Category Archives: Cycling

Michael Matthews brings the heat with epic win at Tour de France

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  • Australian rider claims first Tour de France victory in five years
  • Matthews braved 40 degree heat to fight back and win late duel

Australian cycling star Michael Matthews believes he’s reprised the story of his distinguished career with one epic triumph of rare courage and heart at the Tour de France.

The man from Canberra, known throughout cycling as “Bling” for his love of shiny baubles, produced his most glittering victory on Saturday on an exhausting, undulating 192.5km slog from Saint Etienne to Mende.

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Australian veteran Simon Clarke triumphs at the death in drama-strewn Tour de France stage

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  • Clarke left in tears after edging final sprint
  • Terrible day for other Australians Haig, O’Connor and Ewan

Australian cycling veteran Simon Clarke has earned a magnificent, last-ditch Tour de France triumph to crown 20 years of slog on Europe’s roads after a brutal, crash-strewn cobbled stage.

But while the 35-year-old Israel-Premier Tech rider was left in floods of joyous tears after edging a lung-bursting sprint to win the fifth stage in a photo-finish on Wednesday, it proved a calamitous day for Australia’s biggest hitters on the Tour.

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‘There is a lot of excitement’: Tour de France comes to Denmark

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Anticipation mounts in greatest cycling nation in the world for world’s greatest cycling race

Cycle paths have been painted yellow, knitting enthusiasts have made a giant yellow jersey, and preparations are being made for a flotilla of boats flying yellow flags. The “big yellow party” comes to Denmark on 1 July when the country widely regarded as the best in the world for cyclists hosts the opening stage of the world’s greatest cycling race.

The Tour de France was originally slated to start in Copenhagen in 2021, but was transferred to Brest in response to a Covid-related scheduling conflict with the European Championships.

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‘I’m good’: Joe Biden falls off bike during Delaware ride with first lady

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President braked to speak with a crowd and tipped over, saying the ‘toe cages’ on his bike got caught

Joe Biden fell off a bicycle near his Delaware beach home Saturday morning, moments after greeting reporters with a wave and a cheery “Good morning!”

The president was near the end of a bike ride with the first lady, Dr Jill Biden, near Rehoboth Beach where the couple are celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary.

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Melbourne’s ‘pause’ on new bike lanes sparks outrage on World Bicycle Day

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Advocates and key councillor hope the halt is short-lived, but transport union criticises existing lanes

Cycling advocates are holding out hope that a halt on new bike lanes in Melbourne CBD announced Friday will be short-lived, warning of the risks posed by gaps in the network.

The Melbourne lord mayor, Sally Capp, said Friday there would be a “pause” on the construction of dedicated cycling lanes in the CBD. The City of Melbourne council said it would instead prioritise upgrading cycling infrastructure on arterial roads.

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Robbie McEwen apologises for using ‘offensive phrase’ during Giro d’Italia broadcast

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Robbie McEwen, the former cyclist and now commentator, says he’s ‘genuinely sorry’ for using a homophobic slur during a broadcast, which he says was ‘unintentional’

Robbie McEwen, the former cyclist and now commentator, has apologised for using a homophobic slur during a broadcast of stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia.

The Australian three-time Tour de France points classification winner, who retired from professional cycling in 2012, said he “unintentionally” used the phrase during commentary on Eurosport and GCN+ earlier this week.

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Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay makes history by winning Ghent-Wevelgem classic

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• 21-year-old takes victory in Belgian classic race

• Girmay becomes first Eritrean to win Word Tour race

Biniam Girmay became the first rider from Eritrea to win a cycling World Tour (elite) race when he prevailed in the Ghent-Wevelgem classic on Sunday.

The Intermarche-Wanty Gobert rider beat France’s Christophe Laporte (Jumbo Visma) and Belgian Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies) after he and three other riders attacked 24 kilometres from the finish. The 21-year-old Girmay mastered the cobbles along the 248.8-km course in Belgium and had just enough has left for a perfect sprint finish.

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Going the distance: the ‘Boris bikes’ being spotted around the world

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Stolen London hire-scheme bicycles sighted in unlikely destinations as annual thefts rise

They have been a feature of London’s streets for nearly 12 years: the docked public bikes for sharing that are billed as one of the easiest and quickest ways for people to make shorter journeys. Or in some cases, it seems, considerably longer ones.

Among the hundreds of bikes that go permanently missing from the 14,000-plus fleet every year, a handful have been tracked down to distinctly non-London locations, including Australia, the Gambia and Turkey, a freedom of information request has disclosed.

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My support for sports projects in Israel is not ‘sportswashing’ | Letter

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Sylvan Adams, co-owner of the Israel Start-Up Nation pro cycling team, says his sports initiatives look to build bonds of coexistence and understanding

Jonathan Liew’s decision to attack my support for sports projects in Israel as “sportswashing” is perhaps the most ringing endorsement of why such bridge-building efforts are needed (Sportswashing is associated with certain countries – why not Israel?, 24 January).

When our liberal and open country holds its massive annual Gay Pride parade – the largest (if not the only one) in the Middle East, Israel is accused of “pinkwashing”. When Israel leads in environmental issues and breakthroughs in climate change technologies, Israel is accused of “greenwashing”. When our generous and supremely capable NGOs like IsraAid or Save a Child’s Heart provide support to communities in need around the world, we are accused of “aidwashing”.

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A new start after 60: ‘I was a globetrotting photographer. Then I stayed home – and my world expanded’

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His career took Roff Smith, 63, to more than 100 countries. But he started to feel jaded. Exploring his local area by bike led to a whole new approach to his pictures

Roff Smith’s photographs show a solitary cyclist – Smith himself – in a painterly landscape. His wheels appear to turn briskly, but really the bike moves as slowly as it can without a wobble. As a writer and photographer for National Geographic magazine, Smith, 63, visited more than 100 countries, but now he has squeezed the brakes and shrunk his world. His photographs are all taken within a 10-mile radius of his home, and yet travel has never felt so rich to him as it does now.

Before the pandemic, he had already begun to feel jaded: air travel made “the world everywhere look the same”.

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The 20 best gadgets of 2021

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From smartphones to folding skis, the year’s top gizmos selected by tech experts from the Guardian, iNews, TechRadar and Wired

Cutting-edge tech is often super-expensive, difficult to use and less than slick. Not so for Samsung’s latest folding screen phones. The Z Fold 3 tablet-phone hybrid and Z Flip 3 flip-phone reinventions are smooth, slick and even water-resistant, packing big screens in compact bodies. The Fold might be super-expensive still, but the Flip 3 costs about the same as a regular top smartphone, but is far, far more interesting. Samuel Gibbs

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Ride on, baby: NZ politician cycles to hospital to give birth – for the second time

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Green party MP Julie Anne Genter set off for the hospital while already in labour, and gave birth an hour later

New Zealand MP Julie Anne Genter got on her bicycle early on Sunday and headed to the hospital. She was already in labour and she gave birth an hour later.

“Big news!” the Greens politician posted on her Facebook page a few hours later. “At 3.04am this morning we welcomed the newest member of our family. I genuinely wasn’t planning to cycle in labour, but it did end up happening.”

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Mark Cavendish: ‘I knew I could be top again’

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Mark Cavendish is one of the greatest bike racers of all time. But riding is the easy part, it’s the other stuff that’s hard

Mark Cavendish has just been out on his bike. He went out on his bike this morning, he’ll be back out on his bike tomorrow morning, he went out on his bike this afternoon, and when training was over and he needed to get back to his hotel in order to do this interview, there was really only one method of transport that fitted the bill. The point – and admittedly, it’s not a particularly earth-shattering one – is that he loves riding his bike. Anytime, anywhere, anyhow. It’s his sanctuary, his freedom, his reason for being.

And so, while most of us conceive of professional cycling in terms of suffering – lung-busting sprints, brutal training rides, the tortuous mountain ascents of the Tour de France – Cavendish sees things differently. For all the sweat and pain he endures in the saddle, he knows from bitter experience that the real agony is not being able to ride at all.

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Second act sensations! Meet the people who reached peak fitness – after turning 50

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Rich started working out, Mags started running and Shashi started walking three times a day. It is possible to reach new goals as you get older and it is not only your physical health that benefits

‘I do sometimes feel like a cliche,” says Rich Jones. We’re in the cafe at his gym and he is in workout gear. It’s true, something about the language and the before and after pictures from his physical transformation – severely overweight to lean and chiselled – would appear familiar from thousands of adverts and magazine spreads, if it wasn’t for one thing; Jones got into the best shape of his adult life after he passed 50. “On 9 August 2019, I walked in here. I was 54 and 127kg [20st].”

He worked out at least six days a week, for 90 minutes or more at a time. “I immersed myself in everything, I did gym, I did classes, Pilates, I even did barre,” he says. Within eight or 10 weeks, he was able to stop taking painkillers for a shoulder injury. He now cycles and runs on top of his gym sessions. “It’s just a habit – I brush my teeth every day, I go for a run every day.”

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Summer in the city: Lauren Oyler on a bike accident in Berlin

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The US author and critic recalls a summer of cycling in the German capital in 2018

• Read other authors on their memorable urban summers

Every summer when I come to Berlin, someone says, “Wouldn’t you rather be at the beach?” No. I want to drink beer from the Späti (corner shop) and marvel at the sudden appearance of disparate architectures. But increasingly, there are heatwaves.

If pressed, even these I can romanticise: everyone is carefree and dirty (even more so than usual) and doesn’t work (even more so than usual). I always end up crossing Alexanderplatz on a bike thinking, this is like a desert, but more than once I’ve run into someone I know in the bike lane, which renders the scene even more hallucinogenic. Still, I dread the heatwaves as if they are worse than they are. “They’re going to have to get air-conditioning,” I mutter with the rest of the Americans. The only real respite is, unfortunately, to go to the beach.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: cycling, boxing and more on final day – live!

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Men’s keirin - Kenny (GBR) rode a superb race to nick the semi on the line. Glaetzer (AUS) defended his place well throughout to come second. Both progress into the final. Carlin (GBR) misses out in fourth.

Men’s keirin - Semi-final time for the men’s keirin. Up first we have Glaetzer (AUS), Carlin (GBR), and Kenny (GBR) gunning for a spot in the top three in a field of six.

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Cargo bikes deliver faster and cleaner than vans, study finds

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Home deliveries are soaring and cargo bikes cut congestion and pollution in cities, researchers say

Electric cargo bikes deliver about 60% faster than vans in city centres, according to a study. It found that bikes had a higher average speed and dropped off 10 parcels an hour, compared with six for vans.

The bikes also cut carbon emissions by 90% compared with diesel vans, and by a third compared with electric vans, the report said. Air pollution, which is still at illegal levels in many urban areas, was also significantly reduced.

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Tour de France: stage 21 finale – live!

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Good afternoon. Hot enough for you? The mercury is rising towards 30 degrees in Paris, where the Tour de France will conclude in around four hours. The final stage is seen as a procession save for the final sprint along the Champs-Élysées, although it probably won’t feel like that for most of the pack after three weeks of racing.

This edition of the Tour has been defined by two people (OK, maybe three people). Firstly, the relentless, remarkable Tadej Pogacar, who is about to follow up last year’s last-gasp win with a very different victory. The Slovenian has been supremely dominant, in control of this race throughout the entire month of July.

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Prosecutors open investigation into doping allegations against Bahrain Victorious

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  • Prosecutor’s office launch preliminary investigation
  • Police searched riders’ rooms and requested training files

French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into doping allegations against Tour de France cycling team Bahrain Victorious after police searched the outfit’s accommodation and bus on Wednesday following the 17th stage of the race.

The prosecutor’s office in the port city of Marseille said the investigation was into “acquisition, transport, possession, import of a prohibited substance or prohibited method for use by an athlete without medical justification”.

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Mark Cavendish equals Merckx’s record with 34th Tour de France stage win

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  • British rider’s acceleration helps him triumph in stage 13
  • Simon Yates among riders forced to abandon after crash

Mark Cavendish equalled the long-standing Tour de France stage win record, held by the five-times winner Eddy Merckx, with the 34th stage win of his career that ended in Carcassonne on Friday.

Once again the 36-year-old Cavendish, wiping away the sweat and the tears, confounded those who had written him off, after snatching his fourth win in this year’s race having almost quit the sport at the end of 2020.

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