“My whole life’s going to be disrupted”: Residents upset over proposed suburban cycle lane claiming they’re “too old” to cycle; Paul Seixas delays signing contract and opens door to Giro d’Italia; Car-free Oxford Street latest + more on the live blog

Typically, when it comes to active travel infrastructure, county councils tend to be rather less ambitious than their borough or city equivalent. It’s not surprising, given it makes sense to prioritise infrastructure where most people are likely to benefit from it.

But when there’s so much talk of people being unable to imagine a car-free lifestyle, it’s suburban-rural areas which lack the network of cycle routes that can obstruct that vision. Credit is due then to Gloucestershire County Council, which is persisiting with a vision of uniting the major towns of the county through a “Cycle Spine” of cycle lanes, often protected and wider than you’d expect in sprawling cities. Although, as we’ve covered before, the width of the cycle lane has created its own problems:

> “The car park has been there for 30 years”: Car boot sale given go-ahead despite safety concerns over “high speed” cyclists on new bike path

As you can see, it’s very much a work in progress, with plans of connecting Stroud to Gloucester very much an ambition for the medium-long term. In fact the bit we’re focusing on today is just below the ‘l’ in Gloucester, connecting the city centre to the south of the city.

> “And they’ll still use the bus lanes”: Locals struggle to grasp new segregated cycle lane and its impact on using other roads

By our pig maths it’s roughly a kilometre of cycle lanes planned through the suburbs of Podsmead, Linden and Tuffley. But the residents aren’t happy.

 

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“My whole life’s going to be disrupted by this cycle lane”, an impassioned Gerry Haretin tells the BBC. She wants it rerouted to somewhere less densely populated and not “full of people too old to be riding bikes.”

Sophie is meanwhile frustrated that the cycle lane would go right past her grandparents’ house. I can’t quite understand her argument though. She says the route would move the car parking to right outside their house, but that this is terrible because her grandparents have food and medicine delivered to their home.

Our final man seems primarily annoyed by the lack of consultation, though presumably this vox pop was conducted immediately prior to the consultation which all the residents were attending.

What’s most striking about the above video though is the passion and anger the residents appear to have put onto this infrastructure. It’s all a little baffling to us. The council for their part told the BBC they are open to reviewing their proposals and modifying them depending on the community’s response.

Meanwhile the local Labour MP Alex McIntyre has said he wants to lobby the government to change their funding rules so active travel funding can be spent more flexibly – i.e. not on projects like this.

Fingers crossed they don’t learn anything from Devon County Council…

> “Jaw-dropping” £107,000 of active travel funding spent on planning removal of major car-free route

We’ve got some more images from ‘Pumping Black’, the dark thriller revolving around an aging pro cyclist. Now, I’m not saying Natalie Portman doesn’t understand the economics of cycling, but Jonathan Bailey appears to be riding the Tour de France for a team called ‘Inverness Polytrek’.

 

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Will fit right in with the oil states, oil and gas companies, transnational corporations and software giants. And Cofidis…

The shifting language of Decathlon CMA-CGM team boss Dominique Serieys tells its own story. First he wanted Paul Seixas to sign a new contract straight after the Tour de France, then it was before the season finished. Now it’s the off-season and Seixas still hasn’t signed on the dotted line. His current contract expires at the end of next year and, as you might expect, rival teams are swirling.

Decathlon are doing everything within their power to try and convince the 20-year-old to stay, moving their accounts to Switzerland to reduce their tax burden, signing countless climbers ready to slot into a mountain lead-out train.

But it seems Seixas won’t be rushed:

“For now, I haven’t made any decision.” He told RMC Sport. “Until now, I’ve spent my time chasing contracts. They always told me ‘as soon as you put in a performance, you have to re-sign.’ When I signed this contract two years ago, I promised myself not to rush into signing because it annoys the hell out of me. So I’m taking my time.”

With a maiden monument, and fourth overall at the Tour de France at the age of 20, Seixas remains by miles the hottest prospect on the transfer market for 2028. Pinarello-Q36.5, Netcompany-Ineos and Visma Lease-a-Bike would no doubt leap at the chance to sign him if they could, although the best French rider for a generation leaving a French team might be a bitter pill for patriotic fans to swallow.

As for next season, Seixas did not rule out riding the Giro d’Italia next season, and confirmed he was targeting a proper Grand Tour tilt at GC coupled with a bid for the rainbow jersey at the world championships in Haute-Savoie next year.

“The question is what the best option is, this or that Grand Tour before the world championships. Obviously, I’m going to try to perform well on a Grand Tour. Now, we need to figure out how we’re going to structure the season around that. No matter which Grand Tour, I’ll have big ambitions.”

As we covered on last week’s live blog and on the latest podcast episode, the men’s Tour de France route has only three mountain summit finishes and 71km of time trialling. Tadej Pogacar has already confirmed he will next year target the Tour, Worlds and Vuelta, whilst Remco Evenepoel must be a very foolish man to skip the most favourable Tour route towards his skillset in a generation. That leaves Seixas and Jonas Vingegaard wondering if they want to go all in on July or would rather a best chance of winning a different Grand Tour.

And yesterday it was announced that the Giro d’Italia’s route will be unveiled next week, on Tuesday 3rd November…

Two races. Two routes. One big reveal. 🩷
The 2027 #GirodItalia and #GirodItaliaWomen routes will be unveiled on November 3 at 12:00 CET in Rome.

Discover more 👇
https://t.co/E031EdWXzZ
.
Due corse. Due percorsi. Una grande presentazione. 🩷
Il 3 novembre alle ore 12:00, a Roma, saranno svelati i percorsi del #GirodItalia e del #GirodItaliaWomen 2027.

Scopri di più 👇
https://t.co/NQ7IH8SnNB

#TheRoute #GirodItalia #GirodItaliaWomen #WOW @girowomen

— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) October 26, 2026

 

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Sometimes you have to laugh…

> “Disaster” as lorry driver gets stuck in cycle lane planters… on first day of new ‘rain garden’