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World’s steepest street celebrates by launching a hill climb; Alaphilippe holds onto yellow jersey and wins stage; Wout Van Aert Crashes out of TdF; Marianne Vos wins La Course; Tour biscuits, Tour helmet + more in today's Live Blog

All the cycling news from this site and beyond…
UPDATED Sat, Jul 20, 2019 01:05
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World’s steepest street celebrates by launching a hill climb; Alaphilippe holds onto yellow jersey and wins stage; Wout Van Aert Crashes out of TdF; Marianne Vos wins La Course; Tour biscuits, Tour helmet + more in today's Live BlogWorld's steepest street (via StreetView)
19 July 2019, 16:01
Alaphilippe stuns to win stage 13 time trial in Pau
19 July 2019, 15:32
Much loved cycle shop closes in Taunton

ONE of the oldest shops in Taunton, Ralph Colman Cycles has closed after almost a century in the town.

Confused customers have been informed that Ralph Colman has ceased trading.

Road.cc's Laura Laker was personally affected by the closure, but was unsure why the shop had been forced to close as cycling levels in the area are fairly high. 

19 July 2019, 15:08
National Cycle Network on OS website
National Cycle Network added to online OS Maps

Users can now select an option to view 16,575-miles of UK cycle routes.

Full story here.

19 July 2019, 14:53
World's steepest street (via StreetView)
World’s steepest street celebrates by launching a hill climb

You may or may not have seen that the Guinness Book of Records has recognised Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech as the world’s steepest street.

Dunedin’s Baldwin Street has been stripped of the title. The mayor has suggested changing the street’s signage from “world’s steepest street” to “southern hemisphere’s steepest street”.

It’s now been announced that Welsh Cycling will be heading to Harlech on the weekend of August 11 for the Harlech Hell Climb.

Ffordd Pen Llech stretches 310 metres with a peak gradient of 37.45% and an average incline of 17%.

Welsh Cycling CEO, Anne Adams-King said: “Having Harlech Hell Climb taking place on what is now officially the world’s steepest street is fantastic news for Welsh Cycling.

“We’ve always wanted to add these type of events to our calendar and having the opportunity to do it in Harlech is really exciting for us. We hope people will come and take on this huge challenge.”

Full details of the event here.

19 July 2019, 14:51
Sagan pulling a wheelie... on a TT bike... on a 17% gradient... as you do
19 July 2019, 14:49
Van Aert on his way to hospital
19 July 2019, 14:07
Big crash for stage favourite Wout Van Aert
19 July 2019, 13:50
Geraint Thomas's pick for today's stage is out there now
19 July 2019, 13:46
It's not going to be Alex Dowsett today

This is the current top five with most of today's favourites still to come.

19 July 2019, 12:57
Just Sagan, being honest
19 July 2019, 12:40
Poor show
19 July 2019, 11:57
Near miss
Near Miss of the Day 289: Driver immediately returns to road after left hook

Today’s near miss has fallen foul of Greater Manchester Police’s two-minute rule. The force says it requires two minutes of video either side of an incident and the cyclist didn’t have this.

Watch the video here.

19 July 2019, 11:54
19 July 2019, 11:31
Insert helmet euphemism here...

Has Alex Dowsett (and his helmet) got a chance of triumphing on today's TT after a certain Australian went walkabouts yesterday? He's certainly in fine form after bagging the national championship title last month. 

19 July 2019, 10:58
Who will crumble on the way to Paris?

Biscuits decorated like all the team jerseys is the latest in this year's line of baked goods to do with the Tour. How do we get some sent into the office for "review"??

 

19 July 2019, 10:49
Marianne Vos wins brutal second La Course title

There was heartbreak for Amanda Spratt who spent almost all the day away in the break, only for Marianne Vos to power past her on the final steep incline to win the sixth edition of La Course.

La Course Results

1. Marianne Vos (Ned/CCC-Liv)
2. Leah Kirchmann (Can/Sunweb)
3. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den/Bigla)
4. Lucinda Brand (Ned/Sunweb)
5. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (SA/CCC-Liv)

On a rolling 121km route on rolling terrain around Pau, the riders completed five laps of the 27.2km individual time trial course which will be used by the men later on today. 

Having won four stages of the Giro Rosa this month, the "female Eddy Merckx" showed exactly why she is the dominant name in women's cycling at the moment. 

Meanwhile, speaking to Radio 5 Live yesterday UCI President David Lappartient remained vague and non-commital saying that cycling's world governing body will "continue to push" Tour de France organisers for a women's equivalent.

“One day of racing is clearly not enough for women ... if we want a women’s Tour de France, we can,” Lappartient added.

“For women’s cycling we can continue to push -- I’ve had strong discussions with (ASO) and I hope we can reach an agreement for the future.”

 

19 July 2019, 10:45
"Why don't you use the cycle lane" etc etc

You'd think it would be almost impossible to film so many hazards in under one minute, but alas... 

19 July 2019, 09:50
A sock-doping cheat has been caught!

Christine, how could you? Your competitors have trained long and hard and you think that you can cheat their hard work with an extra 1cm of sock length.

It's good to see the UCI fixing the big issues in cycling...

19 July 2019, 10:12
Today's time trial
19 July 2019, 10:14
Uplifting news for Michael Woods

Yes, you've got two broken ribs. The good news is that they're nice clean breaks. Hurray!

19 July 2019, 09:48
Not a good day for Bahrain-Merida

After their leader, Nibali, suffered stomach problems and Rohan Dennis went AWOL, all Bahrain Merida needed was a quiet departure from the stage. 
Unfortunately, their bus clipped the Jumbo Visma bus. Not that Wout van Aert was bothered, he can be seen assessing the damage, before taking a selfie with a fan!

19 July 2019, 09:08
Rohan Dennis at Tour de Suisse (via YouTube)
Okay, maybe we will add to the speculation

Or at least report on it.

What was behind Rohan Dennis’s “reluctant” withdrawal from the Tour de France?

Full story here.

19 July 2019, 08:34
Don't blame your tools

There's currently a lot of speculation about the reason for Rohan Dennis quitting the Tour de France yesterday. We're not going to add to the speculation here, we're sure the full story will come out soon enough, but in the meantime here's a close look at the bike he would have ridden in today's individual time trial. It's a shame we won't get to see him racing against the clock in his world champion rainbow stripes.

Rohan Dennis bike check

19 July 2019, 08:30
Tourmalet on Strava
The Tour de France weekend on Strava

It’s a big Tour for Strava with 98 out of the 176 Tour de France 2019 riders (56%) on there.

Gareth Mills, UK Country Manager of Strava, has listed a few below, but here’s the definitive list of who to follow.

“Could Alex Dowsett take the [time trial] stage win following on from his amazing British TT title? He's clearly in great form – a 50kph average when you're out on your own would indicate that.

“Egan Bernal’s skillset as a pure climber could set him up to take charge from Saturday onwards, hopefully giving the 'galacticos' of Team Ineos something to think about.

“The romantic in me really wanted Thibaut Pinot to podium this year, and I was sad to see him lose out when the wind tore the peloton apart on stage 10. I really hope that he stays well, and can get back into contention, otherwise he may as well lose some time and go for some stage wins.

“Looking back at the tour so far, my favourite stage was Thomas De Gendt's amazing win on stage 8, over 12,000 have given him kudos on Strava, rightly celebrating an incredible achievement.

“The Strava award for best photos uploaded to the tour has to go to Michal Kwiatkowski.”

The weekend’s big Strava segment is the Tourmalet on Saturday.

Mills said: “The Tourmalet also includes an 18.95km Strava segment. Over 25,798 Strava members have climbed it, with more than 30,500 activities being logged at an average time of 1 hour and 55 minutes.

“Of these only 62 were professional cyclists, climbing at a speed of 16.33km/h and around 40 minutes faster than the average cyclist.”

Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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5 comments

Avatar
Organon | 5 years ago
0 likes

Woah, déjà vu.

Avatar
Xena | 5 years ago
1 like

where I live in Tottenham, they built a cycle path thing on the pavement that goes about a couple of hundred yards ,seven sisters tube station to the south Tottenham overground station  , it cost a fortune . A complete waste of money . When the path ends you have to cross the road and get back on the road. This little path takes you the wrong side of the road if your heading towards the overground station  , pedestrians still walk on the cycle markings because it’s just painted out on the pavement. It’s so fucking stupid . The cyclists are much h safer ,like I do ,ride in the road .the roads are wide as fuck both ways . So to spend a lot of fucking money for a confused hundred yards or so that just loses the cyclist more time and he has to negotiate leaving the road and going back on the road in between possibly hitting pedestrians you wonder what is the fucking point and how did anyone think this was a good idea . It does nothing except keep some PC egomaniac councillor  happy thinking he’s saving the world .  

In Nice they have a cycle path on the prommanade. People are always walking across it . It’s fucking stupid . I always ride in the road with the traffic . It’s much safer . These panted cycling paths on pavements are a fucking stupid idea . If you ride a bike and have to commute then learn to ride among the traffic . It’s not difficult. You ride at you own pace and let the dickhead commute racers get on with it . Barcelona has paths in the middle of the roads .designated paths and it works really well because the roads in the city are huge . You have to deal with what you have and in the case of a lot of city’s common sense  and a bit of consideration for others will do the job . Painting lines and putting up useless signs just confuses people .  

 

 

Avatar
burtthebike | 5 years ago
1 like

"Why don't cyclists use cyclepaths" vid is eloquent, and it didn't even have a car parked in the lane, or pedestrians using it as an advanced stop line.   I couldn't see any, but I expect there were also dog turds, glass and other rubbish too.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
0 likes

And Allaphilipe takes te stage with a 15 second advantage over Thomas extending his lead.

What, no calls/accusations for motor doping or chemical enhancements as to his miracle performance?

He got off the bike like he'd barely been for a tickle to the shops for a paper, good ride by him and took a few more chances/was a bit smarter through the corners IMO and nailed that ramp at the end which is where he took a few more precious seconds out of Thomas.

Game on!

Avatar
quiff | 5 years ago
2 likes

You refer to her as "the dominant name in women's cycling", yet then manage to call her Marianna Vos three times (while managing to spell "the female Eddy Merckx" correctly; I think). It's Marianne.

EDIT: now corrected; thanks.

 

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