Photoshop accusations as cyclists unconvinced by out the saddle century; Geraint Thomas backs campaign to save home velodrome; Using a chainring to cut pizza; Serious road safety legislation; Cycling up Snowdon + more on the live blog

They couldn't draft in someone to take his place anyway - countries are limited to a certain number of riders total across the two events, which is why the TT riders (almost) always ride the RR as well.

I cycled to the top and then destroyed my rear wheel about 100m from the summit on the way back down. Carried my bike all the way to Llanberis.

Yeah likewise here, a loooong time ago on my first MTB, a polished alloy framed Claud Butler. I seem to recall I did have the gloriously smooth (not!) plushness of a Girvin Flexstem to help ease my progress. What a piece of crap that was was. 

When I was a foolish student, I tried doing a ride & hike of Snowdon from Manchester. I got the pace wrong, hit the wall far too early, arrived at Pen-y-Pass after dark with my bike lights fading, tried riding up the Miner's track anyway (with quite a lot of pushing), realised it would be dangerous to try ascending higher than Glaslyn at night, slept under a tarp in the pouring rain, and had a very slow and demoralising ride home the next morning.

But if you have good weather and some modern technology (including suspension, and proper bike lights!) it would be a great day out!

ChrisB200SX wrote:

100miles without food, maybe. Only one bottle, even if that's possible it's stupid.
I did 75km  fater work, Tuesday last week. Did the first 40miles in 2 hours. I had one 650ml bottle, even after my big recovery meal and trying to rehydrate I was 1.5kg lighter the next morning!

I can do about 70-75 miles on no food, and that takes me about as long as it takes Chad to do a century. In hot weather, I'd want at least four, probably five bottles for a century, so that would mean taking two and planning to refill. In cooler weather, I could see doing it with just one, but not ideal. His ride was at 65 °F / 18 °C, and pretty sunny, so I'd say "plausible."

Looking at the analysis in Strava, I see he really did only stop once, for about 2½ minutes to take the photo.

mdavidford wrote:

I'm no photoshop expert...

...but I am a pizza expert, and a chainring would make a hopeless pizza cutter. Rather than making a clean, continuous cut, at best it would make a series of perforations, and while that might make it easier to tear the base, it's going to leave large parts of the topping unsevered, so that when you try to take a slice you'll end up leaving half of it behind.

Not to mention the impracticalities of operating it.

Besides, who cuts a pizza in squares like that, with some bits all crust and others all topping - that's all kinds of wrong.

 An integrated power meter would be useful though, for optimising the cut.

And in regards to other cycling debates, this is one application where a disc brake would definitely have the edge over a rim brake.

I'm no photoshop expert, but if that's a Campag chainring someone's done a hell of a good job of disguising it!

It doesn't appear to be a Hawaiian either, unless someone (brooksby?) has airbrushed out the pineapple. Even then, it would normally be ham, not pepperoni.

And why would you use a chainring when there's a perfectly appropriate tool out there?

Curiously, "The greatest reduction in injuries was among pedestrians and people in cars, with a modest effect at most for cyclists..."

Perhaps not so surprising, given that

Quote:

The above analyses do not consider changes in travel patterns, and therefore do not estimate risk to an individual, e.g. risk per trip. While evidence on change in travel patterns in LTNs during these months is limited, it points to more walking and cycling, and less car use, compared to background trends

(In other words, they're just counting raw numbers of injuries, so that could be reduced car occupant injuries in line with reduced car usage, but the same number of cyclist injuries despite more cycling.)

Seems rather unlikely that tape would match the paint at the rear though.

How about a photo of the bike with the saddle in for comparison?

No idea about the stats but he looks 50 times fitter than me !

I meant the red finishing tape he has used on his bars looks like a close match for the red paint at the back of the bike.

I mentioned yesterday that the weight details shows he is slightly lighter then the "light" pro climbers so that would help woth that. Also his average heart rate is alot higher then his normal ones for that distance which lends credence to it being harder work. 

hirsute wrote:

Seems rather unlikely that tape would match the paint at the rear though.

Not so odd if the no saddle stuff is habitual.  Which it appears to be.  If only in case he gets caught in a shower.  You dont want to be hanging ya Dogma upside on the line to dry, then theres the BB to think of, possibly DI2 too.

Secret_squirrel wrote:

hirsute wrote:

Seems rather unlikely that tape would match the paint at the rear though.

Not so odd if the no saddle stuff is habitual.  Which it appears to be.  If only in case he gets caught in a shower.  You dont want to be hanging ya Dogma upside on the line to dry, then theres the BB to think of, possibly DI2 too.

Beat me to it - if its habitual, then I wouldn't even be surprised if he's had something bespoke 3d printed for it.

Massive lol at the thought that 'cyclist may try and colour co-ordinate everyhting on bike to the nth degree' (at unecessary expense) being unusual.

Not quite what I said which was to query whether you could get an exact match of tape not whether anyone would try.

I like the 3d print idea though.

I'd agree, & it's not hard to just pull a saddle/seatpost off the bike for an appropriate selfie,so why go to the effort of photoshopping it?

I'd say it's not faked

Im a late arrival to the 'bloke doing 100 miles without a seatpost' party, but 20.7 mph on only 170 watts, and with the reduced aero that standing up would cause... I know the Strava wattage is an estimate, but over the course of a long ride not that much out, surely?  Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

OnYerBike wrote:

As for 1 bottle and no food, I've done 100km on <1 bottle and a couple of energy gels, and (based on his strava profile) Chad is a far, far stronger cyclist than me.

I am quite prepared to accept this as a legit ride but seriously ... are we still promoting this idea that riding long distances with minimal nutrition is a good/tough/hard thing to do?

[as in ... look how tough/hard I am, rather than ... look how tough/hard this was to do]