“Appalling response — do better”: Charity behind London parks slammed for continuing “war on cyclists” while refusing to apply same code of conduct to drivers; Giant hidden pothole writes off cyclist’s carbon wheelset; Giro action + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Pro cyclist endorses razor brand... that gives his legs "a clean, smooth shave that actually lasts"
An absolute belter of the ‘pro cyclists doing adverts’ genre for you this morning…
Mads Pedersen signs deal to stay with Lidl-Trek for the rest of his career
It’s been some week for Mads Pedersen and Lidl-Trek, the Dane taking the maglia rosa in Albania, reclaiming it with another win on stage three and now agreeing a deal to stay with the team for the remainder of his career. Lidl-Trek announced the news this morning, ahead of stage five (which looks like another opportunity for victory) and said they were “making it official that Pedersen will remain with Lidl-Trek for the rest of his professional career”.
The 29-year-old has been with the team since 2017, this his ninth year riding for the team which was known as Trek-Segafredo when he joined but now races under the Lidl-Trek banner. In that time he’s become world champion in Harrogate, won stages of all three Grand Tours, finished second at the Tour of Flanders, won Gent-Wevelgem, and racked up wins all over Europe.
Speaking about the decision to commit the rest of his career to Lidl-Trek, Pedersen said it was ultimately an “easy” choice. He said: “I always had full commitment from the team and they always had confidence in what I was doing, and had confidence in me being the best I can be. When you get that belief from a team manager and the performance group and staff and so on, it’s easy to make the decision to remain with this team.
“And now we ended up in a situation where I stay here for my whole WorldTour career. That’s obviously something I’m really proud of — making a bit of history with Trek. It’s such an honour to have the team’s backing to do this. This team has become like a second family to me, and every time I show up for a race, a training camp, or any team activity, I feel genuinely at home.
“My hope for my next years of my career is for sure to win this Monument I keep fighting for, and I really believe, with the support from this team, it will be possible within the upcoming years before my career ends. So, that’s definitely one of my biggest goals for the next years, and in general I just want to win as much as possible, but at the same time I want to be a good leader and try to help new riders who are on the way up.”
Motivated to win as much as possible? Wearing pink? Full support of his team? Sprint stage with some lumps in the final 30km? There’s every chance we don’t have to wait very long at all for Mads’ next victory…
Today at the Giro: Pedersen's perfect profile?
Speaking of stage five, here’s what’s on the menu today. Quite a short stage at 150km but backloaded with climbing. That final third could be deceptively hard and get rid of a few sprinters.
Like so much of this Giro so far it’s been a tale of the route being perfect for Wout van Aert if he could find some form. With the Belgian struggling and seemingly playing catch up from pre-Giro illness, Pedersen starts as the clear favourite. Kaden Groves, Corbin Strong and perhaps even Tom Pidcock and Primož Roglič could be up there too, depending on how difficult the stage turns out…
Rohan Dennis handed suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for five years after causing wife Melissa Hoskins' death
"All sorts of bad outcomes flashed before my eyes, but I managed to keep it upright and in the grand scheme of things it could've been a lot worse, so I'm pretty thankful for that"
We’ve spoken to Matt this morning about the pothole incident and will contact Lincolnshire County Council shortly. Matt explained how “all sorts of bad outcomes” flashed before his eyes and he’s just grateful the extent of the damage was a written-off wheelset.
He explained how he’s got an “old school preference for clinchers” and won’t be arguing with Thomas De Gendt’s assessment that a tubeless set-up might have seen the tyre pulled off the rim.
“My comment referencing tubeless tyres is probably based more on old school preferences of clinchers and bad personal experiences with tubeless on the very few occasions I’ve tried to run them,” he explained. “I use tubs on the track, but then pretty much everyone does. It is only my view (and maybe TDG’s as well) that a tubeless tyre could have pulled clean off the rim. Who am I to argue with Thomas De Gendt?!
“There are also a lot of bad comments about carbon wheels but in my opinion at 106 kg and travelling at speed those wheels should’ve disintegrated hitting a pothole that size and depth, but in fact although being a total right off they 100 per cent held their shape and actually kept me on the bike.”
ASO confirms Tour de France shake-up as Paris finale to take in Montmartre climb as used at last year's Olympics, before traditional Champs-Élysées finish
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Tour de France’s first finish on the Champs-Élysées, the race is changing things up for this year’s final stage. ASO has released a statement this morning explaining the Montmartre climb, which passes below Sacré-Cœur, will be included in the final stage this July. This follows on from the success of the road races at last year’s Olympic Games.
ASO said: “To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this iconic moment, an exceptional route has been designed, inspired by the course of the 2024 Olympic road race, which drew over 500,000 spectators last August. Riders will climb the Montmartre hill and pass beneath the Sacré-Cœur before battling it out on a stage that may break from the traditions established over the past 50 years in the heart of the capital. The full details of the route will be revealed during a press conference on May 21.”
It remains to be seen how far from the finish the ascent will be and if it will have any impact on the now-familiar sprint. We’ll have more details after next week’s press conference.
Suffering on the hills? Find out how to get lower gears to make climbing easier
> Suffering on the hills? Find out how to get lower gears to make climbing easier
Giant starts 2025 with revenue boost thanks to increased orders and high demand in Chinese market, but uncertainty lingers as April profits plunge
🤦
INCHES FROM DISASTER 😱
TWO riders almost wiped out by someone crossing a roundabout during the race 🫣 pic.twitter.com/EoJlIjOcbv
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) May 14, 2025
We’re down to 13km to go to Matera on stage five and things are hotting up nicely. A deceptively tricky profile has seen plenty of the sprinters dropped, with Tom Pidcock’s Q36.5 troops near the front? Could we see another British win shortly?
Mads Pedersen celebrates lifetime contract with third win of the Giro d'Italia
He just keeps on winning…
Mads Pedersen, fresh from committing the rest of his career to Lidl-Trek, won his third stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, this time on the uphill finish in stunning Matera. The city, perched upon a rocky outcrop, may have been familiar to viewers from the James Bond film No Time to Die. Get your Bond puns in the comments.
Pedersen is the man with the golden sprint at this year’s race, this time holding off Tom Pidcock and a fast-finishing Edoardo Zambanini to take his third win in five stages and add the bonus seconds to his grip on the maglia rosa.
The profile didn’t do the final 50km of the stage justice, numerous sprinters dropped on the lumps towards the finish. When the race reached Matera, Pedersen was briefly distanced from the front of the bunch and slipped back 20 or 30 places on a brief stretch of double-digit gradient. However, by the final bend he was back in the wheel of teammate Mathias Vacek at the head of the peloton, the Dane managing his effort perfectly to roll back to the front for the moment that mattered most.
Once he got there Pedersen had just about enough of an advantage to hold off the faster-finishing riders behind. Tomorrow should be a sprint in Napoli, a city where Pedersen has won before, although the first 150km of the 225km stage includes around 2,000m of climbing, so perhaps we’ll see a strong breakaway make things difficult for Lidl-Trek?
"Appalling response — do better": Charity behind London parks slammed for continuing "war on cyclists" while refusing to apply same code of conduct to drivers
We’d love to not have to bring you yet another Royal Parks story, but the charity behind London’s parks just keeps on giving on that front. This has been a long-running saga, the most recent update that a few weeks ago the Royal Parks told cyclists to slow down and launched a new cycling code of conduct.
The charity has also called for new laws to prosecute riders who exceed the 20mph speed limit for motor traffic. For context, the Royal Parks manages eight of London’s open, green spaces, two of which – Richmond Park and Regent’s Park – are popular with the capital’s cyclists and attract a large number of two-wheeled visitors throughout the year.
The Royal Parks’ approach to road safety, namely appearing to focus most time and resource on two-wheeled visitors, has attracted widespread criticism, many people pointing out how few serious collisions and casualties are caused by cyclists compared with the drivers of vehicles. This approach is made even more controversial, in the eyes of some, by the fact that the Royal Parks continues to allow hundreds or thousands of drivers to use Richmond Park as a cut-through every day.
So, with that rather lengthy context out the way we arrive at the latest development. A cyclist, who goes by the Chaponabike name online, in the absence of a ‘code of conduct for motorists’ edited the cyclists’ code of conduct to make it relevant to drivers who travel through the Royal Parks…
There. I’ve fixed it. pic.twitter.com/KaPJNFamnX
— Chapona Bike (@ChaponaBike123) May 12, 2025
To which the Royal Parks felt the need to post a full statement in reply, accusing Chaponabike of “misuse of brand” and again saying it has “no plans” to introduce a code of conduct for driving in its parks. The full statement follows…
The response has been criticised online and has reignited the discussion about the charity’s approach to road safety.
Chaponabike told us he found the statement “most interesting” and accused the Royal Parks of being “more concerned about improper use of their ‘brand’ than they are about spreading the message about considerate driving”.
“Whilst motor vehicles do indeed need to comply with the RTA 1988, so do cyclists. So why single out cyclists for a Cycling Code of Conduct? Do the Royal Parks not think the RTA 1988 applies to cyclists? It applies to ALL road traffic. Pedestrians, horses, cyclists, cars, vans, motorbikes, HGVs, the lot.
“More people have died from heart attacks in the Royal Parks than they have at the hands of ‘rogue cyclists’, so why not use the money to install defibrillators and raise heart attack awareness?
“Loads of cyclists use the parks and of course should behave considerately and within the confines of the RTA 1988. No doubt about that. But whilst cars get clocked at 56mph in Richmond Park, does one really think that cyclists are the problem?”
The replies to the charity’s statement include people calling it “a terrible response” and another calling it “appalling”.
“Your response is pretty pathetic,” one reply said. “Your actions are even worse. Cars are the danger in your parks. Sort them out first, then, when the cars stop destroying themselves and others, you can move onto cyclists.”
Another reply included four images of serious incidents that occurred at Richmond Park…
Parody is a thing. Give your heads a shake. https://t.co/G2NS2Xl2PB
— Black Country Ste (@CCSteV) May 13, 2025
Someone else asked: “How many incidents have there been with motorists compared to with cyclists? What’s been the impact of those incidents? Are you doing anything at all about ‘considerate and safe’ driving? And why the hell are you allowing people to drive *through* parks at all?”
Something tells us this won’t be the last Royal Parks story on road.cc…
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@RayG In my experience many of the people who attend overpriced events like these aren't genuine fans but people with high disposable incomes who like to go "for the experience" and to say that they were there. In any case, even if every ticket was sold to a dyed-in-the-wool cycling fan who was prepared to pay silly money because it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the Depart in their home town/country, why would that make charging exploitative prices excusable?
The title of the review sounds almost as if it was the "tier number" you pay for, not the actual performance. I thought bikes were about riding, not bragging about them? If the bike is so great, what is the problem really?
@Rendel Harris I see the average cycling fan protested by snapping up the available tickets immediately.
@RayG Even if the ticket revenues for this event were all going straight into rider safety, which I'll wager they're not, there would still be perfectly relevant questions to be asked as to why the ordinary cycling fan was being stung for the cost rather than it coming out of ASO's €30M profit from the Tour alone and the €130M it makes annually from its race portfolio.
@Daclu Trelub I'm also wondering if they're putting matting down over the setts leading up to the esplanade - imagine the number of potential pre-race retirements if they try to ride slowly over them uphill if it's bucketing down that night! 🫣
@HoarseMann I considered that probability - Just expecting the prime 'mid-priced' seats to have already gone. Not to mention there'll likely be an even bigger strain on the terrible ticketing platform...
@wtjs I went to Clitheroe to watch them freezing their tits off in the rain after weeks of glorious weather. The crash on the lower slopes of Pendle was actually one of the police motorcycle marshals who slid out on the cattle grid on the bend at the foot of the straight climb to the Well Springs.
@saffronsimian dumbest comment of the century.
“They added that the teams will ride from Holyrood Palace up the Royal Mile before reaching Edinburgh Castle, and that the road will be “completely unticketed”.” Only because they can’t close the road and rob peds. Greedy, greedy bastards with their snouts in the trough.
Motornormativity is fuelled by ignorant journalists writing lies for click bait revenue. There is zero redress for this, they just publish any garbage. This is par for the course for antisocial media and the rot it spreads. Complicit are the police, CPS and judges who all drive and read the same garbage. They are not independent thinkers, and have almost zero moral compass where people who use a bicycle are injured by dangerous arrogant drivers. A broad powerful media campaign from the government could address this, but they don't have the courage to do what is morally correct.
39 thoughts on ““Appalling response — do better”: Charity behind London parks slammed for continuing “war on cyclists” while refusing to apply same code of conduct to drivers; Giant hidden pothole writes off cyclist’s carbon wheelset; Giro action + more on the live blog”
After 14 years of Tory rule,
After 14 years of Tory rule, local councils have had budgets slashed by an average 40%. Road repairs were shelved thanks to Tory austerity.
But why haven’t Labour fixed
But why haven’t Labour fixed it. They’ve been in power for 20 minutes. And what about the economy, immigration and other stuff!
Tories? I blame the Romans.
Tories? I blame the Romans.
eburtthebike wrote:
Peace!
[/scene]
(edited… wrong scene!)
GMBasix wrote:
That’s OK, we’ll let it slide this time. After all, we did find this spoon.
eburtthebike wrote:
what have they ever done for us?
OldRidgeback wrote:
Fixed that for you.
“Austerity is the idea that the global financial crash of 2008 was caused by there being too many libraries in Wolverhampton” – Alexei Sayle
But …. all this road rax
But …. all this road rax that drivers pay and we don’t…
That didn’t even look that
That didn’t even look that bad – that’s just regulation surface grade now around these parts.
Same, if stuff like that was
Same, if stuff like that was destroying my wheels I’d be worried
Keep in mind that when used
Keep in mind that when used properly, arms and legs are excellent shock absorbers. But when you hit something you did not see coming, your shock absorbers are not in play and it literally hits different.
RE: Giant pothole – these
RE: Giant pothole – these things often look less spectacular on camera, but AFAICS the problem is that’s not an Edinburgh-compatible wheelset! That would not be untypical round these parts.
I’d be leery of heading out on 28s now – particularly as there’s a bit of construction going on and many surfaces have additional gravel / dried mud lumps. My 32s feel sketchy at times…
Exactly. Would a tubeless
Exactly. Would a tubeless tyre have come off? Maybe a 25 mm tubeless tyre. I suspect that my 48 mm tubeless tyres would have protected the rim from any damage at all.
Can’t remember if I’ve said
Can’t remember if I’ve said it before, but he/she (your bike) is a looker. Love the Rene Herse(?) chainset
It’s all kicking off in The
It’s all kicking off in The Guardian this morning – Opposing LTNs doesn’t make you a ‘culture war’ petrol-head. Just look at what happened in Lambeth
Tom_77 wrote:
Hmmmm – opinion piece that’s not really adding anything to the discussion and seems to be pushing the “traffic is a constant” idea that has been debunked so many times (c.f. “just one more lane for traffic and it’ll be fine”).
Standard view though – and
Standard view though – and self-reinforcing. (Plus there’s our governments continually reinforcing the “more vehicles = growth” and “lifeblood of the economy” narratives. I wonder what convinces them [1] [2] [3]… ?). “Stands to reason” and we also are poor even at looking at “traffic” and counting the number of people rather than the volume of space.
chrisonabike wrote:
I keep wondering when the Labour Party will actually take over in Govt…?
He’s also ignoring the fact
He’s also ignoring the fact that in all Lambeth LTNs, apart from the ill-considered Streatham trial which has been altered (or possibly scrapped, not sure, haven’t been down that way in a while), traffic on boundary roads has also fallen. He also doesn’t mention that 58% of Londoners support LTNs and that level is higher for those living in and around them (for example the Railton Road LTN through which I regularly ride has a 75% approval rating). So much of the opposition to LTNs in South London comes not from residents but from people from the outer boroughs who object to the fact that the rat runs they have become accustomed to using to get into/across central London are no longer available.
Not sure about the author’s description of his part of Lambeth being so hilly that it’s impossible for “most of the population” to cycle either, I assume he must live in the West Norwood/Gipsy Hill area which contains the only appreciable hills in the borough (the majority of Lambeth is on the Thames floodplain); the toughest hill is only about 50 m in elevation and while it does admittedly have a 400m section at around 8% there are alternative routes around the sides that don’t take a lot longer and that rarely rise above 4% if that. Certainly most of the population can manage such hills, and I would say virtually all of the population could manage them on an ebike.
It was a terrible piece from
It was a terrible piece from the beginning (I was actually confused thinking it might be published by the DM/T-graph etc) but when the author writes “you could probably see the bus queues from space” they should be publicly shamed for spreading false information.
I don’t know about false.
I don’t know about false. Certainly meaningless, though. I mean, there’s nothing particularly surprising about being able to see buses from outer space.
You can see anything from any
You can see anything from any distance if you use a telescope/microscope that is powerfull enough.
The point is you would not be able to see buses on roads from space just with human eyesight alone.
mitsky wrote:
Akshually, not if it’s further away than the comoving horizon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_horizon
If the bus queue is extending
If the bus queue is extending outside the observable universe then you really have got problems.
I’m not sure whether induced demand would keep up with universal expansion though.
One more hyperspace bypass
One more hyperspace bypass will fix it. (Or is that “one more plane/brane, bro…”?)
mitsky wrote:
We’re gonna need a bigger bus.
I *think* that the highest
I *think* that the highest-resolution images on Google Maps “satellite view” are actually taken from aeroplanes. Agree that you can see buses from outer space though. The internet tells me that the best commercial satellites shoot at 16cm per pixel, so a bus would about 75 pixels long.
I wonder if those were gen 1
I wonder if those were gen 1 or gen 2 Roval wheels. The former were supposed to be tubeless compatible, but apparently this designation was dropped after a rider broke a rim. The gen 2 rims are tougher.
Neither. Look at the logos,
Neither. Look at the logos, those are pre-Rapide wheels. CLX 50 disc, they were fully tubeless compatible.
I bow to your superior
I bow to your superior knowledge of Roval decals!
I hit a Lincolnshire pothole
I hit a Lincolnshire pothole on Saturday and there was loud noise. I have looked at my rims. I might take a closer look at my rims. Fulcrum for the record.
The Royal Parks wrote:
Was in a Royal Park at the
Was in a Royal Park at the weekend, road closures for motor vehicles due to a running event I think, red fiesta determinedly trying to drive through on the wrong side of the road against a continuous flow of oncoming cyclists.
I’m certain that Royal Parks enforcement will have done absolutely nothing about them, in hindsight presumably none of the motor vehicles on the roads should have been there.
Royal Parks wheeling out the
Royal Parks wheeling out the big ‘legal action’ guns over some mild satire.
I note that they attribute a recent death, ( I can only think of one.) to ‘reckless and speeding cyclists’. Not even the anti-cycling Met could dredge up any evidence for that. Perhaps time for a bit of legal bluster rightbackat’em?
Royal Parks wrote:
The cyclist involved in the tragic Regent’s Park death would be quite within their rights to sue Royal Parks for this misinformation: as has been well established, he wasn’t speeding because there is no speed limit for cyclists and he wasn’t being reckless as can be seen from the fact that the police, having questioned eye witnesses who stated that the pedestrian had stepped from a pedestrian refuge straight in front of the cyclist, leaving him no chance to avoid her, decided not to press any charges.
Royal Parks – what are you
Royal Parks – what are you for? Your job is to look after parks, parks that are pleasant and peaceful away from the noise and danger of car dominated streets.
You are mis-directing yourselves fundamentally by allowing the current situation with motor vehicles to continue.
Surely it’s the Royal Parks
Surely it’s the Royal Parks that are misusing their brand, not Chaponabike?
As a responsible organisation, they should first be tackling the biggest threat to the parks’ visitors: drivers, and the fact that they not only don’t have a code of conduct for them, but do have one for the much less threatening cyclists, says everything you need to know.
hit a pothole a few months
hit a pothole a few months ago that was hard enough to break my front headlight. Rim was fine, but headlight cover broke off. Put in a claim to the city, but never heard back. No wonder so many people want to ride full suspension fat tire e bikes around the city …
Cyclist in Richmond Park:
Cyclist in Richmond Park: Ride faster, you are slowing down the traffic. Cyclist in Richmond Park: Ride slower, you are a great danger to pedestrians.