“Do you think you’re Cycling Mikey bro?”: Camera cyclist catches phone-using Birmingham drivers and things get heated immediately — as social media suggests he’s “not going to last like that in Brum”; Gaudu out of Tour de France + more on the live blog

Danny van Poppel doesn’t seem too keen on the opening week of this year’s Tour de France — and it’s not because he’s out of form. The Dutchman, who’s expected to be part of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s lead-out for Jordi Meeus and support team leader Primož Roglič, has taken aim at a route design which he says puts spectacle over safety.

“Nobody likes it. We’re a bit like monkeys in the circus, right? For the public, it’s interesting and more fun, so they throw it in again”, van Poppel told In de Leiderstrui.

“For us, that’s very frustrating. First and foremost for Primoz, but also for everyone who is preparing for a goal with the team. It looked like bad luck, but by now it’s also part of cycling”.

What he’s talking about is the opening ten days of the race — a tightly packed stretch of flat and hilly stages across the north of France that are unlikely to create major gaps in the peloton and the general classification. But by keeping the peloton closely bunched, it sets up a perfect storm of stress, crashes, and positioning chaos — especially for riders trying to stay upright while contesting sprint finishes or keeping their GC leader safe.

> “Are the days of the pure sprinter dead?”: Cycling fans react to 2025 Vuelta a España route, with only one flat stage and four “very likely” to have bunch sprint finish

If you remember, Roglič was forced to abandon both the 2024 Tour and this year’s Giro d’Italia after crashing. And while the UCI and rider union CPA have made repeated pledges to improve safety, according to the 31-year-old Dutch, little has changed.

“As riders, we have little to no say and I think that’s a shame in cycling,” he said. “After that, I sent Adam Hansen [CPA president] a message via WhatsApp, but I simply got 0 response. And I was very disappointed about that. He wants to do everything safely and well, but then I have written down a lot of advice and I don’t get any response. I’ll be cycling for a few more years and then I also think: we’ll just go for it, as a rider I don’t have much say anyway”.

He added: “Look a bit at how it works in other sports and put people on it who really understand sprinting. If you look at other sports, cycling is still amateurish. But they don’t want to listen to it completely and the UCI has so much power that we can’t really do anything. There’s no point in continuing to waste negative energy on it and then you just focus on performing.”

Van Poppel’s criticisms come just months after another Grand Tour route raised eyebrows — in the opposite way, as the 2025 Vuelta a España offers barely any incentive for sprinters, with only one flat stage and just four that look likely to end in a bunch sprint.

> Plan to scrap bike racks at major railway station over car bomb fears “paused” after backlash from cyclists and MPs

Just when we thought yesterday’s corroded handlebar horror story — featuring a snapped aluminium bar, a titanium frame, and a very sweaty ex-NBA player — couldn’t be topped, the same mechanic has returned with a sequel. Different bike, same nightmare.

“Yall loved the first crusty bar,” the Reddit poster wrote. “This one is from just a few weeks ago. The handlebar tape was original. He got very lucky. Bike came in for tune up and to replace just the rear brake cable/housing since it was getting hard to pull. Customer asked if we could reuse the handlebar tape after we removed it. We installed a new handlebar obviously.”

To be clear: the bar was corroded nearly through, and the rider wanted to re-use the tape.

Yall loved the first crusty bar
byu/thebeekeeperson inJustridingalong

The comments, as expected, were equal parts horrified and fascinated. “Holy crap… well I’m glad he brought it into the shop and you were able to get that replaced. I can’t imagine how bad that crash would’ve been if he’d kept on riding it,” one person wrote.

Another asked the real question: “Are his hands made out of Gatorade??? What on earth! I’ve never seen galvanic corrosion this bad. This is wild.”

> “The things we’ll do to avoid changing bar tape once a year”: Mechanics horrified (and a little bit impressed) by cyclist whose sweat-corroded handlebar completely snapped mid-ride, but he somehow walked away uninjured

Some suspected this was another case of turbo trainer sweat destruction, but the mechanic clarified: “Not indoor bikes. We do live in the mountains of Tennessee so I feel like low speed climbing causes the sweat to drop instead of back. Most of the rest of the stuff on the bike was in okay shape considering the miles.”

Another big French name is out of the Tour de France. David Gaudu has confirmed he won’t be on the start line in Lille next week, citing poor form and lingering fatigue after a tough spring and a punishing Giro d’Italia.

“Given my current level, I’ve been honest with the team. In any case, they have my data and we’ve decided together to miss out on the Tour this year,” he told AFP. “To race just to finish, there’s no point in that.”

Gaudu, fourth overall in 2022 and ninth in 2023, would have hoped for a similar strong performance this year around too — especially with the race passing through Brittany, his home region. “It’s hugely disappointing,” he said. “Particularly as the race goes through Britanny this year and my relatives were going to come see me there.”

His absence follows that of Benoît Cosnefroy, who earlier this week confirmed he’s skipping both the Nationals and the Tour due to a knee injury sustained during the Tour de Suisse. That’s two of France’s most recognisable riders out before the race even begins — and after Romain Bardet’s emotional farewell at the Dauphiné, it’s been a bleak few weeks for home fans.

Gaudu’s 2025 season started promisingly with a win in Oman, but since then he’s struggled with crashes, a fractured hand, and what he described as an ongoing lack of feeling on the bike. “I held back on a decision until the last weekend to do a training camp, do some mountain climbs and exercises off the bike. But my feelings still aren’t good.”

He finished 66th at the Giro and, by his own admission, was “completely exhausted” at the finish. Whether he lines up for the Vuelta later this year remains to be seen.

In the meantime, Groupama-FDJ will turn to Guillaume Martin to fly the flag, with stage wins and a top ten on GC the stated goal. “We have a good, cohesive team, and we hope to achieve good results,” said team boss Marc Madiot. “Guillaume is a very good stage racer… He may not be a very spectacular rider at first glance, but he’s tenacious and mentally very strong. He never gives up.”

The team’s had a rough time of it lately — Stefan Küng is also out of the national champs after a crash in training — but if Martin can bring his Dauphiné form into July, there’s still something to fight for.

Puck Pieterse has done it all — cyclo-cross, mountain bike, and now, slowly but surely, the road. The 23-year-old Dutch rider is already known for her explosive one-day racing and managed to get the better of Demi Vollering in the fourth stage of last year’s Tour de France, but in a new interview with Domestique, she made it clear: the Tour de France Femmes is very much on her radar.

“I’m used to racing every weekend from cyclo-cross. It was not really difficult to get focused before every race,” she said. “I have a feeling that you only come out stronger because these races are so good trainings as well. You train your endurance, you train your sprints, you train everything.”

Racing constantly has also sharpened her tactical instincts. “The more you race, the more race situations you get to know, and the easier you can maybe read how a race is unfolding.”

Puck Pieterse beats Demi Vollering in stage four of 2024 Tour de France (credit: ASO)

As for the Tour, Pieterse isn’t targeting the overall just yet. “We have not really had a chat about it with the team, actually, so I don’t know exactly what my role will be. Last year proved that I can win a stage. I think for this year, it will be mainly stage-focused as well.”

That said, she won’t be deliberately losing time to get into breakaways. “I’ll just keep riding, I think, with the GC contender to see where I end up. But I don’t think GC is a goal for this year already.”

For now, the GC focus at Fenix-Deceuninck lies with Pauliena Rooijakkers. “It would just be super cool to maybe be able to follow longer on the climbing stages and help her towards maybe another podium or even better,” Pieterse said.

But the long-term plan? That’s clear enough. “We have to see this year how the preparation on the longer climbs will work out in the race, and afterwards decide if a GC would be an option. But of course, now, after how last year went, I hope to win the yellow jersey in the future.”

Yesterday’s story about a Cambridge cyclist being struck by an egg thrown by a passenger in a passing Land Rover has sparked a wave of anger — and a grim flurry of similar stories from other cyclists, some of whom have had a range of gubbins hurled from people inside other vehicles.

The cyclist, who described the incident as an “unprovoked assault”, posted a clip showing the egg hitting him square in the back before smashing on the road. He was left physically unharmed, but warned that a less experienced rider could easily have been destabilised and fallen into traffic.

While many road.cc readers condemned the incident outright, with one person saying on social media: “That was a premeditated attack by a smug, arrogant motorist and his passenger”, others shared their own chilling experiences of being targeted on the road.

road.cc reader Rendel Harris wrote: “Memories of a full beer can being thrown at me totally unprovoked from an oncoming vehicle early on a Sunday morning (I know it was full because it exploded when it hit the ground behind me).

“Police attitude was that it’s just someone playing silly buggers and not even worth reporting. I pointed out that a full can of beer weighs nearly half a kilo and we had a closing speed of something approaching 40 mph, so more than enough to kill.

“The response was a shrug (this was way before cameras, I reported it at the police station) and ‘If it had hit you we could do something but as it is we’ve only got your word for it that they were throwing it at you…’”

> Cyclist pelted with egg by passing car passenger in “unprovoked assault” – but gets accused of “riding in the middle of the road” on social media

Over on Facebook, Gavin Bennett wrote: “Was hit by a glass vodka bottle thrown at me from a wanker in a red car a few years ago, when cycling in a cycle lane at the side of the A road in Matlock.

“The bottle hit the mountain bike I had at the time, smashing two spokes in the rear wheel and causing a puncture. When it smashed on the surface, the large shards of glass rebounded off the ground and one of them hit the side of my trainer.

“As soon as I stopped the bike, I walked back and looked at the shard which had hit me — it was about five inches long. The driver didn’t stop. I reported the incident to Derbyshire Police, who were not even interested. Personally, if I witnessed someone breaking into a car, I would never report it to the police. I now have no sympathy with any car driver — unless I personally knew the driver, then I would report it.”

> Car passenger throws rubbish at man cycling with his 4-year-old son

Ian Atkinson also shared his experience: “Two kids on an illegal e-bike threw a glass bottle at me as I cycled in the cycle lane. It missed and smashed on the ground beside me. They didn’t look quite so relaxed when I decided to give chase, but had it hit me, it could have been really bad. There’s no way they would have thrown it at a pedestrian or a car.”

Other readers were just as scathing. Elaine Laverty asked: “Who drives round with eggs to hand? This is premeditated.” David Walters added: “There would be uproar if cyclists went round throwing eggs at cars.”

Several questioned the police response — or the lack of it.”Oi! Cambridgeshire Constabulary! How about tracing the driver of the vehicle, registration clearly seen in the clip, and asking them?!” road.cc reader mitsky wrote. “It really is not rocket science, nor should it even be that hard. If you cared enough.”

And as another road.cc reader hawkinspeter pointed out: “Just imagine their response if it was a McDonald’s milkshake” — which does beg the question: why is it that cyclists getting eggs thrown at them is treated as a prank, but when the self-appointed mouthpiece of grumpy nationalism gets a bit of dairy-based protest chucked his way, it’s a matter of national security…

So, anyone else had something lobbed at them while out on the bike — a Tesco sandwich, a Lucozade bottle, half a Greggs sausage roll? Leave us a comment, and judging by the reaction so far, I’m guessing a lot of you will have a story.

> Cyclists furious as “completed” bike path blocked by locked gate after opening delayed by two months – forcing them onto busy “unsafe” road with narrow tunnel

I think we can unanimously say no… and maybe recommend some creams to Ricky while we are at it…

I’ve also been cycling every day but you don’t want photographic evidence of that 😂 https://t.co/wXU8gzFkEo

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 26, 2025

> Best chamois creams 2025 — keep your bum happy on long rides and turbo sessions

There was no rust to shake off — back from a training block and straight onto the top step, Lotte Kopecky stormed to her seventh consecutive Belgian time trial title on Thursday with a crushing ride through Brasschaat, setting a time of 24:37 on the flat 20.1km course.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Belgian Cycling (@belgian_cycling)

Riding last as defending champion, the SD Worx-Protime rider made it look routine — almost catching Marthe Goossens, who started ahead and still managed to finish second, 57 seconds down. Lotte Claes took third at 1:48, well clear of the rest.

“I had a good feeling, as far as that is possible in a time trial,” Kopecky said afterwards. “I was immediately on a good pace and was able to continue it well to the finish.”

By the first time check at 10km, she was already 35 seconds up on Goossens — and her advantage only grew. A brief scare saw her skim a kerb late on, but she recovered quickly and still backed off slightly in the final kilometres as she closed in on the silver medallist. “It feels good when you can almost catch up with number two,” she said. “So I can confidently go into Sunday’s road race.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Team SD Worx – Protime (@teamsdworxprotime)

European TT champion. World road race champion. And now seven-time Belgian TT champ. It’s a run that shows no sign of stopping. But Kopecky knows Sunday will be tougher. “That will be a very difficult race to win. I will have to make the right choices and dare to lose at times. I expect more opposition on Sunday.”

Endurance cyclist and author Amy Hudson set off this morning from Lille on a solo mission to ride every stage of the men’s Tour de France route — including the transfer distances between stages — to raise money for mental health charity Shout.

Hudson will cover around 6,400km in total, with just one full rest day and one half rest day scheduled across the next 30 days. She’s aiming to finish in Paris on 26 July, a day before the men’s race concludes.

“Normally, the teams would get a bus between the different stages, but I’ll be riding those as well,” she said. “I decided I was doing this before they announced the route, but now that they have, this has over 3,500 kilometres worth of transfers, so I am actually riding twice as much as the pros!”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Amy Hudson (@amy.cycling.adventures)

Hudson, who started cycling in 2020 to help with her own mental health while working as a mental health nurse, is aiming to raise £10,000 for Shout, which offers a 24/7 text support service. Almost 70 per cent of the goal has already been raised at the time of writing, and you can help Amy reach 100 per cent of it by donating here.

“When I started cycling, I was really unwell mentally,” she said. “I know the impact charities like this have. The goal is to raise £10,000 for a great cause.”

“I started cycling four years ago, and while I do endurance races, I am not part of a professional team, so being the first female to undertake this challenge will be a big test for me.”

She’ll be supported along the way by her partner and is sharing regular updates on TikTok, Instagram, and through a live tracking link in her bio.

It was only a matter of time before Birmingham got its own CyclingMikey — and now that moment’s here, it’s unfolding exactly how you’d expect.

Going by the moniker of Big Haytch, he’s riding around Brum catching phone-using drivers with a camera on his head, a mate filming up the road with a gimbal, and even a drone in the sky.

He’s only just started posting to TikTok and Instagram (full videos “coming soon” on YouTube), but he’s already gone viral: dubbed ‘roadman’ CyclingMikey for his delivery and confrontational style, and well, Birmingham being Birmingham, things get heated very quickly when you’re calling out phone-using drivers in geeked out BMWs and VW Golfs with more speakers than sense.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Haytch (@bighaytch1)

In the first video, he catches a phone-using driver and greets him: “Wagwan mate” before hitting him with a classic Mikey line: “Can’t be doing that mate… that’s six points bro.”

The driver initially asks him not to report it, but Big Haytch has already nailed himself to the cross, with a crown of thorns and all, as he replies: “I have to do it.”

> Jeremy Clarkson claims roundabout branded “one of London’s most dangerous” is “fine because I have a car, not a child’s toy” in dig at Jeremy Vine – but Cycling Mikey says former Top Gear host is “the child”

After repeating that the offence will result in “six points” more times than anyone asked for, the driver becomes less concerned with due process and more interested in violence: “I heard it, now move… fam I’ll park up now and we’ll go round the corner… I’ll punch your fucking head in.”

Big Haytch doesn’t flinch. “Are you mad fam? You ain’t punching my head in bro.”

What follows is essentially an elite game of TikTok-era ‘ragebaiting’:
“Turn that camera off.”
“Six points bro, on your licence.”
“If you say six points one more time, I’m gonna come out.”
“Six points, my guy.”

He says it three more times. The driver gets out. The video cuts. Edge of the seat stuff, I tell you, and ends on a cliffhanger too.

> Top TV comedy producer who “flipped the bird” and told CyclingMikey to “go f*** yourself” fined over £2,000 and handed six points for phone use while driving

In another, he pulls up alongside someone with music so loud he doesn’t hear the confrontation starting. Once he does, Big Haytch doesn’t waste time, cutting straight to the chase: “You can’t be using your phone while driving, that’s six points.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Haytch (@bighaytch1)

The driver replies: “Do you think you’re Cycling Mikey bro?” before turning the rhetorical line of questioning into threatening: “Wanna get run over bro?”

But the Brum version of Mike van Erp is fearless. “You can’t run me over even if you tried,” he says, before calmly repeating “six points” until he’s told: “Go f*** yourself.”

> CyclingMikey named by Daily Mail as one of the “top villains of 2024” – alongside the Post Office, VAR, Oasis, Gregg Wallace… and Paddington Bear

Commenters are already split. “Can’t be doing that out here in Brum bro,” one person wrote. “Best not do it in Birmingham,” said another. “People have road rage, no insurance, no licence and be doing balloons at the same time. So could end badly.” One TikTok user predicted: “I give you a few more hours, not days, in Birmingham.”

But others are here for it. “Birmingham needs one,” Musaddiq Akhtar commented. Another added: “I used to hate Cycling Mikey but seeing the amount of accidents, people dying, high insurance prices — I get it.”

Full videos dropping on YouTube soon, apparently. Let’s hope Big Haytch does a good job of stayin’ alive until then.