouched mountains full of trees made it hard to pay attention to the road! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Once in the city we made a bee line to my greek familys house where we are going to stay and rest for a few days before we get the ferry over to Santorini #adventurebybike #adventure #adventureseeker #travelblogging #beautyofcycling #cycletheworld #cycletouring #worldbybike #adventurecat #bicyclecafe #travel #cat #catsofinstagram #countryside #fields #flowers #happy #clothespeg #trek920 #trekbikes

A post shared by 1bike1world (@1bike1world) on Mar 27, 2019 at 11:29am PDT

The bookmaker Betfred has been forced to withdraw a game called Virtual Cycling that it introduced earlier this week after industry regulator the Gambling Commission said it was investigation it, reports the Guardian.

The game was launched yesterday – the same day that new rules came into force slashing the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs), which have been criticised as helping fuel problem gambling, from £100 to £2, reports the Guardian.

In the game, punters use a coupon with a layout similar to a roulette table to “bet on when an animated cyclist travelling around a track will be overtaken by virtual competitors, based on numbers corresponding to sections of the track,” with a maximum stake of £500.

There are concerns that Betfred and rival bookmaker Paddy Power, which has also launched a roulette-style game, are using them to try and circumvent the new rules on FOBTs, which have proven hugely profitable for bookmakers since their introduction in 2001.

Betfred told the Guardian: “We’ve taken down Virtual Cycling to allow further discussion with the Gambling Commission.”

4iiii and Chipolo have unveiled the world’s first integrated bike tracking feature embedded in to a power meter. Chipolo tracking will now offered as a standard feature in the 4iiii Precision range of crank-based power meters, adding some extra security to your bike as well as accurate power measurement. 

If you're US-based and/or happen to be going to the Sea Otter Classic Bike Show, 4iiii will be hiding their power meters around the grounds from April 11th-13th, and participants will win one if they are able to find one of the 'lost' power meters. There are 30 to be won, and you can't say it's not a novel way of promoting the new product!  

… Or mabye, bikedriver. Another word needed for cycling commuters in response to driver aggression towards "cyclists" says Dame Sarah Storey. 
You can read the full story here

For the first time, Panini of Modena will be producing a Tour de France sticker album to coincide with the 100th year of the yellow jersey being used to mark out the overall leader, reports French publication Le Journal du Dimanche. The announcement was made in secret to the French press last weekend, with a photo of 2018 winner Geraint Thomas and the Champs-Elysées used on the promo poster. 

We're not sure if you'll be able to get it in the UK yet, but if not these might just be worth heading out to mainland Europe for.

Panini has previously collaborated with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport (see main picture above for Team Sky), with Bora--Hansgrohe sprinter Sam Bennett revealing that there was "nearly a riot" among the team's riders over the stickers.

Because I won’t go on the show. https://t.co/3PmIfQnpyy

— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) April 1, 2019

Although we'd love to see Piers Morgan try to make himself sound in the least bit coherent in a debate on cycling with Chris Boardman, we can't blame The Professor for not entering into a 'discussion' that is bound to be anything but sensible where Piers is involved.

Boris Johnson's father appeared on the show yesterday to fight the cycling corner in a debate on licensing cyclists. Johnson said it's a "crazy idea", to which Morgan described cyclists as "invisible people marching around anonymously on bikes."

Lefevere told Belgian news site Humo that the 19-year-old Belgian prodigy, who came third in the time trial at Vuelta a San Juan in January, was 4kg overweight and "too fat" last week - and Wiggins has described the comments as out of order on the latest addition of his Eurosport podcast. Wiggins said: “It's not great for a young 19-year-old kid. It's not the best man-management.

“When we think what has happened in football, in terms of Mourinho losing dressing rooms and the players being more powerful than managers now, cycling is still stuck in the dark ages. I say stuck in the dark ages but it should be like that. Managers are there for a reason. But it's kind of how football used to be. The manager making his public statement about a rider in order to put him in his place. But time will tell, and as Matt (Stephens, in previous comments) said we don't really know the full ins and outs of it."

Wiggins' guest on the show Matt Stephens commented: “Maybe, as Brad said, it's an old-school way of putting him in his place, perhaps there has been a bit too much attitude on board, I don’t know, but it is a rather unorthodox way of trying to pull somebody back into line, especially in the current climate of trying to look after the mental welfare of young riders.”

BTN BikeShare is expanding, with 120 new bicycles hitting the city's streets this month. https://t.co/EmE9pma5s7

— B & H Independent (@BrightonIndy) April 1, 2019

120 new bikes have been added to the existing fleet.