London Edinburgh London cyclist breaks bike, builds up new one, finishes anyway; Dan Bigham attempting Hour record next week; Mads 'Picasso' Pedersen; Mayor of Okehampton talks cycling; Ride with Pidcock (on Zwift, in a heatwave); + more on the live blog

Sempé died a few days before his 90th birthday, and as well as his children's book illustrations and works depicting the countryside and cities, he also created over 100 covers for the New Yorker, including a number of cycling-themed ones... 

Jean-Jacques Sempé, France’s most celebrated cartoonist, has died aged 89. He did many New Yorker covers, including this one from 1983. pic.twitter.com/01LGG6VsSb

— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) August 11, 2022

Our readers come from all walks of life... keep 'em coming!

The popular and sometimes notorious seaside town of Blackpool is having its annual illuminations switch on event in September as usual, with comedian Johnny Vegas doing the honours this time. If you have a bike and want to get a preview, though, you can head to Blackpool on Tuesday 30th August when the roads will be closed to motor traffic to give cyclists the chance to enjoy the illuminations three days before the official switch on. Roads are closed to cars from 6.30pm till 10.30pm, and the ride is happening between 7pm and 10pm. 

This is Stepan from the Czech Republic at the finish- his rear stays broke at Dunfermline. He bought a new frameset and built the bike using the parts from the broken frame. He swears no bellows were used at the forge #heroesoflel #LEL2022 pic.twitter.com/dsOoh7FED7

— London Edinburgh London (@LEL1500km) August 12, 2022

After our own Matt Page became the first to finish earlier this week and another rider decided he was done and donated his bike in Dunfermline, we've just heard the story of Stepan Aubrecht from the Czech Republic who broke his rear seat stays, bought a new frameset, built it up with parts from his old bike and still managed to finish; strangely, this also happened somewhere around Dunfermline.

We'll be looking to speak to Stepan in the coming few days after he's had a rest... it's been an eventful return for LEL that's for sure! 

Might is not right.

When driving and turning into a side road, give way to pedestrians and cyclists going straight ahead.

Here’s how to do it. pic.twitter.com/nRzjPpMEju

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) August 11, 2022

This is nice to see, although an article we'll be publishing later has a slightly less positive take on how cyclists and pedestrians feel since the Highway Code changes were made earlier this year. Stay tuned... 

The Mayor in his finest regalia (via Facebook)

We were quite bemused by this headline from Okehampton Today, and had to do a bit of digging...

It turns out Bob Tolley, the Major of Okehampton, was invited onto the Trail Towns podcast to talk about what Devon has to offer for cycling tourists, as the presenters of Trail Towns happened to be visiting. 

After some ribbing of us Brits for not being able to cope with 40c temperatures, the presenters talk to the "anxious" Mayor Tolley from around 29 mins into the podcast, who talks about new infrastructure in Okehampton and the 99-mile Devon Coast to Coast route that passes through the town. Have a listen here, and after that do listen to the road.cc Podcast of course if you haven't already... 

Less than a year after breaking Bradley Wiggins' British Hour Record with a distance of 54.723km, the aero supremo and very very good cyclist Dan Bigham will be taking on the world best mark of 55.089km, currently held by Victor Campenaerts.

> Dan Bigham on the road.cc podcast

Bigham's day job is as the performance engineer for Ineos Grenadiers, and we're continually impressed by his ability to balance this with being an elite time trial and track rider who is up there with the best. Just last week, Bigham was competing at the Commonwealth Games and was second behind Rohan Dennis through the first checkpoint of the road time trial, before suffering a heavy crash and eventually finishing down in 12th.

Bigham won't be going too far in his search for the perfect high altitude velodrome (Campenaerts' attempt took place in the Velodromo Bicentenario in Mexico) but he will be heading to the suitably high up Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen, Switzerland for his attempt. The day before Bigham broke the British record here last year, his partner Joss Lowden also broke the women's Hour Record with a distance of 48.405km. 

Here is Bigham's full quote we've been sent from Ineos, which seems unusually honest and real for press material apart from the 'timed by Tissot' bit. We doubt he said that...

“The UCI Hour Record timed by Tissot has been a massive thing in my life for the past few years, since I first attempted one as a student in 2014. I’m excited about the prospect of seeing what I can do against the clock again, with the support of the team behind me.
 
“Physically I’ve moved on since becoming a part of the INEOS Grenadiers. As much as my workload is high, it’s been nice to have everything I do consolidated within one place. It means I can be so much more organised in how and when I can train, while having the full support of the team - not just in allowing me to train, but enabling me to train efficiently. It’s been great to bounce ideas off so many fantastic people within the team and I’ve been welcomed with open arms.
 
“And having access to all of the team’s partners has been massive for me. The amount of support that Pinarello have put into this project by bringing a new, incredibly high-level bike to the table in such a short space of time is pretty astronomical. We’ve done a huge amount of skin suit testing with Bioracer over the past six months too. It’s been really impressive and I feel like I’m in a really good position on that front. Some of the ideas that we’ve implemented across the whole package have been left field but wholly adopted. It’s been such a progressive project to be involved in.
 
“We want to create a blueprint for future UCI Hour Record timed by Tissot attempts but it’s not just limited to track - every single week the team are competing in time trials on the road and there’s a huge amount of detail that we’ve gone into that will help improve our time trialling in many different respects. Whether that’s pacing strategies, thermal management or equipment development, it all ties in. There’s so much that we can bring forward to keep the team ahead on the road.”

Anywhere there ya go, something to look forward to next Friday. We haven't been told a time yet but we're presuming it will be in the afternoon, and the attempt will be streamed for free on the Ineos Grenadiers’ YouTube channel and Facebook page.