Happy new year and welcome to the first Cycling News post for 2024. I would like to provide a lot more positive news for my first news article for the year, but it seems a lot of the news this week is all a bit negative. retired Australian pro cyclist Melissa Dennis has passed away after being involved in an accident, bikes have been stolen and manufacturing companies have been finding the current economic times pretty tough. We do have some racing news from Australia and some updates from the European Cyclocross season. There seems to be a lot of interest in Cyclocross with a number of top pros taking on the races to stay sharp over the European winter. It may be something I need to have a look at next winter and bring you the Cyclocross news as well.
Before we move on, you thought about delegating some of your Hive to the Cycling Community. You don't have to delegate a lot, but every bit helps, with the Cycling Community(@hive-177745) growing and the payouts being rewarded is also growing, so it is definately worth you time.
Tributes Paid To Australian Pro Cyclist Melissa Dennis
Tributes have been paid to Melissa Dennis, the former team pursuit world champion after the 32 year old died in hospital in Adelaide on the 31st of December, from injuries sustained on that evening when she was struck by a pick up truck that was reportedly driven by her husband and retired cyclist Rohan Dennis. Dennis has since been charged with offences including causing death by dangerous driving and will face court in March 2024.
Melissa Dennis retired from competitive cycling in 2018, with three years prior she was competing under her maiden name, Melissa Hoskins at the UCI Track World Championships in 2015 where she was part of the Australian quartet that won gold and smashed the world record. On the road she was also the overall title winner at the Chinese stage rave, the tour of Chongming Island, and also won the Queen of the Mountains contest at the 2015 women’s tour.
Tributes have been paid by many including CEO of AusCycling, Marne Fechner, who in a statement said: “Melissa, a mother, daughter, and wife, was also a champion cyclist who thrilled and inspired us with her exquisite skills on the track and road.”
[Image Courtesy Getty Images]
Stolen £5000 Rickshaw Bicycle Returned Just Before Christmas In “Christmas Miracle”
Monty’s Bike Hub, a cycling charity based out of Southampton in England, offers a variety of cycling activities to the local community including a three wheeled rickshaw bicycle(trishaw) it uses to take elderly and disabled people on bike rides. The rickshaw bike had been decorated for the festive season when it had unfortunately been stolen on or around the 13th of December 2023. In less than a week following the theft, one of Monty’s Bike Hub co founders had reported that the trishaw had been had been returned.
"It's a Christmas miracle! Sometime last night our trishaw that was stolen on Tuesday night was returned, thanks for all the shares and comments, this clearly helped motivate whoever took it to give it back and made it 'too hot to handle'.
The rickshaw bike which costs approximately £5000, did have a bit of damage and they also want to improve security for the bike, so Monty’s Bike Hub will do some extra fundraising to repair the bike and fund a tracking device to help with security.
[Image Courtesy Monty's Bike Hub]
Lance Armstrong Had Bikes Stolen From Storage Unit
Lance Armstrong has had bikes worth over $100,000 USD stolen from a storage using in Austin, Texas. Two men have been charged, alleging they broke into the storage unit used by the ex-US Postal rider on the 10th of December and stole six bikes with a collective value of $105,800. The two men have been linked by police to other burglaries, including other storage units and each could face up to 10 years in prison. The value of the bikes stolen ranges in value of $500 for a frame to $50,000 for a bike Armstrong had used for races and triathlons. So far, Armstrong has not commented on the theft but I am sure he is happy that police are working on the issue and have charged two people with the theft.
Bike Companies Finding Times Tough
In our recent cycling news posts, we have reported on the financial issues being felt by WiggleCRC, as well as other companies that have been either sold or purchased due to the difficult financial times at the moment. It seems that the current tough economic environment is causing a lot of problems for a number of different cycling companies and manufactures. In the past few weeks, here are a few more of the companies that could be sold or struggle through the coming months.
First off, the bike manufacturer Canyon has seen profits fall in the red, with the company recording a new loss of $2.2 Million USD for the first nine months of 2023. The company has sited heavy discounting as part of the response to economic times and supply shortages as being the cause for the loss. Slashing prices for the company, although did cause an impact in the companies profits, it did report that it led to a growth in sales volume.
American bike company Felt, is set to change ownership again. This is the third time in six years that the company will be sold, this time citing, due to difficult economic environment. The parent company that currently owns Felt, Pierer Mobility, is looking to focus more on its other brands and interests, which includes production of motorcycles and e-bikes. Pierer Mobility has decided to sell its controlling stake of Felt bicycles to a group let by KTM motorcycle’s managing directory Florian Burguet. As well as selling Felt, Piere will also look to sell the R Raymon bicycle brand.
Access Group, is the parent company that owns bike brands Lapierre and Raleigh and is said to have unsustainable finances at the current moment, with the group saying it has sufficient funds to weather the challenging market. The company have cited overstocking in the bike industry and weak consumer demand for the cause of the challenging market, but is optimistic the market will gradually improve and says the long term outlook for the business is favourable.
World Tour Race Heating Up In Australia
Although it’s the off season in Europe, if professional teams are looking to race and not settle for cycle cross, the professional season in Australia is about to kick off. The main races to look out for are the Australian Road National Championships, The Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. It is the last year the Australian Road National Champs will be held in Ballarat from the 3rd of January to the 7th of January, with Caleb Ewan for his new team of Jayco AlUla taking the mens criterium title, although Ewan was close to a crash towards the end, managed to stay up and ahead of Jensen Plowright of Alpecin Deceuninck and Sam Welsford of Bora-Hansgrohe who was third. Luke Plapp of Jayco-AlUla would take his third elite men’s road race title in a row, where he and team mate Chris Harper lead from 100km to go, as they broke away from the main group. It would be a further three minutes back that third place would be decided by a sprint finish with Kelland O’Brien claiming third. The women’s racing saw the event made a little more complex with a lot of rain throughout the race but it was Ruby Roseman-Gannon of Liv-AlUla-Jayco winning the national title, with Lauretta Hanson of Lifl-Treck in second.
The Santos Tour Down Under, will be held in South Australia, with the women’s Tour from January 12 to 14, and the mens event running from January 16 to 21. The tour is a good chance for riders from Europe to take a break from the cold, with the Australian based team of Jayco-AlUla going all out to try and again take out there home race.
Towards the end of January, things move to Victoria for the Cadel Evens Great Ocean Road race, which is a one day event, but from it’s original race in 2015 has not stepped up to be on the mens and women’s WorldTour. The event will kick off with a Pro Criterium race on January 24, the women’s race on the 27th and mens race on the 28th.
London Based Cyclist Threatened With Legal Action
A London bases cyclist has been threatened with legal action after posting a video of a close pass by a van driver. The company that owns the van has claimed that posting the video amounted to trademark infringement and has stated that the company is prepared to take legal action if necessary, unless the content was removed.
The cyclist has a YouTube channel called Chapona Bicyclette where he regularly posts close calls by motorists or drivers using their cell phones while driving. On this one occasion received a close call from a driver of a van operated by the company Cornices Centre, hoping the driver would be spoken to or, some for of disciplinary action taken against the driver. But instead he received an email from a company director claiming that he had “unauthorised use” of the companies trademark.
An article in road.cc covering this story also looked into the legal implications of the video and after speaking with a barrister, they found that “Unless Chapona Bicyclette is somehow marketing goods or services using this company’s name, then he is not going to be infringing the trademark by the definition in the Trade Marks Act.”
A link to the video in question is posted below, so have a look and see if you think the driver has anything to answer for, but obviously the Cornices Centre is looking to stop bad press from being associated with its name and could have probably gone about it a different way.
Cyclocross Events To Have Increased Police Presents
Cyclocross events in Europe and USA have been attracting some big names in cycling over the winter season for 2023/24, but with the increase in competition has some come some nasty incidents forcing race organisers in Koksijde, Belgium to have a boosted police presence at the race. One notable incident involved Mathieu van der Poel having urine and beer thrown at him by a small group of spectators at a recent event in Hulst Netherlands. Don’t worry, van der Poel stood up for himself at the event, but resulted in a 250 euro fine after he spat back at the group that was throwing things as he was racing.
The race in Koksijde is expecting close to 10,000 spectators at the event with a big interest from the public as big names have been racing over the Cyclocross season as well as van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock will be racing the mens elite race. Race organisers have also highlighted potential fights brewing in the beer tents or overenthusiastic drinkers would need to be looked at by police as well. It is hopeful the issues are isolated to only a small number of spectators and will be taken care of by police in a quick and efficient manner.
[Image Courtesy Getty Images]
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This week we have a great video from Peter Defty discussing the riders of the Tour de France and discussing what we can learn from the way they fuel and race:
About The Author
I am a DevOps Engineer, Endurance Athlete, Biomechanics Student and Author. We can all achieve amazing things, it's just a matter of trying, I want to change the world, one run at a time.
