Why My New Bike Is Dangerously Fast | The GCN Show Ep. 656

This week on The GCN Show, we’re asking a serious question: are modern bikes TOO good? After a ride on his new superbike, Dan argues that the incredible speeds of today’s bikes could be dangerous in the wrong hands. We debate whether you need to “pay your dues” before riding the best tech.
Plus, we’ve got all the latest news, including the incredible story of the new Box Hill Strava KOM, a website selling used pro kit (including Ben Healy’s Tour de France skin suit), and France’s massive €2 billion investment into cycling.
And you won’t want to miss Story Time, as Dan finally comes clean about the time he cheated in an international bike race back in the day!

Chapters ⏱️
00:00 – Welcome To The GCN Show
00:49 – HEADLINES: PFP wins Tour de France Femmes, Box Hill KOM beaten & more.
02:30 – THE BIG DEBATE: Are Modern Bikes Too Dangerous?
04:03 – Dan’s Realisation: Speed vs. Perceived Power
05:16 – Counterpoint: Modern Bikes Are Actually Safer
08:00 – Downhill Dangers
09:59 – CYCLING SHORTS
10:05 – You Can Buy Used Pro Kit Online!
11:22 – France’s €2 Billion Cycling Plan
12:50 – Box Hill Strava KOM Smashed Again
16:01 – DAN’S STORY TIME: The Time I Cheated In A Race
19:31 – Hack / Bodge Of The Week
26:02 – Caption Competition
28:03 – Comments Of The Week

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from Monster Michelle. Welcome to the GCN show. Welcome to the GCN show. Coming up this week, is your bike too good for you? Dan has been out riding again and decided that modern bikes might be more dangerous in the wrong hands. Find out why and why I disagree. Plus, the rider who beat 150,000 others on a Straa segment, the online website selling used cycling shorts, and a country that’s investing €2 billion into getting people onto bikes. Plus, a story from Dan about how he cheated in an international bike race back in the day. [Music] [Applause] This week in the world of cycling, we learned that Pauline Feron Provo is the new queen of France. It’s quite a shift for La Republic, isn’t it? But no, she should be. She won the final two stages of the tour to France fam ax plus the yellow jersey. Yeah, by quite the margin in the end as well, wasn’t it? The only thing I think she’s yet to win in the world of cycling are the artistic cycling world championships. Pretty much. I mean, just give her time. Don’t give her time. Now, this year’s tour may also have marked a shift in power in women’s cycling. So, the French had twice as many riders in the top 10 overall and more stage wins than the Dutch. The tall conquering Dutch. I think it’s time for the French men to step up tour of France, isn’t it? We also learned this week that the Boxill Straa segment has been beaten again. Yeah. Now, to remind you, this is one of the most popular Straa segments in the world. Back before it got popular, Dan actually held the record. Whoa. Whoa. I mean, it was already popular, I would say, back in 2011. I mean, it’s debatable. And you were in a race sat on Mark Hamish’s wheel, you know. I was. Yeah, it was my job. Yeah. And I was on your wheel. I just didn’t put it on Straa. Therefore, it didn’t happen. So, anyway, congratulations to Dylan Hicks and his team at Raptor Factory Racing. So, he took three seconds off the record, which is no mean feat actually. That was set by Dom Jackson last September. and he averaged 34.2k an hour and it means that down here is now down to 30th. 30th out of 150,000 people that have ridden up there. Sai, you weren’t even on the front. No. Anyway, we’ll give more details about that KM later because there was a lot of prep that went into that effort. Yeah. Now, finally this week, we learned that Dan thinks that modern bikes are dangerous. I That’s exactly what I said to you earlier. Okay, go on then. spin your yarn. You what? Tell us your story. Okay. Um, well, we’ve touched on the subject of whether bite can be too good for people before. I think we have. Yeah. The idea in some courses at least that you kind of need to pay your dues, don’t you, before you’re allowed to get a super nice or super fast or a super light bike. Yeah, exactly that. And maybe we’ll come on to that in a moment, but I had a bit of a realization when I was riding at the weekend. Okay. So on Sunday I went out for a road ride and I did 4* 4 minutes at V2 max if anyone’s interested. The old Norwegian 4x4s. Those are the ones. Yeah. They made me feel sick. And the most depressing thing actually was that the power I was putting out during the 4-minute efforts was less than what I used to do when I was doing sweet spot efforts for 45 minutes at a time back in the day. That’s not my story or my yarn. You are really spinning it out here. So should Okay. Yeah. All right. Uh so my observation was about initially speed versus power. So I kind of need to decouple my own perception of the power I’m doing for a certain speed because for years of riding with a power meter and obviously knowing what speed I’m doing, I feel like I’ve got a sense of how much power I’m doing at a certain speed. But my new road bike is just so fast compared to what I used to train on. My power is nowhere near as high as I’m expecting it to be for a given speed on a flat road. Cool story, right? But yeah, I haven’t quite finished yet. Okay. All right. I’m continue. That was just a dramatic pause. It was what I was thinking about when I had enough blood going to my brain between intervals was that bikes now are so fast they could be dangerous when ridden by people who have a lot of power but maybe without the skills. So riders without your immense level of experience and bike handling skills. Exactly that. Okay. Not quite. was joking a little bit on that point, but there are definitely points where I’m thinking to myself, this just feels ridiculously fast and if anything runs out uh into me, bearing in mind I’m running around the new forest and there’s lots of wild animals that are free to roam, I might not be able to stop in time or take aversive action. Now, before you jump in just here, sai, I know what you’re thinking. There is a distinct chance that I am getting more risk aware with slower reaction times as I’m getting older. But you know what I mean? I think if somebody gets really fit, let’s say on an indoor trainer and then jumps on a modern era road bike out on the open road, they’re going to be going really bloody fast. You are getting older. I mean to a certain extent I do know what you mean, but but I mean I feel like your case is quite a unique one, isn’t it? So you do have a lot of experience of riding and then there’s this period of like a decade or so that’s sort of lost in the ether, isn’t it? From a cycling point of view anyway. And so you’ve gone from what your SL with box section Mavic Ceriums and slow tires and a baggier jersey. Yeah. The training jerseys were baggier actually. Yeah. To a state-ofthe-art bike with super fast tires. I think that just about sums the timeline up. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas for a lot of people, myself included, these changes have been incremental over time, haven’t they? So I can imagine it being a little bit like watching yourself age. You don’t see much of a difference because of mirrors and you kind of see yourself every day. But if you someone hadn’t seen you for a decade, they’d see a big difference, would I don’t know what you mean, but I mean, we can illustrate it right now. The world of cycling is just about to get a hell of a lot less complicated. No, I still don’t know what you mean to me. look exactly the same. Okay. Well, regardless in cycling, things have moved on significantly over the decade, right? So, essentially, I’m not surprised that you are struggling to equate your speed to your power. To be honest, I keep looking down and genuinely thinking that my power meter must be underreading. I mean, I think everyone thinks that, don’t they really? And that will never change. But yeah, so modern bikes are significantly faster. Agree completely. But to say that they’re dangerous in the wrong house is something that I don’t agree with. I mean firstly, how much faster are we actually talking here? 3k an hour? Pro probably about that. Yeah, maybe more in certain situations. Yeah. Okay. So 3k is that actually enough to make a meaningful difference if a deer jumps out at you. Okay. So sadly no online tool seems to exist to calculate stopping distance when cycling. I did look, but I popped that into one that measures stopping distances from cars. So even with that added mass of a car, all that extra inertia, the difference in stopping distance between 35k an hour and 32k an hour is 2 m. Yeah, it doesn’t sound like much. Although it might be the difference between hitting a cow and not hitting a cow. Sorry. I mean it it might be the difference between not hitting a cow and then hitting it so slowly that actually you’re basically giving it a cuddle. Well, you wouldn’t want to do that either. I mean, I definitely would not want to cuddle a cow. No, but you take my point, right? And then if you add in that on these super fast dangerous modern bikes that we have, we’re likely to be using wider tires. Yeah. So with more grip and then we’ve got better brakes almost undoubtedly, although some people will like to debate that in the comment section. Do you could argue quite fairly I think that modern bikes whilst being faster are also safer. I take on board your points, but what about downhills? What do you mean? Well, on the flat it might be that sort of 3 to 5k per hour difference, but downhill it could be 10ks an hour plus. Is that not more dangerous? Sorry. Well, it could be a little bit more dangerous, I suppose, if you’re going 15k an hour faster. But I do I do think that most people’s top speeds are not limited by aerodynamics and gravity rolling resistance or rolling resistance. But I think they’re probably restricted by confidence, aren’t they? When you stop pedaling and when you pop your brakes on. So I stand by modern bikes are not more dangerous. I think the opposite is true. And so there is no justification for saying that a bike is too good for someone. I don’t think it might not be as appreciated as much. It might not be used to its capacity. But I’m okay with anyone buying whatever bike that a makes them happy or b crucially that they can afford. Yeah. Or makes them faster. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what like I mean, do you think honestly people can get into get into trouble because they’re aerobics? Like generally something I was thinking about like and maybe I think my reaction times probably are slow. So I’m thinking I feel like I’m really rattling along here. But that said, when I get to 40ks per hour now, it feels genuinely quite fast to the point where I can’t believe they averaged almost 43 for the entire tour to France this year. I’m pretty sure back in the day I’d have been riding at 40k and it wouldn’t have felt as fast. The taller France that you did, you probably averaged 41k an hour, didn’t you? I think it was 39 point something. Oh, it was an easy year that year. It was there was a lot of climbing and a headwind as well. Most of the wave around France. Yeah. Anyway, let us know what you think. Have any of you been in the same situation as me where you’ve lost a decade into the ether as I described it earlier and you can’t believe the difference when you get on a bike now? Or are you like Sai and you’ve been incrementally upgrading over the years and you feel perfectly confident on your new bike? Yeah. And fundamentally, do you think that modern bikes are dangerous? Settle the argument in the comment section below. And now it’s time for cycling shorts. Cycling shorts now. And we’re going to start with the news that you can buy cycling shorts that were used uh in the tour to France and by none other than Ben Healey. For someone with the right fetish side, this could be a great opportunity. Yeah. Although perhaps the bigger draw is the jersey that’s attached to the shorts and the numbers as well. Yes, I suspect that whoever buys Ben’s skin suit from stage 21 of the tour to France would not be wearing it, but will hopefully be framing it instead. And actually, if you don’t want Ben’s skin suits, uh there are lots on Matt’s worn shirt. Uh there is I noticed a Remco Evan white jersey from before he quit the race. Uh Garren Thomas’s helmet is on there. Yeah. And uh as we film this, Dylan Grovagan’s skin suit is also on there with just one bid. So it’s going for the princely sum of a quid. Oh criy, what a bargain. Absolutely bargain. Well, this is where we get to see how influential we really are. Might go up to €2. I mean, that’s all slightly gross, I think, isn’t it? But I’d also say undeniably quite a cool story. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, buying a skin suit for a quid, like you could presumably wash that so that it’s, you know, not too gross. You can put it on eBay. Yeah. Well, well, yeah, unless you want a super fast JCO Alula skin suit. It’s probably the cheapest map kit you’ll get this year, isn’t it? I’d have thought so. Anyway, there we go. Next up, France is looking at a big overhaul of cycling in that country. And we do not mean how to make more Pauline from Provos, do we? We don’t mean that. No, this preceded the success actually of the toilet of France. And in fact, it’s a government strategy that was created in 2023. But bicycle retailer reported last week that the next step of the national mobility plan is starting to take shape. Yeah. So this is a€2 billion euro investment and it is into both getting more people on bikes. So like improving cycling infrastructure and stuff but also I thought interestingly increasing the production of bikes in France to try and boost jobs and then meet the demand for new bikes with domestic brands like they had in the 80s and the ’90s. Part of that will come according to the article from the support for R&D. So now it could be a really interesting time either for existing brands or indeed for any new ones that pop up. It’s bonkers, isn’t it really to think that the French government could be supporting like research into aerodynamics. Yeah, I mean 2 billion euros is quite the investment, isn’t it? Shapo probably more into like electric bikes and cargo bikes and stuff, but you know potentially a Mavic might get in there. Do I reckon if they did plow two billion into aeronautic research that a Frenchman might get on the podium in the tour of France? Imagine what they would look like. Imagine what the helmet would be. Do you know? I don’t want to think. I don’t want to think. Anyway, we promised more details on the Boxhill Straa segment. So, well, here it is. And it is actually a cool story unlike Dan’s from earlier on in the episode. So Raptor factory racing is basically part of a new British structure that’s focused on helping riders who are just below world tour level which is really badly needed in the UK right now because domestic scene’s been really suffering. So along with the racing they decided to give that climb a shot. After much planning they went down last Tuesday so about a week ago to do a wrecky and then started their attempt firstly on Wednesday before it got too busy on the road because it is a busy road isn’t it? Yeah. Uh they then started with a five rider tray and then got another rider to join midway up the first drag. Now unfortunately they fell short of the record and they but eventually decided to change the strategy a bit and give it another go and lo and behold it worked. So Hicks averaged the same power which was 7.5 watts per kilo. It does sound like quite a lot is it for me it’s 550 watts I worked out for how many minutes was it? 3 minutes 402. It’s quite a lot. That is quite a lot, isn’t it? Um, anyway, he went 7 seconds faster for the same average power with a change in strategies. That was enough to take the record. The first thing that goes through my head when I hear this side is that their KM attempt must have been far better organized than Ollie’s was with Andrew Feather on Alis. I mean, I bet they checked the climb first to make sure there weren’t any markets going on that day. No. If you’ve got no idea what we’re talking about, then stick around to the end of the show. But anyway, well done to Dylan and the team. Pretty cool. The leaderboard of a segment done over 150,000 times and beat Dan as well. Can you remember what your average power was? I’m not sure. No, I did do a test in training out there where I averaged 470 watts for like 5 and a half minutes or something. So, obviously quite a lot slower. You know what? Those bikes back there, they were so much slower, mate. Yeah, I was pushing to win myself obviously than cheating in a race. One of those rare moments. Hey, moving on. You might remember that Canyon launched their customization program earlier this year to those in the USA and it’s now available in the rest of the world as well as the USA. Yeah. So, Alex was out in Munich at the launch last week meeting the designers and also uh some of the artists responsible for the amazing paint schemes that are available. And in fact, a bike has just arrived at GCN Meabase destined for me. For me, I expect no m Dr. Bridgewood. Uh, surprise surprise. Anyway, as well as the gorgeous paint options, uh, you can also customize your cockpit dimensions of your custom canyon uh, saddle choice and also wheels as well. I’d imagine mine is probably in the post by this. Well, it’s a road only at the moment. And you are too old for that now, aren’t you? 45 next week, maybe. Yeah, on Monday. Happy birthday. Wishes very welcome. Um, I mean, I can still ride a bikes, I would say. Yeah, they’re just really dangerous. Yeah, in the wrong hands. In the wrong hands. All right, we’ll finish cycling short with a story that was picked up by cycling news of two Dutch riders at the tour to Guadaloop, I say, uh, because they were disqualified there. Apparently, they were caught sneaking back into the Pelaton after after being dropped near the start inside the last 40ks of stay back in. A. So, the two riders, both from the RC Yan Vanarchal team, had apparently been distanced as Dan said earlier in the stage, but then took a shortcut, hid behind some cars on the road before rejoining the Pelaton. Unfortunately, somebody was videoing from one of the cars. They were I’ve done pretty much exactly the same thing. What? Back in the day. Yeah. I’m going to spin a yarn. Go on then. Story time with D. This is my first ever race outside of the UK. Okay. It was one of my first ever road races, actually. So, I’d gone on a training camp. What year are we talking? How far back are we going? 98, I reckon. Okay. Early 98. And uh I got on a training camp organized by Barry Clark at Bournemouth Farah. And there was the Army Cycling Union there. Met a couple of good mates that I’ve known for years. Anyway, they decided there was this race on that we drive out to the race and compete. It was about 120ks. Had a Calme ride in there. Remember the Cal team? proper. I was against some a pro. Yeah. Anyway, about 15 km in, we’re going down a really fast gradual descent pedaling and my chain gets locked between the 11 sprocket and the rally dynite frame that I had at the time. I don’t think it was Datech actually. It was 853 tubing. I couldn’t pedal it out. I got off the bike. I couldn’t even yank it out. I haven’t been going to the gym back then. So, I was there on the side of the road for so long that that entire convoy, the ambulance at the end, they all just went past. And it was days before GPS, of course. I had no idea where I was. So I sort of just aimlessly rode my bike for a while and then another guy that had been in the race, a local came past me and sort of we didn’t speak the same language. He said follow me. So I followed him for a good 20 minutes or so and then he said right let’s stop here. So we stopped and I thought what’s going on. 5 minutes later the pelon came through with the lead car and stuff like right now go. So we sort of jumped back into the pelon but to be honest all I wanted to do I had no idea where I was. I just wanted to find out how to get back to the finish again because I hadn’t even noted down what the name of the start town was. Honest Governor, I was just trying to get to the finish. I tried to give back third place prize money, but they just wouldn’t have it. No, I I finished right towards the back. I might even got dropped towards the end despite being fresher than everybody else. Well, I mean, I think I feel like the I feel like GCF viewers need to be judged. Jury is Dan, what’s your opinion? Admitting to cheating. Well, So, I mean, black and white, yeah, you cheated, but I can imagine the context. Thanks. You know, back in the day, before GPS, mobile phones, I think I might have said this before, a teammate of mine, uh, back in the mountain bike days was doing the, uh, a French amateur road race circuit. Dean, remember that? Oh, yeah. And he got lost cuz he was stuck between groups. He ended up in Luxembourg with no ability to speak like any language. didn’t know where he’d started, where he was supposed to finish. All he knew was the name of the race that he was doing and my manager at the time just opened up the broom wagon and was like, “Where is he?” Like he just completely vanished off the face. Yeah. Eventually, Phil Spencer found a police station and they understood what he meant by repeating circuit demean organizers. Anyway, so I can see that, you know, that might have been a different circumstances. But anyway, do you think we’re showing our age at all s with these stories? Well, I mean, you definitely are with that story. But, uh, yeah, it is now time for hack/bodgege of the week. If you’d like to get involved in this part of the show, just go to globalcycling.com/uploer. First up this week, one that was sent in by Sam Vois. My friend’s rear derailer cable snapped on a 100mile ride. His chain was stuck in the hardest gear on the cassette. It was starting to look like he wouldn’t be able to finish this ride at the top of the mountain because we could only get the derailer to the middle cog using the limit screw. Just as we were about to give up, I was struck by some hack forward/bodgege inspiration. I wedged a tire lever under the derailer so it extended enough to get the chain onto the biggest cog. Didn’t have any zip ties, but I did have a Garmin speed sensor. I used that speed sensor as an elastic to keep the tire lever in place. Uh, so any bumps during the climb wouldn’t knock it out. Everyone made it to the top of the mountain thanks to this little bit of engineering. Well, fair play for getting it fixed so that everyone made it to the top of the mountain. My hesitation, Dan, is that whilst this is a roadside repair, there is, as we’ve reported on Hatford Ford/BGE before, a much neater, simpler solution, which is that you take your broken cable and then you put it through like the bit just the rear. The Thank you, D. Just a bit rear derailer. Cinch it tight. Jobs are good. Unless of course it snapped in the shifter, which yeah, sometimes it can do, but you know, I mean, I suppose then it there is that caveat. We don’t know. So, it’s got to be a hack. It’s definitely got to be a hack for me. The end of that ride on the mountain. Yeah. I mean, didn’t have any zip ties either. That should I mean, that is good. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, that is very true. All right, Sam. Well done. That’s got us off to a good start. Alex Lark sent this one in. My left shifter came loose during a virtual race in brackets 45 km and the front gear would automatically drop to the smaller chain ring unless it was being held manually. Luckily, after a 400 m climb halfway through the race, my support crew, whoever that is, uh fixed it with improvised kitchen tool set. I even managed to produce a solid sprint finish in the end. So, that is uh a zip tie. Yep. Uh, and a plastic fork. A plastic knife rather. Or is that some sticky tape as well? I don’t know if it’s plastic. Is it? There’s some cellar tape. Oh, no. I can see I can see the reflection. Hello, Alex. Um, I mean, if it gets if it I mean, that’s technically a roadside bodgege, isn’t it really? A roadside hack. It’s not roadside, though, is it? Well, I mean, but it kind of is. It’s virtual roadside. Virtual roadside hack. Yeah, I like that. Um, doesn’t strike me as the best bike to do a sprint on at the end of a race. Doesn’t really, does it? No, apart apart from that. Yeah. Again, a hack that got you through. So long as that knife is not still zip tied in place now, that’s fine. Yeah. What I can’t think is that why didn’t your support crew just bring you an Allen key? Because uh if your left shifter came loose, could you not just tighten it back up again? Mhm. Or just replace the bike and give you a push. Good point. Yeah. Right. Okay. Next. Next one from Chris Dramal. I was getting frustrated with tubes always unraveling my pocket in my seat bag. So, I wrapped them in cling film to keep them nice and neat. Genius. Does that does look nice and neat. I like that. I don’t think I’ve seen that before. No. Um Isaac behind the camera says that he uses cling film on his inner tubes. He’s never told us this before. Thought it was common sense. Thought it was common sense. The amount of times I have rewrapped my inner tube pre-ride before I put it in my pocket and thought to myself, I should do something that um makes this a bit less time consuming for every ride. I use tape. Do you? Yeah. But this looks neater. It does look neater. Yeah. Uh yeah, cool. That’s a hack. Definitely. Uh knock yourselves out and uh copy that one for sure. Adam Jones sent this one in. Now summer has set in. What better way to recover than with an ice lolly, which helps you to recover. Frozen gel, which can also be taken on a ride to keep you cool. It’s a weird looking gel, that one, isn’t it? Well, I’ve never seen a frozen gel before. Maybe they all go milky. Um, good idea, though. Yeah. Not great if you got sensitive teeth. No. Nor is it very good for recovery cuz it’s just carbs, obviously. H. Well, I think the idea is you put it in your back pocket and it keeps you cool at the start of the ride than you eat it during the ride. No. Well, that was part of it, but you also said, “What a better way to help you recover.” Oh, I see. I think I’d just rather have an ice lolly at the end. But yeah, take to take with you mid ride. I think that’s cool. Or maybe for a virtual race. That’d be pretty useful, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Well, I might reserve judgment until I try freezing a gel and seeing what it tastes like. We should go for it. Yeah, I think you should try that. Should we report back next week? Yeah. All right. I’ll set a reminder. Yeah. Okay. Uh, right. Finally, this week, Max Jossi, in a pottery class at school, I was assigned to incorporate a non-ceramic object into a functional piece. While digging through a box of broken/ old bike parts, I found an old rim brake lever that seemed like a perfect handle. I threw the mug body on the wheel and designed and measured the lever and designed an attachment accounting for clay shrinkage. Taking two bolts and with the help of a Dremel and epoxy, it was firmly attached. The result, a perfect mug for after ride beverages. Can I just say this looks wicked. Does look amazing. Yeah, this is like proper pro. Even Even the photograph of it looks professionally done, doesn’t it? Yeah, that is amazing. 100% hack that. Brilliant. I’m starting to worry that people are just going onto AI and saying, “Design me a pottery cup with a handle and brake lever.” It looks like an AI shot. It’s that well done, doesn’t it? Yeah. But all of the blurb that Max has written makes it seem like they know what they’re doing. So, you know, a little known fact, a former teammate of mine got through to the final of the Great British Pottery Throwown. Showdown. Yeah. And lost. Matt Ronaw. He didn’t win, I can’t remember. Anyway, I I watched the uh Great Pottery Throwdown or Showdown, whatever it’s called, religiously to see how he got on. The great pottery throwdown sounds more like a Greek program. Isn’t that what you do? You throw pottery. Plates in Greece, don’t you? No. No. As in that’s what you do on a wheel. You throw pottery. Oh, I don’t know. I’ve got no idea. Maybe should have Googled that anyway. Spontaneous. But yeah, I mean the stories this week are off the charts. Uh, right. That brings us to an end of Hacker Bods this week. Make sure you send some more in for next week’s show. Particularly pottery. Please throw them down. It’s time now for caption competition. that part of the show where you get a chance to get your hands on a coveted GCN Camelback water bottle. All you got to do is put a witty caption in the comments section down below that relates to a photo that we’ll give you in just one second after the results. Uh this is the photo from last week which is in your Grenadier’s Tamman Arenssman. Uh sat down against the barriers after winning his second tour of France Mountain Summit finish. Uh, our winner this week is El Wit Rock One who put, “I thought I was between a rock and a hard place during my sprint. Turns out it was just my back against the wall.” That’s pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I It wasn’t a lull, but it was pretty good. So, internal laugh. Yeah. Like, oh, that’s clever. Um, yeah. All right. Well done, El Witrock one. Get in touch and we will get your GCN Camelback water bottle out to you. This week’s photo, Dan, good one of Pauline Faron Provo. Yeah, this is just after she crossed the line to take her second consecutive stage win on the final day of the tour to France family whiff. I’ll get you started for Provo’s Tour to France ambitions go sideways. Yeah, I mean they have, haven’t they? There we see. There’s a picture going both ways. Oh, really? Yeah. She put a lot of effort into the last part of the race, didn’t she? She did indeed. Yeah. I thought she spent most of um the race on the Aero Sevel, but that’s the uh last weekend apparently. Oh, she rode it on the on as well. I think Alex and Ollie might be discussing this on this week’s G10 tech show. I will duly tune in then. Interesting. Right, put your captions in the comments section down below and we’ll pick a winner this time next week. You know what? I think Pauline from Provoke can rock long socks. I think she looks good in those. Yeah, they do look quite cool, don’t they? Yeah. Another interesting uh little anecdote. Maybe she thought the S5 was a bit too dangerous. Sort of speed she’s going. We will shortly let you know what’s coming up on GIN this week. But as ever, we’re going to read out a few of our favorite comments from the last week’s worth of videos. So many comments underneath last week’s GCN show. I feel like you and Connor touched a nerve, Dan, with that one. Yeah, it was talking about declining viewing figures at the most recent men’s tour to France. Like I said, lots of comments. Uh, picked out a couple. The ASMR cyclist, but too many big companies trying to make a profit by restricting access and charging high cost of view. Interest in the tour hasn’t changed, but the barriers to following it have increased. H country by country, isn’t it? Yeah, it varies massively. Yeah, country to country. A lot of the countries that you said declined. We still got free to view, so it doesn’t really work, does it? But yeah, certainly in some places, for sure. Um, Naru Tado said, “Here in the US, the race wasn’t broadcast on a public network.” Oh, there we go. Uh, you have to have a subscription to a rather niche channel. I imagine that for a lot of us, we could only follow the race by highlights on YouTube. I think a lot of people are doing that and the highlights are getting better, even the short form ones that ASO, the organizer themselves put out, include like the postra interview, some scenery from the start, etc., which I think feels like enough for a lot of people at this point. Yeah. Uh, solar system 50, but I blame that awful Yonas Vinegar era helmet. That made me want to change the channel when I saw it first. That’s why the UCI are going to ban them. So, yeah, there you go. Um, and then, uh, Shatner Bassoon said, “Uh, we never knew how good we had it with GCM Plus.” I think we did know how good we had it with GCM Plus. We did, didn’t we? Oh, yeah. I mean, everyone did, but uh, anyway. Hey, hey, there we go. Didn’t you say that was it 7 something million people tuned in in France to watch Pauline on the television stage in France D. Yeah. 7.7 million maximum viewers on the ninth and final stage on Sunday which is pretty impressive. That is pretty cool isn’t it? What a million throughout the stage. Yeah. Underneath the cycling adventure we can all have which was a lovely short video put out last week. Uh the real Garage Lee should I say. Truly one of the most beautiful cycling shorts I’ve seen in years. Simple, accessible, and beautiful. Well done, mate. Thank you very much. Yeah, I didn’t very much get up early. Bike blah. That was lovely. But if Side doesn’t have enough adventures, heaven helped the rest of us. Yeah, I I read that and I did reply to uh Bike Blah because it is a fair point, but uh I mean you can still like even if you go and do adventures, you can still feel like you know you’re stuck in a little bit of a rut, aren’t you? I almost was inspired enough to go out. I thought it’d be nice to take my uh my youngest son Jude is 14 out for sunrise one morning and I didn’t. I’ll give you a pro tip, Dan. If you wait a couple of months, then sunrise becomes a little bit later. I looked at the time and thought it would be like it’s about half an hour to get to that place. That’ be really good. That means leaving at half 4. Yeah. No, that Yeah, that’s a bit punchy. Um and then Kaiden said, “I’m only 2 minutes into this video and I’m already inspired. There is nothing quite like going out on your bike uber early in the morning.” Yeah, Dan. Um, it’s the best. I think I’m going to do exactly this tomorrow morning. So, I hope you did and I hope you had a very nice time as well. A lot of comments along the same lines on that video. Meanwhile, under Andrew Feather takes on the outdoor Estraa K at Hebs. But nothing’s ever felt as useless as Andrew Feather’s seat and seat post. It is ridiculous. Yeah, but I was watching that video think I don’t know anybody pro, amateur, otherwise who spends such little time sat down. I know. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Yeah, apparently uh according to Ollie, that’s part of the reason why he struggled with um Stram mechanical gears because he he can’t he can’t ever unweight to change gear. So, he’s just constantly moshing on the pedal. User error then. Basically, Lucy Diamond Boxer said, uh 1301. All I’m saying is it a coincidence that Seth Cuss loves cheese and was spotted at a local beauty salon spending 3 hours in prosthetic makeup and was wearing a blue t-shirt and pink shorts sabotage. Yeah, for context is the stra hold at the moment. That’s the person that Andrew Feather was trying to beat and they came up against a few obstacles including a cheese market to the top, didn’t they? Well worth watching that video if you haven’t done so already. It’s a bit of a signing out of Mario Kart, isn’t it? Yeah. uh man from Montreal put why not find a bike shop and get a stock chainry. I mean, they did actually do that, didn’t they? But, uh, it did not help. And then, as mentioned, uh, Andrew couldn’t get his head around me mechanical shifting from 20 whatever it was, 204, 15, something like that. Bikes weren’t dangerous back then. See, Dan, nope. Uh, then finally, I’m leaving Mountain Biker versus Ro, which came out on Sunday. Joe FQ60. But so Alex has meant to shepherd a newbie through his first crit and instead dropped him and then attacked as he was being spat out the back. Amazing stuff. I mean, in a nutshell, yes, that’s exactly what happened. Yeah. Uh and then Sire from the block old dog 1965 said, “I’d love to see a GCN GMBBN collab at a gravel race. Gravel being the no man’s land between disciplines.” Um I hate to say it. Aside from the block old dog 1965, but uh well actually know there is a new GMBBM presenter who might actually uh trouble some GCM presenters. Well, yeah, new uh new cross country rider James. But um otherwise, I think most mountain bikers don’t really do all that much pedaling these days. I mean, I don’t want to judge, but I’m judging. The com there’s going to we I think we’ve insulted quite a few people over the course of the last half an hour or so. We have indeed. Yes, it you prove me wrong. Mountain bikers, show me someone that’s not a cross country racer that would give a roadie a challenge at a gravel race. Right. Coming up on the channel this week, starting on Thursday, we are going to show you how not to get dropped on a group ride. Uh this aimed at more cyclists that just getting into the sport basically that are looking to try and keep up with their groups they keep getting dropped from. There’s quite a few tricks of the trade that you can learn, isn’t there? Old dog, lots of tricks. Uh, and then on Saturday, uh, frankly, I think it’s going to be my last ridiculously long hard challenge. Uh, I tried to ride 290k gravel route here in the UK and get the FKT. And, um, it’s been a theme, but basically broke me. So, anyway, see how I got on and whether I managed it. The attempt was about 10 days ago, and S’s not ridden a bike since, have you? Well, I did take quite a big chunk of time off, but uh, I I got back on it now. What you probably need is a sort of just a break for about a decade. Yeah. And then when I come back, I’ll find that I’m even faster than I was before. So much so I’m really scared. Yeah. And then on Sunday, uh some science from Connor, should I say? Has the science of cadence changed? Uh really cool video spoken to some people have done studies on the subject. I think we speak so much about cadence that you don’t think you’re going to learn anything more, but I watched that video already and I could. Really? There we go. Yeah. Fortunately, yeah. It’s not science from Connor, it’s Connor’s reported on actual science. Um, but anyway, yeah, I can’t wait to see that one because that is super interesting. Um, like you, I kind of figured I know all about a cadence. I just know it all. Good point. On that note, should we leave it there? Yeah, let’s leave it there. Thanks for watching. See you next week. See you.