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Live blog: Do kids who take hire bikes just want to ride? Amazon Alexa bike; record breaking year for Boris Bikes + more
SUMMARY

Record breaking year for Boris Bikes
More than 10.5 million journeys were made using Santander Cycles in 2018, reports BikeBiz.
That’s an average of 29,500 hires each day – the highest daily average since the scheme began in 2010.
David Eddington, head of cycle hire at Transport for London, said: “Despite the Beast from the East, Londoners and visitors continued pedalling to help us reach our best year ever.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in the numbers of people choosing to cycle in London, with a 35 per cent increase since our cycle hire scheme was introduced, and hope that number will continue to rise.”
Bike chained to roof of Debenhams in Bournemouth
Do we need to add a line to our ultimate guide to locking up your bike?
Locking your bike up on top of a building surely adds another layer of security.
The Bournemouth Echo isn’t quite sure how long the one locked on top of Debenhams has actually been there.
Fashionably wide MTB bars need not apply
Cycling in Nepal. Two tips:
1. Check the brakes before cycling.
2. Don’t look down.pic.twitter.com/u6GGOvuIyW— James Melville (@JamesMelville) January 3, 2019
New roads should prioritise cyclists and pedestrians says NICE
Health watchdog recommends reallocating road space and charging motorists. Certain newspapers respond to this much as you’d expect they would. (Which is to say with frothing outrage.)
Gocycle's new GX e-bike folds in less than 10 seconds
Find out more over on eBikeTips
World's first Amazon Alexa-enabled bike is coming this summer
“Alexa, climb this hill for me!” Yep, you can tell the new Cybic Legend to switch lights on, play music and even order dinner… full article on eBikeTips.
Dashcam captures footage of cyclist with child on the back nipping between two HGVs
HGV driver Richard Hook was approaching a mini roundabout in Weybridge, Surrey when a cyclist overtook him.
The man had a child on the back of his bike, but this didn’t dissuade him from passing the lorry and sashaying past another that was turning off the roundabout heading in the opposite direction.
You can watch the video over at the Mirror.
Video: Peter Sagan – “Hey, life is too short to be too much serious”
This video starts with Peter Sagan’s massive “Why so serious?” tattoo – a phrase which represents his attitude to life.
Sagan certainly has an admirably easy-going approach to things. That said, ‘why so serious?’ is probably an easier philosophy to maintain when you ride a bicycle for a living.
Unprecedented interest since Geraint Thomas’s Tour de France success but Welsh cycling needs more investment
Welsh Cycling has reported a six per cent rise in membership from 2017 to 2018, but investment is needed to capitalise on this interest, according to its chief executive.
Bay Crits - Behind the scenes with Alex Dowsett
Katusha Alpecin pro riders Alex Dowsett, Nathan Hass and Marco Haller joined up with two local elite racers to compete in the Bay Crits. This series of Australian criterium races looks fast and hotly contested with a number of World Tour pros ditching the cold Northern hemisphere for the Aussie summer sun.
Looks like they did rather well too!
Do kids who take hire bikes just want to ride?
In the wake of this morning’s news about Santander Cycles’ record year, here’s an interesting piece by a criminal defence solicitor who regularly represents youths accused of stealing them.
He reckons that the thefts are symptomatic of a basic desire to ride from those who can’t afford to do so. He advocates handing out free bikes to address this.
London’s cycling commissioner hits back at critics of cycling strategy
Critics said there was no new infrastructure or funding and therefore little of consequence.
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The best thing about the TTT as Stage 1 is that it emphasises the fact that cycling grand tours incl the TDF are a team sport.
If you click through and read the story you'll see that the first motorist hit the cyclist, and the second, following, motorist then also hit them while they were lying in the road - both were convicted of causing the cyclist's death.
I may be reading far too much into it, but I felt as though Pogacar and UAE weren't actually that bothered about winning today. Not having yellow to defend and all the extra press etc to do this early in the race is an indisputable advantage; I just got the impression that they were out to lose no more than a handful of seconds but not to bury themselves for the win. With about 2.5kms to go I thought that if Pogacar really wanted it he would have gone from there, but he stayed with Del Toro for nearly another kilometre even though the body language was saying that no way was Del Toro in as good shape as Pogacar. Even after the finish he didn't seem as wiped out as Ganna (whom I don't think I've ever seen quite so shattered) or Jonas. As I say, might be reading too much into it but I would not be surprised if UAE had played a very clever hand not to lose any meaningful time but to avoid the burden of yellow from the get go.
@tomlew It's not his youth so much as his inexperience. He's never ridden a race longer than eight days before. Pogacar won his first Tour, it's true, but he'd already finished a Vuelta. There's simply to much for him to learn and become accustomed to in my opinion for him to have a realistic chance of victory, particularly as he's up against probably the greatest of all time and a double Tour winner, both of whom seem to be at the peak of their powers. It's not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility but he'd need a hatful of luck and something fairly catastrophic to happen to both of those guys before he'd realistically be in with a shout. Don't forget nobody has won their first Grand Tour since Hinault in 1978, forty-eight years is a hell of a lot of precedent.
There is no rational reason for a rider this young not to dominate the race, other than some of us believing this is "not right" based purely on opinion. Younger athletes recover much, much faster. They adapt more easily. They are typically more eager to take risks, which is... well, risky, but could pay off big time if the stars align. Burnout? Yes, that is a risk. But it's not a given. See how long Leo Messi has been absolutely top-notch. The risks are high, but the potential is even more so. And even if Seixas does burn out early, it may just be his choice despite the awareness of the risk. If I were a prodigy cyclist youngster with a realistic shot at winning, I might take it even if I knew it might be the end of my career. After all, it's winning the TdF we're talking about!
@Rendel Harris Let's turn this around. One can hack their electronic shifting and nobody will believe them!
I’m confused: “ A driver who took a selfie, watched videos and sent messages at the wheel before killing a cyclist was jailed for five years, whilst a hit-and-run motorist who subsequently struck the same rider….” How does that work? Resurrection? Did the poor unfortunate cyclist recover from his/her case of death, only to be hit by a motorist again? Please, I don’t mean to make light of either case, merely to point out the poor/lazy journalism….
It was certainly an exciting watch today. Surprised that INEOS selected Ganna and Tarling. It felt like win at all costs and they didn't quite manage it. Personally I would rather see more riders having to stay together till the finish. It will reduce opportunities for teams to "rest" climbing domestiques and it preserves the spectacle and identity of the TTT discipline. Great start to the tour. Vingegaard is obviously in outstanding shape, but will he pay for today's effort later on.
@chrisonabike Yes does it mean those without it are intrinsically less safe because they don't appear on the motorists' "radar" (in both senses of the word)? This is the problem with bike radars - they aren't addressing the root cause. The problem isn't cyclists being informed just before a motorist smacks into them for which the cyclists can do very little. The problem is motorists not taking evasive action before they (almost?) collide with the cyclist. Radar should be mandatory for cars.
I watched it in thé Dauphiné but didn't get that feeling.