Tweets of the week: Lidl-Trek go brat, some muddy riders at Paris-Tours, and Cav is the new Bond?

It's everyone's favourite cycling social media round-up

Tweets overlaid on Lidl-Trek, with Charli XCX
(Image credit: Getty Images)

As I type this I'm listening to Brat and it's completely different but also still brat. That's right, I'm subjecting myself to an album that's not really my kind of thing for journalism. Brat summer is over, but Brat and it's completely different autumn is here, or something.

For the uninitiated, the album is a remixed version of British pop star Charli XCX's summer-defining Brat, which I didn't love to begin with. Still, it was "zeitgeist-defining" according to The Guardian, and spoofed a whole load of memes across the summer, as well as being a hit. The remix album was trailed on billboards around the world in 'brat green' with the names of the guest stars written backwards.

1. The name's Cavendish, Sir Mark Cavendish. To be fair, he will need to fill his time somehow from next year, and why couldn't the Manx Missile be 007? The fastest secret agent MI6 have to offer...

2. What do you think actually happens to this ham? Do Tadej Pogačar and Elisa Longo Borghini take it home with them, and live off it for a few weeks? Does it get re-gifted to a relative? Is it thrown into the crowd? What if you're a veggie?

3. This was before my time in cycling, and I know that there's a billion of shady things about this era, but the caps and the lack of too much aero tech are cool, aren't they. This is just cool.

4. What has happened to Marianne Vos' bike computer here? Is it the gravel? Is it the power of her sprint?

5. Poor Simon Warren. He shouldn't have to put up with this!

6. Matt Brennan's first race with the Visma-Lease a Bike WorldTour team went well then. How long do you think his post-race shower was?

7. Jasper Philipsen, meanwhile, finished third. He doesn't look delighted about it here

8. Valtteri Bottas once talked to me about my shoes, and that's all I have to say on the matter. Nice man.

9. The Gravel World Championships is great and all, but I want more racing along canals. Imagine the Kennet and Avon Classic, with the threat of Weil's disease added into the mix. Let's get the Canal and River Trust on the phone!

10. It's just some guys having fun with their phone torches. That's it.

11. He's a great bike rider, but also an adorable man - look at Richard Carapaz with his cows (vacas)

12. There are so many Lidls around that it isn't hard for Lidl-Trek to nail marketing, but it's always pleasing anyway

13. Matt Holmes just with the kind of phone that you only ever here about being smuggled into prison. Simple.

14. Luke Rowe here, with quite a droll tweet. Ineos Grenadiers will miss him.

15. Wholesome Alison Jackson content! It's off-season!

16. And finally, the replies are the real gold here, but Lidl-Trek decided to go all Charli XCX on Friday just because, I guess. It's good stuff. Well done.

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Adam Becket
News editor

Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.

Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.