“This green initiative ensures that I now drive around to avoid it”: Revamped roundabout leaves residents baffled by a segregated bike lane; Movistar man plays the bicycle; Brennan signs Visma contract extension + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“The path to nowhere”: Ministry of Defence blocks final 15m of new cycling and walking route
I like this story. Partly because Ryan’s headline evokes Talking Heads. Partly because it makes me wonder if the Ministry of Defence want to inspire a new generation of cyclocross talent in Fife by forcing cyclists to cross an unmarked stretch of grass through the depths of winter. The mind boggles…
Matthew Brennan signs contract extension at Visma-Lease a Bike
One of our favourite stories to watch this year has been the rise and unstoppable rise of Matthew Brennan.
The 20-year old sprint sensation has taken 12 pro wins this year, including outsprinting Jonathan Milan at the Deutschland Tour and winning the overall at the Tour of Norway having finished first or second in every stage. The future is bright…
And now with Olav Kooij moving to Decathlon next year, Visma have moved quickly to tie down the services of their marquee fast man.
⏱️ We are just getting started …
Matthew stays until the end of 2029! pic.twitter.com/iGbjeiZ4bA
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) December 12, 2025
Tied down to 2029, how Brennan and Wout van Aert will combine in the classics and support Jonas Vingegaard will be fascinating to watch.
Groupama-FDJ pro cyclists fined €100 for ‘riding through red light’ during Spanish training camp
What’s “fixed penalty notice” in Spanish?
Movistar's Kraftwerk impersonator upstages team presentation
I could write about the calendar revelations of Enric Mas and new signing Cian Uijtdebroeks. I could write about the new kit of the Spanish team. But that doesn’t matter. Nothing matters compared to this…
Day three of team media days and no team will rival Movistar’s dedication to a bizarre but beautiful opening act. The rest of the event? Quite chaotic. I do hope Cian Uijtdebroeks is aware that Movistar isn’t like Visma and Bora.
— Chrissy Marshall-Bell (@cmbreports.bsky.social) 11 December 2025 at 20:06
A man playing a bicycle like a harp, with a synthesiser and flute-like instrument fashioned out of handlebars. I am utterly obsessed. Florian Schneider, the Kraftwerk co-founder whose Tour de France music video bicycle and array of electronics and vocoders recently sold at auction, would surely be proud.
The full fantastic spectacle is 5 minutes long and starts 5 minutes into their official team presentation that you can watch below…
Van der Poel's Cyclocross bike revealed
We’ve been loving the reaction and analysis you’ve been giving us on our deep dive on Factor’s new speed machine.
In that spirit, albeit from a distinctly less technical perspective, Alpecin-Deceuninck have unveiled the cyclocross bike that Mathieu van der Poel will ride this winter, starting on Sunday in Namur.
It is, in my humble opinion, a lovely bit of kit and likely to be caught quite a bit on camera in the coming weeks, with Van der Poel ultimately aiming to win a record-breaking eighth World Championship, taking the record outright from Erik De Vlaeminck, older brother of Roger. Any excuse to share an old Panini sticker…
Reform UK council hails “excellent” new bike path... after party called them a "waste of money"
Admittedly, hypocrisy in politics is hardly new. Still, this is slightly galling, not least because Reform are taking credit for the infrastructure projects agreed by the council long before they even won control of the council in May. And considering what the party has previously said on the subject of cycle lanes.
Ryan has the full write-up here:
Reviewing 2026 team kits (so far)
It’s Friday afternoon. You should probably be working, I need things to type about. Any important breaking news will probably break at 5pm just as we’re all clocking off. So until then, let’s look at some of the team kits that we’ll have to get used to next year, based off my scraping and sourcing of rights-free images…
Do you like my collage? Do you like how the smaller World Tour teams that barely changed a thing are confined to a small corner? Let’s not knock it. There’s a brand there, an identity that smaller teams often need to cling to. And FDJ’s kit is technically a switch, it’s just reusing the special Tour de France kit that everyone who watches the sport has already seen this year. Uno-X’s kit is fine as well, so long as I don’t have the misfortune of hearing Carlton Kirby describe it as “lipsticks and custard” again.
Right, let’s go clockwise. Decathlon and Red Bull are moving into the big leagues. A more parochial French team might dance with brown shorts, but a mega team sponsored by a shipping giant has to go blue. A nice hue and fade presumably represents the explosivity and excitement that racing amid a wave of calm can bring. Or something like that. Red Bull go white, the sleeve contrast is a nice touch but the coloured horizontal stripes might upset the Volta a Catalunya organisers who have for decades maintained a niche of white leaders jerseys with thin coloured stripes.
Movistar have cleaned things up a little bit, the plain white, bold m is a marketing dream. Nothing more needs to be said, nothing more can be said that will compare to the joy of a Movistar man playing a bicycle.
Lidl-Trek have made small moves, bold colours remain, blocks swapped for patterns over the chest, but nothing to stop you liking the team. In a world of dictatorships and fossil fuels, what’s not to like about a German discount supermarket? (Ever attentive Ryan has since noticed that ‘stomach sponsor’ ServiceNow are an AI company, specifically an “AI control tower for business reinvention”. So a black mark on that front after all.)
Onto the home straight and two beauties sandwich mediocrity. Pastel colours, a funky sort of collage effect, SD Worx is a sight for sore eyes and one I can get used to as Kopecky, Wiebes, Bredewold et al. cause havoc. The same can be said for NSN. Apparently inspired by Barcelona, the Spanish-Swiss team have moved on from the saga of Israel-Premier Tech in the best way possible, with a kit that I genuinely want to own. It’s warm, distinct, multi-coloured and multi-patterned. Like my approach to Eurovision, I admire the stuff with chutzpah, the courage to be weird, wacky and potentially terrible. But NSN’s isn’t terrible, it’s tremendous.
What a pity that we end with UAE, though compared with last year’s black splodges that resembled oil stains, the red and black triangles are an upgrade. But where’s the interesting bit, the je ne sais quoi? Maybe I’m biased with the knowledge it’s a jersey we’ll be condemned to watch endlessly as Tadej Pogacar, with his added rainbow stripes, or Isaac Del Toro, chomping at his heel, accelerate away with 30km remaining of a spring classic.
Anyway, this was fun…
Ayuso and Pedersen to the Tour de France for Lidl-Trek
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, training camp season. After drip feeds of rider calenders in the past few days, today’s details come from Lidl-Trek. After winning the points jersey in every men’s Grand Tour last year, but suffering GC heartbreak on the parts of Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose, the team swooped in to prise a disgruntled Juan Ayuso from the soap opera of UAE.
And it’s been confirmed that Ayuso will be the team’s GC leader at the Tour de France next year, and will be accompanied by Mads Pedersen, who is chasing his own complete set of Grand Tour points jerseys.
Ayuso, who podiumed the Vuelta a Espana at the age of 19, has set himself the same goal for Paris and will have an intense racing schedule leading up to the showpiece, racing Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country, the Ardennes classics, and the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes (formerly the Criterium du Dauphine) in the four months before July.
Skjelmose, for his part also a white jersey winner at the Vuelta, will race the Ardennes and the Tour de France, the latter in support of his new teammate. Whether Lidl-Trek can come close to challenging the behemoths of UAE, Visma and newly-rich Red Bull remains to be seen. Racing for both yellow and green can work, not least when Wout van Aert turned domestique-deluxe for Jonas Vingegaard in 2022.
Trek recalls 700 electric road and gravel bikes due to loose chainrings, as brand tells customers to stop riding immediately
Do you like reading about wobbly American bicycles? Have we got a story for you…
"This green initiative ensures that I now drive around to avoid it": Revamped roundabout leaves residents baffled by a segregated bike lane
Maybe people don’t like Levelling Up after all…
Today’s dose of local internet comes from Folkestone (congrats to them) where readers of Kent Online seem baffled by the installation of a segregated cycle lane and new zebra crossings at the Radnor Park roundabout, close to Folkestone railway station.
Folkestone and Hythe District Council, which facilitated and coordinated the upgrades, describe the end result as a “significant improvement” due to the better signage and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists. To be honest, we’re inclined to agree.
The new layout was, admittedly, rather steep, costing £3 million but funded through central government’s Levelling Up scheme rather than local council tax. And despite not yet being finished, residents are out with their proverbial pitchforks…
“100 feet of cycle lane that leads to no where [sic], how was that and a new flower bed 3 million quid” wrote Paul Stannage. The answer, we think, is that it leads safely to the other side of a busy roundabout but hey ho.
“It’s totally worked for me. This green initiative ensures that I now drive around in ever increasing circles to get from a to b by avoiding it!” Carolyn Uden added.
Fears seemed centred on the raised kerb that was installed to segregate the cycle lane from vehicle traffic, though Kent County Council, which actually installed the infrastructure, say they have yet to receive any complaints. Despite this, residents told Kent Online it was “downright dangerous” and an “accident waiting to happen”.
“It is dangerous, I’ve nearly gone into the raised cycle parts and not because im a crap driver lol. There was no need for them.” Paula Kinsley said.
And finally, Andy Mulls wrote that the infrastructure was a “poxy waste of money like all of the building works…those kerbs will cause major accidents in the dark especially”.
We’ll believe it when we see it…
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I think I read on Weight Weenies once that Zipps are for the go with the flow crowd who vaguely recall that they may have been mentioned as good once and can't be bothered to do any actual research themselves. They're welcome to them - hookless and with junk hubs.
There was me thinking you could do that any time you liked...
Wait til he finds out about vehicles...
But it was mentioned here: "Hammersmith Bridge car plans axed over £300m cost" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yzqv29d1eo
@quiff The point im raising is, much of this is symptomatic of a transport infrastructure thats overwhelmed with the weight of traffic using it. Maybe people would feel safer if the vehicles were fewer and not as oversized as modern cars have become. 30 years ago this wasn't so much of an issue. But there are more cars than ever, driving standards have eroded and the roads are crumbling through underinvestment. all while these poorly planned and built without cycling groups input. I will use Harrogate town centre as a great example. The council never once spoke to any of the many cycling groups in the area, the plan was a total shambles and inconvenience to all. You have some great cycle routes in the area. the Beryl Burton route being a top example but the town centre is an SUV heavy clusterf***. I never cycled anywhere near the town centre due to this. Everywhere else around the town - brilliant roads in nearly all directions. There are so many examples of utterly bonkers cycling infrastructure. Some so poorly designed it actively dissuades cyclists from using it which then draws the wrath of drivers who then complain its not being used. All the while the majority of cyclist will say, treat me with respect and dont endager me and we can all use the roads. But its getting harder and harder to do that with the current trends in car design and ailing stadards
cyclists tend to be slimmer than people who are waddl.. walking.
Saw a bit on BBC News this morning about the weight limit on Vauxhall Bridge starting today. Nothing on the BBC website as of today, just the previous article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4p10l3833o
@Smoggysteve That may well apply to a lot of cyclists. But what about people who don't already cycle? They frequently report feeling unsafe - the infrastructure is intended for them (though admittedly it doesn't always pass muster).
@imajez the data on Working Family Tax Credit shows that the recipients are much more likely to be working 16 hours than 40. The reason for that is the 16 hour threshold meets the threshold for eligibility to a wider range of benefits including housing support. So the recipients work less and then avoid the significant costs that everyone else has to pay themselves.
In reality, I dont think many cyclists actually cry out for all this cycling focussed infrastructure. Local governments may install it and cyclists will mostly use it but I see very few actual cyclists demanding it. Most would happily ride on the roads and be treated with respect by drivers. Most cycle paths are built to fulfil a quota of active travel budget. Cyclists and cycling groups are often ignored in the decision making process, so its not us its you pal that are the problem designing crappy infrastructure very few cyclists actually wanted to begin with.
16 thoughts on ““This green initiative ensures that I now drive around to avoid it”: Revamped roundabout leaves residents baffled by a segregated bike lane; Movistar man plays the bicycle; Brennan signs Visma contract extension + more on the live blog”
Public footage catches
Public footage catches thousands of reckless drivers
4 clips in this report.
2 filmed by drivers, 1 by a horserider, 1 by a cyclist.
Will be interesting to see the level of backlash against the drivers and horserider, compared with how cyclists are demonised for it…
And my understanding is the majority of video evidenced reports of bad driving are submitted by other drivers.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ceq10qr52lno
It’s also noticeable that of
It’s also noticeable that of the four clips, the one that was the closest to causing serious injury got the least punishment…
I think the one driving the
I think the one driving the wrong way around a roundabout at speed had the greatest potential for a KSI. It’s not just about what happened but what could have realistically happened.
Yes….but I really hate
Yes….but I really hate cyclists mate so please stop making sensible evidence based arguments. I much prefer talking to people like me who also hate cyclists and are happy to blame everything on fucking cyclists. This war on motorists has gone too far. Anyway, when are they going to be licensed and pay road tax?
—–
Oh and as to that link there should be no such thing as 5 points when it comes to driving. 5 points is simply giving people few enough points to keep driving. Its again suggesting that someones right to be a dangerous cunt takes priority over the other 99.999999% of peoples right not to have dangerous cunts flying about in a 2 tonne lump of metal.
—–
And finally, the reason the horse rider and cyclist will be demonised is because of peoples inherent dislike of these groups, especially cyclists and because people are idiots and will rationalise it as the horse rider and cyclist “forcing” the drivers to pass them therefore if we removed the rider and cyclist there wouldn’t be an issue.
mctrials23 wrote:
Sadly, I’m fairly sure that the proportion of dangerous bad words is considerably higher than 1 in 100,000,000.
They get to keep their
They get to keep their licenses anyway, as long as they can claim they’ll lose their job without it.
bensynnock wrote:
I am a director of a company – can’t lose my licence because what about my poor employees? I am an employee, can’t lose my licence because my dependents / my livelihood. I am unemployed, can’t lose my licence because health appointments / caring responsibilities / ferrets…
“It is dangerous, I’ve nearly
“It is dangerous, I’ve nearly gone into the raised cycle parts and not because im a crap driver lol. There was no need for them.” Paula Kinsley said.
No Paula. Obviously that could never be the reason that you can’t keep your wheels on the road.
If she’d done that on a
If she’d done that on a driving test, she would have failed…
Hence: Yes Paula You would be/are a crap driver.
I think Paula was trying to
I think Paula was trying to admit that actually she is a bad driver and knows it. Now, so do we.
nota que se ha reparado una
nota que se ha reparado una pena
You’re welcome.
“those kerbs will cause major
While I’m not defending the complainers / drivers, there’s no reason to doubt people will hit the kerbs – there have been plenty of examples on this site, e.g:
https://road.cc/content/news/267245-resident-claims-least-100-cars-have-blown-their-tyres-kerb-separating-cycle-lane ;
https://road.cc/content/news/council-paints-over-cycle-lane-after-drivers-hit-kerb-295729 ;
https://road.cc/content/news/267680-cycle-lane-kerb-intended-stop-southend-drivers-cutting-corner-removed-safety
All the more reason for a
All the more reason for a kerb and not a bit of paint !
NSN’s kit looks terrible.
NSN’s kit looks terrible. All thats missing is a Clown and a game of Noughts and Crosses*
*Old fart detector.
I will be interested to see
I will be interested to see how Juan MyWayuso or the HighWayuso gets on at Lidl-Trek.
ServiceNow isn’t really ‘an
ServiceNow isn’t really ‘an AI company’, even if they’re pretending they are. It’s a software company that happens to be making a lot of noise about the AI components in it’s offering. Like every other software company right now.