“They’re toddlers!”: Cyclist injured by teen motorcyclists left waiting for an hour by police, despite filming the bikers who hit-and-ran; Independence protests planned for Catalan Grand Depart; Sprint stage likely at women’s Giro + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Left stranded
Dear oh dear…
Francisco Campis has only been in the UK for five months, having moved here to complete his PhD. But unfortunately, he had a rather unpleasant ordeal when cycling home in Cambridge.
Irritatingly, the BBC’s write-up of the story describes Campis as cycling “on a footpath” despite making clear from the photographs that cyclists have a right of way along the path. The same doesn’t apply to motorbikers though, and Campis takes up the story as he hears the bike approach from behind…
“The first moment I thought it might be an e-bike, so I reduced my speed and kept going, then I saw them going full speed and I managed to stop but they hit me,” he said, estimating they were riding at speeds exceeding 40mph.
“It blew up my tyre and broke my front wheel.”
He said he fell, injuring his arm and both of his hips, and was left “in shock”.
“I got a big scratch on my elbow and I spent hours bleeding as I called the police who said to wait,” he explained.
That wait would last more than an hour, with Cambridgeshire Police saying in a statement that resources were prioritised towards an “alleged knifepoint robbery.”
“Demand for our services is high and we have to prioritise every call for service alongside the crimes and incidents ongoing at that time, meaning we have to make some difficult decisions around resource management.”
But that left time for Campis’ injuries to become infected, and he was eventually taken to hospital.
Campis has now shared video of the immediate aftermath of his crash, showing what appears to be teenagers with their t-shirts pulled up and over their heads, covering their faces, attempting to leave the scene pretty sharpish.
“They are toddlers riding those tiny bikes. They didn’t care about any consequences. You can see very often that nothing happens when this sort of incident happens.”
A rather unpleasant story, and one that doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence about policing or cycle safety. Hopefully Francisco isn’t deterred from cycling in the future.
Giro: Balsamo wins after crash in final km
Goodness me, that was dreadful stage design from the race organisers.
Marlen Reusser and Lucinda Brand are jockeying for position through the flamme rouge then a right-hand turn at a roundabout is not clearly marked and Movistar are forced to bail out, causing a split in the peloton. Some don’t even make it into the roundabout after crashing into a post leading in to the turn. British champion Millie Couzens is among the riders to have come down.
With so few riders left at the front, Brand is forced to lead-out for Elisa Balsamo for the next 700 metres. But just when it looks like they’re running out of steam, Maggie Coles-Lyster launches an early sprint, enabling Balsamo to stay on the wheel for a moment longer before coming round the Canadian to take her fourth stage win of the race. The points jersey is now surely hers…
Balsamo does it again! 🔥
A fourth stage win at the Giro d’Italia Women for Elisa Balsamo and Lidl-Trek! 🩷 pic.twitter.com/Xr1smAoxGN
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 4, 2026
Reform UK pledges to reopen park rat-run closed to promote cycling… on the same day motorist drives into lake in park
One of the perils of Reform UK, and to a lesser extent, Restore’s rise is that as they gain control of more local authorities, there are more cycling-related Reform stories that crop up. This one is particularly bizarre…
Giro: Final 10km
Ah, the gap almost touched a minute, but it’s now coming down fast. No one team has come to the front, but as multiple teams have started fighting for position and preparing their lead-out trains, the pace in the peloton has increased naturally.
55 seconds with 13km to go, 12 seconds through the 10km barrier. You feel a little for Serena, the 22-year old’s best ever result is an 18th in her national TT championships, this is by far the biggest race of her career but the pace of the WorldTour sprint trains has proved too much. She’s swept up with 9km remaining.
Now, we wait for a sprint!
Giro: attack!
Giorgia Serena, riding for the continental Mendelspeck team has attacked, and no one is yet willing to commit to a chase, allowing the Italian to gain a 20 second advantage as she heads into the final 20km of the stage.
A bit of late drama on what has been an otherwise routine day…
Also, I’m reliably informed by the commentators that Mendelspeck sell various cured meats. An excellent cycling sponsor, and I say that as a vegetarian. In a world of petrochemicals and nation-states, bring back the medium-sized business!
And, in the time it took me to write that last paragraph, Serena has doubled her advantage beyond 40 seconds. 18km to go, and getting interesting. Still no one taking it up behind…
Giro: Intermediate sprint
Wow, the gap to the peloton came down very quickly for the breakaway and they were caught some distance from the intermediate sprint.
That gave the GC riders a chance to sprint for bonus seconds, though Elisa Balsamo breezed past them all with ease to take maximum points, and to cement her lead in the points classification. It meanwhile proved something of a proxy battle, with Femke Gerritse sprinting on Anna van der Breggen’s behalf to take 4 seconds ahead of Nienke Veenhoven. As a result, Demi Vollering who came over the line 4th, missed out on a chance to cut her deficit to the maglia rosa by a further two seconds.
35km to go, and we’re still looking nailed on for a sprint. Whilst Lorena Wiebes may not be getting involved after the disqualification polemica, that hasn’t stopped her treating the week as a good holiday…
Hey Lorena! 👋
Lorena Wiebes and Floortje Mackaij are out supporting at the Giro d’Italia Women! 👏🩷 pic.twitter.com/8GXDUZKnbp
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 4, 2026
Scotland unveil Commonwealth Games cycling squad
This year’s Commonwealth Games will be very different, what with a reduced sports portfolio, no free-to-air live coverage and daily highlights on Channel 5. But, home games are a home games, and the chance to represent your home nation rather than Team GB is not something many athletes want to pass up on.
It should be said that these games won’t involve Katie Archibald, the Scot having announced her retirement a few weeks ago after winning a record-extending 20th European title, and a desire to fully commit to her nursing qualifications. I’ll say as well that writing up her retirement is one of the articles I’m most pleased with.
Instead Neah Evans, World Champion from Glasgow 2023 in the Madison, leads the charge along with fellow World Championship medallists Lauren Bell and Mark Stewart.
Also lining up are Ellie Stone and Iona Moir in the sprint events, whilst 4-time Junior World Champion Erin Boothman will also compete, as will Kate Richardson and acrobatic gymnast-turned-track cyclist Michael Gill.
Maddy Silcock is another sport-switcher (from athletics) whilst Elliot Rowe, Logan Maclean, Lyall Craig and Tim Shoreman will all make their Games debut in August.
Para-cycling supremo Neil Fachie shows no sign of slowing down age 42, and will be piloted by Aaron Pope. At the other end of the para-cycling longevity spectrum, Fin Graham will make his Commonwealth Games debut, having already become an Olympic, World and European champion.
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A final word goes to Lewis Askey, an unexpected call-up both due to being Cannock-born and having, in his own words, only returned to the track this winter for the first time in six years. But having declared for Scotland, the Brit will be joining as part of the men’s endurance squad.
Saddleback officially cease trading
We reported at the weekend that Saddleback, the Bristol-based Castelli distributor, had entered administration. Now, the website has been overhauled.
In a statement, the appointed administrators say the company has now formally ceased trading, and that anyone with an outstanding order should be able to claim a refund by contacting their card provider. An email address has also been provided for creditors who wish to declare interest in any of the company’s assets.
Giro: Big gap for the break
We’ve just received our first live pictures and our four-rider break have a lead on the peloton exceeding four minutes. The quartet up front, of Camilla Bezzone, Sharon Spimi, Gaia Segato, Irene Cagnazzo are all representing Italian Continental teams that the race organisers technically broke UCI rules for in order to invite. Still, they’re making a race of it, and for that we salute them. 85km to go, and the work on the front of the peloton is being shared between Lidl-Trek, Fenix-Premier Tech (working for my pick Charlotte Kool) and SD-Worx-Protime.
“The bike was blowing in the wind”
The above quote from SD-Worx’s manager, the freewheelin’ Erwin Janssen, has inspired our Ryan to rewrite a verse of Bob Dylan for your pleasure:
How many times must a bike be weighed
Before you’re disqualified?
And how many grammes must one bike have
Before it’s illegal to ride?
The UCI’s answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
Lorena’s bike was blowin’ in the wind
His talents are clearly wasted at road.cc towers…
Makerfield mayhem
In two weeks time, the British political world will lose their mind in the exurbs of Wigan. The Makerfield by-election is causing quite some havoc, as Andy Burnham attempts to return to Parliament in an effort to change the Labour Party, and quite possibly the occupant in No. 10.
I mention it because tonight there is a Question Time special in the constituency, featuring candidates from the five major parties. Admittedly, when there are so many candidates standing it seems silly to try and include everyone lest we end up with a scene resembling a joke from The Day Today…
Still, an candidate excluded who I will mention is Count Binface, one of 14 candidates standing in total. I trust, this not being a broadcast, that you can research all standing candidates of your own accord should you wish. Because Binface’s manifesto has been released, and his ninth pledge has caught our attention:
Here it is: my 2026 manifesto for the #Makerfield By-Election. Makerfield Great Again! #VoteBinface #MakeYourVoteCount
— Count Binface (@countbinface.bsky.social) 3 June 2026 at 10:36
“Cyclists who break the highway code to be forced to ride unicycles instead.”
What are we to take from this? Is the joke that cyclists are a cheap jab who always break the highway code? Is it that drivers are actually so ill-informed on the rights of cyclists in the highway code that no cyclist would ever be seen riding a unicycle? Is it a banal statement, quickly concocted for a social media post, surviving due to its absurdity? Is there a subtext? Are people who use subtext cowards? Am I going mad?
Maybe I need to take lunch, but definitely not in the Crown & Treaty pub in Uxbridge…
I mean, seriously, Jay. Look at it. pic.twitter.com/Vuki7uklPz
— Count Binface (@CountBinface) April 8, 2024
A touching tribute
The Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56. Her magnum opus was Persepolis, where the always insightful Cool Bike Art account has found this rather cool page:
From the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
#RIPMarjaneSatrapi
— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 4 June 2026 at 12:59
Scottish gravel champion obliterates North Coast 500 record
Livesey’s time was also, notably, over five and a half hours faster than the marker managed by Mark Beaumont back in 2015…
Catalan Independence on show at the Tour de France
The largest pro-independence campaigners in Catalonia have announced plans to mobilise a “major coordinated action” to showcase their cause during the Grand Depart of the men’s Tour de France next month.
The Catalan National Assembly has previously been a visible roadside presence at the Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta a Espana, but will be teaming up with the Catalan cultural association Òmnium to “turn the Tour’s passage through Catalonia into a major civic and democratic protest in favour of independence,” they said in a statement.
“Teams from both organisations and their local branches are currently studying the sections of the route with the greatest television exposure and greatest public attendance in order to ensure a strong presence of pro-independence symbols during the Catalan stages.”
The organisers say there are no plans to disrupt the race, as was seen in last year’s Vuelta a Espana when stages were shortened, neutralised and re-routed due to protests against the participation of Israel-Premier Tech in light of the war in Gaza.
The team has since been taken over by a consortium led by Catalan former footballer Andres Iniesta and competes under the name NSN Cycling Team.
The race will start in Barcelona on Saturday 4th July, with the opening three stages taking place in the region before crossing into France through the Pyrenees. Even without the Grand Depart, the mountain range has often been a favoured haunt of many Basque and Catalan cycling fans to showcase their support of their riders, and their respective separatist political causes.
The Tour de France, which has itself been subject to protests throughout much of its history, involving farming, doping control, climate change and the Middle East, will be hoping not to see a repeat of the last time a Grand Tour visited the region.
Giro d'Italia women s6 preview: final chance for the sprinters?
After race leader Anna van der Breggen defended her race lead yesterday, and pretty comfortably at that despite multiple counter attacks, today should be a much easier day. Not a single categorised climb, and surely a bunch sprint is on the cards.
Having profited earlier in the week from Lorena Wiebes’ controversial disqualification, Elisa Balsamo dominated the subsequent two sprint days and now has a commanding lead in the points classification ahead of Lara Gillespie. The Irishwoman was second behind Balsamo on the opening tow stages ahead of Chiara Consonni and both are expected to be in contention for UAE and Canyon//SRAM respectively.
Lara Gillespie, Giro d’Italia women 2026 (Image Credit: credit RCS Sport, LaPresse)
I’ll give an honourable mention to Charlotte Kool. The Dutch sprinter is aiming to complete the Grand Tour trilogy of stage wins, and finished 4th and 5th on the opening stages. She was among the last WorldTour riders to cross the line yesterday though, so fingers crossed she was saving her efforts and not struggling for form…
The London borough turning their backs on Lime...
If you’re as online as me, have a think about what you’re doing with your life. Seriously, go for a bike ride or something. Everything gets better on two wheels.
But in that case, you might have also seen several memes about Richmond-upon-Thames Borough Council going becoming a one-party state borough, comprising only Liberal Democrat councillors. It begs the question, what will the council do with such unchecked power? Well, from a cycling perspective, we have an answer…
Lime bikes are out, Forest bikes are in! That’s following a new exclusivity agreement signed that the council say will result in “lower prices, more bikes and a service designed around what people told us they wanted.”
The decision expands Forest’s network, with the e-bike hire provider already operating in neighbouring Kingston and Hounslow. Meanwhile Lime Bikes will be gradually phased out of the borough, after Forest out-bid the capital’s biggest provider with a new proposal for both more bikes, and more parking spaces.
Whether subscribers to Lime’s Delivery Pass will still be able to travel across the borough is unclear. And, if you’re not sure exactly what I’m talking about, thankfully there’s a full explainer here:
Reform UK-led council champions multi-million pound cycling schemes in split from national party policy
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Poorly written. They have to prove it was less than 1m. It's 5 am here
@RayG "TWW didn’t claim there was a need to prove every detail of the statement, just that it was necessary to prove the passing distance beyond reasonable doubt". But is that correct? Or would it suffice if the prosecution can prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was some other distance that nonetheless fell short of the required standard of driving?
TWW didn't claim there was a need to prove every detail of the statement, just that it was necessary to prove the passing distance beyond reasonable doubt I prepare evidence for prosecutions and BRD is effectively 'without doubt'. This arose because judges used to send people to the gallows for stealing loaves of bread. They wanted to be certain that they were right.
@mctrials23 The rider didn't submit that for prosecution, he submitted the video of another incident and that was included in the video either prior to or after the incident he was submitting and the police, one assumes somewhat gleefully, jumped on it and prosecuted the rider saying he had given less space to the car than the car he was complaining about gave him. Whether it was justifiable or serious enough to be prosecuted may be debated (I'd say no as there is no legal minimum passing distance for bikes on cars and as far as I can see the rider is at all times on his side of the road, but Nigel disagrees) but it says something about the police attitude that they went looking for it.
The behaviour of some fans on Alpe d'Huez this year was just criminal. Slapping riders, shouting in their faces (complete with spit), fights over free merch, falling into the road. The atmosphere generated by the numbers and the noise is great, but how can we stop idiots going too far and ruining the race with their dangerous disrespect? If it gets any worse there will be a fatality. Drunk idiots, motorbikes, cars and racing cyclists all in the the same narrow road space is going to cause the inevitable ...
@pockstone I mean, I'm astonished the cyclist thought to submit that. Car had priority there and he decided that he was going to squeeze through that gap for no reason instead of waiting. The reason it was £1200 will be due to the cyclist not accepting the initial fine for their bad riding and taking it to court. Thats exactly the same thing that happens if a driver does the same. I'm sure the local rags were indeed using it as a good touchpaper to start a good old anti-cycling bingo bashing fest.
@mitsky Thanks - and remember kids, West Yorkshire Police are totally institutionally anti-cyclist. I think road.cc should ask them how many of the team reviewing cyclists' submissions to their video portal actually are regular cyclists, as in, how many cycle on the public highway, in plain clothes, at least twice a week.
@mitsky Would have been better if the camera was facing the other way for the train passing so that it came as a surprise like overtakes sometimes do in a noisy situation.
@the little onion Yeah, I posted in on Saturday morning onto Friday's blog. I'm surprised Road CC hasn't said anything about it (unless they are drafting it now). Another point I forgot to say is, given the car is parked, there is almost no danger apart from a scratch/dent. Given many cyclists pass parked cars closely thousands of times a day, is this a going to be a big issue now? Cycling Mikey's comparison video of passing a stationary train v being passed by one is usefull for this too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikWFQquoZto
Instead of asking Remco and Pogi their opinions on climate change, journalists should ask ASO management why stages started at 13.00 during the first week when the heat wave hit its peak. Interestingly, pundits talk about climate change only when the temperature rises. No doubt they have already forgotten this year's cancelled stages during GC races in Southern Europe due to strong winds, heavy rains and snow falls.
17 thoughts on ““They’re toddlers!”: Cyclist injured by teen motorcyclists left waiting for an hour by police, despite filming the bikers who hit-and-ran; Independence protests planned for Catalan Grand Depart; Sprint stage likely at women’s Giro + more on the live blog”
Re: “Just needs a chain” and a clean but otherwise looks in reasonable order. Tyres have plenty of tread on them. Maybe it was ridden a few times, the chain snapped through a combination of excessive force setting off and poor installation and then left outside?
On the subject of poor installation I stopped to see if there was any helping a cyclist standing at the side of the road holding a pedal who was attempting a 100 mile ride. The pedal had come out of the brand new crank. The thread in the crank was completely gone. He had been back to the shop when he first experienced problems but they just tightened it up and sent him on his way. My guess is that the pedal was inserted across the thread and then tightened in that position.
Agree, it doesn’t look that bad. If the chain is that stiff, it probably hasn’t been ridden in that state, more likely just left to rust after its last wet use.
“They’re toddlers!”
I’m pretty sure (despite the transcription on the BBC video) he actually says “THERE ARE toddlers riding those tiny bikes. If they were in the front, they would have been killed”. Particularly as he has just said the guy that hit him was riding a “huge motorcycle”.
Libdems are weird ones. They don’t seem to have any consistent policies and seem to just switch on whatever they think will get them votes (drilling in North sea and reducing petrol taxes being a notable u-turn lately). I’m not overly optimistic about the Libdems with cycling infrastructure in London boroughs
Mostly harmless.
They won’t break much but they don’t deliver anything.
Just churn strategy paper and love any solutions that seams to deliver something without too much of an effort.
School streets (but not too ambitious).
Car sharing was great as well (you can even extract revenue) until it’s not there.
Looks like they are doing the same for the bikes as they struggle with the concept that people can use them for more than a mile.
Someone once told me the byline for libdem was “I drive a range rover too”. Made me laugh but I now think they were not wrong
The Richmond-upon-Thames ebike contracts just show how the process of the ebike contracts being run through TfL/Mayors office needs to be speeded up, to avoid the current patchwork of availability.
I live just south of Richmond (in Kingston) and if I do a journey to in-laws in Brent by Lime bike, I can rent one near where I live and drop one off in Brent. But I’ll have to pass through Hounslow which is no parking for Lime (don;t break down there). I also strangely can’t go to the south of my borough as that’s out of zone as well (but ok for Forrest).
We just need London wide schemes with consistency.
Count Binface just launched his manifesto for the Makerfield By-election. Not sure about no 9, but the rest seem quite sensible.
@Tom_77 It would be fairer if No. 9 applied to all vehicles equally ie force driver/rider onto a vehicle with half the number of wheels.
Not sure it’s a good idea for errant rollerskaters though? Those “heely” things popular with kids a while back didn’t look very safe…
@chrisonabike And what happens when you’re already on a unicycle, is a pogo stick next?
@Backladder half a wheel, obviously. Bit of a rough ride.
@Backladder Half-wheeling is a faux pas so you’ll have to walk. Another transgression though and you’ll be forced to hop on one foot. No idea what comes after that.
@chrisonabike An alternative perhaps more workable policy would be one less wheel/foot after each transgression. Would quickly drive everyone hopping (mad).
@Pub bike An unintended consequence might be that people switch to vehicles with many more wheels (than necessary).
With roller skates do you lose one wheel or one from each foot?
And what about tracked vehicles?
Never mind just for offences – what we need is not “road tax” but wheel tax.
Biggest vehicles pay more? Check
Tanks and APCs? Just count the bogies!
Gets hated rollerskaters off the roads? Check.
Increases unicycle smugness? Check!
OTOH mobility scooter and wheelchair users would need exemption – which might lead to a surge in luxury high-powered wheelchairs.
@chrisonabike You should definitely have to pay more if you have low profile tyres.
And one of those suspicious looking symbols with the 4 conjoined circles on the front of the car.
And one of those suspicious looking symbols with the 4 conjoined circles on the front of the car
Agreed
ttps://upride.cc/incident/cd10wer_audiq7_closerpass/
ttps://upride.cc/incident/kx66ufn_audi_closepass/