Cyclists in London are being urged to complete an online survey compiled by a senior police collision investigator that seeks to explore risk-taking behaviour by bike riders on the capital’s streets.

It is hoped that responses to the survey will help lead to a greater understanding of the complex and often fatal relationship between cyclists and lorries on the capital’s streets.

Members of the team of celebrities that earlier this month cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End to raise more than £1 million for charity were yesterday honoured at a reception at Number Ten Downing Street by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Vuelta winner Alejandro Valverde is facing a worldwide ban from cycling after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) threw out his appeal against a decision of the Italian Olympic Committee, CONI, to ban him from racing in Italy for two years from May 2009.

That ban came about after a sample taken from Valverde during the Tour de France’s 2008 excursion into Italy was found to be a DNA match for a codenamed blood sample seized as part of the Spanish Operacion Puerto investigation.

A cyclist from Oxfordshire who planned to use his redundancy settlement to spend two months riding much of the route from London to Sydney, Australia has finally returned home after three years in the saddle and 37,000 miles.

Former IT worker John Harwood, who combined intercontinental flights with spells on his bike to get down under, enjoyed the experience of cycling across continents so much that he carried on pedalling in a trip that took him to countries such as New Zealand, Japan and the United States.

The first Papal visit to Britain since 1982 has landed Tour of Britain organisers with a headache, with security concerns reportedly forcing them to abandon plans for a showpiece finale to the race in Central London and instead switch the closing stage to a closed circuit in Richmond Park in the southwest of the capital.

Team RadioShack have confirmed that Lance Armstrong, missing from the past week’s two major European races, Paris-Nice and the Tirreno-Adriatico due to his participation in last weekend’s Cape Argus ride in South Africa, will race in Saturday’s Milan-San Remo.