road.cc recap: ten of our top stories this week

1. Cabbies cause gridlock by blocking London Bridge for fourth night running in protest at TfL pro-cycling, bus and pedestrian plans – but cyclists breeze through

Black cab drivers have this evening blocked London Bridge (link is external) for the fourth time this week in protest at plans to stop them using bus lanes on Tooley Street. The protest has caused bus routes to be diverted and gridlock on both sides of the river – but happily, cyclists are breezing through the blockade.
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2. The Last Supper: Cycling Legends - a hommage to Leonardo Da Vinci and some of the sport's biggest names

Peter Sagan as Jesus Christ and Lance Armstrong in place of Judas Iscariot? That is just part of a re-imagining of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper. David Law, who owns the Woking-based cycle clothing business Hommage au Vélo, was inspired, in his words, “to create something unique, never done, and based on a masterpiece” under his brand. The result is a re-working of the 15th century mural painting that is packed full of references to cycling plus the odd in-joke, and is the fruit of six months' work.
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3. Robert Marchand celebrates 107th birthday – with 20km spin

Irrepressible French cyclist Robert Marchand celebrated his 107th birthday on Monday by going for a 20-kilometre bike ride in the Ardéche. The ultra-centenarian was accompanied by 30 cyclists from the Ardéchoise association including Gérard Mistler, the co-founder and organiser of the eponymous cyclosportive.
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4. Cycling reverses ageing but weight training has no effect, says study

From our Wednesday live blog, academics at Leipzig University concluded from a study that their participants doing aerobic exercise had lengthened telomeres (the protective caps on the end of chromosomes that repair the body's functioning systems) by 3.5%. The participants who were assigned weight training only for the same period saw no lengthening at all.
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5. Police search for man who shoulder-barged woman cyclist, knocking her off bike and into bus lane

Northumbria Police have issued a photograph of a man they want to speak to in connection with an incident in Newcastle which a pedestrian shoulder-barged a woman who was cycling, knocking her into a bus lane. The incident took place on Bridge Street at around 9am on Wednesday 24 October, reports Chronicle Live. The woman fell into the road, but fortunately no vehicles were passing at the time. Officers are treating the incident as assault and an investigation is ongoing.

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6. Cyclists on Basingstoke Canal told that pedestrians have priority after physical and verbal "clashes"

Cyclists using the Basingstoke Canal in Surrey and Hampshire are being reminded that pedestrians have priority on the towpath, with a code of conduct being drawn up for users to reinforce the point.
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7. Forget "attractive people" - other road users and obstacles in the road are by far the biggest distractions for cyclists

“FATAL ATTRACTION Half of all cyclists are endangering their own lives by taking their eyes off the road to gawp at a good-looking person” – that was the headline of an article in The Sun this week. But the crucial point in the study that finding came from is that by far the biggest distractions for cyclists – and the biggest sources of danger – are the behaviour of other road users and obstacles in the road, each cited by more than four in five who participated.
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8. "I want to bicycle all over the world", says Arnold Schwarzenegger

He's been pulled up by the police in Australia for falling foul of compulsory cycle helmet laws, and he's been spotted cycling on the wrong side of the road in Edinburgh, but Terminator star and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't done with riding bikes yet, saying he "wants to bicycle all over the world."
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9. Hunt adds new tech and expands wheels range

The team from Hunt Bike Wheels came and visited road.cc HQ the other day to show us what they've been up to lately... and it's a lot, with a full TT disc wheel, some snazzy carbon spoke tech and new lightweight wheels part of the new range.
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10. Specialized adds MIPS and crash detection technology to 2019 helmets

Specialized wants to take safety seriously with the introduction of crash detection sensors on its 2019 helmets and the rollout of MIPS for the first time. From 2019 many of the helmets sold by Specialized will feature ANGi (Angular and G-Force indicator), a crash detection technology that can alert emergency contacts in the event of a crash.
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