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Live blog: Team Wiggins becomes Team WIGGINS Le Col, a hardcore commute, Geraint Thomas wins Welsh Sports Personality of the Year award +more
Is G a dead-cert for the UK gong after scooping the Welsh SPOTY award? Meanwhile, the government said they want to double cycling in the UK by 2025 at the Cycling and Walking Innovations conference today
Wed, Dec 05, 2018 15:23
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to eBikeTips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
HoarseMann 29 minutes ago
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
AidanR 39 minutes ago
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
Sredlums 1 hour ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 2 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 2 hours ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 2 hours ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 2 hours ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
Jakrayan 3 hours ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 4 hours ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
bensynnock 4 hours ago
They might have to, but they won't. What they will do is pull out over the cycle path while they wait for a gap in motor traffic.
12 thoughts on “Live blog: Team Wiggins becomes Team WIGGINS Le Col, a hardcore commute, Geraint Thomas wins Welsh Sports Personality of the Year award +more”
Thought near misses on bikes
Thought near misses on bikes were bad?
Yes, as the consequences are far worse.
Oh, and by the way Jack S, – none of this ‘previously worked for 220 Triathlon magazine’ nonsense! I know you still write for 220, ya little tinker!
KendalRed wrote:
If there were consequences it wouldn’t be a near miss, I was more referring to the initial wince-factor in some of these examples – though I’m not doubting if there were consequences involving a cyclist it’s likely to be worse (first-hand experience of this).
I do still do some freelance work for a UK multisport magazine yes, but I’m typing this at you from my full-time place of employment!
That’s TFL budgeting is
That’s TFL budgeting is hardly a surprise to anyone who works in projects or infrastructure. That’s how infrastructure spending works. The 17/18/19 budget will be for planning, writing PIDs, submitting and reviewing bids and ramping up to delivery. You don’t just go out and start digging up roads or implementing changes at random. These things take time.
Its not a scandal, it’s standard program delivery.
Some shocking driving there,
Some shocking driving there, but then again that’s no shock. My particular favourite was the impatient overtaker who had to stick it in the verge on the far side to avoid a head on.
Marjority of these are ‘oh,
Marjority of these are ‘oh, the guy in front has gone so it must be alright for me to go too, no need to check…’
“The Government want to
“The Government want to double cycling by 2025.
They have identified the barriers;
safety, and poor infrastructure are the top two”
No. The top two are the government, closely followed by the government. And the rest of the top 100 are the government too.
Quote:
But they want to do it without paying any money, without changing any aspect of the built environment, and without having to restrict the activities of motorists in any way, shape, or form…
brooksby wrote:
But they want to do it without paying any money, without changing any aspect of the built environment, and without having to restrict the activities of motorists in any way, shape, or form…
Can’t they just change how it’s calculated?
That bloke who ran the route
That bloke who ran the route of the tour de france.. 30 miles a day for 68 days…. he’s a nutter!
Interesting about cycling
Interesting about cycling being the fastest growing sport in the British Army. I work in Defence and was quite surprised to see the number of officers who are keen cyclists. A couple of the blokes even did the Alpe d’Huez stage last year.
Eton Rifle wrote:
Any chance of using their expertise and the accessibility of weapons to dole out some very rough justice? I’m thinking of a challenger tank running over a few cars, and I’m sure quite a few people would chip in to crowdfund it, as long as they were given sufficient warning to be there to video the driver’s face as he rushes out of his house to see his crushed car and a tank disappearing into the distance.
burtthebike wrote:
Who needs a tank? This is the Army’s replacement vehicle* – it has all terrain capability, low fuel consumption, low radar footprint and very quiet weapon discharge…
(* this may not be quite true)