Chis Froome suffered a career-changing crash in 2019, which divided his career. The British rider, former four-time winner of the Tour de France, revealed in a recent interview that the last fall he suffered last summer - which ended his career - was worst and had him fighting for his life in the ho...

The Saturday job in a bike shop is no longer a viable route into the industry, according to a recent Cycling Weekly article, with a host of store owners citing the complexity of modern-day bikes as the cause of this dying career path. We havent been able to employ any Saturday staff for some time, said Sid Soanes from Soanes Cycles, adding bikes are just too technical these days for an untrained young person to do anything meaningful with.The comments really rang true for me. We had a work-experience kid in last week, and there was very little we could let him do. There are only so many cups of tea I think were allowed to get them to make.The article cited the likes of electronic gears, hydraulic brakes and tubeless tyres as developments that require far more experience to work with than most part-time students have in their arsenal. All of this is at odds with what made most of us fall in love with bikes in the first place.I have fond childhood memories of getting old wheels from the tip, taking them to pieces and rebuilding them for fun; we didnt have Instagram back then to keep us entertained. Bikes used to be a simple piece of engineering, a delight to behold, ride, and work on yourself. Now, only a hardy few continue to tinker at home.It is consumer demand thats driving all this change. Riders want lighter bikes, and they want more aero bikes all of this means greater integration and more complexity. Customers also want bikes to be cheaper. Manufacturers ultimately have to cut corners somewhere, and often the cost saving comes from engineering solutions that might have improved the maintenance experience. Decent workshop instructions for those who are going to work on these bikes also fall by the wayside. Quite often, modern bikes feature complicated systems - we only find the correct procedure for servicing them when they break, and the warranty department at the brand talks us through how to repair them. Im being vague on brands and models because this is an endemic problem. Bikes are becoming more like Formula 1 cars every day, but theyre still sent to Kwik Fit for servicing. In the past, wed joke about component T&Cs which stated that incorrect fitting could result in injury or death. The harsh fact is that this used to be funny, but its increasingly true. There are now far more opportunities for dangerous mistakes to be made by untrained individuals; putting mineral oil into a DOT oil brake system, for example, would be very easy to do but could be catastrophic, causing total brake failure.So, weve identified the problem - whats the solution? Firstly, find a good local mechanic and be loyal to them. There are only so many times you can ask your mechanic to fit parts you bought on the internet. Secondly, take a long hard look in the mirror and decide if you actually need to be riding around on the two-wheeled version of a Formula 1 car. In our workshop, we are seeing our long-term cyclists edging back to simpler, metal bikes with non-integrated cockpits. These bikes are more robust, easy and fun to ride, with the weight penalty of about three gulps of the water bottle. And my advice for manufacturers? Slow down. Nobody is demanding a new aero carbon gravel bike every year. Make the design well thought out and test it properly, not just in the wind tunnel, but also in the workshop. When Shimano launches a new product, its always accompanied by good solid training materials, ready to go when the new parts hit the market. And thank the Lord, as watching Shimano Tec courses online is one of the very few things we could get our work-experience kid to do, risk-free.

With Callum taking a well-earned break today, Jack Sexty has been drafted in as a defensive substitution to try to see us over the line. That usually goes really well, doesn't it?

The 2026 Tour de France has been thus far dominated by UAE Team Emirates - XRG, who have won four out of eleven stages; but have also helped control stage 9 in which their ambitions weren't overly obvious - which at the time, earned the most criticism. Michael Matthews doesn't share that sentiment a...

PinarelloQ36.5s Chris Harper has withdrawn from the Tour de France after a crash on Tuesdays stage 10 meant he lost part of his thumb.The Australian crashed on the descent from the Puy Mary with around 25km to go on the stage to Le Lioran.He fell on the same corner as his teammate Tom Pidcock, who complained about the white shit organisers had sprayed on the road to stop the tarmac from melting in the extreme heat. Visma-Lease a Bikes Matteo Jorgenson was another rider who slipped out on the bend. You may like: Tour de France stage 11 was the fastest in the races historyPidcock eventually finished ninth on the day. But Harper came down the hardest of them all and was left clutching his left hand before. He finished more than an hour behind Tadej Pogaar, who won the stage in indomitable fashion.Harper underwent surgery in the evening and withdrew from the race.Pulling out of any bike race sucks but hurts a bit more to pull out of the biggest one of them all, he wrote on Instagram.Thanks to the team for the support and fingers crossed for a quick recovery and back into some racing for the second part of the season.Harper then quipped about what the injury could do for his performance: On a positive note think Im now 10g lighter #marginalgains.Well let you click through to Harpers Instagram post below to see the state of his thumb. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Harper (@chrisharper94)