“Cyclists purposefully blocking roads, riding two or three abreast,” claims Grimsby auction house in bizarre clip; Second pro hit by driver on Time Trial day at the Tour de France; Breakaway day at the Tour + more on the live blog
The internet in 2026...
In the olden times of five or more years ago, people might keep diaries, write letters, or reserve some opinions for a private social media account or a conversation with friends. But 2026 is the podcast age, or at least the age of the podcast aesthetic.
Far be us to dismiss the importance of industry-specific media. But why a house clearance-specialist auction house in Grimsby is uploading opinions on bike lanes we cannot fathom. Don’t worry though, our presenter insists he has “many friends who are cyclists.”
Saying that, we can fathom it. The simple answer is that it’s content, designed to attract attention and eyeballs that can be monetised either through Meta or increased interest in their business.
Other such though-provoking videos posted by the auction house include ‘Should Cyclists & Mobility Scooters have Insurance?’, ‘Defending the family windbreak’ and ‘Are we still allowed to have opinions?’
Depressingly, a quick scroll back through their archive shows they used to do a lot more auction/house clearing-related posting, but that the engagement numbers were dwarfed by the videos that lean into more inane, culture war-adjacent topics.
So here thrust before us is a Grimsby auctioneer riffing about cyclists for views. It’s worth noting that Grimsby does not have the greatest record when it comes to cyclists, having tried to implement a ban on cyclists in the town centre only to discover their signs are in the wrong place…
There’s also a very understandable urge to ignore the whole shebang, but it’s worth giving a mention to the hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of comments that have come out to defend cyclists riding two-abreast and not always using a cycle lane…
“The speed that a cyclist rides at dictates where a cyclist rides. Cycle lanes and shared paths are not for fast moving cyclists ‘Shared roads’ are.”
“Why do motorists speed when there are signs everywhere telling them what speed they can do?”
“They are never in the middle of the road unless turning right. They may be in the middle of the lane. Were this speaker a qualified driver he would know that. Council tax pays for roads, so every tax payer in town pays for roads whether they own a car or not. More drivers drive on the footway than cycle users.”
“If a dedicated cycle lane is available, I’ll use it unless it’s littered with debris / potholes and there are no cars parked over it. If I’m approaching a junction, roundabout or otherwise restricted section of road, I will be positioning myself in the middle of the lane to protect myself (prevents cars approaching from the rear forcing their way past you when there isn’t safe room), as advised by the Highway Code.
“It’s not rocket science, it’s about common sense and respect for each other on the roads.”
Thanks internet. In the meantime, I’m off to submit my latest opinions for approval…
New cooling techniques
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How long until we see this at a club 10?
Stage 17 preview: Break vs Sprint
Despite the relative lack of categorised climbing on today’s stage, the sprint teams will have to work really rather hard to prevent a big breakaway getting a big gap and staying away. But with three mountain stages to come and the unpredictability of Sunday’s Montmartre stage, this might well be the last chance for the fast men. My money is on Pedersen, Philipsen and Girmay actually trying to get in the break, which might just neutralise the green jersey competition.
Here’s what Ryan wrote before the race…
“ASO have branded this one ‘flat’, but thanks to a horribly tough opening 60km, stage 17 has ‘final week breakaway’ written all over it. And even if the sprint teams do get their act together in the second half, there’s the little matter of a pesky climb 3km from the finish in Voiron, which makes its Tour debut after hosting the Vuelta last year.”
In the meantime, here are a couple of bits of Tour news from yesterday.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have confirmed Florian Lipowitz has sustained a broken collarbone from his crash yesterday. The German started the day fifth overall and within a minute of the podium spots. Now we know the crash wasn’t more severe, here’s a replay of the crash…
Here’s a slower replay of the crash of Florian Lipowitz. A very hard impact with his shoulder. pic.twitter.com/9RsjydaYZ6
— René Bugner (@RNBWCV) July 21, 2026
Meanwhile Tom Pidcock rode the TT of his life yesterday, briefly leading the standings at the first intermediate split. He’s now just a handful of seconds behind Lenny Martinez in 7th. However as Ryan found out, the Brit appeared to lose his nerve on the descent…
Scathed
It’s not a good look when one rider is knocked off their bike by a car driver in and around the Tour de France. But two and you’re suddenly wondering if their are bigger problems than rider error.
Whilst Brandon McNulty, a key climber for Tadej Pogacar, escaped serious injury yesterday morning on a recon of yesterday’s Time Trial around Lake Geneva, Xandro Meurisse’s incident came after he’d completed his effort, and was riding back to the team hotel…
“Xandro was hit by a car today while riding back to the start line,” his offical fan club wrote on Facebook. “As a result, he has a lot of scrapes. We will have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.”
Meurisse then published photos of his cut arms and legs to his Instagram story.
Meurisse, a talented punchy climber, has frequently found himself the last man in the mountains for Tom Pidcock, including when the Brit gained seven minutes on the favourites in the breakaway.
Thankfully, as we’ll come to a little later, today’s stage should be a bit ‘easier’ compared with what’s to come in the final week. Wishing Xandro a speedy recovery…
Deja vu for mandatory hi-vis
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He "never thought of that" and "some of my best friends are" . Sounds like he doesn't think of much and is just blinded by his hatred into inventing things. Why is road.cc giving him air space!
Barry Shitpeas (Philomena Cunk's sidekick) was a very prescient character. Basically a quarter-wit expressing ignorant opinions without any understanding of the issues at hand, with ample doses of Dunning-Kruger.
Never mind the police - many cyclists (at least in the UK) would be totally unfamiliar with a velomobile, so perhaps police can be forgiven for ignorance there. (I've "normal" recumbents and even those cause lots of head-turning). And for "e-things" the tail of the market is very much wagging the dog of regulation. Or rather there's almost zero political interest in that. In an ideal world someone would find the money and time to get the police trained - but I wonder if most of them even keep abreast of things like the highway code wording tweaks? (Do those not specialised in road policing / pursuit driving get any more training than the average driver eg "enough to pass the test, once per lifetime"?)
I thought that the lengthy technical downhill section on narrow roads was a poor piece of organisation. It was inevitable that faster riders with their team car would catch up with team cars of slower riders. Riders passing each other was a bit of a lottery at times. The camera motorbikes struggled to get out of the way at times.
It's not a 'statement' though - it's road.cc's words, based on l'Equipe's interpretation. The actual statement issued on it said that the judge authorised it "guaranteeing strict proportionality between the infringements on the rights of the athlete and the stakes of the fight against doping in terms of fair competition and protection of his health."
Trust me Callum, if you'd grown up watching the Tour in the 1980s, as I did, you would not be hankering after those long flat stages that weren't even as exciting as watching paint dry, it was more like listening to paint dry. As for the supposed benefits of those long TTs, what did they give us? Indurain winning five Tours in a row without winning a single road stage in any of them. As McT says below, you simply can't Pogacar-proof a course and we just have to accept, and enjoy, the fact that we are watching the greatest GT cyclist of all time. Anyway I think it has been a great Tour so far, yes no enormous drama about the inevitable winner (though of course Vinegaard and now Lipowitz have shown us that anything can happen) but just about every day has had a fascinating plot and multiple subplots. Some time in the future there will be another Indurain-style winner, playing it cautious, following moves, making incremental gains and winning without ever lighting up the race and we'll be saying I wish the old days of Pogacar making those spectacular solo breaks were back.
The main issue is the layout of the stages with the bigger climb first then a shallow finish climb. It means pogacar can get a gap at the top of the big climb and then stretch 10-15 seconds to a minute plus at the finish over smaller riders like Vingegaard. A summit finish on the hardest climb might not lead to the most exciting racing but equally would keep the gaps closer. I totally agree with the TT kms though, they should have 60+km tts in the grand tours.
@MaxiMinimalist I mean, that statement makes it sound like they had reason to think those two are doping. Either they didn't follow procedure and are making shit up to cover themselves up or something is going on.
Quite possibly. But the changeover time loss would be a bit more significant if it was done on the flat just after the downhill when the riders are travelling faster, the deceleration, changeover and acceleration loss could easily be around 30 seconds, which is quite a lot of a 34 minute effort.
So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump's book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?
3 thoughts on ““Cyclists purposefully blocking roads, riding two or three abreast,” claims Grimsby auction house in bizarre clip; Second pro hit by driver on Time Trial day at the Tour de France; Breakaway day at the Tour + more on the live blog”
I thought that the lengthy technical downhill section on narrow roads was a poor piece of organisation. It was inevitable that faster riders with their team car would catch up with team cars of slower riders. Riders passing each other was a bit of a lottery at times. The camera motorbikes struggled to get out of the way at times.
Barry Shitpeas (Philomena Cunk’s sidekick) was a very prescient character. Basically a quarter-wit expressing ignorant opinions without any understanding of the issues at hand, with ample doses of Dunning-Kruger.
He “never thought of that” and “some of my best friends are” . Sounds like he doesn’t think of much and is just blinded by his hatred into inventing things. Why is road.cc giving him air space!