Live blog: Tour de France Stage 8: De Gendt wins Stage 8 with phenomenal breakaway performance + Alaphilippe attacks + Geraint Thomas crashes (snaps bike in half)

What gets me is the people who, after I've been stuck behind them for a while having to ride slower than I normally would, when I eventually get to a point where I can overtake then decide they want to have a race.

"Accessible Ayr scheme" Accessible only by drivers and dinosaurs. “We sat here in January and were told no cycle lanes in Alloway Street or in the Sandgate. I reported this good news to all my community councillors. They were all beaming and smiling and saying great news." It isn't good news, the community councillors don't care about the community if they're beaming and smiling and saying great news: they are out of touch and car obsessed. Just how many schemes like this have to happen to show that they work, they make the community better, they increase trade at the shops and people like them? A thousand? A million? I've just realised that it probably doesn't matter how many times such schemes are successful the 'it won't work here' neanderthals will never accept it in their back yard. Depressing. I've only visited Ayr once, and was glad to leave. Don't think I'll be going back.

@Nigel Garage Funny that, because I have worked with many disabled people both professionally and as a volunteer, mainly helping them to navigate the complexities of the grant system. Oddly enough, not one of them has ever said to me. “I don’t want to be treated like this, I want to stand on my own two feet“ and not applied for the assistance to which they were entitled. If you end up disabled through accident or illness and need very expensive special equipment to help you live as normal a life as possible, and indeed to make a contribution to society, are you going to refuse the assistance on offer? I suggest when you clearly have no experience and no knowledge in an area it’s best for you just to shut up rather than assume that you can speak on behalf of disabled people.

@belugabob I think the (conservative!) Baron John Bird @ Big Issue puts it well: a hand up, not a handout. I think a fairly narrowly focused tax break on specific assistance vehicles should fit that ideal very well! Of course "but rich people can abuse tax breaks". But ain't it the case that the rich are not infrequently rich (or richer) by sharp practice, and that has been true since at least the start of history?

@belugabob following Chris Boardman's rule of "those most affected get to make the decisions but also own the consequences" ... ... I hope they leave a couple of quid from the grant to buy them a card which says "you chose 'do nothing' - your right. But therefore no right to extra cash to try to sort out any congestion, the crumbling road infra which we just can't keep up with, and the health and economic consequences of declining activity in the population".

I feel sorry for the staff whose jobs are at risk.

@sclarke3@talktalk.net there's a bit of a vanity thing going on with a great deal of Walmart money. They are very into their cycling, bikesnobnyc has written a bit about the very cycling company town. My better half got me some leg and arm warmers for my birthday. I look forward to wearing them when the going gets much colder. I did manage to punch myself in the face, twice, when trying to get the right arm one on, a lesson learned and I will try not to do it again.

Drives me mad at the Westminster end of the Embankment cycle lane, where there will often be enough cyclists queuing that you might, shock horror, have to wait for two traffic light cycles before you get through. So many cyclists just jump to the front and expect you to make space for them. Worst example I saw was a pedicab driver who overtook the 50 odd queuing cyclists and then sat blocking the cycle traffic in the opposite direction.

Re: the snarky Geraint Thomas caption "sunglasses that peaked probably a decade prior" - to be fair, that became a bit of a personal brand.

@jackcycles so...disabled people don't want any help....? if you dig any deeper, you'll hit the bedrock