"Maybe he forgot to get off his bike": Tom Pidcock challenged over 13:25 5km run claim; UCI bans forearms-out aero position; Chris Froome unconvinced by disc brakes; DIY bike lane video; Chris Gritty; Cummings back at Ineos + more on the live blog

So Tom Pidcock is now essentially an Olympic level runner. Nacer Bouhanni was a kickboxer, Evenepoel played football for Belgium, Victoria Pendleton became a jockey.

Any other potential cross-sport potential from the peloton? We’re thinking Roger Kluge as a second row kinda vibe

— Milltag (@Milltag) February 8, 2021

Poor Tom Pidcock may live to regret uploading his rather suspect run to Strava unless he can provide some more concrete evidence of a world class 13:25 5km time very soon. 

The news has now hit the running community, and followers of the popular 'I Was, Or Am A Runner' group on Facebook are having their say. One commented: "Nonsense. This is totally contentious. Nobody runs 13.25 for 5k on a morning training run in winter. It is glib and disingenuous indeed to qualify this with the comment 'Apparently this is very fast'. There is no 'apparently' about it. A world class athlete would know the relative paces of other endurance sports."

Another said: "Not bad as he runs about twice a week...complete b*llocks", while another suggested: "Maybe he just forgot to actually get off his bike!"

Honestly @andybutchart91 and @_MarcScott you might as well just call it day.

You’re no match for this new breed of lockdown athlete. pic.twitter.com/BW86qQN9tH

— Callum Rowlinson (@callumrowlinson) February 8, 2021

Pidcock's claims were also compared to a similar situation involving pro footballer Ross Barkley, who also posted what was thought to be an extraordinarily fast 5km last April; and he only claimed to have ran a time of 16:11! We'll be waiting for Mr Pidcock to follow up with another Farah-thrashing performance soon to convince the public of his superior running talents... 

GPS data, when running close to buildings, can be off. Also, unless that vid was of his warm-up, there is no way he is carrying enough speed to run 13:25. If you want a reference, just watch @jakobing running 13:29 to break the Euro 5km road record https://t.co/UKuQVcb8Fo

— Michael Woods (@rusty_woods) February 8, 2021

Israel Start-Up Nation's Mike Woods has an impressive running pedigree having set Canadian junior records at the mile and 3,000m distances as well as winning gold at the 2005 Pan American Junior Athletics Championship. Woods isn't convinced the time was accurate but added that Pidcock could probably still beat him in a race...

Welcome to the National Cycle Network. pic.twitter.com/F1g8EPMYLc

— Tom Jeffs (@tom_a_jeffs) February 8, 2021

Steve Cummings has taken the next step in his cycling career by rejoining Ineos Grenadiers, now in a sports director and coaching role. Cummings enjoyed an incredibly successful road career with highlights including winning two stages of the Tour de France, both road and time trial national championships and the Tour of Britain. Since retirement at the end of the 2019 season Cummings has been studying a sports business management degree. 

The 39-year-old will work with Rod Ellingworth and the team's director of performance Dan Hunt as the team transitions to a more open style of racing seen at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España in 2020. On the team's ambition, Cummings said: "This team has been so incredibly successful in what they’ve done, and that isn’t being changed, it’s just being tweaked and an extra dimension added, which hopefully will bring more success. Riders will see that everyone will get an opportunity, but to earn that opportunity you need discipline and commitment.

"The year is all about learning and making the most of the opportunities I have. I’m here to support the other Sport Directors and riders as best I can. It takes time to become a good Sport Director and coach. I’m working hard in the background and I’ve done a lot of theory work and now I need to connect that with the practical side."

Chris Froome says he's not completely convinced by disc brakes and suggested he'd prefer his Israel Start-Up Nation Factor Ostro VAM to use rim brakes. Froome was giving a run through of his new bike on his YouTube channel and admitted he's not "100 per cent sold" on disc brakes. The four-time Tour de France winner's steed for the upcoming year featured as our Bike at Bedtime a couple of weeks back where we did a deep dive into his 2021 set up, including the SwissStop disc brake pads and rotors that seem to be causing concern. It's Froome's first full season racing on disc brakes and he expressed doubt about whether the technology is reliable enough.

"I've been using them for the last couple of months," Froome explained. "Performance wise they're great. They always stop when I need to stop in the dry or the wet. They work, they do what they're meant to do. The downsides to disc brakes are the constant rubbing, potential for mechanicals, overheating, the discs becoming a bit warped when you're on a descent for longer than five to ten minutes of constant braking.

"Personally, I don't think the technology is quite where it needs to be yet for road cycling. I think the distance between the disc and rotors is still too narrow. Which means you're going to get rubbing or one piston firing more than the other. You're going to get these little issues. I don't think the pistons retract the way they're meant to all the time.

"Quite often it will work on the stand when the mechanic sorts it out but then once you get onto the road it's a different story. I accept that it's the direction the industry wants to go, we as bike riders are going to have to adapt and learn to use them because if you're not on disc brakes already it's only a matter of time before you're made obsolete and forced onto them."

Nice but paint is not infra.
I want to see guerilla kerb laying😀 https://t.co/TK1WxdhHut

— Real Gaz on a proper bike #fbpe (@gazza_d) February 7, 2021

This video of activists in Mexico painting their own bike lane has been doing the rounds on social media again, and plenty of cyclists from the UK have been taking notes. It actually shows environmental activists creating a 5km guerrilla bike lane in Mexico City in 2011. At the time the group said the action was to highlight the lack of adequate cycling infrastructure. However, with its reemergence on Twitter the video has been catching the eye of cyclists across the world...

Can we have some of this in Edinburgh, but with added bollards?!

— Blythe 💙 🚴🏻‍♀️ (@girlonabrompton) February 7, 2021

brilliant, we could do with these guys in #Barnet

— Ian Conway (@ianPconway) February 7, 2021