Friday Edit: A site full of behind the scenes World Championship content - but you mostly wanted to read about the protest poo

We've been pounding the streets of Glasgow bringing you up close and personal news and tech - but the numbers don't lie...

World Championships
(Image credit: Getty Images)

After Mathieu van der Poel crossed the finish line of Glasgow’s crit-esque Worlds course - once the interviews were underway and the report live on the site - I took my daughter out to ‘ride’ her ‘bike’ around our housing estate. I’m employing air quotes in abundance here because she’s 12-months-old, and the bicycle-shaped-object in question is actually two beach balls connected by a strip of aluminium housing a saddle that she insists on sitting several centimetres behind. But I’m a new parent, so of course, I was as proud, smug and alert to potential crashes in equal measures.

The World Championships, like the Olympics, have that golden ‘inspiring a new generation’ feel, which somehow is more pronounced when that next generation is - I'd say all of a sudden, but no, after nine months of arduous growing - your responsibility. And it’s hard not to feel inspired by the week that’s been - the Dutchman overcoming a skin-stripping crash and winning with only one working shoe and the women’s Team Pursuit squad ending a nine-year Worlds dry spell, Elinor Barker later pairing up with Neah Evans to dominate a crash-marred Madison.

Our writers have been very much on the ground in Glasgow (catching Van der Poel outside a random Scottish pub was Tom Thewlis' reward for a three-hour drive back from Glentress), bringing you stories that you'll only find from being there: the rider who "popped out" for six hours before scoring gold on the track, Katie Archibald's honest account of feeling like she's being "trotted out for slaughter" (we think you're a legend, Katie). On the tech side, Joe Baker's been out riding his first 90km on that shiny new Specialized Tarmac SL8 and bringing you a lust-worthy World Champs gallery. Of course, in accordance with the Laws of The Internet, the top story remains our overview of the most famous mid-race poo stops (or, non-stops) in history. 

And there's plenty more to come. With the women’s road race action set to take place this Sunday, I can already feel another proud lap around the block coming on.  

What you've been reading - top five stories this week

Van der Poel after winning the Worlds

(Image credit: Getty)

Mathieu van der Poel's protest poo - and four other famous toilet stops in cycling history

Daniel Abraham celebrating on the track with a clipping from Strava embossed on the picture

(Image credit: SWPix/Strava)

Meet the cyclist who logged a six-hour training ride - without telling his coach - before winning World Championships

CW Video Editor Sam Gupta with a Specialized Tarmac SL8 road bike

(Image credit: Future)

The new Specialized Tarmac SL8 is the 'fastest race bike in the world' but is cheaper than before

Team GB in team pursuit at Jakarta Nations Cup 2023

(Image credit: Getty)

Men's team pursuit disaster gives Great Britain Olympic headache

Climbing bike, weight loss

(Image credit: Future)

Ask a cycling coach: '15% gradients destroy me, how can I get stronger on the steepest of climbs?'

The World Championship are, of course, far from over. We'll be here until the very end, and after that, onto the next big thing. Though we might take a couple of days in between to get out on our own bicycle-shaped objects, too. 

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Michelle Arthurs-Brennan

Michelle Arthurs-Brennan is a traditional journalist by trade, having begun her career working for a local newspaper, where highlights included interviewing a very irate Freddie Star (and an even more irate theatre owner), as well as 'the one about the stolen chickens'.


Previous to joining the Cycling Weekly team, Michelle was Editor at Total Women's Cycling. She joined CW as an 'SEO Analyst', but couldn't keep her nose out of journalism and in the spreadsheets, eventually taking on the role of Tech Editor before her latest appointment as Digital Editor. 


Michelle is a road racer who also enjoys track riding and the occasional time trial, though dabbles in off-road riding too (either on a mountain bike, or a 'gravel bike'). She is passionate about supporting grassroots women's racing and founded the women's road race team 1904rt.