If it was silly season last week, we're most certainly in the pre-Christmas party season this week. Remco Evenepoel reprises his role as the unlikely face of Pizza Hut in Belgium as they celebrate their 30th anniversary, and Alison Jackson turns 37 with a new team behind her.
The story of the week might have been Ineos Grenadier's new kit. Dismayed at the risky white shorts ("let's hope it doesn't rain"), upset at the slight differentiation in shades of white between the shorts and the jersey, or simply irked by the bright-orange tone of the jersey (a far cry from the stylish red gradience of seasons past) - whatever you think of the kit (maybe you like it, even) it has divided the internet.
But aside from this latest hot-topic, here are the other internet fragments that have made their way into our weekly round up, in the run-up to Christmas.
1. How prompt are the Visma-Lease a Bike riders for their 10:15 training ride? Victor Campenaerts arrives running just before the clocks ticks over into ‘late’ and Wout van Aert rolls in with three minutes to go, but who’s the tardiest of them all? For habitual late-runners like me, one Insta comment asks the real question we measure our timings by: ‘what time does the group ride leave?’
2. How to get through a soggy ride: The Visma-Lease a Bike social media elves are really delivering the festive goods this week.
3. Lest we forget we are in the midst of cyclo-cross season. It’s a discipline not for the weak willed, but sometimes, you’ve just got to take a break. ‘Cyclocross is fun. We promise,’ Scottish Cycling captions the video - entries are still open for the last round of the National Trophy Series in Irvine.
4. Mathieu van der Poel power washes his gold car after winning the fourth round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Namur, Belgium: ‘job done’
5. Remco Evenepoel is also celebrating this week - just not a race this time (though he is dressed in his cycling garb). He’s celebrating something arguably even more delicious than the glory of victory - a big margherita pizza.
6. It truly is party season in the cycling world, with candle-mounted pizzas and now Alison Jackson’s birthday celebration with new team, St Michel - Preference Home - Auber93 (prev. EF Education-Oatly). Happy 37th Ali!
7. Sarah Ruggins received the Guiness World Record certificate for the fastest return from Land’s End to John-O-Groats by bicycle by a woman this week. ‘Alongside my PhD, this is the most I’ve ever paid - emotionally, financially, physically - for a piece of paper,’ she says, while thanking the Lejogle team, sponsors and dot-watchers for the love that propelled her forwards.
8. Bicycle ear; bicycle back; bicycle arm; foot; hand; ‘deadly bicycle heart’; kidney and - of course - ‘all have heard about the bicycle face, and now it is said there is a new ailment resulting from devotion to the silent steed [...] the bicycle eye.’ These newspaper clippings shows our penchant for hypochondria - and our wariness of the bicycle.
9. If this drizzle continues, the fair weather cyclists among us will be getting in some indoor training sessions over the Christmas period, though squeezing the trainer into a house full of in-laws may be the least of your problems.
10. As investment for sustainable infrastructure dwindles both at home and abroad, this Toronto based creator muses on urban planning, nature and in this short video, the impact of prioritising road building.
