Anger over suspended sentence for unlicensed driver; Pendleton hears “rapid crunching gears” when overtaking men; Cllr’s child threatened by 4×4 driver; José Mourinho cycles around training pitch; Froome “can’t wait for August” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Weekend catch-up
Been carefully drawing up your list of six friends and relatives to meet up with in a park somewhere all weekend? Here’s what you missed on road.cc…
Police escort group of four cyclists off Cheshire motorway
Nottingham cyclist hospitalised after axe attack
Manchester plans £10m bike hire scheme – says it’s learned from Mobike failure
Primal launches Dominic Cummings eye test jersey
Police retrieved “five pieces of fingers” from the Humber Bridge after a cyclist fell off his bike
Cyclists to be allowed back into Richmond Park – but only at weekday commute times for now
"The vast majority of delays are caused by motorists", say Surrey's Road Policing Unit
For all the motorists that moan about being delayed by a minute or two before they can overtake a cyclist or horse rider…
Footage from a motorway, where there are no cyclists or horse riders.
The vast majority of delays are caused by motorists.pic.twitter.com/OnlSxUvTn1
— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) May 30, 2020
…and they cite this footage from a motorway at the weekend (curious since the country is supposed to be in lockdown) as to why it’s not cyclists or horseriders that do 99.9% of the ‘holding up’. While some questioned their use of a motorway traffic jam to illustrate the point, they say that it simply served to show that “the vast majority of queues are caused by motorists and their own actions.
We get numerous meaaages from drivers complaining they are ‘held up’ by cyclists or horse riders and make them late.
The vast majority of queues are caused by motorists and their own actions – a point illustrated well by a big queue on a motorway.— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) – Surrey Police – UK (@SurreyRoadCops) May 30, 2020
Labour Councillor says 4x4 driver told her 11-year-old son: "You could have lost your life there, boy"
‘You could have lost your life there, boy’ said the 4×4 driver to my 11 year old son on his bike. He was far left on the road, her car was so big it straddled across the lane. And she not only expected him to stop for her but then told him that she has nearly killed him.
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) May 31, 2020
Earlsfield Labour Councillor Jo Rigby claimed that her son was told this by the driver of a 4×4, even though he was ‘far left on the road’. She continued: “And on his own street. Which is 20 mph. And was built in 1895. Simply no room for these enormous vehicles.”
Not her kid. She would have detached from it if she had of killed him. This is the anti-cyclist narrative and why we need the media to stop feeding it.
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) May 31, 2020
She then says that anti-cycling narrative in the media is to blame for the driver’s poor attitude.
Don't be a d*ick, take your litter home
A public service announcement from our own Jo Burt, who had to carry home someone’s very expensive broken inner tube because they couldn’t be bothered to do it themselves… it’s not hard, is it?
Van driver who caused cyclist to be placed in induced coma after sending him crashing into a wall given suspended jail term
.jpg)
Numerous people have commented on Leicestershire Live‘s coverage of the incident and court report that 37-year-old Aaron Baxter’s sentence appeared to be extremely lenient, after he was given an eight month suspended jail term and a 12 month driving ban for aggravated vehicle taking, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without a licence or insurance. Baxter had a previous conviction for driving without insurance in 2015, and didn’t reapply for his licence.
Baxter hit the 22-year-old victim on 19th August last year as he attempted to overtake another vehicle, and failed to spot the cyclist indicating to turn right as he pulled back in. The cyclist was knocked off his bike and was sent into a wall on Narborough Road South in Leicester, after Baxter hit him at around 29mph. He suffered what were described as horrific injuries, including a bleed on the brain, a broken eye socket and damage to both knees. He was placed in an induced coma at the scene before being taken to hospital in Coventry, where he spent two weeks recovering. He then spent six more weeks in recovery at home, and suffered from stress and anxiety.
Father-of-six Baxter stopped at the scene but then drove off in the white transit van, saying he had to take his children ‘somewhere’. He then returned – testing negative for alcohol – and it was learned that he had taken his father’s van without permission for the journey.
During sentencing, Judge Dean said that the fact Baxter was the victim of an alleged knife attack that almost cost him his life in October last year – three months after his motoring offence – was “powerful mitigation”, explaining: “I don’t know whether the fact you were a victim of an unrelated knife attack in October has brought home to you how the cyclist must have felt as a consequence of your actions in August last year.
“There was more than momentary inattention – you didn’t see him in time to avoid striking him.
“You accepted responsibility for what happened at the scene and expressed remorse.
“You’ve been punished by being the victim of an unrelated crime since this and are still affected by that and your life has been changed by the attack upon you as well.”
Now you can wear the Maglia Rosa before the actual winner of the Giro gets his hands on it
Today would have been the finish of the 103rd Giro d’Italia in Milano. The winner would have received this exact jersey, the only difference being the team logo in the window on the front. Shop now https://t.co/WkVXWiPJVY#castellicycling @CastelliCycling pic.twitter.com/9l1y9bn19w
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 31, 2020
Yesterday would have been the final day of the 103rd Giro d’Italia, which hasn’t yet happened for obvious reasons… and now you can now buy an exact replica of the pink jersey that the General Classification winner would have been proudly wearing on the podium. It comes in the high-end ‘Race’ or more wallet-friendly ‘Competizione’ flavours, priced at £130 and £87 respectively on Castelli’s website.
All being well, the rearranged Giro will take place between 3rd-25th October.
Victoria Pendleton says she often hears "rapid crunching gears" behind her when she overtakes men
The two-time track cycling Olympic gold medallist turned jockey has kept a lower profile as of late, and in one of her latest Instagram posts says that she rarely gets recognised nowadays: “I think I am quite nondescript….which is no bad thing. It allows me to be a chameleon which I enjoy”, she says.
Pendleton also says that when out riding her bike on the road, some males don’t appear to take it too well when she overtakes them:
“If I’m out about on my road bike and I overtake a man for example …. I will hear a rapid crunching gears as they try to “make amends for it” occasionally combined with a mumbling of “I must of been daydreaming…like they need an excuse!” Usually followed with a pedal mashing (usually short lived) stomp back past me.
“It doesn’t bother me I think it’s funny. I’ve always been underestimated because of the way I look….one day I want to be intimidating…..but for now this is what I look like, a self portrait.”
In a post from yesterday, Pendleton also let her Insta followers in on her familiar-sounding lockdown routine: “I get up, drink coffee, eat porridge, train and then faff about the house, making more mess to try and make less, do gardening, admin, housework, DIY…days punctuated only by food not time. Trying to keep busy and resist snacking…..or get lured back into trying (one more time) to make a kickass sourdough!”
Everesting news: Buchmann's attempt deemed invalid, and a 'base camp' everesting while doing a wheelie
The feat of ‘everesting’ – which is cycling or running up the same hill continuously until you’ve rode the equivalent of Mount Everest’s 8,848m of vertical ascent – is so popular it’s almost worthy of its own newsfeed nowadays, as official everesting record keepers Hells 500 revealed last night that they’ve now got 7,000 successful attempts on record. The rules are that riders must use the same hill from start to finish, and the finish time is the total time taken to complete the elevation with breaks included… meaning that Bora-Hansgrohe’s Emanuel Buchmann failed in his attempt at the weekend, which was celebrated as an ‘unofficial world record’ when it was claimed he finished in 7 hours 28 minutes.
Hells 500 said: “An amazing ride, no doubt, but it isn’t a new Everesting record:
1) Unfortunately the first climb was on the other side of the mountain, which means these were not repeats of the same climb
2) The quoted time of 07:28 is moving, not elapsed time
3) Putting aside the ‘Everesting’ component of it, for interests sake the moment the 8848m/29029ft was hit was actually 07:51:42″
That means the record set by pro mountain biker Keegan Swenson less than two weeks ago still stands, at 7 hours 40 mins.
Also over the weekend just gone, Simone Temperato completed a ‘base camp’ ride (4,424m) while doing a wheelie. It took him over nine hours in total, and you can find the stats on his Strava profile.
José Mourinho needs a bike to get around the training ground due to social distancing
Jose out there cruisin’ in training pic.twitter.com/ByluAfPwjf
— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 21, 2020
The football manager – currently boss at Tottenham Hotspur – revealed that the reason he was spotted on a vintage bike at the club’s training ground in Enfield was because the players are so spread out due to social distancing regulations.
He told Sky Sports: “There was a period where we were starting 9am in the morning and finishing 5pm because by having players training individually, we had to organise lots of different slots, and the boys were coming at different times.
“We were really tired for a certain period. You can find a funny picture of me on a bike because we covered a huge distance and without the bike, I couldn’t control all of the sessions at the same time!”
Forced to work 9 till 5? Barbaric eh José!
Cyclist trampled on by boys racing horses
Limerick cyclist trampled on by horses being raced by boys
A CYCLIST was hospitalised after being knocked off her bike and trampled on by horses being raced by boys. It occurred on the UL river walkway / cycle path at 4pm on Thursday. Kate Twohig twe https://t.co/qU6IPSFvwf pic.twitter.com/9T5DGKDKBp
— TWDII (@TWDI_Ireland) May 31, 2020
The terrifying incident on a shared use path in the Irish city of Limerick occurred last Thursday, when Kate Twohig was trampled on by horses being raced by youths.
She wrote on social media:
“I was cycling along the bank and I had one of my biggest scares. Three boys on horses were racing down the path. They narrowly missed hitting a girl around three-years-old but the father managed to grab her in time.
“They collided straight into me. I was knocked from my bike and trampled.
“I was unlucky to have met them, but extremely lucky to come away with just the injuries I have.
“My knee was split open. I was very lucky as if it was half an inch higher or lower my tendons and ligaments would have been in trouble. I’m a keen marathon runner and cyclist. I was just coming back from a knee injury before this.”
Brazilian footballer to complete his return to former club by riding 600km to get there
Tour do Fred: centroavante inicia maratona de 600 km e cinco dias para se apresentar ao Fluminense https://t.co/mbb0xerJkL pic.twitter.com/KSVvmZfpoL
— globoesportecom (de 🏠) (@globoesportecom) June 1, 2020
36 year-old Fred – who has 39 caps for the national team – is returning to Fluminese, where he played between 2009-2016… and he has revealed that he will get there by embarking on the Tour de Fred, cycling 600km from Belo Horizonte to Rio to raise funds for those in need during the pandemic. Fred will donate a basket of essentials to families in need for every kilometre travelled and will also direct any extra fees generated through partnerships to charity, according to Explica.
Fred also said that he will not be revealing his route or locations during the journey due to the need for people to stay at home during the pandemic.
Anger over sentencing of unlicensed Leicester driver who left cyclist with serious injuries
WTF?!! Yet another driver judge (?), letting a fellow horrific driver off scot-free. We will never have justice for people cycling, as long as it is administered by drivers. @StopKillingCycl
— Donnachadh McCarthy (@DonnachadhMc) June 1, 2020
Disgraceful
— moderniseyourstairs (@valeofwigan) June 1, 2020
road.cc readers have reacted with anger to the sentencing of Aaron Baxter (covered further down this page) who despite having no license or insurance, and driving in a vehicle he had taken without permission, avoided a custodial sentence. The judge took the unusual step of taking into account an incident that happened after the offence, when Baxter was stabbed and needed a life-saving operation to survive the injuries. The just said his circumstances were “powerful mitigation”, and also heard from Baxter’s defence that he was “extremely remorseful” over his actions.
Don’t the prosecution have 28 days to appeal an unduly lenient sentence?https://t.co/HEN9YfpyZ5
— Theo (@Theoonabike) June 1, 2020
Some are calling for an appeal against the sentence, which the prosecution can do if they feel it was unduly lenient.
Uber allegedly scraps up to 20,000 Jump e-bikes
Head over to eBikeTips to read all about the curious tale of Uber’s sale of their Jump e-bike operation to Lime, which they insist had to involve the scrapping (or ‘responsible recycling’) of up to 20,000 perfectly rideable e-bikes.
Froome "can't wait for August"
I can’t wait for August 🙏😊🗓 @UCI_cycling #cycling pic.twitter.com/ANFsf54pLW
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 1, 2020
With the Tour de France supposedly beginning at the end of August, is this a warning shot fired towards his GC-contending teammates Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas, or are we reading too much into things? It was reported Froome could be mulling a mid-season transfer in time for this year’s postponed Tour, but so far nothing has come of the rumours.
1 June 2020, 08:19
1 June 2020, 08:19
May is known for being more enthusiastic about cycling than the other one...
James May urges Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “bomb us with bicycles” with £80bn HS2 cash
Grand Tour presenter also says not wearing a helmet "makes you look like someone making a tiresome point”
1 June 2020, 08:19
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
18 Comments
Latest Comments
@robgodd The poor guy himself suffered a traumatic brain injury and his skull was so badly shattered a significant portion of it had to be removed - do me a favour, have a look around cycling helmet manufacturers and see if any of them claim the foam hats they produce will protect against or even mitigate that level of injury. I'll wait if you like, but I can save us both the time and tell you what you'll find: none of them. Not a single one of them will. Because they don't, and they *can't* based on simple physics. Once the point of failure in a material is reached all(or as near as makes no odds) of the additional force beyond that necessary threshhold transfers through to the object beneath. Since bicycle helmets are rated for forces roughly equivalent to being dropped straight down from a stationary start 1.5m above a hard surface. Now, I'm not an expert in vehicle crash investigation, but I'm *fairly* sure that any impact or series of impacts powerful enough to render a quarder of your skull into gravel, put you in a weeks-long coma, give you massive amnesia, and leave you with ongoing symptoms of traumatic brain injury are a little bit, a teeny-weeny amount, a little smidgeon-widgeon more than what bike helmets are rated for. That's why none of the companies that make them claim they will help in such circumstances: because they know it would be a lie, and that unlike uninformed punters, carbrained journalists, or "medical professionals" who think wearing a helmet would save you from a broken arm(an actual scenario encountered by a mate, who's nurse at the A&E tutted and harrumphed her way through his whole treatment due to his lack of helmet despite his bonce having come through *being hit by a car* - another scenario bike helmets are worthless in - completely unscathed), the lawyers for those companies know their business and understand that if you lie in advertising you will get sued into the ground.
The Battle of Ypres April 1915. The German infantry division advanced using das Brumptstadt Fahrarden. The slow speed kept them behind the cloud of chlorine gas as it drifted towards the Commonwealth trenches. The offensive cleaved a two mile gap in the Western Front. The use of cycles was copied by the Japanese as they invaded Singapore and Burmah. By then war technology had embraced wider low pressure tyres, carbon frames and hydration gels. The German forces decided not to incorporate cycling as part of Operation Session, as bike theft in London and the South East was rife and would have caused huge casualties. Ironically superior advancement of tyre technology led to a British victory at El Alamein. This technology played a key part in the US Marines victory at Iwo Jima.
The appropriate response to Google pissing on your cereal is not a fancy new sugar that removes the taste of urine. Stop using Google products where you can. Firefox browser and DuckDuckGo search engine have had noticeable upticks in market share by explicitly NOT pushing AI.
my thoughts exactly...I wonder how that approach is working, with motor vehicle drivers...🤔
I do not wish to diminish the personal tragedy, but one never hear calls for pedestrians or even hikers to wear clothing with integrated lightening rods.
RE Andy Burnam / Heidi Alexander - this is the best thing in many ways - set an example (even if currently it leads to lots of online name-calling). And imagine some of the political alternatives! The folks in the apparently second-placed party seem incredibly unlikely to be doing so. And even the current "new Greens" seem less interested in ... y'know, environmental things. OTOH I wish Heidi could be bolder. And I fear that like anyone ambitious enough to get to the top (exception B Johnson - well, I guess there was the Corbyn bicycle...) Burnam will be trimming his transport policy sails to fit the wind (should that be "bunker-fuel-burning engines"?)
@mattsccm Bull bars aren't banned, they just have to conform to regulations so they are deformable or have plates that allow crumple give on contact, rather than rigid steel bars that can smash into pedestrians and cyclists with no give at all, catch them and drag them under the wheels. If you think that's a problem, do one. Why should who is responsible for a collision remove the responsibility of people driving a tonne of machinery on the road from having safety features to at least mitigate some of the effects of a collision?
I'd be willing to bet that's lazy use of stock photography rather than deliberate misinformation, but the result is still the same.
@smallbeer You obviously don't realise how many bulls there are wandering around Chelsea, in and out of the china shops, that he needs to protect his Range Rover from.
I agree, it's bloody 'elf and safety overreach, can't help some people, I put some meat, sorry, neat decoration on the front of mine and the polis were round poking their noses in like that (mind you, that was a mistake...) (etc)
18 thoughts on “Anger over suspended sentence for unlicensed driver; Pendleton hears “rapid crunching gears” when overtaking men; Cllr’s child threatened by 4×4 driver; José Mourinho cycles around training pitch; Froome “can’t wait for August” + more on the live blog”
I do enjoy the Surrey Police
I do enjoy the Surrey Police tweets – though they are playing with fire, the intended targets egos are far to fragile for such logic.
Feel Jo Rigby’s tweet gets close to the real problem here – ‘You could have lost your life there, boy’, yet never a chance of loosing a licence. Life seems to be they only allowable loss for bad behaviour on our roads. Excuse me, life of the vulnerable.
kt26 wrote:
Spot on! I shall be reusing this pearl of wisdom
Or as Jeff Tumlin, head of
Or as Jeff Tumlin, head of San Francisco’s transit authority so accurately put it, driving a car is the only place you can get away with murder by calling it an accident…
I wouldn’t agree the self
I wouldn’t agree the self detachment of drivers around cyclists,and weve all experienced the ‘I saved your life by not running you over’ conversations with a driver I’m sure, is caused by an anti cycling narrative in the media any more than its caused by a lack of a pro cycling narrative either .
Its something more deeply rooted in some peoples psyche that they dont see cyclists as people riding bikes,but just as mere objects almost, so theres no thought process going on behind it, drivers literally dont think when they are around cyclists, that’s the problem.
There’s even bumper stickers
There’s even bumper stickers for it. The “but did you die” quote from the movie The Hangover. As if that excuses poor driving.
There was a study done by an Australian University that found people perceive cyclists as less than human, more like cockroaches. Attitudes like that are taught not natural.
And even when you do lose
And even when you do lose control of your vehicle and somehow (and let’s not kid ourselves here, by sheer luck) avoid wiping out a bunch of innocent cyclists you get hailed as some sort of hero.
How come there is so much
How come there is so much leniency for motorists who inflict harm on Cyclists who have no protection around them? If someone was walking around with a loaded gun they would be immediately locked up until further notice!
I agree and I wonder why he
I agree and I wonder why he was attacked by someone with a knife and if they had caught his attacker, would the Courts have given him a suspended sentence. I think not.
I agree and I wonder why he
I agree and I wonder why he was attacked by someone with a knife and if they had caught his attacker, would the Courts have given him a suspended sentence. I think not.
Am I reading that right,the
Am I reading that right,the judge in the Baxter case has used their unrelated knife stabbing,as mitigation for the sentencing for leaving a cyclist in an induced coma as well as the catalogue of crimes leading upto it,because theyve been punished enough. Is this the law by karmic application now ?
I know, it is mental.
I know, it is mental.
The cyclist was almost killed in August, then an unrelated event happens in October.
What has the stabbing got to do with the original offences and the fact that it was reoffending ?
I’m hoping that some of these
I’m hoping that some of these new cyclists will realise quite how vulnerable cyclists are when they get back in their cars, and drive a bit more considerately.
eburtthebike wrote:
I hope you’re right.
Quote:
Er – no, he didn’t. The article says he drove off to take his children “somewhere” (Barnard Castle, perhaps?) and only then came back, where it was discovered he wasn’t licenced or insured.
Sheena is a punk rocker; that
Sheena is a punk rocker; that’s all!
Trampled by horses!? OMFG!
Trampled by horses!? OMFG!
I trust that the Gardai are actively searching for the three boys riding furiously? I’m sure they would if three cyclists had run down the three yer old girl also mentioned in the story.
According to Google,
According to Google, “Punishment has five recognized purposes: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, retribution, and restitution.” Perhaps the judge could explain which one is fulfilled by an event unrelated to the crime, three months later. “Opportunity to possibly empathise with the victim” is not a form of punishment.
The 4 x 4 driver / child
The 4 x 4 driver / child story reminds me of an incident earlier this year – I was cycling behind a 4 x 4 when it stopped and then started reversing. The road was single carriage way so I had to scramble out the way. I pressed my self up against the parked cars and the 4 x 4 driver reversed past me, lowered the window and said ‘careful, you’re going to get yourself killed’ in that patronizing, why are you on the road tone of voice.