Live blog: The disappearing (and reappearing) world time trial champion; Brailsford says Froome is back on his bike, pedalling with one leg; French drivers to lose licences for using phone at the wheel; Phil Liggett’s tribute to Paul Sherwen + more
SUMMARY
The Tour hits the Pyrenees
Why so serious, we are going to climb on the Pyrenees today! @LeTour @BORAGmbH @Hansgrohe_PR @iamspecialized @sportful @ride100percent (Photo @bettiniphoto) pic.twitter.com/Vbmli2Ucgr
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) July 18, 2019
Here's the route
Stage 12 / Étape 12
Toulouse – Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Discover the 3D route of Stage 12.
Découvrez le parcours 3D de l’Étape 12.#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/iKQCR5eTPq— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 18, 2019
"Better late than never"...
Better late than never! The 2011 @lavuelta holds some very special memories for me pic.twitter.com/j0zk3LGsGD
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) July 18, 2019
Chris Froome wins the 2011 Vuelta with a broken leg. Full story here.
French drivers could lose driving licences for using mobile phone at the wheel
A recent poll found that 70 per cent of French motorists admit to having used their mobiles while driving. Another poll found that six per cent use their phones while driving on the motorway, including 15 per cent of truck drivers.
The Telegraph reports that a new measure, due to be introduced in autumn, would see driving licences confiscated if a driver is found to have broken a traffic rule while using their mobile phone at the wheel.
“If you forget to put your indicator on, which is very frequent among people on the phone, or drive over a white line a Stop sign or go through a red light, all these offences when coupled with using a mobile will allow police to confiscate your licence,” said French road safety boss, Emmanuel Barbe.
“We don’t wish to deprive anyone of their licence for months on end,” he added, implying that in most cases the confiscation would only be temporary.
A 2017 RAC survey found that up to nine million drivers could be habitually using their phones at the wheel in the UK.
Offenders currently face six penalty points and a £200 fine, but this can rise to £1,000 and a driving ban with a court appearance (£2,500 for lorry or bus drivers).
Great Paul Sherwen tribute in yesterday's pre-tour coverage
If you only watch one thing from our coverage of @LeTour please make it this@PhilLiggett leads our tribute to the late, great Paul Sherwen#TDF2019 #MerciPaul pic.twitter.com/XGegEhp57g
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 17, 2019
We watched this on ITV4 before yesterday’s stage and were hoping it would be shared again for those who missed it – Phil Liggett leads an excellent tribute to his friend of four decades and relives some of their best moments as Tour co-commentators.
Team I-NO/YES (delete as appropriate)
Six months ago long-time fan Daniel asked if there was any way we would be able to help him propose to partner Sarah at the Tour.
We’ll see what we can do, we said… pic.twitter.com/61CmRpTxKK
— Team INEOS (@TeamINEOS) July 18, 2019
If this was the proposal, we wonder what the actual wedding will look like? Yellow dress? Cake shaped like Alpe d’Huez or maybe the groomsmen in polka dot suits…
Still no break
Thirty kilometres after the start, sill no breakaways!
Trente kilomètres après le départ, toujours pas d’échappée ! #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/lqrY12B1fj— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 18, 2019
There's a break. Sagan's in it
BOOH !
When @petosagan jokes with the public.
Quand Peter Sagan s’amuse avec le public.#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/TYbru1081v
— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 18, 2019
But will they still be racing when they're old?
There’s thing going around the internet at the moment to use an app to see how old you will look in 60 years time. And here are some racers currently hurtling around France
The British riders have aged well https://t.co/SLILkeIfHy pic.twitter.com/Ct4YJhgZqQ
— Le Tour de France UK (@letour_uk) July 18, 2019
"He's sat on a bike and pedalling with one leg"
We mentioned Chris Froome being ‘back on his bike’ in our piece about him being awarded the 2011 Vuelta earlier.
Here’s Brailsford confirming it.
“He’s pedalling with one leg”
Great news to hear on @ChrisFroome‘s road to recovery #TDF2019
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) July 18, 2019
Tour latest - Calmejane leads
Lilian Calmejane leads the way to the Pyrenees, averaging 43.6km/h in the first 140km of stage 12.
The gap to the peloton has increased in the Col de Peyresourde: 6'44" with 64km to go.#TDF2019 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/wUuzKmyViT
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 18, 2019
The Total Direct Energie rider is leading the way, with the peloton almost seven minutes back.
Oh dear...
You guys had one job #sbstdf #couchpeloton pic.twitter.com/J7MV04Ym0H
— Bugwan (@bugwan) July 18, 2019
Were the riders supposed to go cross-country to claim these points?
Time trial world champion goes awol midway through stage, the day before the individual time trial
This is very odd. Has anyone seen Rohan Dennis?
Our priority is the welfare of all our riders so will launch an immediate investigation but will not be commenting further until we have established what has happened to @RohanDennis.
Meantime we continue to support our riders who are mid-race.
— Team Bahrain Merida (@Bahrain_Merida) July 18, 2019
We think he's turned up
Rohan Dennis back at Bahrain-Merida team bus, before the finish or Stage 12. Still no official word as to why the Australian has abandoned the #tdf19 #sbstdf. pic.twitter.com/xxgGNFnTWS
— Sophie Smith (@SophieSmith86) July 18, 2019
Things have been a bit tense, apparently
Our @Eurosport_UK start team witnessed obvious tensions between Rohan Dennis and Bahrain Merida at the team buses this morning. Whatever's gone wrong, it was building.
— Orla Chennaoui (@SportsOrla) July 18, 2019
Simon Yates wins stage 12
And that’s @SimonYatess who takes the win at the sprint!
Et c’est Simon Yates qui s’impose au sprint devant Bilbao et Mühlberger ! #TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/jN2uqhBvzi— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 18, 2019
The 2018 Vuelta champ won this strange sprint with no sprinters in it, triumphing over Pello Bilbao and Gregor Mühlberger.
Hartlepool cyclist hospitalised after car passenger pushed him off
Police appeal for witnesses.
G tries his hand as a tipster
“Can you win the stage tomorrow G?”
“Dennis and Van Aert are my favourites.”
“Dennis has gone home.”
“Oh, Van Aert then.”@GeraintThomas86 pic.twitter.com/Az1qTA2lja
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 18, 2019
Nothing to see here...
Only at @LeTour…
Answers on a postcard please!#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/T4e4gkowmG
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 18, 2019
Cervelo launches first gravel bike
Cervelo wades into the gravel bike market with an unashamedly performance-focused bike. Check it out here
And also check out this neat video they produced about gravel riding for the new bike.
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Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn’t especially like cake.
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Latest Comments
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 :/
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
@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.
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.
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").
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.)
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
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...
@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.
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.
20 thoughts on “Live blog: The disappearing (and reappearing) world time trial champion; Brailsford says Froome is back on his bike, pedalling with one leg; French drivers to lose licences for using phone at the wheel; Phil Liggett’s tribute to Paul Sherwen + more”
As ever, enforcement is the
As ever, enforcement is the trouble. How to catch people using their phone while driving? Though of course, they do still have police in France.
Bmblbzzz wrote:
One method might be to have a blitz on pulling over drivers for visible driving errors (eg failure to indicate) easy to capture on video. Then check their phone history. If there is an overlap, confiscate the licence and keys. As a side-benefit, such a campaign would see a load of BMW drivers booking their cars in to have the indicators fixed!
If the penalty was an instant
If the penalty was an instant ban, then I don’t think you’d need a lot of enforcement for most people to not risk it. I’ve never understood the need to be so lenient on mobile phone use at the wheel. It’s just about the only traffic offence that it really is impossible to commit by accident.
pdw wrote:
It’s similar in so many other aspects of life inclusing sport. We were talking about how rugby league and union can try to protect players welfare more particularly with regards to concussion. Changing the penalties to be harsher, or more in line with the actual offence and actually applying the penalties all the time not ad-hoc plus subsequent match bns of a greater length and financial penalty would make players think a bit more when going into contact.
Currently it’s abysmal and the traditional tackle has reduced as a % over the last 20+ years so you get a lot of head and neck contact, then we wonder why players are having more injuries both short and long term.
Changing the rules/penalties is the way forward, ‘armouring up’ is completely the wrong solution as they found in gridiron.
Why can’t we have a similar
Why can’t we have a similar mobile phone ban in the UK? My preference would be for an instant driving license ban (a couple of weeks or a month) and immediate confiscation of the phone as well. Combine that with random enforcement checks (e.g. plain clothes police on bikes filtering past traffic jams) and drivers would soon get the message and would stop. It’s only because drivers can get away with it that they do it.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Don’t need bikes, a copper sitting somewhere slightly raised with a birdspotter scope, looking at oncoming traffic, radio to marked patrol to pull in drivers for mobile use, seatbelt, etc etc. Works great here in Norway, and they often stand in the same place, so you’d think people would be especially careful at their 5 fave places, but nope, every time they are there they stop loads of people. Equivalent to a £170 fine + 2 points (8 loses licence here for 6 months)
Couple of months back they caught so many they actually couldn’t stop all of them, they hadn’t space in the layby to pull in more. So they came back the same time the next day, and gaught even more. 3 of the drivers pulled in on day 2 had been pulled the day before, and both of them suddenly had enough points to become instant pedestrians. (If they have no other driver in the car the ban is delayed a few hours to allow them to get home, so if you live 2km away, and get stopped at 9am, the ban would be from 10am)
StuInNorway wrote:
That is how you do it intelligently, however, here in the UK, intelligence and the Police don’t go hand in hand. The car rules here in the UK with a surprising amount of drivers racking up over 12 points and still allowed to drive (12 points is the limit as to where you become disqualified for a couple of months).
In 2017, there was a Yorkshire driver who had an incredible 62 points on their license and still allowed to legally drive! Thats enough to disqualify 5 people, but yet they still are allowed to drive. So hats off to the Norwegians for actually enforcing the law properly.
jigr69 wrote:
Not much to do with the police, everything to do with our useless, grovelling politicians, scared to death of the driver vote.
It was the politicians who allowed hands free mobiles, despite the evidence showing that they are just as dangerous as hand held. If I was in charge, the MPs who voted for that would be working shifts in A&E to make them aware of the consequences of their craven actions.
It was the same politicians who decided that, although the effect on driving was the same as being over the alcohol limit, using a hand held mobile would receive a much smaller punishment.
The same politicians who passed the Act allowing for exceptional hardship when drivers should be banned.
Our MPs are spineless, cowardly and ineffective, and have no interest in really making our roads safer.
burtthebike wrote:
it has everything to do with the police because they have to enforce the law if like most of them they are so pedantic . 10mph over the speed limit etc etc.
I think most politicians now are career minded . They never have the balls to talk for themselves.
how many times do they get asked “ what do you think “ and they are to scared because they tow the party line and don’t want to fuck up their future prospects . In Walthamstow the people voted not to bomb Syria it was something like 99% Their MP overruled it and voted in parliament to support the bombing . If your vote counted you wouldn’t be allowed to vote
Here’s the solution why isn’t this in every fucking vehicle,,,because of the ker ching.
https://www.livescience.com/3145-device-prevents-driving-cell-phone.html
StuInNorway wrote:
Fair enough. I just love the idea of more police going out on bikes to give them a non-windscreen perspective and possibly improve their health as well. The big advantage of bikes is that you can capture all the stationary drivers that start using their phone whilst in jams.
I don’t agree with the delayed ban, though it is nice and considerate for the drivers. Immediate ban and the driver can phone a friend or start walking. If you can’t travel alone, don’t use your phone (sorry, not sorry for the rubbish slogan).
hawkinspeter wrote:
But note that the Norwegian delayed ban is still far sooner and more definite than the British “automatic” ban which depends on the decision of a judge at a court case some time in the future. The ability of the police to ban you from driving literally and instantaneously on the spot with no argument already shows a huge difference in attitude to law enforcement. (Same of course in non-traffic law: a fine for eg littering can be given on the spot but you get 21 days to pay, etc.)
StuInNorway wrote:
A fairly regular feature in my local paper. A couple of journalists / photographers appear to be able to do a competent job:
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/17768435.drivers-file-nails-eat-breakfast-a338-wessex-way/
hawkinspeter wrote:
somebody tried to confiscate my phone today. Mounted the pavement on a scooter and went for me at quite a speed. I don’t think he was a cop either. Miserable little scrote .
Want to catch motorists on
Want to catch motorists on their phones… simple… walk down a street and look in the cars as they passs by, you don’t need anything else, walking my dog in the morning to and from the local woods I go along a fairly busy road, I would say 30% of the drivers are on their phones.
Current policy simply isn’t working, a ban is the only way forward
The problem I’ve encountered
The problem I’ve encountered is the wording of the law which states the phone must be ‘in use’. I’ve filmed a number of drivers with their phones in their hands clearly having a conversation and one recently who was filming his drive past Windsor Castle. However when I reported all these to the police and provided the footage, the response I get back is that they won’t prosecute becuase that can’t prove that the phone was ‘in use’ rather than just being ‘held in the hand’ which isn’t an offence apparently. If the law was changed so just holding the phone was an offence then it would be much easier to prosecute.
schlepcycling wrote:
But unless the scribes writing it on the bit of vellum that got royal assent transcribed it wrong,which has happened once before I believe, the law should state its illegal even to just hold a mobile phone whilst driving,no qualifier that it needs to be in use,the only exception I believe was to make 999 calls if it was unsafe to stop, everything else even whilst stopped should be covered. Now whether the police feel it’s a law worth their time pursuing the full extent of the law for cases unless it’s a clear danger to other road users is another matter
Any seen the Russian ‘Stop a
Any seen the Russian ‘Stop a douche bag’ channel on YouTube? They do stuff like stopping drivers going down pavements to avoid queues. If they dont back up they get a large, hard to remove sticker over their windscreen. Should do that.
Alternatively police should just patrol on motorbikes, filtering and looking through windows. Then smash the window and give them a thorough beating.
The police force don’t have
The police force don’t have the resourcefulness . The austerity that is going on in this country has seen to that . Cuts cuts cuts. Anyway the street police are mostly power tripping lunatics. They are just the government’s gang “ they are legal” . Look at the recent facial recognition van in London fining a man £90 . They “the government gang the police “ are just revenue assets . All we get is fake terror BS and busting kids for carrying some dope and turning up after the stabbings that have been numerous in London .
Some lorry driver smashed in to my jeep parked outside my house.
I called the fucking police , this little shit in a uniform turned up and started giving me shit because I have long hair and tattoos. I told him to go fuck himself and do his job . I told him he was nothing without that uniform and I’m watching everything he’s doing . He didn’t know what to do ,his partner intervened ,who happened to be a very decent chap and admitted that his partner lacks social skills I.e he doesn’t know how to talk to people . Remember I just called the police after a lorry smashes in to my jeep parked outside my house and instead of speaking to the lorry driver sitting in the cab he starts trying to pick on me , wtf , lucky I was not black or a Muslim .
Seriously how did he even get that job . That’s what we have ,brainwashed morons in positions of authority.
There is a device that can actually stop phones from working in a car etc . Why dont they just install them in every car . The cost would pay for it self when you look at the accidents and the deaths from this stupid act . Get off the phones anyway. I challenge any poster to go a week without your phone . Your all turning into a bunch of fucking robots , we already are seeing people chipped ,wake the fuck up . Use your land line. . You really don’t need it .
Xena wrote:
You’re a delight, i wonder why the Policeman treated you with contempt!
The delayed ban in Norway
The delayed ban in Norway makes sense, else once you run out of room in the layby you must stop the operation. Else confiscate and tow the car, which is operationally and legally difficult.