Welcome to Wednesday’s live blog with Jack Sexty, Simon MacMichael, and the rest of the road.cc team.
Today, as well as all the usual Live blog diversions, we’re wondering: do you ride in ice and snow?
Live blog: POLL: do you ride in ice and snow? + “grabbed” cyclist wins $2.25m from NYPD, sledging, crap parking, active travel, youngest round the world cyclist, e-bike factory catches fire (again), win an Elite turbo trainer + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond
Wed, Jan 23, 2019 17:23
SUMMARY
23 January 2019, 17:23
Crap parking blocks cycle lane part 26,547
Hi @CambsWater, is it your policy for your operatives to block a major cycle route? They could easily park round the corner. No work is taking place on the route itself. Can you please phone them and tell them to move it? Cc @CambsCC pic.twitter.com/oJ0YW6sk1K
— Camb. Cycling Cam. (@camcycle) January 22, 2019
This time Cambridge Water – although they replied swiftly to tell their workforce to move the van sharpish on this occasion.
23 January 2019, 17:23
Important Team Sky announcement
New album dropping next week. Watch this space for tour dates… pic.twitter.com/sD7is1Q2MP
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) January 23, 2019
We’re thinking gangster rap?
23 January 2019, 17:23
Registration opens for the Big Pedal 2019
Registration for the UK’s biggest #cycling, #walking & #scooting challenge is officially open. Sign up to the #BigPedal today, backed by @angellicabell https://t.co/PpjKz2MIPb pic.twitter.com/X08J3aQmPj
— Sustrans (@sustrans) January 22, 2019
Organised by Sustrans and taking place between the 25th March and 5th April, the Big Pedal will encourage young people from across the UK to travel by bike, foot or scooter for their journey to and from school. Participating schools will compete to make the most journeys by bike, on foot or by scooter, and lots of schools will also be closing roads to motor vehicles outside theirs schools to limit traffic volumes and increase safety. Find out more here.
23 January 2019, 17:23
Canadian becomes youngest Round-The-World cyclist
An 18-year-old from Canada is set to become the youngest person to ride round the world on a bike as he finishes his circumnavigation today.
B’yauling Toni (no typo, that’s definitely his name) set off from Saskatoon seven months ago, a week after finishing high school, reports cyclingmagazine.ca – and while he won’t break the record for the quickest circumnavigation of the world by bike, he will have been the youngest person to have done it.
He told the website: “I was surprised by the mental drain of the constant grind. Over a long period of time my body is tired but recovers but my, the mental struggle tends to just pile. Things become hard to remember and my mind feels fuzzy and overwhelmed.
There are times when I was struggling so much that I wondered why I was putting myself through this, but I don’t think I would ever quit. In my mind it is not really an option.”
Yes it’s been done in a quicker time, but not at a younger age… chapeau!
23 January 2019, 17:23
Virtual Hammer series with Kinomap offers riders the chance to win Elite turbo trainers
Using real footage from Hammer Series races in Norway, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, you can ride the course virtually on your home trainer using the Kinomap app and compete for the chance to win prizes. To enter, simply download the app and choose a Hammer Series team to start earning points. On 31st January one fan from each team will be randomly chosen in a draw and will win their chosen team’s jersey – you need to complete at least one activity to be in the draw. To compete for the Elite trainers, you have to complete a solo activity.
All the info for entering and signing up is here.
23 January 2019, 17:23
A snowy Paris Roubaix...
Well, it will be if you go and ride it today…
23 January 2019, 17:23
B'yauling Toni arrives at the finish (+ donation link)
The badass bikepacking 18-year-old B’Yauling Toni, who became the youngest person to ride around the world yesterday, is shown here cycling through treacherous Canadian conditions to make it to the finish line. This photo is from a Facebook event page from a local bike shop who organised a procession to welcome him back. Toni was also raising money for Canada’s Outdoor School Program, which gives kids across the country the chance to take canoeing, camping, backpacking, cycling trips and more across the province of Skaskatchewan to benefit from outdoor learning as well as standard academic education. He was in the Outdoor School Program in 2016 and found it so life-changing, it inspired him to raise funds for the organisation so they can continue their good work : “The passion for learning Outdoor School sparked in students left me questioning our formal education system. I believe that this program should be available for anybody, and the Outdoor School Alumni Association works to make this possible by helping to cover tuition and supply gear to students in need”, says B’yauling.
He’s already raised $12,000 on the GoFundMe page, click here to donate some more.
23 January 2019, 17:23
Third fire in seven months at Stella factory...
…no, not that Stella, this one is a Dutch e-bike brand! And this time a fire broke out at their showroom which involved 36 bikes and 80 batteries, according to forbes.com. Thankfully the damage was minimal this time around after a speedy response from local fire crews, however in July last year 300 residents living close by to the factory in Nunspeet had to be evacuated overnight after a Stella warehouse caught fire. At the time the local mayor described it as a “wake-up call”: “The risks caused by this fire caught us by surprise. We need to work on this and find out the risks which come with the storage of e-bike batteries. I also call for a national campaign to register where these batteries are stored in what quantities.”
One of Stella’s delivery vans carrying e-bikes also went up in flames in November and had to be destroyed.
It’s not the first time e-bikes on fire has been making the news recently, after a Pinarello retrofitted with a motor system blew up earlier this month due to a faulty battery – the Australian escaped without serious injuries.
23 January 2019, 17:23
Watch: House of Commons Transport Committee's inquiry into active travel
Featuring Sustrans representatives, MP’s and active travel advocates, the inquiry sought to get Britain on their bikes and on foot and discussed ways of providing further investment. Click the link here to watch it on the Parliament Live TV website.
Today our own @ReWhite14 is joining @WeAreCyclingUK & @livingstreets to provide evidence to the House of Commons Transport Committee inquiry into Active Travel. We urge a significant increase in investment in #walking and #cycling. pic.twitter.com/DZ5xIo9vCp
— Sustrans (@sustrans) January 23, 2019
23 January 2019, 17:23
Laughing in the face of our 'would you ride in the ice and snow' poll...
“Are you serious?” said this person who witnessed me cycling, in the dark, in the snow, one handed, with a camera in my free hand. Well yes, filming for my blog is dead serious! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/kQMxBcpOvX
— Mark Wagenbuur (@BicycleDutch) January 22, 2019
It looks like this guy would, much to the bemusement of the passing pedestrian… although to be fair there’s plenty round here that would do the same even down to shooting a bit of video at the same time.
23 January 2019, 17:23
$2.25 million settlement for cyclist who say police officer 'grabbed him'
The New York Post reports that injured cyclist Charles Puccio, 62, has been awarded almost half of the $5 million he sued the NYPD for after alleging that Detective Noel Lawrence grabbed him, causing him to swerve and crash. Detective Lawrence denied the charge, but the judge ruled in favour of Puccio. Why he was grabbed is unclear, but he was left with foot, back and knee injuries that required hospital treatment.
23 January 2019, 17:23
Review: Cheap Plastic Sledge we found down the park £0.00
Staying with today’s theme here’s a wintry blast from the road.cc archive from back in the days (Jan 2010 to be precise) when if it snowed outside* the road.cc team went sledging in the park for the afternoon well, except for poor old Simon in London. As you can see from the state of the sledge he possibly didn’t get the short straw. Here’s a flavour of Dave’s review…
A mixed bag, this one. On the one hand we found it in the park last time it was snowing, and it’s been waiting in the cupboard ever since, so it’s not like we had to fork out our hard-earned or anything. For general going downhill duties it put up with plenty of runs and though it wasn’t the fastest sledge on the hill, it was quick enough for some laughs.
You can read the full review here – worth it for the comments including one from OldRidgeback – who commented on the blog earlier.
*which it didn’t do again for another 8 years
23 January 2019, 17:23
Met Office issues yellow ice warning
…No, that’s not a warning about yellow ice (which sounds potentially unpleasant) but a yellow – be alert – warning about ice on untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths across a large swathe of the UK. The lack of gritting of cycle paths in many parts of the country has long been a bone of contention for cyclists. The warning is in effect from 18:00 tonight until 11:00 tomorrow morning. So however you may be travelling between now and then take care. You can read the full warning here on the Met Office website.
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
Gm_Crop 7 hours ago
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
IanGlasgow 7 hours ago
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
Rendel Harris 8 hours ago
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Bill H 9 hours ago
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
pbunyon 9 hours ago
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
chrisonabike 9 hours ago
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
belugabob 9 hours ago
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
Astralstroll 11 hours ago
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
Mr Anderson 13 hours ago
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
MaxiMinimalist 13 hours ago
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
3 thoughts on “Live blog: POLL: do you ride in ice and snow? + “grabbed” cyclist wins $2.25m from NYPD, sledging, crap parking, active travel, youngest round the world cyclist, e-bike factory catches fire (again), win an Elite turbo trainer + more”
Chapeau to Toni
Chapeau to Toni
Yellow ice? definitely needs
Yellow ice? definitely needs a warning. We know where that comes from don’t we.
Don’t know about cycling in snow and ice, as the studded tyres I bought five years ago are just gathering dust. Global warming?
The attitude of the Cambs
The attitude of the Cambs Water operatives is, I’m afraid, all too common; see a space, park in it. I’ve had some robust discussions with public utility and other white van drivers about blocking paths, and have on occasion, called their office, always successfully so far.