Public Bike Repair Station

Public bike repair station. What a brilliant idea - let's hope to see a few more of these appearing around the world.

Tour de France: Stage 7 Debrief

"No...I didn't know that...oh shit...I'm gutted for him..." (Mark Cavendish, told Bradley Wiggins had abandoned)

So the flattest, least interesting stage of this year's race turned into a disaster. The dreams of Team Sky and every cycling fan in Britain lie in tatters: Bradley Wiggins has crashed out of the Tour de France. The 31-one-year old came to this year's event looking leaner and stronger than he has ever done before, having instantly become a favourite for the podium in Paris when he triumphed in the Critérium du Dauphiné and British National Championships earlier this year.

Bradley Wiggins' 2011 Tour de France is over.

 His popularity in the UK is as near to superstardom as any British cyclist has ever been - he's far short of the sort of exposure given to the likes of Eddy Merckx in Belgium and Bernard Hinault in France, but his successes are included in national TV news broadcasts. Now at an age where the careers of many cyclists begin to wind down, it will be uncertain whether or not he is ever able to regain the level of fitness he had this year.

The Team Sky leader was caught in a pile-up involving a large number of bikes around 40km from the finish line. At first, he looked to be hurt but then stood up, fooling many into thinking he was alright. However, he clutched his arm as though it was broken and his face contorted in agony when medics checked his collarbone, suggesting it too is broken. His jersey ripped and dirty, he was placed on a stretcher, taken to the waiting ambulance and was reportedly in hospital by the time fellow Briton and possible future team-mate Mark Cavendish crossed the sprint finish line in 5th place some 15km up the road. Edvald Boasson Hagen and Geraint Thomas, who had waited with him, then had to force their way as far back to the front as they could, eventually crossing the line in 39th and 38th place respectively - meaning that Thomas now hands over the youth category white jersey to Robert Gesink of Rabobank.

Levi Leipheimer isn't having a good
Tour so far, but expect him to win a
stage sooner or later.

Tyler Farrer and Chris Horner were also in the crash and at first also appeared to be injured as they lay in the roadside ditch, but after a quick check-up and a chance to catch their breath they were able to continue. The accident split the peloton into two with the second including our wildcard favourite Levi Leipheimer. Coming so near to the finish line, they were not able to make up the gap and the overall standings look dramatically different tonight as a result.

"#tdf stage 7 predictions: Cav all over." (@GLetten, Twitter)

The 218km flat stage was once again characterised by an early breakaway when Mikael Delage, Gianni Meersman,Yannick Talarbardon and Pablo Urtasan split from their teams in the first few minutes, rapidly building up their advantage to over a minute. Talarbardon punctured but was able to catch up, by which time the lead was at the 6km mark and 3'40" ahead. Little more than five minutes later, they had added almost a minute and looked set to increase it futher still. By 13:14, group leader Meersman would have been awarded the maillot jaune had the race hae been stopped.

Another half an hour later and the peloton had reached 46km, putting them in the vicinity of Ruillé-sur-Loir and very close to the border of Loir-et-Cher. Garmin seem to be doing by far the greater portion of the work at the front of the peloton so far this year and that's exactly where they were by this point, yet they seem happy enough to be there. HTC-Highroad, the team that has dominated sprints for some years now, were right behind them though, and the combined effect of the two teams on the peloton's average speed may be the reason that the breakaway's advantage, which had been as high as 7'20", dropped below 7'.

By 14:30 it had become clear that even though there was still a long way to go, the peloton was not to be afforded the luxury of taking it easy and letting the lead group tire themselves out and return to the flock - they were obviously enjoying their time in the limelight and perhaps even having the legs to keep it up to the sprint at 192.5km and possibly even to the bitter end. Early days it may be and none of the lead group members have a dog's chance in hell (cats being Satan's favourite animals) of winning the Tour, but allowing imoudent scamps such as they to win a stage is simply not the done thing. Thus, they were going to have to be chased down and put back in their places; the naughty little monsters. The Garmin and HTC guys continued working together - they can operate almost as one superteam - to apply pressure and the lead's advantage began correspondingly to fall, soon dropping to 6'15".

Tom Boonen has one of the best senses of
humour in professional cycling, and the
Tour will be a poorer place without him.

Bad news arrived at 14:52 when Tom Boonen, the Belgian who was left bloodied and bruised after a nasty crash a couple of days ago, intercepted the QuickStep car and asked for a lift to the finish. His decision to abandon was announced a minute or two later. Ten minutes later, the peloton had whittled down the gap to under 6' as rain began to fall. Average speed had dropped in the third hour to 35.5kmph, slower than than the overall average of 37.5, but by this stage that by no means constituted a let-up and the gap was down to 5'25" as the race leaders reached the feeding station at 114km, a little over the halfway point.

A small descent at Montrichard upped the ante a bit, generating speeds of 60kmph as they entered the town,  but accounted for Sky's Rigoberto Uran who crashed on a sharp bend. Andrey Zeits of Astana went down with him, but both men were back on their bikes and catching up within a minute. Meanwhile, the breakaway riders had settled into an efficient routine and were sharing duties at the front, enabling them to maintain the gap at 4'30" for a while. Another crash at the back of the peloton took down Europcar's Thomas Voeckler and several others, but again nobody was injured and all were soon once again on their way.

"Well, the easiest day on paper turned into this. Cycling is far from predictable." (@craiglewis85, Twitter)

The average speed for the fourth hour had dropped right down to 33.1kmph, causing race organisers to predict that the peloton would not arrive in Châteauroux until 18:00, half an hour after the expected time. It did the escapees no favours though, and their lead fell below 3'. Shortly afterwards, another crash took down Tony Gallopin, Yaroslav Popovych, Haimar Zubeldia and Roman Kreuziger, fortunately once again without serious injury. The first three had made it back to the peloton within a minute or two, but Kreuziger's mechanics took their time getting him a replacement bike, leaving his stranded for over a minute so he had to work hard to make up the difference, eventually taking his place among the rest some minutes later. Gallopin required further on-the-go attention from the team car but was able to continue without problems.

Mikael Delage deserved the 20 sprint
points after leading a breakaway from
the first kilometre.

The peloton was beginning to apply the gas now, raising their speed to around 47kmph as they headed for the intermediate sprint. This was when the big crash happened, causing enough confusion for it to be unclear who was affected. It soon became apparent that many riders were down, including Wiggins. Sixty riders were in front and continued, while the rest regrouped 20" further back. It took a while for precisely who was in which group to be confirmed - not least of all because of the concern for Wiggins which dominated race radio - but before too long it was known to include many of the favourites including Thomas, Boasson Hagen, Hoogerland and Levi Leipheimer. The chaos left the breakaway free to sail through the sprint with FDJ's Delage and Meersman taking the top 20 and 17 point prizes, Talabardon 15 and Urtasun 13. Cavendish was not far behind them, rocketing through for 11 and then Rojas for 10.

As the sprint was left behind, there were just 20km left - an unusual situation, as sprints usually fall towards the middle of a stage. Precisely why organisers positioned it so late today is not known, but the most obvious reason is that it was done purely for the hell of it, to see if the sprint specialists were capable of moving from a sprint directly into a fast ride and then speeding up again for a final sprint over the finish line. If that was indeed the reason, we liked it - and if it isn't, we liked it anyway. With 10km to go, the lead group's advantage had been chopped right back to 1'40" and with HTC arranging themselves about the front of the peloton, lying in wait just behind Omega-Pharma Lotto and ready to start their customary and deadly final moves, the escapees' time was almost at an end.

With the last 1.5km being almost perfectly straight HTC formed the train with usual pinpoint precision, an aerodynamic hive of minds and bodies working in perfect unison. There was now only one way that this could go, and so it proved to be - no other team can even begin to compete with the HTC train when it works like it did today. As the finish line came closer, the inevitable: the train split to leave the way ahead clear for the Missile who leapt forward, easily passing all others for his 17th Tour de France stage win. The British may have lost its greatest ever overall General Classification hope, but they can still rightfully claim that the fastest rider in professional cycling is theirs. Wiggins may well have another few years left in him yet - look at Leipheimer and Hincapie, or Jeannie Longo - but even if today is the beginning of the end of his career it most certainly won't be the end for Sky: Thomas, Swift and the rest are all superb riders in their own right, but if the rumours are true and Cavendish joins them they'll be unstoppable.

"If they were in the Giro, after those crashes they would ask the head of "Zom". But they're in the Tour, doesn't matter if all is dangerous!" (@evicennati, Twitter)

Overall Stage Results:

1. CAVENDISH Mark HTC - HIGHROAD 5h 38' 53"  
2. PETACCHI Alessandro LAMPRE
3. GREIPEL André OMEGA-PHARMA LOTTO
4. FEILLU Romain VACANSOLEIL-DCM
5. BONNET William FDJ
6. GALIMZYANOV Denis KATUSHA TEAM
7. HUSHOVD Thor TEAM GARMIN - CERVELO
8. TURGOT Sébastien TEAM EUROPCAR
9. ROJAS Jose Joaquin MOVISTAR TEAM
10. HINAULT Sébastien AG2R LA MONDIALE (all same time)


Overall General Classification after Stage 7

1. HUSHOVD Thor GARMIN - CERVELO28h 29' 27"  
2. EVANS Cadel BMC                                 28h 29' 28" + 00' 01"
3. SCHLECK Frank LEOPARD-TREK 28h 29' 31" + 00' 04"
4. MILLAR DavidGARMIN - CERVELO 28h 29' 35" + 00' 08"
5. KLÖDEN Andréas RADIOSHACK 28h 29' 37" + 00' 10"
6. FUGLSANG Jakob LEOPARD-TREK 28h 29' 39" + 00' 12"
7. SCHLECK Andy LEOPARD-TREK 28h 29' 39" + 00' 12"
8. MARTIN Tony HTC - HIGHROAD 28h 29' 40" + 00' 13"
9. VELITS Peter HTC - HIGHROAD         28h 29' 40" + 00' 13"
10. GESINK Robert RABOBANK         28h 29' 47" + 00' 20"

Ridley's integrated aero brakes

Ridley's new intergrated aerodynamic brakes. I think it's probably a safe bet to say we'll be seeing these all over the place next year if they're deemed UCI-legal.


F-BRAKE from ridley-bikes on Vimeo.

Video from Velo blog, which you ought to go and have a look at because it's very good.

Another insanely expensive bike which probably isn't all that good

As part of our regular look at ridiculously expensive bikes designed for rich twats, we thought we'd have a quick look today at what was originally a Charge Plug fixie retailing at around six hundred British quid. However, this is no ordinary Plug -  it's been done up a bit by the Environmental Transport Agency to draw attention to their "green" insurance and breakdown recovery service with one being given away as a prize and the rest sold. They've given it a pair of aerodynamic wheels, custom saddle, chain and handlebars and then, for good measure, the frame was plated with 24 carat gold. Retail? A mere £9500, or 10,691 euros (which is $15,204). Somewhat ironically, this means that the ETA can't insure it - their policies only cover bikes up to £4000.

£9500 is a long way short of that Aurumania thing we showed you the other day and considerably cheaper than the Chanel bike we covered last week, but this one is available with the ultimate in flashy optional extras...

...a private security guard!

Review: Carrera Virtuoso

Want a review of the latest 2012/2013 Virtuoso? Click here.

Like a lot of cycling websites and magazines, we've been guilty of concentrating on the expensive bikes and ignoring the affordable ones that are the only bikes many people can afford or are willing to buy. However, we have an advantage here - this blog has only been in existence for a fortnight so we can put it right at an early enough stage to redress the balance a little. That's why we're going to have a look at the Carrera Virtuoso. We've owned a few Carreras over the years and been quite impressed overall (the same is not true of the Apollo range, which are dreadful even for what they cost), but have noticed a lot of variation in the quality of Halford's mechanics - some of them are excellent, others are dire and so it's definitely worthwhile getting someone who knows bikes to give your Virtuoso a quick once-over if you're new to the sport and not talented with the spanners.

Carrera bikes are produced by Merida, an enormous company (Taiwan's 15th largest) who have been making bikes since 1972. Originally concentrating on low-end, cheap products, they've recently begun moving into the high-end  bikes, including Boardman Bikes since buying the company established by Olympic gold winner Chris Boardman (who continues producing bikes under the Boardman Elite brand) and own 19% of Specialized, an acquisition which has allowed them access to technology developed by one of the top bike companies in the world. The Carrera range is priced between Boardman Bikes and Halford's budget Apollo range, at an equal point to many of the Kona and GT bikes they also stock.

The first thing to spring to mind when we went to have a look at the Virtuoso in our local Halfords BikeHut is that it's really not a very attractive bike. There's something distinctly shoddy-looking about the top tube/seat tube/chain stays cluster, the forks look like they come from a bike 30 years ago (and being hi-tensile steel is going to be heavy too) and the paint scheme is nothing short of hideous. However, with a price of just £299.99 online - expect to pay more in the store, up to £379.99 - you're not going to get hand-crafted carbon loveliness and would be an idiot to expect as much. The frame is knocked up out of 7005 aluminium/magnesium/zinc alloy, which Halfords describe as lightweight - however, the primary reason behind 7005's composition is to make an aluminium alloy that can be easily welded rather than one that's light, thus allowing the production of welded aluminium products at a lower cost and hence retail price. This doesn't mean it's going to be heavy - it's still aluminium, after all - but the chief reason for choosing the alloy was to bring the bike in at a set manufacturing cost rather than a set weight. Whatever - 10.5kg ain't bad and whilst it might feel heavy to anyone used to a more expensive bike (in other words, the sort of people who won't be buying this one) it'll feel nimble to the noobs and positively anorexic to anyone giving road bikes a go after riding supermarket mountain bike-alikes. The short stays, described by Halfords as "semi-compact," ought to create a stiff and nippy bike which in the hands of a reasonably fit rider will be able to keep up with the rest, even if doing so requires a bit more effort. Fairly slack geometry will make it comfortable ride, highly suited to the first-timers who don't want to have to think about their feet getting in the way of the front wheel.

Kit-wise, everything is much as it should be for under three hundred quid. Dual pivot Tektro 510A brakes at both ends look the part and will do the business provided the Halfords greasemonkey shows the owner how to keep them in tune when the free six week service comes around. Surprisingly, the rest of the bits aren't unbranded or in-house items - most of it's made by Kalloy who produce perfectly serviceable gear - including the seat pillar (which taller riders will need to change: the length isn't given, but it's a recurring point in Halfords' user reviews. Friendlier Halfords bods might be happy to do that at point of sale if you ask nicely) and the handlebars. The stem is Kalloy too, but the 1.125" headset appears to be a no-namer.

The gear shifters are, of course, Shimano; coming in the form of the budget 2200 range which look alright from a distance but are a bit plasticky up close. The Big S don't make any crap gear shifters these days though, so provided the owner keeps the cables taut and the derailleurs adjusted they ought to keep working more or less as well as when new. Halfords don't say what the derailleurs are, but we'd be pretty confident in guessing the rear one'll be be Shimano RD-2200 and the front one a bottom-of-the-Shimano range model. An in-house saddle will be fine for short rides, but if you want to use this bike for 60km+ runs you'll be wanting to upgrade as soon as possible. If you don't need a longer seat pillar, try your luck in getting Halfords to give you one. There's no harm in asking.

The chainset is something called a Pro Wheel Gloria Compact. We have no idea who Pro Wheel are (nor who Gloria is, for that matter), but the 50-36 combinations will be sufficient for the sorts of stuff this bike will get up to. The bottom bracket isn't listed, but once again we'll guess a low-cost Shimano of some variety. A Shimano 8 speed block and freehub will do what nature intended for a year or so and can then be upgraded if desired. The wheelset, 36-spoked double-wall alloy jobs, should be strong enough for most riders but won't do the bike any favours in the green light drag race - they probably account for a fair old chunk of the total weight.

There's just two places where the Virtuoso lets itself down, and these are the pedals and the tyres. Of course, most expensive bikes don't come with pedals at all and the ones bolted to this one are probably just some cheapos that had been knocking about in the warehouse for a bit because those not in the know would be put off were no pedals fitted. Whatever they are, they're horrible resin ones and spinning them on the shop display bike revealed some dirt-cheap clunky bearings. The toe clips and straps are horrible too. Some riders will swap them for clipless, but most will probably just pull off the straps, break off the plastic clips and use them as flats. The tyres are just as bad, being weighty Innova models - the one good thing about these is they'll probably wear fairly quickly and since the bike's pretty good overall, the owner will go and buy some better ones instead of leaving it in the shed and forgetting about it. One owner review says the front tyre "came loose," which suggests low quality and rubbish beads.

On the whole, owner reviews are positive with most stating it's a fast bike - those who've upgraded to clipless pedals are especially impressed and only one reviewer - who says he's used his for triathlon, a purpose for which this bike is definitely not intended - says he wouldn't recommend it to a friend.

Conclusion: you can't really give the Virtuoso a mark out of ten if you compare it to the expensive top-end bikes because it's not one - it's always going to be a £300 budget bike. However, you're getting something damn good for that amount of money. Most of them will be bought by new-comers to road cycling and there's no doubt at all that they're going to get the road biking bug as a result, which will see them start looking for a better, pricier bike in a year or two and pass this one on to the next in line. Mission accomplished, it seems, so we're giving it 7.5/10. If they sorted the pedals, fork and tyres it'd be an easy 9. If you want one, you might even find it's a bit cheaper when you go to buy yours - it's been around for three years now and Halfords will be wanting to clear them out ready for a replacement sooner or later.

Something stupid this way cometh

Did you think that Chanel bike with the quilted leather accessories we blogged about last week was the most stupid thing you've ever seen? Well, friends, prepare to have your illusions shattered into countless tiny, sparkling pieces. We present to you... the Aurumania Gold Crystal Edition.

"Hey," you may be thinking, just as we did when we first saw this bicycle, "that's not a bad lookin' bike." From a distance, that's definitely the first impression - it looks like rather a classically pretty, no-nonsense, practical single-speeder. So you go in for a closer look. That's when the horror happens.

"What's that stuff round the head tube?" you think. "Surely it can't be...?" But it is. Them's Swarovski crystals, them is, and there's more than 600 of them encrusting various parts of the bike.

According to their website, Aurumania are a company devoted to the production and supply of products that "are designed and hand-crafted as the very best for the very few. That's why they all are sold as limited edition series. Numbered and intensely exclusive." Now, we don't speak dickhead, but Google Translate says that means "Over-priced crap for rich wankers." The website also says that "In the periodic table that lists all the pure elements found in nature, gold has the atomic number 79. We use this distinctive number - normally only familar to the cognoscenti - for a unique, swirling AURUMANIA tag symbol in gold." That'd be a cognoscenti including millions of chemists and just about any school pupil, then. And if it's normally only familiar to the cognoscenti, who are Aurmania making it familiar to with this bike? Tasteless morons who need to emphasise their wealth, perhaps? We'd have read more, but we were feeling sick by this point.

As you've probably guessed by now, it's not gold paint. Almost the entire bike is plated in 24 carat gold - even the rear sprocket, where it'll flake off after half a mile. However, that shouldn't be a problem because nobody who buys this bike is going to ride it. They even have a picture on the website of the bike displayed on the wall of some shitty baroque-style room with modern touches probably described as ironic, like a purple sofa, and you can also buy a matching gold-plated, crystal-encrusted bracket for precisely this purpose.

Want one? Then this blog isn't for you. However, you can purchase one of the fifty produced for a mere 80,000 Euros - which is £71,300.37 if you prefer British money, or $115,200 in the USA. That's some undoubtedly expensive shit, but it's definitely shit and a hell of a lot of money to pay for a Brooks saddle, which is the only part of this bike worth having.

Got one? E-mail us with photographic proof that you actually ride it and we'll print out this article and eat it.