“Is his new kit still with Evri?”: Tom Pidcock dons Ineos colours during training ride with Q36.5 teammates; Why don’t cyclists use the bike lane? Because it’s blocked by beer kegs; LFGSS forum to shut down citing Online Safety Act + more on the live blog

The good ol’ logjam of contracts, sponsors and logistics in pro cycling…

A product of the classic sartorial mishmash that constitutes pro team winter training camps, Tom Pidcock, who left the Ineos Grenadiers a few weeks ago after a tumultuous transfer saga, has been spotted in his old team’s kit (no, not the brand new one) on a training ride with his new Q36.5 Pro Cycling teammates.

> “2025 is about to get lit”: Tom Pidcock signs three-year deal with second-tier Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team after leaving Ineos Grenadiers – and says he can now make “racing my bike a priority”

 

 

 

 

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Also accompanying him on the ride was the 28-year-old Dutch puncheur Milan Vader, who after agreeing to join the Swiss ProTeam from Visma-Lease a Bike two months ago, was also seen in his old team’s colours.

While the sight of Pidcock and Vader riding in Ineos and Visma colours at a Q36.5 training camp may seem odd to newcomers to the sport, it’s a common one within the world of pro cycling.

While Pidcock is focused on his fresh start at Q36.5, until 1 January he’s still technically an Ineos rider – so we won’t be seeing him in his new kit until 2025 – a consequence of cycling’s weird transfer policy that tends to make big-name signings look like opportunistic tourists who have latched onto the back of the group during December training camps.

(Of course, the best example of this is when a team starts from scratch, and riders rock up in all their different team kits, resembling a large breakaway at a stage race instead of a new, unified squad. Cycling, eh?)

But it’s not all old-school kit for Pidcock, because if you look closely at the video, you can also notice that the double Olympic champion is testing new waters with his Scott Addict RC, adorned with a custom paint job, although he’s set to remain on Pinarello for the off-road season.

Speaking of off-road season, Pidcock announced this morning that he won’t be taking part in any cyclocross races this winter, instead opting to focus on preparing for the 2025 road season with his Q36.5.

He wrote in an Instagram post: “On Sunday I watched my first cyclocross of the this season and it reminded me I should probably officially mention that this year, I will not race cyclocross.

“With a lot of change I want to make sure I have the time to settle into a new environment to get to know my new team and teammates well. But so far my plan will be to return to the field next year.”

 

 

 

 

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A lot of change, but not a change of kits just yet…

A slightly odd and rather baffling piece of news this time. Retired MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaró is set to join Lidl-Trek in a special ambassadorial role in the 2025 season.

The role will mark an interesting career pivot for the 35-year-old Spaniard, moving “from leather to lycra” as the Lidl-Trek press release put it, with the three-time MotoGP race winner attending “pretigious” events with the team as well as “promoting the sport to a wider audience.”

"I’m thrilled to join the Lidl-Trek family, which is home to some of the world’s best cyclists," said Espargaró, a long-term hardcore cycling fan, in a statement.

“I’m excited to learn from some of the best cyclists and staff in the sport, push my limits, and share this special journey with fans.

 

 

 

 

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He added: “After a back injury forced me to give up running I turned to cycling for recovery and training. Over time, it became more than just preparation — it became my passion.”

“Living in Andorra, I made friendships with many pro cyclists, which inspired me to train at a higher level.”

Espargaró has already raced in gravel and MTB and even done some tests at the team’s training camp in Denia. There are also rumours that he could very well be racing for Lidl-Trek’s Future Racing devo’ squad.

With former Mercedes driver and 10-time F1 race winner Valtteri Bottas also out of a seat on the grid as of now, the Finn is also rumoured to continue his foray into gravel cycling. To be fair, he’s been more of a cyclist than a driver for these last few years, anyway.

In a bizarre incident, a street sweeper in central Winchester caught on fire last week, and now, a cyclist has bruised his wrist after the council didn’t clean the diesel spilled on the road.

On Wednesday 11 December around 11:30am, a street sweeper burst into flames on Upper High Street prompting evacuations and road closures. As a result of the fire, a large quantity of diesel was spilt on the roads.

However, according to Nick Wray, the council failed to clean the street or put up any signs warning cyclists, pedestrians and other road users about the slippery roads.

The Hampshire Chronicle reports that Wray was left with an injured wrist after he came off his bike in Upper High Street on Sunday, December 15. The cyclist said: “Stuff happens, the fire is unfortunate, I’m just really surprised that it’s been such a long period, with apparently reports that there were no warning signs or the road wasn’t closed or it wasn’t washed down. I appreciate that these aren’t easy things to do at this time of year.

“I’m really quite bruised and battered. My wrists are quite bruised on the side I landed on, and I broke a metal pedal, so it was quite an impact.

He continued: “To leave a road in that sort of state is really quite serious.”

"Slippery pavement" signs were put up by the council yesterday, almost a week after the road was covered with diesel due to the street sweeper catching on fire (Hampshire Council on Facebook)

Hampshire Council announced a road closure yesterday in order to clean the roads. It wrote on social media: “Our highways service has been working on site at Upper High Street in Winchester to clear a large diesel spillage caused by a vehicle fire on Wednesday 11 December. We have undertaken several deep cleaning treatments to remove the fuel residue. However, this has penetrated the surface of the road and pavement creating slippery conditions for road users and pedestrians.

“Following further site assessments this morning, we have closed a short section of the High Street between the roundabout at Sussex Street and its junction with Tower Street to undertake further specialist cleaning. A section of pavement on Upper High Street is also closed, with a short diversion for pedestrians in place. Access to Tower Street car park remains unaffected.

“Overnight road closures are currently planned for Wednesday 18 December and Thursday 19 December from 10pm until 6am, with a third overnight closure if needed on Friday 20 December, to replace the road surface at the roundabout.

“We apologise for the disruption this will cause in Winchester city centre at this busy time of year, but it is essential to ensure the road and pavement can continue to be used safely.”

> A recent pro bike auction shows that pro cyclists still have no respect for The Rules... so, should you tilt your saddle forward too?

Big news for terminally online cyclists today. London Fixed Gear & Single Speed, or simply known as LFGSS, is set to shut down on 16 March 2025, with Dee Kitchen, better known as Velocio and the owner of the forum, citing the introduction of the UK Online Safety Act as the reason for the website’s demise.

“On Sunday 16th March 2025 (the last day prior to the Act taking effect) I will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS,” they wrote in a statement.

“It’s been a good run, I've administered internet forums since 1996 having first written my own in Perl to help fans of music bands to connect with each other, and I then contributed to PHP forum software like vBulletin, Vanilla, and phpBB, before finally writing a platform in Go that made it cost efficient enough to bring interest based communities to so many others, and expand the social good that comes from people being connected to people.

“Approximately 28 years and 9 months of providing almost 500 forums in total to what is likely a half a million people in that time frame... the impact that these forums have had on the lives of so many cannot be understated.”

Ofcom published a detailed codes of practice and guidance that tech companies will have to follow to comply with the Online Safety Act yesterday, which carries the threat of significant fines and closure of sites if companies breach it.

This means that every site and app in scope of the act — including Reddit, Discord, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and yes, even yours truly road.cc, now has three months to assess the risk of illegal content appearing on their platform.

LFGSS's painstaking image board at the Cycle Show 2010

Kitchen added: “We’re done... we fall firmly into scope, and I have no way to dodge it. The act is too broad, and it doesn’t matter that there’s never been an instance of any of the proclaimed things that this act protects adults, children and vulnerable people from... the very broad language and the fact that I'm based in the UK means we’re covered,” they wrote in a blog post announcing the news.

“The act simply does not care that this site and platform is run by an individual, and that I do so philanthropically without any profit motive (typically losing money), nor that the site exists to reduce social loneliness, reduce suicide rates, help build meaningful communities that enrich life.

“The act only cares that is it “linked to the UK” (by me being involved as a UK native and resident, by you being a UK based user), and that users can talk to other users... that's it, that's the scope.”

“I can’t afford what is likely tens of thousand to go through all the legal hoops here over a prolonged period of time, the site itself barely gets a few hundred in donations each month and costs a little more to run... this is not a venture that can afford compliance costs... and if we did, what remains is a disproportionately high personal liability for me, and one that could easily be weaponised by disgruntled people who are banned for their egregious behaviour (in the years running fora I've been signed up to porn sites, stalked IRL and online, subject to death threats, had fake copyright takedown notices, an attempt to delete the domain name with ICANN... all from those whom I've moderated to protect community members)... I do not see an alternative to shuttering it.

“The conclusion I have to make is that we're done... Microcosm, LFGSS, the many other communities running on this platform... the risk to me personally is too high, and so I will need to shutter them all.”

The news has been received with some confusion and despair, with cyclists recognising that the forum had been one of the mainstays of the a niche cycling subculture online.

One person wrote: “I’m an occasional poster on LFGSS, been on it for years, it’s quite a good forum, bit sweary at times but that’s no bad thing. A sad loss,” while another jokingly remarked: “I don’t get LFGSS. Its weird. You click on a thread and the page returns instantly. No 30 second delay. That's just not normal. It has always just worked really well. Again, just weird… Other than that its a really good cycling forum. Diverse and lots of non bike chat. Big shame when it goes.”

Another user on Singletrack, a separate forum, observed: “Quite a cult following for many years, there was some very useful information on the site. As with many forums though, it had its ups and downs, I’d be surprised if the user figures for it now are even a tenth of what they were back in the day.”

However, the observation seems to go against Kitchen's statement, who noted that “the peak of the forums has been the last 5 years”, in which it has “plateaued around 275k monthly users across the almost 300 websites on multiple instances of the platform that is Microcosm”. Although, they added that LFGSS as a single community probably peaked in the 2013-2018 time period when it alone was hitting numbers in excess of 50k monthly users.

What does this mean for the road.cc forums? If people want to know we will attempt to provide an explanation later today, but from what I’m hearing, there are no plans to shelve it anytime soon. In the meantime, let us know in the comments what you make of LFGSS shutting down and how you feel about it.

Richmond council has announced that between Monday 16 and 23 December, ie will install 30 new bike hangars so residents can “securely store their bicycles”.

The council said: “All units will be managed by CycleHoop on our behalf. Spaces are available to rent on a first-come, first-served basis via the CycleHoop website and cost £72 per year, plus a refundable deposit. All fees will go to CycleHoop for management and maintenance, including cleaning.”

In case you missed it yesterday evening, strange things are happening on Edinburgh’s “infamous” Leith Walk...

> “Blatant terrorism to injure and deter bike users”: Cyclists report “ninja spike landmines” strewn by “anti-bike psychos” across cycle lane, with one suffering hearing loss in shocking new low