“Team Circus continues”: Tom Pidcock dropped by Ineos due to risk of bonus payout claims Brian Smith, who says there’s “no fun in numbers-driven cycling anymore” as “gagged” Steve Cummings confirms exit; Everesting on a unicycle + more on the live blog

Just as Brian Smith bemoans the new-age, scientific era of professional cycling, a young Czech rider decides to give us all a timely throwback – by testing positive for good ol’ CERA at this year’s road world championships.

20-year-old Daniel Vysočan, who rides for the Pierre Baguette Continental team, which was home to Peter Sagan for a brief spell earlier this year, submitted an out-of-competition positive for the EPO variant on 25 September, two days before racing and failing to finish the U23 world road race in Zurich for the Czech team, the Slovakian squad confirmed yesterday.

In a statement, Pierre Baguette announced that Vysočan had been suspended immediately pending analysis of his B sample.

Vysočan (on the far right) with his Czech teammates before the U23 world road race championships in Zurich (Chris Auld/SWpix.com)

“On November 4, 2024, Pierre Baguette Cycling Team was informed by the UCI that Czech rider Daniel Vysočan has been notified of a potential Anti-Doping Rule Violation for the presence of Methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta (CERA), a prohibited substance, in his A-Sample, collected during an out-of-competition test on September 25, 2024, in Zurich,” the team said, before proceeding to wash their hands completely of their young rider.

"Daniel Vysočan last participated in Pierre Baguette Cycling Team’s racing calendar on 5-8 September 2024. His entry in the 2024 UCI Worlds in Zurich was managed entirely independently, with no support, involvement, or association with the team. Pierre Baguette Cycling Team unequivocally states that it had no part in Daniel Vysočan's participation in the 2024 UCI Worlds.

“Pierre Baguette Cycling Team enforces an absolute zero-tolerance policy regarding doping. We are fully committed to safeguarding the integrity of cycling, a sport we deeply respect by refusing any involvement in illicit activities, prohibited substances, or any actions that compromise our core values. Every team member is held to the highest standards of integrity and accountability, and any deviation from these standards is not accepted.

“Effective immediately, Daniel Vysočan has been suspended pending the analysis of his B-Sample B. Should the B-Sample confirm the presence of CERA, his contract will be immediately terminated.”

> Is EPO making a comeback? Asia-based Irish cyclist banned for three years as blood booster found in doping sample after Astana development rider’s CERA positive

Earlier this year, Vysočan – in his second season with Pierre Baguette – raced the Tour of Hungary and Tour of Slovakia alongside triple world champion Peter Sagan, who spent the final few months of his pro career before retiring with the Slovakian squad.

The 20-year-old also finished 16th overall at this year’s Tour de l’Avenir, won by Britain’s Joe Blackmore, and came sixth on GC and won the young rider’s classification at the Tour of South Bohemia, just two weeks before his positive test.

Remarkably, Vysočan is the second young pro to test positive for CERA in 2024, after 22-year-old Kazakh rider Ilkhan Dostiyev was sacked by Astana Qazaqstan’s development team for testing positive for the blood booster, an EPO variant responsible for a host of positive tests in the late 2000s.

In 2008, Riccardo Riccò, Emanuele Sella (both of whom lit up that year’s Giro d’Italia), Stefan Schumacher (winner of two Tour de France stages), Bernhard Kohl (third place and the King of the Mountains at the Tour), Tour stage winner Leonardo Piepoli, and classics legend Davide Rebellin all tested positive for CERA.

Who says cycling’s new generation has forgotten its roots?

While the rest of the United States were busy bracing themselves for today’s presidential election results (I promise that’ll be the last time I mention it all day), one student from the University of Virginia decided to distract himself by trying to break an Everesting world record… on a unicycle.

The endurance craze that swept the cycling world during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Everesting – just in case you forgot – sees cyclists with quite a bit of time on their hands pick any hill they like and ride up it over and over again, with no breaks, until they hit an accumulated elevation of 8,848m, the height of (surprise) Mount Everest.

Despite the sheer difficulty – never mind the mind-numbing tediousness – of such an endeavour, Everesting became popular among some of the best cyclists on the planet in the early part of this decade, with Phil Gaimon, Lachlan Morton, Alberto Contador, and Emma Pooley all holding the men or women’s world records at some point, until Ronan McLaughlin and Illi Gardner came along to smash the record out of the park.

> Can you do an Everesting on no training? Trying to ride 8,848m of elevation in one day

However, while McLaughlin and Gardner’s times (6 hours 41 and 8 hours 3 minutes, respectively) look unbeatable, there’s one Everesting marker that still appeared within reach – the unicycle record.

 (Jack Looney)

Yes, that’s right – back in 2018, before day-long hill repeats became a fad, Austrian cyclist Ben Soja became the only person to complete the Everesting challenge on one wheel, finishing his Los Angeles-based ride in 23 hours.

And until this week, Soja was the only unicycling Everester in history (for good reason, if we’re honest). Until, that is, Mason Allen came along.

A mountain bike racer and road cyclist, University of Virginia student Allen has dabbled in unicycling in recent years, completing the 25-mile MonsterCross unicycle race earlier this year.

 (Jack Looney)

And on Saturday, he added his name to the history books, completing an unthinkable 130 laps of his university’s Observatory Hill Loop Road (which only features about 220ft of elevation, hence the insanely high number of laps) to reach that golden 8,848m marker.

Covering a total of 119.85 miles, Allen finished his one wheeled ride in 21 hours and nine minutes, smashing Soja’s previous record by almost two hours.

 (Jack Looney)

“Honestly still feels surreal at this point,” he wrote on Instagram this week.

“I want to thank everybody who came out, even if just to cheer for a lap or two. It may have seemed small, but the mental boost from having people there cannot be overstated.”

Now that calls for a chapeau.

> Pro cycling team hit out at SRAM “problems”, claim chains “fail” when riders “put a lot of force on the pedals”