Welcome to Thursday’s live blog, with Simon MacMichael, Jack Sexty and the rest of the road.cc team.
Live blog: Car passenger filmed pushing woman off bike, Brief history of the bicycle from the BBC archive, Meghan and Harry’s baby bags a Trek, High jumping on a cross bike is a thing + small girl on pink bike (with stabilisers) races police car + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond…
Thu, Feb 21, 2019 17:04
SUMMARY
21 February 2019, 17:04
Future champ?
Police chase. Dutch style!
(@Politie_Rdam in Rotterdam)pic.twitter.com/76YJ50jqbz— Cycling Professor (@fietsprofessor) February 20, 2019
Look at her go!
On a day when there hasn’t been loads of news about to put a smile on our collective faces – this certainly does the trick (okay, a small girl on a pink bike racing a police car probably doesn’t count as news but we’re willing to stretch the definition for this one). Aside from the fact she gets up to an impressive clip, this young cyclist also displays masterful control of her bicycle – particularly tricky given it’s got stabilisers on plus as anyone who’s daugther(s) have ever had a similar bike will know those sort of pink Barbie bikes are flipping hard to ride.
21 February 2019, 17:04
The Ice Cycle Crit laughs in the face of health and safety
We’ve just caught wind of this barmy event held annually in Massachusetts, where participants race a crit on a completely frozen pond. Racers dressed their tyres with hundreds of screws and studs in a (sometimes futile) attempt to stay on their bikes over the multi-lap course. Check out the Facebook event page hosted by Berkshire Bike and Board to see more photos.
21 February 2019, 17:04
Would you care if your bike got stolen? (spoiler... yes)
On Tuesday’s blog we ran a poll asking you if you would actually care if your bike got stolen – being as a fair few of you will have some level of insurance and will be able to get some sort of replacement, we thought it was feasible some of us might not be too miffed if we had to get a brand new replacement should a thief strike.
Well it seems you all love your bikes insured or not, as a whopping 93% said you definitely wouldn’t like your pride and joy stolen! Just 2% said they weren’t bothered, and 5% said it depends on the bike and the insurance level. It seems the decision of the British Transport Police to shut down their bike theft unit in London and the south east will prove to be an unpopular one, then.
21 February 2019, 17:04
Chris Froome pulls out of UAE Tour
Gutted to be missing the @uae_tour I was really looking forward to the TTT & 2 uphill finishes
Unfortunately I underestimated the effect training and racing at altitude would have on me this early in the season.
Best of luck to the team! https://t.co/i1q82Rttxf— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) February 20, 2019
Froome said he underestimated the efforts he put out during a couple of hard weeks in Colombia, and Sky’s team will now be led by Michał Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon for the UAE Tour.
21 February 2019, 17:04
Now THAT is a rad paint job!
21 February 2019, 17:04
Meussen wins CX high jump at CX Masters in Waregem
You know the cyclocross race that we told you about in yesterday’s blog? Well, Tom Meussen won the famous (in Belgium) high jump competition, equalling the competition record of 80cm!
Retiring British rider Helen Wyman won the Women’s race with Belgian National Champion Toon Aerts winning the Men’s event.
21 February 2019, 17:04
Video of woman being pushed off her bike by car passenger surfaces on Twitter
Not a great view of him, but this idiot shows his face (a bit) while knocking this woman off her bike. Anyone who knows him is sure to recognise him from this… pic.twitter.com/Bgi3EuAW8d
— Sticky Bottle (@sticky_bottle) February 21, 2019
The shocking clip shows a man lean out of a car window and push a woman into a hedge.
We spotted the original footage yesterday evening when it was retweeted by Twitter user Ivan Brasso. The post he was retweeting was subsequently deleted – but not before Irish website Sticky Bottle grabbed it and posted it again.
We’re unsure if the woman was ok following the incident, although in the comments someone claims the police have been informed. The offender’s face is reasonably clear.
Shockingly some on Twitter are openly expressing their amusement at the clip, including the ‘person’ below who when asked how he would feel if this was his mum replied: “I’d have disowned her long ago for being a cyclist!”. We’ll be following up to see if the offender is brought to justice.
Good morning! Your day won’t get much better than this. pic.twitter.com/Af60IwnAmR
— Bashy Mc (@BashyMc) February 21, 2019
21 February 2019, 17:04
A lavish but actually useful baby shower gift for upcoming Royal baby...
Hey @TrekBikes did you see that the Royal baby is getting a bike? I’m excited that the @RoyalFamily is encouraging cycling. Get kids on bikes early and create healthy habits. #cyclinglife #kidsbike pic.twitter.com/WpjGqlAfkJ
— sarah shipley (@Shipleycom) February 20, 2019
A certain right-leaning tabloid’s stalking of The Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry has revealed that their child will have a brand new Trek kid’s bike to get around on thanks to a generous/very rich guest to Meghan’s baby shower.
It’s not the first time the Royals has been lavished with a bicycle… back in 2011 Boris Johnson presented Prince William and then fiancée Kate Middleton a £500 tandem ‘Boris bike’ ahead of their wedding back in 2011 – which received criticism as he insisted that TfL funded the cost of the bike. If only spending a few hundred quid of public money on a bike was our biggest Boris-related financial problem nowadays…
If you’re thinking of getting your nipper’s first bike or have enough cash to buy one for someone’s baby shower too, you can find some info on the very capable Trek Wahoo plus 16 more of our best kid’s bike picks in our buyer’s guide here.
21 February 2019, 17:04
A brief history of the bicycle from the BBC archive
Cracking piece of vid from the BBC archive (but you guessed that) – a 56 year old piece on the history of the bicycle in Coventry.
Top marks to the intrepid reporter who rides a succession of original early bikes including a bone-shaker, a penny farthing, and a succession of trikes – note the trailing microphone cable behind him as he rides along the road – chapeau! Also note the lack of traffic – interestingly back in 1963 what struck the reporter most about Coventry’s roads was the lack of bicycles – 10 years earlier they’d have been full of them he tells us.
#OnThisDay 1963: Tonight visited Coventry, to take a whimsical look at the history of bicycles (and tricycles) in Britain. pic.twitter.com/buCRbF2P6c
— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) February 21, 2019
Rather scarily some of the stuff he’s talking is only 20 years further back from 1963 than 1963 is from now.
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to ebiketips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
Oldblokey 3 hours ago
With so many people using and looking at mobie phones whilst driving and other distractions, may I suggest you always wear Hi viz and stay at home.
kil0ran 3 hours ago
The design of the "car" has played a role in this. SUVs and what the Americans call "trucks" are exempt from the pedestrian safety regulations which apply to passenger cars. Had the victim been hit by a car designed in the past twenty years he would have been "scooped" onto the bonnet and either over the roof or off to one side. Still a serious injury risk and potentially fatal but they have the benefit of those passive safety systems to improve their chances. With vehicles with such a high bonnet line as this Volvo has what tends to happen is the person bounces off the bonnet and falls on the road in front of the vehicle where they're then run over. This has happened time and time again and is becoming more of an issue as the numbers of vehicles exempt from the safety standards grows.
whosatthewheel 5 hours ago
@Accessibility for all Reducing the speeds wouldn't have helped in this case as the driver was reported doing 65 in a 40 zone on the approach to the junction, his driving described by the witnesses as erratic and evidently had no intention to stop to give way even though he had been warned by the passenger who apparently shouted "bike" three times just before the collision. He would have likely flown through that junction even if it was traffic light controlled with a red light for him at the time. In my own experience the entire area i.e. east of Lymm towards Warburton and along Dunham Road all the way up to Altrincham and past into Hale Barns, all those wealthy, posh settlements around Manchester Airport are best avoided by road cyclists. A disproportionally high number of psycho drivers must for some reason live in that area because every single time I went there on my road bike in the past, I either got harassed myself or witnessed proper dickhead driving - speeding, close passes, overtaking into oncoming traffic or round a blind bend, accelerating towards pedestrians already crossing the road, you name it. I gave up road cycling in that area years ago and only use the local TPT these days.
Hollis Jones 5 hours ago
In respect of the murder charge: based on him hitting Mr Mullins and making no attempt to help him (this killing him), how would the case compare to a hit and run driver who seriously injures or kills a cyclist, knowingly, and flees the scene without helping? Would this make the cut for a murder charge? Or is there something very different going on here that I’m missing? Genuinely curious because I don’t recall there being a murder charge before for this kind of thing unless it was premeditated. In fact, in my experience most cases like this seem to go the opposite way - where the driver can merely say the sun was in their eyes and get away with a slap on the hands.
jaymack 6 hours ago
@Rendel Harris...and there was me dishing out the praise!
whosatthewheel 6 hours ago
@polainm He must also be an already hardened criminal. It wasn't mentioned during the court proceedings to avoid influencing the jurors and ensuring he had a fair trial, but he had been released from prison shortly before this incident and was couch surfing at his cousin's house days before. Just look at his face, he's only 35, but looks older than his victim who was 56. Must have spent half his adult life in prison.
Rendel Harris 6 hours ago
@jaymack They did offer him manslaughter though but he declined to plead guilty. Without wanting to seem curmudgeonly, yes great that they preferred the most serious charges but hard to see how they could have done differently considering that Richardson got out of the car, saw Mr Mullins was stuck underneath and then got back in and carried on. That clearly moved it above anything that falls under death by dangerous driving.
Velophaart_95 6 hours ago
@thrawed Agree - the UK winters are utterly grim; grey, wet & windy. Not the type of weather you really want to go out and ride. Everything get covered in filth, and takes time to clean it after a ride. Oh for colder, drier & crisper days which can be enjoyable to be out in.
polainm 7 hours ago
@ymm In my view, lax sentencing of dangerous drivers, especially where cyclists are involved, makes the judge, jury and CPS complicit in UK driver culture. This driver is a sociopath.
slc 7 hours ago
@Mr Blackbird i reckon the libido is a bit overrated. I'd let that go rather than a limb or a nice bike.
7 thoughts on “Live blog: Car passenger filmed pushing woman off bike, Brief history of the bicycle from the BBC archive, Meghan and Harry’s baby bags a Trek, High jumping on a cross bike is a thing + small girl on pink bike (with stabilisers) races police car + more”
Heartwarming video of the kid
Heartwarming video of the kid and the police, need some of that over here.
Don’t think i’d care if my
Don’t think i’d care if my old Boardman mtb was stolen. The chainrings are on the way out, one of the threads is stripped in front disc mount, the front wheel is now buckled and I blew the seals on the forks.
I would actually have an excuse for the +1 equation.
The vid of the woman being
The vid of the woman being pushed off the bike is horrendous and I trust it has been reported to the police.
What it does show is the insidious effect of the msm portraying cyclists as scum, sub-human and different. Just like they do with immigrants, socialists and any other out group, but since lying about women, coloured people and gays became illegal, they like to set up other groups they can get their gullible, easily led, readers to hate instead; classic, deliberate msm hate creation . This behaviour is the result.
There are hundreds of examples on here demonstrating only too clearly the complete lack of respect from other people to cyclists, as if they aren’t real people, not worthy of consideration, and it doesn’t matter if they are killed.
Not sure what we can do about it, I’ve certainly tried to get the msm to report fairly, but with very few exceptions, unsuccessfully, especially with the BBC.
I’ve resigned myself to
I’ve resigned myself to always being portrayed as an inhuman weirdo to be mocked/derided by mainstream (and let’s face it, most niche) news outlets. Drivers are herioc individuals battling substandard roads, heavy traffic and bad weather. Cyclists are sub-human parasites who don’t have to deal with any of those hardships.
Great that a royal kid is
Great that a royal kid is getting a bike, but rather a pity they didn’t go for the best, Islabike, and they are homegrown.
Surely as they are Duke and
Surely as they are Duke and Duchess of Sussex there are a couple of home (Sussex) grown bike builders that could have filled this niche.
Of course it would be more
Of course it would be more odd if an American friend of our American Duchess attending a baby shower held in New York would even know about UK based bike builders.
I’ll just stick with the happy thought that someone decided a bike was a good idea.