Live blog: Italian pros launch petition for road law changes in memory of Michele Scarponi, W Mids Police tell cycle safety app developer it distracts drivers ,Freeman tribunal faces further delay, Sagan calls for safer cities +more

TEAM ANNOUCEMENT

Check out the team for the 2019 @UCI_Track Cycling World Championships

27th Feb – 3rd March // Pruzskow, Poland

Full Story https://t.co/hkyUvGJdST pic.twitter.com/tXXHttxo8X

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) February 12, 2019

22 riders were selected in total for the championships, which will begin in just over a fortnight on Wednesday 27th February. 

Leading wheel brands Enve and Mavic are being sold by parent company Amer Sports according to a story by www.bike-eu.com.

Amer Sports is selling Enve and Mavic, acquired in 2016 and 2005 respectively, because they no longer fit the company’s “ strategy to pursue sustainable, profitable growth” with a renewed focus on soft goods. It’s also prompted by apparently poor results, with cycling division sales dropping 13% in 2018.

Got a few million spare and fancy buying your own wheel brand?

There’s nothing we like more than a good nose around a trade show. Here are some things we saw…

Italy’s professional cyclists’ organisation, the ACCPI, has launched a petition in memory of the late Michele Scarponi that calls on the country’s government to do more to protect people riding bikes on the road.

Highlighting an increase in the number of cyclists killed in recent years on Italy’s roads, the ACCPI’s petition, which goes by the name Siamo sulla stessa strada: rendiamola sicura – We’re on the same road, let’s make it safe – is hosted on Change.org and addressed to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

It urges the government, among other things, to introduce a minimum passing distance of 1.5 metres to the country’s highway code, which currently requires motorists only to give “adequate distance” when passing cyclists.

It also calls for psychological support measures to be introduced for victims and their relatives, increased compensation for bike riders who sustain life changing injuries as a result of a road traffic collision, and changing the country’s penal code to enable the families of cyclists who have been killed to participate fully in criminal proceedings.

The petition can be found here.

Hello Martyn
Thanks for your comment
We confirm that cycle safety technology app Is for all road users.
If a cyclist Is not using the app but a driver Is using the app the responsibility rest with the cyclist.
All accidents that happen are look at on the evidence available.

— Joseph Edet (@cyclesafetech) February 11, 2019

Our story yesterday about a smartphone app that claims to alert motorists to the presence of cyclists on the road has took another turn – West Midlands Police have urged the developer of Cycle Safety Technologies to remove the tweet above, which appears to suggest that if a cyclist is hit by an app-using motorist and they are not using it, then the responsibility rests with them to provide evidence. West Midlands Police replied: “You really need to remove that tweet, under the #RTA1988 the use of your app neither provides a defence to a potential offence nor absolves a driver of the requirement to drive to #teststandard, your app provides a potential distraction that could lead to prosecution though.” 

Surrey’s Road Police Unit also replied with a whole thread, with the gist of their advice being that the responsibility rests with the driver to see cyclists on the road. For now the thread on Twitter still exists, but we’ll add screenshots where possible if it magically disappears… 

Well the responsibility for seeing a cyclist lays firmly with the driver. Obviously riders need to be seen so positioning in the road, lights at night will help but it’s not the riders responsibility for the driver to see them. If a rider or driver choose to use an app then….

— RPU – Surrey Police (@SurreyRoadCops) February 12, 2019

Riding my bike in San Francisco. We need to make our cities and communities safer for cyclists and pedestrians. It’s good for ourselves and good for the planet @c40cities (Photo @Aaronbhall / @ride100percent) pic.twitter.com/VvzNOdDvqN

— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) February 11, 2019

When Peter Sagan says it, hopefully people will listen! It didn’t stop one commenter from suggesting Sagan “would be safer with hi-via (sic) and some flashing front/rear lights”; and if you click the embed below you will see plenty of people gave a piece of their mind back. 

Probably would be safer with hi-via clothing and some flashing front/rear lights…. That pictures make me cringe since there’s no obvious safety equipment…

— Jason Gasparik (@JGasparik) February 11, 2019

Assuming an average cycling speed of a very casual 10mph for sake of argument, you can go faster on a bike in many world cities in the last mile of your commute according to the INRIX 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard. London came out the sixth worst city in the world for congestion, with the average mile of a London car commuter crawling along at measly 7mph, amongst the slowest in the world. In Bristol and Edinburgh it’s 8mph and in Manchester it’s 10mph. The Scorecard also calculates the average cost of congestion per driver, with Londoners losing £1,680 per year. If only there was something pedal-powered with two wheels you could use instead to claw back some of that cash… 

Check out the Scorecard here to input your city’s data, how does it compare? Let us know in the comments. 

Strictly for work purposes, we took a very deep breath and delved into the cesspit that is the Daily Mail comments section on their version of the story about the INRIX 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard – and it made for some pretty depressing reading. After scrolling past the most popular comments which blamed city congestion on overpopulation and immigrants, you then get to the second-most ‘liked’ reason for bad traffic according to the DM’s mostly deranged audience… cycle lanes and public transport, which as most of us know are overwhelmingly shown to ease congestion in urban areas. We won’t link to it, but if you feel like making yourself really worked up then I’m sure you can find the article via a search engine at your peril…

Watching a fabulous film called A Boy, a Girl and a Bike from 1949. About a ‘bicycling’ club in Yorkshire. From this clip – nothing changes! #bike #cycling @TalkingPicsTV @UKCycleChat pic.twitter.com/Uke0xaVrJW

— Jill (@mummyjilly) February 10, 2019

This great clip from the 1949 film ‘A boy, a Girl and a Bike’ doesn’t appear to have aged a day if you just listen to the words! The film stars John McCallum, Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt and revolves around the adventures of the fictional Wakeford Wheelers cycling club, with romantic complications ensuing between the members. We’re assuming the film is now in the public domain, as you can watch the whole thing for free on YouTube here. 

If i drink 5 of these in 5 minutes, is it the same as an attack of 5 minutes at 500watts? pic.twitter.com/QvHFLji6km

— Thomas De Gendt (@DeGendtThomas) February 11, 2019

We’re going to say we’re not sure Thomas, but we can confirm it will definitely be tastier!

Freeman’s latest no-show for a medical tribunal into his alleged involvement with an order for testosterone in 2011 could lead to a several month delay, reports the BBC. 

The hearing was supposed to happen last Wednesday and the General Medical Council has accused him of lying to conceal his motive, but Freeman denies wrongdoing. He previously failed to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating the Jiffy Bag controversy in 2017 citing ill-health, and in December 2018 he pulled out of a scheduled appearance at Jess Varnish’ employment tribunal.