Turbo Trainer Thursdays for the NHS; ‘The worst drivers are now back on our roads’ says Jeremy Vine; Rescheduled Tour de France already in doubt; Cycling providing people with vital mental break; Bicycle Traffic degree offered by German unis + more
SUMMARY
Bicycle Traffic degree offered by German universities
From 2021 onwards it will be possible to study bicycle traffic at some German colleges and universities, reports jetzt.de.
The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure advertised a maximum amount of 400,000 euros per university that wanted to offer a course in bicycle transport.
A total of 33 universities and universities applied for it and seven were awarded a contract.
It’s a serious undertaking. Those who wish to take a masters degree in “Bicycle traffic in intermodal transport networks” at Wildau University of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg will first need a bachelor’s degree in a traffic or city planning degree.
“Well thought-out – and therefore attractive and accepted – bicycle traffic is a complex matter,” said Klaus-Martin Melzer, who will be running the course, adding that, “as a graduate of such a degree program you can make a contribution to the traffic revolution.”
In short, the degree puts cyclists front and centre when it comes to transport planning. You can draw your own comparisons.
BBC newsreader's midnight ride
This was a week ago. Are the roads still this quiet?
Cycled home after @BBCNews at 10 tonight. I had the streets of London to myself. Breathtaking – literally. #LockdownLondon pic.twitter.com/uLd03MDGBK
— sophieraworth (@sophieraworth) April 16, 2020
Strade Bianche first race on provisional 2020 calendar
Provisional dates sent to teams have Strade Bianche down as the first post-lockdown race on August 1, according to RTBF.
These plans are, presumably, very woolly, considering some level of social distancing is expected for the rest of the year.
They do perhaps give an indication of how things could be reorganised, should racing again become possible.
The Belgian public-service broadcaster reports that the first Monument of the season, Milan-San Remo, would be on Saturday August 8, followed by a four-day Criterium du Dauphiné and then the various national championships.
The Tour de France is pencilled in for August 29 to September 20 with the World Championships would still on its original dates (September 20 to 27).
The Ardennes classics would follow, with the Flèche Wallonne on September 30, Liège-Bastogne-Liège on October 4 and Amstel Gold on October 10, before moving into the cobbled classics.
Ghent-Wevelgem would be held on October 11, the Tour of Flanders on October 18 and Paris-Roubaix on October 25.
Most of these races would overlap with the Giro d’Italia, which would start in the first week of October, but finish before Paris-Roubaix.
The Tour of Lombardy would then be held on October 31, followed by the Vuelta a Espana from November 1.
Cycling is providing people with a vital mental break, says Boardman
If you missed Chris Boardman on BBC Breakfast yesterday, needless to say he did a very good job of advocating cycling – because he always does.
“A lot of people, we have to remember, don’t have gardens; they don’t have space at home; they’ve got kids. You cannot keep people locked in for months without giving them a way to have a mental break.”
🚲 @Chris_Boardman former Olympic champion speaks to #BBCBreakfast about what he does if he goes on an isolation cycle. ⤵️
More here: https://t.co/Anm0TqAMqr pic.twitter.com/2xs5qQdW5G— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) April 22, 2020
Striking obituary for anti-cycleway campaigner
Carlton Reid has written a striking obituary of the “famously abrasive, inflexible, and supercilious” John Forester, who has died at the age of 90.
Forester was a vocal critic of Dutch-style cycleways from the early 1970s. He instead advocated “vehicular cycling,” a method of riding with motor traffic.
He promoted and sold a vehicular-cycling teaching course – Effective Cycling – from 1974 onwards.
Paddington Station: home of bikes and trains and zero people
No people in Paddington Station, but there are 1,243 bicycles. pic.twitter.com/ifxlVRwCfD
— Alastair Hilton (@London_W4) March 31, 2020
Rescheduled Tour de France already in doubt
French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu has told Eurosport that she doesn’t think public sporting events will take place until September at the earliest.
“All events that can resume will be behind closed doors or with very strict restrictions,” she added.
Last week we reported that August 29 has been pencilled in as the new start date for the Tour de France. Maracineanu’s comments make that seem pretty unlikely.
There are more details on the provisional 2020 race calendar further down the page.
The dates probably aren’t worth a great deal, but it’s worth reading to get a sense of the sport’s priorities should a resumption prove possible.
Paramedic whose bike was stolen given a replacement
Last week we reported how paramedic Samuel Clyde Jones had his bike stolen from his home during a 12-hour shift.
Halfords and Chris Boardman have sorted him out with a new one.
Late to post this, busy on the 🚑! But thanks to @Chris_Boardman @boardmanbikes and @Halfords_UK I’m back on the trails! What absolute legends, can’t wait to finish my block of shifts and get out there, hope the ☀️ sticks around. Had a huge grin all day! pic.twitter.com/g99vCwyjg7
— Samuel Clyde Jones (@OrangutanClyde) April 22, 2020
The BBC is showing the virtual Tour de Suisse. It’s really weird
With no bike racing taking place any time soon, the Digital Swiss 5 makes for an interesting watch.
Hearing commentators talk about esports is always weird, but somehow it seems extra jarring because they’re competing on Rouvy.
Rouvy uses augmented reality, so the footage is real, but the rider avatars are not.
So it seems both real and unreal at the same time.
And then a car comes round the corner.
We’re not sure it’ll justify repeat viewings, but there’s certainly novelty value in seeing the likes of world champion Mads Pedersen and reigning Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet competing in a virtual world on their turbo trainers.
The Digital Swiss 5 is essentially a mini Tour de Suisse thing. There are 19 teams involved and each day for five days they’ll pick three riders to compete in a race.
The routes are based on the Tour de Suisse – although they’re much shorter.
If you’re keen to see how it all works (or you’d like to hear Alex Dowsett theorising about the game’s algorithms) you can watch stage one here.
Despite the ‘no upcoming broadcast’ message, we’re assured that the whole thing will be available on the BBC iPlayer.
Today’s 46km stage will be streamed from 4.10pm.
Highlights of the Rouvy Tour de Suisse thing
Here you go. Here’s a short video that’ll give you a feel for things.
Watch the highlights of Race 1 of the #DigitalSwiss5 as a selection of the best riders in the world went head to head online 🎥
Full-race replay: https://t.co/xumLOZ30jh
Results and report: https://t.co/4W5HSfLhtJ@gorouvy @tds pic.twitter.com/dq7YUfBAjY— Velon CC (@VelonCC) April 22, 2020
Cycling themed face mask
Nearly everyone in Sainsbury’s wearing a face mask – clinical or own effort. Here’s my cycling-related effort. pic.twitter.com/bYqZMhfnPH
— Jamie (@jamie_and_bikes) April 23, 2020
This choice of attire surely increases the chances of walking away empty-handed.
Brighton road closed to motor traffic
Social distancing needs more space!🚶♀️🧹🚴♂️
🧑⚕️Greg, a Brighton frontline doctor talks to us while walking down the first UK road to get closed to traffic to make space for pedestrians and cyclists during lockdown. #walkingfromhome #StaySafe #StayActive pic.twitter.com/yHuVDD7OLU
— Living Streets (@livingstreets) April 23, 2020
Hammersmith and Fulham to widen pavements to help with social distancing
Roads will be down from two lanes to one.
Pavements in the busy shopping areas of King Street and Uxbridge Road are to be temporarily widened to help with social distancing. Installation will begin tomorrow and the measures fully in place by Friday.
Full details here👇https://t.co/mDrxFjdvwH
— H&F Council (@LBHF) April 22, 2020
Carl Fredrik Hagen's lockdown journal
Lotto Soudal’s Carl Fredrik Hagen gives us a day-in-the-life thing from Norway.
It is quite coffee-heavy content.
Carl actually makes a coffee to drink while he’s waiting for his coffee machine to heat up.
'The worst drivers are now back on our roads' says Jeremy Vine
Warning: some of the worst drivers are now back on our roads. This was about an hour ago. pic.twitter.com/2bbsLYrIVR
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) April 22, 2020
Someone stole Emily Thornberry’s son’s bike while he was out delivering food parcels to vulnerable pensioners
The Islington South & Finsbury MP’s son, 20, had his bike nicked from outside St Luke’s Community Centre in Central Street at about midday yesterday.
The Islington Gazette reports that it has been reported stolen and there is CCTV of the incident.
Whoever stole my son’s bike from outside St Lukes Community Centre this morning, has taken it from a volunteer who was delivering food parcels to families in need. Maybe they should stop and think about that
— Emily Thornberry (@EmilyThornberry) April 22, 2020
Pedal Me are delivering fruit and veg boxes now
Twitter, we are trialing a fruit and veg box delivery service. They're standard 50 piece boxes that contain a mixture of fruits and veg. The boxes are £22 delivered to your home by us and it will be next day delivery. https://t.co/Jh1LJz2jtF pic.twitter.com/Xw1Rh0FWYf
— Pedal Me (@pedalmeapp) April 22, 2020
They're auctioning off the Grifter from This Is England for charity
Proceeds go to to Nottingham’s Robin Hood Fund, which was established to support Nottingham organisations that are helping those most vulnerable and in need during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Have you seen this? 👀
Get your hands on an iconic Raleigh Grifter used in Shane Meadows’ ‘This Is England’ through the Robin Hood Fund public auction.
Proceeds from this charity auction go to @RHFNottingham
You’ve got 5 days left to place bids!https://t.co/Aoa4RxVdpd pic.twitter.com/MFmLJerL7q— Raleigh Bikes UK (@RaleighBikes_UK) April 22, 2020
#Donateyourmiles each Thursday - £1 a mile for the NHS
Last week we reported how Mark Beaumont was attempting to recruit a “virtual peloton” to ride around the world in a day with funds raised going to NHS Charities.
They’re well underway, but the whole thing seems to have expanded.
World in a Day is now a weekly thing.
More details on the website.
23 April 2020, 08:09
23 April 2020, 08:09
23 April 2020, 08:09
23 April 2020, 08:09
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Latest Comments
@Xenophon2 I agree. I tried a different route from Garstang to Leeds on Saturday to avoid the Death Highways from Barnoldswick to Skipton. I had to turn off Hazard warnings on the 1040 because people have ruined the hazard facility by warning about every pothole, instead of only the bad ones. UK roads are full of them, and the red Hazard was turning up constantly. Similarly, radar is useless in the UK because nutter drivers are everywhere and the alarm will be going off all the time. I'm convinced this is a good radar and it's what I'd get if I had any use for it. I'm pretty sure it would have warned me about this Stagecoach bus on The Lancashire Terminator Express, and lots of the other vehicles as well- then what? ttps://upride.cc/incident/px12dnv_stagecoach41_closepass/
It's just the same on cucumber growers websites. Only last week, a Tuesday I think it was, there was an article on growing courgettes. I don't grow courgettes. I was livid and thought I was going to spontaneously combust. Luckily my wife knows the signs - steam rising from my boots, speaking in tongues- and was on hand to throw a bucket of water over me. She always seems to have a bucket of water handy. And as for red tomato growers websites? Don't get me started.
What size of golf balls though?
Given that humour, as defined by no less than Charlie Chaplin, is someone else's misfortune. it is clear that anyone who makes a joke should be fired. Which reminds me of the terrible joke about what the ring master said when the human cannonball died "It'll be difficult to find another man of his calibre." Fire me now to save time.
@Mr Blackbird Yes, I've been on the rugby field when a sudden storm of about 3mm stones erupted, like being shot by a thousand air rifles at once and as you say, the temperature plummet was incredible. Memorable also for the sight of props who hadn't broken above a jog in two decades and who thought you were a wuss if you went off for a mere broken arm suddenly doing creditable Linford Christie impressions in the rush for shelter!
@Rendel Harris I just finished watching a recording of today's stage and the hailstones appeared to be somewhere around blueberry sized. Possibly large enough to cause somebody to crash if they rode over one at the wrong angle. A few years ago I was riding a time trial on the A428 in Cambs. It was around 18 - 20 deg C. At around the half way point the heavens opened. The temperature must have dropped by about 10 degC almost immediately. Within about a minute, I was completely soaked and riding through about 10mm deep water on the carriageway, with my visor fogging up. The worst thing though was the feeling of shock. Had I been near the HQ I would have abandoned. The Vuelta riders must have experienced something much much worse than me, especially as they will have been acclimatised to 30+ degC in recent weeks. Hopefully none of them will get ill as a result of today - it was only stage 3, so pressed their immune systems aren't yet too stressed.
Sounds like this bike should have 5 stars 🤩…why only 4?
Poor you! 😂 Humans have been cycling gravel roads since bikes were invented. Tarmac is not the definition of road.
Hailstones the size of golf balls Ryan? It was bad but I've seen a "golf ball sized" hailstorm (in Spain, as it happens, from a safe shelter) and they smash glass and can knock people unconscious, often with skull fractures - no way would the riders have been able to carry on until they found shelter in that type of storm, it would have been every man for himself under the nearest tree or rock.
Oh, get over yourself. For many of us, the shit state of UK roads means that a gravel bike IS a road bike now.
13 thoughts on “Turbo Trainer Thursdays for the NHS; ‘The worst drivers are now back on our roads’ says Jeremy Vine; Rescheduled Tour de France already in doubt; Cycling providing people with vital mental break; Bicycle Traffic degree offered by German unis + more”
Chapeau! Well done Pilot Pete
Chapeau! Well done Pilot Pete (Peter Smitth) on getting ALL the signs around Bollington removed. (I’ll be checking this weekend)
Perhaps you could put up some
Perhaps you could put up some alternate signs too !
Nico Roche needs to have a
Nico Roche needs to have a word with his virtual mechanic and figure out why he’s randomly unclipping – that can’t have been helping his effort.
The obit for John Forester
The obit for John Forester was fascinating. I found my self both agreeing and disagreeing with him vehemently
Disagreeing that Infra is bad
Agreeing that increased infra can provide ammunition for the “you shouldn’t be on the road” camp
What a fascinating character. RIP
It would be much harder to
It would be much harder to disagree with J.F. if the infra we have was of even a half decent standard.
Ain’t that the truth!
Ain’t that the truth!
C’mon Jeremy vine – the sun
C’mon Jeremy vine – the sun was in his eyes.
I think I know where all the
I think I know where all the ‘crap’ drivers are going; designing posters/painting the pavements with ‘2M’. Maybe they missed out the following ‘μm’?, but it should be simply ‘2m’.
Re Rouvy, I use Bkool and
Re Rouvy, I use Bkool and enjoy riding along with their videos. However some of the close passes on those films are so frightening that I find myself yelling in alarm, even though I know I’m safely pedalling indoors.
It might have been the only
It might have been the only virtual cycling I have ever seen and what made it so weird for me was the bolt uprightness on the corners. Couldn’t they add in a bit of lean on the avatars?
If they can do it on the Wii Fit U Cycling then you’d think that a proper virtual racing might be able to.
Regarding the road narrowing
Regarding the road narrowing / pavement widening; it should remain so following lock down. There is a very simple visual experiment one can do (when things are back to ‘normal’) Go to your high street and for 5 minutes (or less) count the number of pedestrians who pass, the number of cycles, the number of motor vehicles and the number of parked vehicles. Then take the space, divide it up by pavement, road, cycle segregation (if there is any). And divide that by the total of each mode. It becomes immediately obvious that the mode with the least amount of share (motor vehicle) has the most space. If you take into account space allocated for parking it is Clear that in most cases at least two thirds of the space is given up to vehicles carrying one person or vehicles that are inert.
And that’s before you account
And that’s before you account for the likelihood that if space was allocated more proportionately, you’d shift some of those motor vehicle journeys into pedestrian and cycle journeys.
Jamie and the face mask –
Jamie and the face mask – did you get close-passed in fruit & veg, maybe a left hook in tinned goods?