"Say goodbye to sunglasses in road races": Cycling world reacts to Alberto Bettiol's ultra-aero solo victory in TT helmet with visor; Van Aert's monstrous training ride; Does your bike have a bottom bracket garden? + more on the live blog

Anyone fancy a sweepstake on how long until the UCI statement drops?

The EF Pro Cyling aero package brought to you by Cannondale. Rapha. Poc. Wahoo. and Amacx. 💪

Attack brought to you by Alberto Bettiol 😏#MilanoTorino #AlbertoBettiol pic.twitter.com/hcnxW5Do9b

— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) March 13, 2024

Alberto Bettiol, EF-Education EasyPost and all their kit sponsors (that of course get a shout-out in the team's post above) have pulled off a superb solo victory at Milano-Torino, the Italian firing off the front at the top of a climb before using all his aero nous to see him home.

👀 The ultimo kilometro of a breathtaking ride by @AlbertoBettiol, to claim the oldest classic in cycling#MilanoTorino | #piemontesport l #viviiltuosport | @Livigno pic.twitter.com/eXAq4p9rE9

— Milano-Torino (@MiTo1876) March 13, 2024

 Surprise surprise, this is cycling after all, almost all the post-race talk has been about Bettiol's kit choice... skinsuit, pretty normal in road races these days... TT helmet, less so... TT helmet with full visor and no sunglasses, genius or a crime against the sport (depending who you ask). To be fair, TT helmet with visor AND shades would be the real crime...

BAN THIS!

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) March 13, 2024

The clue really should have been there for all to see, hardly like he's gonna tap around at the back of the peloton in that get up...

Mohoric using a dropper post, knowing exactly what he was going to do
🤝
Bettiol wearing full aero kit, knowing exactly what he was going to do#MilanoTorino pic.twitter.com/3o1DuS88l4

— Dan Deakins (@DanDeakins) March 13, 2024

Then again, if you can attack like that, it's one thing knowing he's going to... another thing entirely being able to follow.

🔥 A huge attack from @AlbertoBettiol near the summit, and the former Ronde van Vlaanderen winner has a 24" lead over the peloton! #MilanoTorino | #piemontesport l #viviiltuosport pic.twitter.com/9kG5OQWDqQ

— Milano-Torino (@MiTo1876) March 13, 2024

Got any plans in the San Remo area on Saturday afternoon, Alberto? 

Last week, the UCI said it would be reviewing its design rules in light of Team Visma-Lease a Bike debuting an eye-catching Giro TT helmet at Tirreno-Adriatico. 

The governing body said the use of "ever more radical designs [...] raises a significant issue concerning the current and wider trend in time trial helmet design, which focuses more on performance than the primary function of a helmet, namely to ensure the safety of the wearer in the event of a fall". 

> Is Jonas Vingegaard's latest time trial helmet one step too far?

The whole situation prompted plenty of frustration at Visma-Lease a Bike, the team saying it had spent plenty of time and resources producing the helmet within the UCI's rules. The team's performance manager Mathieu Heijboer said the respone had been "driven by emotions and all the reactions on social media".

> Ribble Cycles halves losses to £2.3m as bike brand says "very positive step" result of better delivery times and restructuring

> "We do not want revenge, but justice": Plea deal for lorry driver accused of killing Davide Rebellin rejected by Italian court

> "I feel a real responsibility to get this right": Former Ineos manager Rod Ellingworth named as new Tour of Britain race director

A councillor in Limerick in Ireland has disagreed her residents, claiming that the area's newly built cycle lanes are a "complete waste of money" and are causing "traffic chaos", that despite a National Transport Authority (NTA) survey showing that 76 per cent of residents support the building of protected cycle lanes even if it means less room for motorists.

The Limerick Post published Catherine Slattery's comments, Fianna Fáil councillor saying: "I pass up and down the Childers Road a couple of times a day, I'd say twice a week you'd see someone biking it. It's a complete waste of money, people aren't using it. What should have happened there is that they should have moved back the footpath and put the cycle lane on the footpath. All they've done on the Childers Road is cause traffic chaos in the mornings."

> Cycle lane branded a "s*** show" by local politician furious at reduced width of road

However, the NTA survey found that 52 per cent of residents walk, cycle or wheel at least five times a week, with the majority keen for more investment in walking and cycling infrastructure (61 per cent).

Slattery claims she supports cycle lanes being built, but only in "suitable" locations.

"If they're going to put in cycle lanes, do it right, connect the housing estates and stuff like that to these cycle lanes. But certainly I feel that the cycle lanes on the Childers Road were a total waste of money, and the same on the Hyde Road, a total waste of money in my view," she said.

There was then an interesting update from IrishCycle.com who dug up a Facebook post from Slattery's account from 2020, in which she said she was "delighted" with the traffic-calming project on Hyde Road and listed "segregated cycleways on both sides" as part of the scheme.

However, now she claims the cycle lanes were only added "once the scheme started", distancing her support from the bike lanes she now opposes.

It's not the first time Slattery's cycling comments have come to our attention. In December, she seconded a proposal for hi-vis for cyclists to be mandatory, saying it is a "timely motion" in the run up to Christmas.

Admittedly not what most people go to Tenerife to do, but when you've got a Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roiubaix to train for, it doesn't leave much time for cheap drinks and sunbathing. Just the SEVEN hours and 5,000m of ascent for Wout van Aert yesterday...

A touch over seven hours of work and an hour's break, welcome to the real world, Wout, join the 9 to 5 club. The Belgian classics hope is taking a slightly different approach to the spring one-day races this year, skipping Strade Bianche and Milan San-Remo, as well as whichever of the WorldTour stage races he would have picked last week, heading to altitude instead in the hope of optimising his preparation to break his Flanders/Roubaix duck.

Up the volcano with him are teammates Tiesj Benoot and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victor Jan Tratnik, Visma-Lease a Bike classics stalwart Benoot calling the decision a "small calculated risk [...] thinking a bit out of the box".

A small calculated risk, much like hitting 91km/h on a descent... that eye-watering top speed standing out from Van Aert's Strava upload. As does the 28km/h average speed. Snail's pace for the pros, but there'll be more than a few flat rides on my Strava slower than that. Slower and without traversing a giant volcano multiple times...

We enjoyed Gareth Kerr's comment under the ride praising Wout for his "Good Fred Whitton training".

"Hey, Wout... if that Giro d'Italia thing you're doing in May doesn't work, just come to the Lake District instead... there's a little event with a few small hills... you'll love it, I promise..."