“Impressively dumb” narrow cycle lane criticised as “box ticking exercise” after repainted lane barely covers double yellow lines; Steep gravel climb awaits Vuelta peloton + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Thinnest bike lane in the UK?
It’s good to be back, stumbling through emails, eyes filtering through tabs for what could make a mildly amusing blog lead. And I think I’ve found an answer, or at least one that would be slightly funny if it weren’t also a little tragic.
Thinnest bike lane in the UK?
by
u/special_noodles in
ukbike
“Brighton and Hove is often talked about like a cycling paradise, but this is apparently a cycle lane. The top of Dyke Road. It’s a popular route, in and out of town yet this is deemed acceptable.”
It should be said the poster is referring to the gap between the white lines and the kerb, rather than the pavement where the photo is taken. I say gap, but as can be seen from the photo, the lane is entirely swallowed up by the double yellow lines painted to restrict vehicles from parking there.
A further search engine rummage finds it is genuinely a bike lane that runs along Dyke Road, though even when the lane begins there’s no real sense the authorities are interested in protecting the cyclists.
In fact I would go further and say that this lane is actively endangering all road users, attempting to pen cyclists in an unreasonably narrow space, increasing the odds of clipping a kerb, and giving drivers the self-confidence to ignore normal overtaking standards to drive past the cyclist without affording additional space, presuming the paint is infrastructure enough.
The original poster adds this current disaster began when it was recently repainted, branding the new lane “pure nonsense”.
Fellow cyclists are unimpressed…
“That’s actually a cycle lane? That’s impressively dumb on the part of whoever signed that off.”
“Box ticking exercise”
“Absolutely bonkers. That’s Brighton and Hove council for you…especially if this is being repainted as a cycle lane, it needs a formal complaint, which should lead to a road safety assessment update by a competent person against the latest cycle infra standards that explicitly calls out this substandard trash.”
“That’s not a bike lane. Ignore it and take primary position.”
Indeed, the latter advice seems wise, and means once again individual cyclists will endure the wrath or irate drivers for taking the safest position on the road and not using cycle infrastructure. Some things never change…
Updated GC
How about that for a shake-up…
📊 Top 10 GC Stage 6⃣ | Etapa 6⃣ 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭
+ info ➡️ https://t.co/jdNgUrshoY #LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/qrG5ssHlwQ
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 27, 2026
Illegal bikes harm legal businesses
Pogacar wins!
Under the flamme rouge Pogacar leads, and is forced to lead-out by Enric Mas.
Through the final corners Pogacar hogs the right-hand side before launching a sprint from the front that the Spaniard cannot answer. It’s a third stage win in six days for the race leader, but my word did he have to work for it.
In the sprint behind, Ramses Debruyne (I think) just edges out Richard Carapaz a little over 40 seconds behind. He’ll be moving up on GC tonight…
5km
Carapaz and Tejada have caught Roglic, Gall and Debruyne to form a quintet. Now 30 seconds behind, cooperation has faltered.
30 seconds behind Pogacar and Mas, it looks like a sprint a deux will decide the stage…
10km
Pogacar and Mas’ advantage is down to 15 seconds, thanks to some very aggressive descending by Debruyne. The trio are now cooperating on the flatter roads and will be believing they can catch the leading duo.
Richard Carapaz and Harold Tejada are at 30 seconds. Oscar Onley, Sepp Kuss and Mattias Skjelmose are apparently around 1’30” behind the front of the race according to the Vuelta’s live tracker.
8km to go
Pog narrowly avoids crash
A misjudged corner and Tadej Pogacar is off the road! Very sudden braking saves the Slovenian from an uncomfortable fall and he quickly rejoins Mas. The pair’s advantage is down to 26 seconds over Gall, Roglic and Debruyne. Utter chaos, and this descent is mayhem…
Solo, then not!
And just like that, Debruyne is caught and dropped, and Tadej Pogacar is solo.
Behind, Enric Mas has attacked a group comprising Roglic, Onley, Carapaz and Felix Gall who has done well to recover ground after he was distanced on the lower slopes. Did the Austrian have a mechanical? Finally, we have a time gap and its 40 seconds to the Roglic group from Pogacar with 23km remaining.
Oscar Onley is starting to rock off the back, same too for Richard Carapaz. Why is it this terrain always breaks the race into pieces? Onley comes round Carapaz but a gap has opened up to Roglic and Gall for the Scot to try and regain. Now the margin opens up again.
The time gap we don’t have is Enric Mas, but this a phenomenal ride by the Spaniard. Saying that he comes into the same shot as Tadej Pogacar! My word… this is a level we haven’t seen from him in years!
The final few hundred metres of the climb, concrete roads give way to swarming crowds, and Enric Mas makes the catch! I cannot stress how unexpected this is. He even comes round Pogacar to take maximum mountain points over the summit. Goodness me.
Just over 35 seconds later come Roglic and Gall. What a race…
Attack!
Wow, Jay Vine’s turn at the front has really whittled down the group of favourites and Jarno Widar, second two days ago, is dropped from the peloton. Now it’s the turn of Pablo Torres, the young Spanish sensation to set up his Slovenian leader. 25km to go.
At the front of the race Ramses Debruyne attacks but can’t get a gap, the break’s advantage is down to 40 seconds. Now Pogacar attacks!
He comes to the front and launches a steady acceleration. Onley, Roglic and Mas are all initially on the wheel whilst Felix Gall appears to be dropping away. Now Pogacar digs in again and goes solo, Onley the last holdout on the wheel.
The race leader is solo and only 20 seconds from Debruyne out front, chaos on the road as motos come racing past riders. 3km left of the climb and here comes the gravel…
30km
On the long descent, the break swelled to 15 riders after dropped riders re-joined, but their lead is down to 1’30” as they hit the lower slopes of the Puerto El Bartolo. It looks like it’ll be curtains soon enough for the front of the race.
Still UAE are leading at the front of the peloton, whilst Pello Bilbao has just done his final turn for the break (and teammate Santiago Buitrago) before peeling off…
VecchioJo writes...
Our own VecchioJo has some unfortunate observations on today’s pitifully thin cycle lane in Brighton. Here’s what he had to say:
“I have the misfortune to ride this often (although I’ll actively avoid going down that road when necessary and take the longer pretty less dangerous way) it’s been like that for years. What you can’t see in the photos is the horrific state of the potholed and buckled tarmac on the edge of the road in areas so it’s significantly safer to ride outside of the ‘bike lane’ anyway, then there’s the inevitable trade van parked half in it half on the pavement.
“[Even] On the original lane [before the road resurfacing and lane repainting] the dotted white line was best line to ride to avoid all the gutter grumble.”
You heard it first-hand. Sort it out Brighton & Hove Council!
Patchwork (not piecemeal) hi-vis
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UAE in control
Approaching the final 50km and the Vuelta breakaway are on the penultimate climb of the day. Pello Bilbao’s early work for Santiago Buitrago stretched the advantage out towards 2’45”, whilst several big names, including Van Aert, George Bennett and Patrick Konrad have been dropped from the front of the race.
Van Aert won’t be too disappointed though, having taken maximum points at the intermediate sprint to overtake Matthew Brennan and sit in second place in the green jersey competition.
So we have 10 riders at the front of the race. Brit Tom Gloag is there, riding for Pinarello-Q36.5, whilst the best rider on GC, Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Ramses Debruyne is almost ahead of Primoz Roglic on virtual GC. Other names include former Vuelta stage winners Andreas Kron and Urko Berrade, whilst Burgos’ Jose Manuel Diaz leads over the summit of the climb.
In the peloton UAE are leading and Joao Almeida, runner-up in this race last year, is doing the early work to keep the break in check. It all seems set up for another Pogacar win…
46km to go… 10 riders with 2’15” on the UAE-led peloton
Lapierre live on
Fresh from the Accell Group’s insolvency proceedings, Lapierre has announced it has formally begun “judicial reorganisation proceedings” to continue trading.
The French bike brand announced its legal action earlier this month and it appears that effort to preserve the company have succeeded for now.
In a statement published yesterday, Lapierre said, “This decision allows us to move forward with greater clarity and confidence. It opens the way to developing a clear
continuity plan, as well as seeking a strong and committed investor to support the future of Lapierre and enable us to continue our activity and our commitment to you: our customers, dealers and cycling community.
“From today, our teams are fully focused on this next phase, more determined than ever to continue building the Lapierre story with the same passion and high standards that have driven us throughout our history. Our ambition remains the same: to keep pushing towards the peak of what Lapierre can achieve.”
We have yet to hear any murmurings of what could happen with Raleigh, who were also part of the Accell Group.
Josh Tarling withdraws from Vuelta a Espana
A little bit of Vuelta news to bring you before the action itself, for which live pictures have just begun. Josh Tarling has withdrawn from the race.
In many ways, it was remarkable that the Welshman took to the start of the race, a week after younger brother Fin was tragically killed by a van driver in Portugal. The family’s grief was also compounded by the death of Josh’s grandfather days later.
The 22-year-old took an impressive third on the opening Monaco time trial behind Tadej Pogacar, winning the white jersey in the process. He would have ridden in support of Oscar Onley. But he has now chosen to leave the race, with the support of his Netcompany-Ineos team.
Nearly 2,000 people have donated towards the GoFundMe set up in Fin Tarling’s name to provide a legacy fund for the next generation of Welsh cyclists. The donation total now exceeds £91,000 – an incredible sum.
In the race itself, after a fast start to today’s stage, we may have live pictures but the race remains very unsettled. A 16-rider break is up the road including Wout van Aert but riders are continuing to try and attack and bridge across, with Tadej Pogacar following several moves himself.
Tacks!
Live coverage is due to begin imminently, the peloton are altogether, and attention is looking to the dangers that might await our peloton in a couple of hours…
> Tacks reportedly found on final fast descent of Vuelta a España stage, sparking safety concerns
Leave a lasting legacy, cycling bigwigs tell PM
Smelly billys
What do the words “Golden Hour” evoke to you? An enjoyable period of late day sun? A Brian Eno track? Tony Blackburn?
I’m afraid the new correct answer is a perfume for cyclists. Shoe brand manufacturer Quoc has unveiled “a 100% natural fragrance for the hour after the ride, when the effort ends and the rhythm lingers.” They liken their scent, developed in partnership with perfumery maker Raer to “when the world softens to a haze.”
The Golden Hour “is enriched with Eastern botanicals and Western florals, dissolving into one another like landscapes from a moving bike.” But how about this for a final line of marketing spiel:
“Rich, warm and distinctively unisex.”
My three favourite things. All available, in 30ml bottles, for £130.
Vuelta stage 6 preview: Pog-cineration incoming
I think the Vuelta’s stage profiles are slightly misleading, and have a knack of making climbs steeper than they could be perceived. But for a race famed for its rampas inhumanas it’s unsurprising they want to lean into that idea.
And with a tough gravel climb summiting 21km from the finish, this is the sort of stage that could be ripe for an ambush. If anyone is likely to loan the red jersey from Tadej Pogacar, today’s breakaway formation will be crucial. Otherwise, after his 50km solo victory two days ago, an effort half that distance is well within the Slovenian’s wheelhouse. A third stage victory would already put the icing on the cake.
If you do this, the GC battle is really exciting.
— Anna Mac 👑🪱 🌈🖤🖤 (@annamacb.bsky.social) 26 August 2026 at 17:29
The race for the podium is one of the most interesting in the race, with the rest of the top-10 still separated by less than a minute. This writer, a Primoz Roglic fan since before it was cool (he says) is yearning for the veteran Slovenian to hold on. In fact, Kuss and Mas being his nearest rivals does give the podium battle a certain pre-pandemic feel.
Oscar Onley, who starts today in the white jersey of best young rider, will be keen to interrupt this nostalgia-fest. Meanwhile eyes may turn to Jarno Widar, second on Tuesday’s stage and long-heralded as the next big GC thing, to see if he can sustain his first tilt at a Grand Tour. Live coverage begins at 1:30…
RIP Yayoi Kusama
With her penchant for polka dots, we almost certainly expected the Japanese artist to incorporate a bicycle in to her work and sure enough, the ever reliable Cool Bike Art account on Bluesky has delivered…
RIP Yayoi Kusama
— Cool Bike Art (@coolbikeart1.bsky.social) 27 August 2026 at 09:38
Holibobs
I will share one, and only one, photo from my little (voluntary) escape from this website. I went to Paris to visit friends and decided (like many a tourist) to visit Montmartre. Many a traveller go there to channel their inner Amélie, but I went with a more velo-focused purpose in mind…
It takes a lot for me to share evidence of a tortured smile beyond the realms of a private social media account. But for Wout van Aert, the world is his…
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Insane Facebook Marketplace ad of the day
Because fat people are clearly the cause of what’s wrong here…
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Latest Comments
comparable blue-sky lunacy, apparently a small keychain pendant is going to save lives. i was going to reply on fb with images of stationary police vehicles that other motorists collided with despite being festooned in hiviz markings, but y'know .. jail time for hurt feelings. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/be-bright-be-seen-inverness-schools-to-receive-7500-keyrin-448570/
I could wear a giant Las Vegas neon sign on my back and a driver looking at their phone still wouldn't see me.
@kingleo He also drives. I've heard him talking about his car. His family has also been deeply affected by bad drivers. He seems extremely well qualified for the position he's in and I think we're lucky to have him. I'd like to see The Spectator employ better journalists but there's Bob Hope of that.
A cautionary tale for anyone relying on public consultations as an indication of public opinion, given that BH12 apparently had a population of 36,169 at the 2021 census, and only 31 bothered to respond.
I wonder what would happen if some random pleb decided to suplex Sheriff Fergus Thomson randomly for no reason on his way home from work. I have a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't involve them "avoiding jail by the narrowest of margins", no matter how many crocodile tears they might shed in court.
It would also be nicer if it dropped you out more parallel, so that you don't have to make a turn into the path of any oncoming bus - something like this (there are other versions that have a tapered merge after the drop).
Maybe they should make the bike lane a different colour to the road to make it clear that it's not part of the road. Oh, wait, they already did. There is no hope!
@Rendel Harris Yeah, I can see the logic, just seems a bit over-engineered for that purpose! The surfacing in particular seems unnecessary - you can have the dropped kerb and painted markings without the little patch of red asphalt.
I'm not generally a fan of emulating American approaches, but I do think local authorities need to be much more willing to tow and impound illegally parked vehicles, with all costs involved recovered from the owner before they get their vehicle back. (Maybe it's just a TV trope, but in American films and TV shows, improperly parked cars always seem to get towed away pretty quickly, especially when inconvenient for the protagonist!) Most of the time illegally parked cars just get a PCN, which a) is regressive (impacts poor people most; for rich people it's a minor annoyance at most) and b) does nothing to alleviate the harm done by the illegal parking - i.e. the parking restriction exists for a reason; leaving the car there means that reason continues to be undermined.
I'm in no way whatsoever justifying the car being parked in the scooter bay, but as it is a 'classic car' from 1972 it doesn't actually need an MOT. It does need to have current VED, although again due to the age, this is a cost of £0 per year, so there's no excuse for not keeping the VED records up to date.
17 thoughts on ““Impressively dumb” narrow cycle lane criticised as “box ticking exercise” after repainted lane barely covers double yellow lines; Steep gravel climb awaits Vuelta peloton + more on the live blog”
It would make much more sense to me that whenever roads are being resurfaced, active consideration should be made about how it road can be reconfigured for all users in mind and not just cars – for example how a particular road/segment fits in with the overall bike infrastructure and planning.
Yes, and this is one of the questions in the annual Active Travel England self-assessment that councils have to fill in – whether they take the opportunity of resurfacing to improve cycle facilities.
My council (North Yorkshire) fills in the form to say it does, but when I asked, it was unable to provide a single example of having done so.
Yup, I see those opportunities being missed all the time in Edinburgh. When it gets really bad, dig it all up and put it back down again how it was.
Contrast with what seems to happen in NL – when things are dug up the whole thing seems to get a “let’s redo this according to the current standards” treatment.
They even coordinate with the utilities, so that after a refurb the street isn’t immediately dug up again because of leaking pipes / we suddenly realised the new estate being planned for round the corner will want broadband etc.
Pros and cons of course – you may wait longer there for changes as smaller changes may be deferred until a major redo is due. (Though in the UK case you likely wouldn’t get them at all…)
It seems we “can’t have nice things” in the UK in part because a) we have greater motor traffic speeds/volumes spead across “streets” / within urban areas b) the funding and organisational responsibility differs.
Are we in the “Sam Vimes boots” territory (being too poor to afford better products which not only save money over time but actually work)?
There is long term money pressure on LAs and it seems that due to poor construction and maintenance we have to regularly pour money into (pot-)holes in the road. And it seems there’s no budget to check up on or enforce adequate standards from utilities work or even private building.
Oh, and active travel funding per head (in England at least) is laughable compared to other places. Plus it is delivered intermittently. It’s more like a Blue Peter contest…
If B&H had consulted some cyclists beforehand they would have saved themselves the cost of engaging a lining contractor to paint these idiotic lines.
The thought process has clearly been “We need width X for the widest vehicles to proceed on the speed limit in a carefree manner. So that leaves width Y for the cycle lane. They ought to be grateful.”
The problem is that some motorists will expect cyclists to stay within the lane, while riding over drain covers, debris etc as well as clipping pedestrians with their handlebars.
And riding on all that lovely slippery yellow paint.
Looking at Streetview its a typical pre 2009 farcility. Council’s wont get funding for them from central government today and those with a relatively recent record of installing them will get put to the back of the list for future funding.
My own local council never reinstalled a section of such a farcility (much to my pleasure, as its easier to take the secondary, before transitioning to the primary for a right turn on a busy road) so as not to jeopardise future funding.
The depth of incompetence in B&H is incomprehensible.
This must have gone through several iterations of planning and approval.
Something Like …
Requirement for a cycle lane on this road – Discussed and approved by Council.
Road engineer creates design plan – Approved.
Funding – Approved
Operatives turn up to implement – Jobsworths don’t query
Inspector signs off job – Approved as per plan
@Cycloid You’re giving them too much credit. It’s a classic case of they decided to resurface the road, and they realised they can avoid all that annoying time and effort spent doing their jobs if they just instruct the contractor to reinstate the road layout exactly as it was.
Changing the road layout requires going through the steps you outline. Not changing it doesn’t.
@OnYerBike Cock-up vs conspiracy.
Re. the Montmartre photo – couldn’t you have found suitable facilities before taking it? Who do you think you are – Tom Dumoulin?
Well, yes – but that’s kind of normal for only five stages in…
There’s no such thing as road tacks!!! They were abolished in the 1930s. I think you mean vehicle excise tacks.
“Thinnest bike lane in the UK?”
August 27th: I thought it was April 1st.
B&H council, hang your heads in shame. It isn’t the cycle lane that’s “Impressively dumb”.
Still, it’s good that they’ve kept all that nice wide cross-hatching in the centre of the road and the dedicated right turn lane: can’t make the drivers too safe and cyclists don’t count.
Shame about the world champs defence. Speedy recovery.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/30/tadej-pogacar-vuelta-a-espana-cycling-crash-hospital-stage-nine
@ktache Not sure he’s totally ruled out of the worlds yet (though I think it would be best if he doesn’t), normal recovery time is about eight weeks but surgery can halve that…depending on the nature of the break he could be just about fit to ride by the time of the elite men’s race, but he’ll have missed a lot of training. Hopefully his managers and team will persuade him to wait until Lombardia, if not just to knock it off for the rest of the year.
I say gap, but as can be seen from the photo, the lane is entirely swallowed up by the double yellow lines painted to restrict vehicles from parking there
Clearly a fundamental misunderstanding at road.cc about the purpose of these ‘double yellow lines’ which are taken by the police and councils as purely decorative