“Probably the safest behaviour I’ve ever seen from a Lime rider”: Lime says its bikes are designed for cycling, not jousting and warns “safety must come first”; Olympic medallist’s doping ban; Picnic problems; Joey Pidcock retires + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“Probably the safest behaviour I’ve ever seen from a Lime rider”: Lime says its bikes are designed for cycling, not jousting and warns “safety must come first” after viral medieval mischief
Oh, to be a member of Lime’s PR department. ‘Oi Rupert, have you finished that statement on the council crackdown on pavement parking? Good stuff, what about the Timothée Chalamet fine thing? Well, once you get that done, there’s a video of a medieval joust I need to show you…’
We all knew it was only going to be a matter of time before Lime had something to say about two chaps dressed in armour jumping on two of their hire bikes and riding full pelt at each other while brandishing poles.
On Saturday evening, as we noted on yesterday’s blog, hundreds of people gathered in London Fields, Hackney to watch artist Jack Carden and actor Camtholomew the First (probably not his real name) showcase their 2026 take on the medieval game of jousting.
By all accounts, the event – described by Carden as “performance art” – was a lot of fun, with the New Zealand-born artist’s Instagram clip of the joust attracting over five million views.
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But, like any stern parent, Lime is happy for its users to have fun. Just not too much fun, okay?
“We always love seeing Londoners come together and build a sense of community in unexpected ways,” a spokesperson for the e-bike hire company said yesterday evening.
“While we appreciate the medieval spirit, safety must always come first. Lime bikes are designed for getting around the city, not for jousting.
“We discourage anyone from attempting similar events, to help keep riders and those around them safe.”
Ironically, Carden (the winner of the duel, in case you were wondering) told the Metro that Camtholomew did pick up a minor injury, so maybe Lime has a point.
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Over on social media, however, some aren’t convinced that Lime’s safety priorities should be focused on medieval jousting.
“That’s probably the safest behaviour I’ve ever seen from a Lime rider,” Jeff said on BlueSky.
“Cycle jousting seems like an entirely sensible sport in the grand scheme of things,” added another user.
However, there were plenty of people who reckon Lime jousting has a future, with Jo Kibble even calling for the format to be expanded next time.
“Sounds great, but I do feel it would have been improved by the challengers being on competing companies’ hire bikes,” she said. “Sir Gawain the Green Knight on a Forest bike, Señor Espada on his Santander cycle…”
“And of course Sir Walter on a Raleigh,” added Michael. Not a hire bike, but I’ll let him away with it.
And despite Lime’s safety concerns, hire bike jousting could well take off, if Carden – who had to limit Saturday’s attendance to 1,000 people – has anything to do with it.
“I suspect if we had publicised it fully we would have had easily 10,000 people show up,” he said, promising a rematch soon.
At this rate, there’ll be a UCI world jousting championships in 2028…
“It was never my intention to violate anti-doping rules”: Olympic silver medallist apologies after results stripped following three whereabouts failures
Polish cyclist Daria Pikulik has apologised and insisted she never meant to break anti-doping rules, after being stripped of her results over an 18-month period in the wake of three testing no-shows.
Pikulik, who joined Human Powered Health in 2023, was a silver medallist in the omnium, behind the United States’ Jennifer Valente, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She also finished third at the 2024 European road race championships, a month after she placed sixth on the opening day of the Tour de France Femmes.
The 29-year-old has won nine times on the road, including the Tour of Guangxi and a stage of the Tour Down Under, while she also has a world championships bronze in the omnium from 2020.
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However, she has not raced since Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the end of February and yesterday the International Testing Agency announced that she has since been sanctioned for failing to report for three doping tests within a 12-month period.
The ITA said Pikulik has been disqualified of all her results from 9 December 2024 to 8 June 2026, though since she raced sparingly during that period, the sanction amounts to little more than reputational damage and a slap on the wrist.
“The ITA reports that rider Daria Pikulik has agreed to the consequences for her ADRV under article 2.4 of the UCI anti-doping rules,” the anti-doping body said in a statement.
“Daria Pikulik committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period. The rider did not challenge the ADRV and agreed with the consequences proposed by the ITA. Accordingly, the case was resolved via an acceptance of consequences.
“In accordance with article 10.13.1 of the UCI anti-doping rules, the rider’s period of ineligibility is from 9 December 2024 until 8 June 2026. Additionally, all the rider’s competitive results within this period are disqualified including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.”
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In a post on Instagram yesterday evening, Pikulik accepted the sanction, explaining what she says are the reasons behind it and revealing that she has been fighting for two years to “defend my good name”.
“Many questions remain, and I must face them head-on. I’d like to explain why you haven’t seen me racing since March. I was suspended for failing to report for three doping tests,” the 29-year-old said.
“This happened to me twice, in September 2023 and October 2023. Realising the seriousness of the situation, I tried to systematically complete my residence data in the system, but due to my oversight and a much greater workload, it happened a third time in September 2024.
“I spent the last two years trying to defend my good name, and ultimately CAS issued a judgment in March 2026 without a penalty, finding me guilty of omitting an inspection.
“In September, I was finally suspended from December 2024 to June 2026. It was a terribly difficult time for me and my loved ones. It was never my intention to violate anti-doping rules.
“Throughout my career, I have passed dozens of doping controls without any problems. However, I need to accept what happened and put it behind me. I apologise to everyone I’ve let down and thank everyone who has been with me through this time.”
Joey Pidcock retires from professional cycling at 24 as brother Tom rues missed opportunity for last hurrah in China
Two years into his professional career, Joey Pidcock has pinned on a race number for the last time.
The 24-year-old has spent the last two years racing alongside big brother Tom at Pinarello Q36.5, after a strong stint as an U23, which included stage wins at the Ronde de l’Isard in France and the Rás Mumhan.
Since joining Q36.5 in 2025, the same year Tom made the move from Ineos, Joey quickly settled into a domestique role, racing a number of spring classics last year, including Paris-Roubaix, where he was the last rider to enter the velodrome after a long, solo ride over the cobbles.
He’s also managed to bag a few decent results of his own, including fourth overall at the 2025 Tour of Kyushu in Japan and seventh on the final stage of this year’s Sibiu Tour.
However, Joey will hang up his wheels (his pro ones, anyway) at the end of this year, after racing one last time with Tom at the Tour of Guangxi. He very nearly went out on a high too, with Tom being pipped to the win by Jarno Widar on the final stage.
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“And just like that another season passed sat here in an airport 8,000km from home,” the elder Pidcock posted on Instagram.
“Today I dreamed of winning with Joey Pidcock in his last pro race but we had to settle for second… again.”
Is this the perfect bike-Lurpaking bicycle?
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If you’re groaning, that was VecchioJo’s joke, not mine, for the record…
“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, you made bold changes to give people more ways to travel and create a fairer transport system. We urge you to bring that same ambition to the whole country, sending the message that we need better cycle routes for women”
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@the little onion Anecdotally, I'd say yes: the male to female ratio of commuter cyclists in London has definitely narrowed over the last few decades in a period that has coincided with massive improvements in cycling infrastructure. Still anecdotally but more clearly, I personally know several women who used to say they would never cycle commute in London because of the risk but who now do because the majority of their journey can be made on quietways and segregated cycle tracks.
@Smoggysteve an alternative interpretation of the stats is that cycle lanes (murder strips) don't increase propensity to cycle. We need to design cycling infrastructure for the cyclists we want to have, not the ones we do have.
Only a quarter of cyclists using cycle lanes are female. But dig into the statistics and women make up only a quarter of all cycle journeys full stop, so that means women are equally represented in this study since they only make that many journeys to begin with. Ideally, they should be looking at ways that get more people cycling regardless of gender and then more women would use cycle paths. But you must also factor in that male riders are more likely to prefer riding on a road even if there is a path available. I would love there to be more people riding but you're never going to close the gap between the amount of male vs female riders from around a 1-4 or 1-3 ratio. a 100% increase in all cycle journeys would be a better aim than just one demographic.
@Surreyrider please update your username as you are clearly not a rider but a cun.....
sounds like affirmative action to me, but ok. herd immunity and all that.
"you’ve got photochromics on they’re not going to change in time to let you see any better" This is just nonsense. Modern photochromics begin adjusting immediatley, as do your eyes! The (slower than these expensive glasses) transition allows you to see much, much better than standard Cat 3 lenses.
Would be interesting to see how cycling’s gender gap changes with quality of infrastructure. Do you get more women as we move from murder strip to proper infrastructure?
Interesting article. Nevertheless currently a Cycle Lane = Murder Strip. At least it does were I live: no segregation, drains , unswept , parked cars , frogger, lanes suddenly ending... Bradford Met for reference. What's it like near you?
@belugabob I've been in a few different hotels in recent years and never had any difficulties with keeping my bike in my room. I always take a couple of newspapers with me to spread out under the bike to stop any drips of oil/water etc getting on the carpet. One hotel even had a nice timber post in the room, for me to lock my bike to. One of the hotels had a secure lock up room for bikes, but were happy for me to keep the bike in my room because it meant I didn't have to drag away a member of staff to get my bike at busy breakfast / check out time. When I went to stay in N Yorks for the 2019 World Champs, the only inconvenience was breakfast being crowded because the Italian Junior women's squad's bikes were being stored in the main dining room! The only slight downer is looking like a bit of an eccentric as I carry my bike down the stairs and through reception in cycling kit.
Another one for the "just because we can doesn't mean we should" pile for me I think, my cheap (£35) photochromic glasses that I use for commuting at dawn and dusk may take 30 seconds to adapt fully to changing light but they start pretty much immediately and I hardly ever feel that they are too dark or not dark enough; if I hit a patch where they really are too dark, sudden tunnels et cetera, one quick hand swipe (same as with these) moves them down to the end of my nose so I can look over the top of them. No precious battery resources wasted, nor the price of a decent secondhand bike.