Welcome to Tuesday on the road.cc live blog with Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
Live blog: Can an e-bike pull a car? UCI Track Worlds schedule, Col Collective vid, and … I’m Alan Partridge … appearing on a cycle safety poster near you soon + more
All today’s news from the site and beyond
Tue, Feb 26, 2019 21:49
SUMMARY
26 February 2019, 21:49
Aha! Move over, Ainsley – Alan Partridge is the new face of safe cycling in Bournemouth
Remember last year when someone doctored placards near Bournemouth University urging drivers to give cyclists at least 1.5 metres of space when overtaking cyclists by slapping stickers of TV chef Ainsley Harriott’s face on the image of a bike rider?
Well, the TV personality-loving japester is back – and this time round, it’s none other than the man of the moment, back on our screens as of last night in his new BBC One series This Time With Alan Partridge, who fronts the spoof campaign.
Aha! someone has stuck pictures of Alan Partridge on signs urging drivers to keep their distance when passing cyclists in #Bournemouth https://t.co/ZuxidqZzoh We wonder what Alan would make of it pic.twitter.com/EC4dhaOrFh
— Bournemouth Echo (@Bournemouthecho) February 25, 2019
The Ainsley Harriott unofficial iteration of the campaign got taken down very quickly, with a council official saying: “We are aware that the cycle safety signs near the university have been defaced with stickers and they will be removed as soon as possible.”
The point is though, that the guerrilla campaign last year got way more people talking about the posters – and hopefully, taking note of the message – than would otherwise have been the case, and hopefully the new, albeit unofficial endorsement from the UK’s best-loved TV show host will push awareness even higher.
And on that bombshell …
26 February 2019, 21:49
Top Gear host throws cycling question out on Twitter
Still on the issue of BBC presenters, Chris Harris, co-host of Top Gear – a show that Alan Partridge would dearly love to work on and of that there can be no doubt – has got a bit of a convo going on Twitter with this tweet. The replies – including from pro cyclists such as Alex Dowsett and Rob Hayles – are worth a browse.
Question: Driving a car and overtaken by a cyclist in a 20mph zone do you a) congratulate them, or b) scowl?
— chris harris (@harrismonkey) February 25, 2019
26 February 2019, 21:49
The Col Collective - Albulapass
Mike Cotty takes us to the Swiss Alps for some dreamy scenery.
Sunshine, perfect tarmac and incredible views, what’s not to love?
26 February 2019, 21:49
Arrest made after cyclist killed in Surrey hit and run on Sunday
Surrey Police have arrested a 49-year-old man after a cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run incident in Lingfield on Sunday evening.
As we reported yesterday, the fatal crash happened at 5pm on Lingfield Common Road at the junction with Cobham Close. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers have now confirmed that a man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by careless driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs and failing to stop at the scene of the collision.
Police have repeated an appeal for anyone with information to contact them on 101 or online quoting reference PR/P19044029.
26 February 2019, 21:49
Canyon Pure Cycling Weekend Forest of Dean
Canyon has announced its first ever UK Pure Cycling Weekend which will take place over two days at Forest of Dean on the 11th & 12th May 2019. Modelled on the annual Pure Cycling Festival which takes place at Canyon’s HQ in Koblenz each Spring, there will be a wide selection of road, mountain and gravel bikes to demo alongside various ride-outs, competitions and athletes and partner brands in attendance.
Over the past couple of years, the Canyon UK team have run a number of demos and expos around the UK (including at our own BikeLive Demo Days), offering consumers the opportunity to see and try the German-engineered, award-winning bikes.
The event will be ticketed at £5 per head and will be available to purchase soon, 100% of the ticket sales proceeds will be donated to the Dean Trail Volunteers who work in partnership with the Forestry Commission to develop and maintain the mountainbike trails in the Forest of Dean and are raising money to build a new Downhill track. The complete program, demo bike list & partners will be announced soon on Canyon’s website.
This is definitely one to watch if you’re interested in buying a Canyon.
26 February 2019, 21:49
UAE Tour 2019 - Stage 3 Highlights
Highlights from today’s stage as the riders head through the desert (again) before heading uphill for a summit finish on Jebel Hafeet.
Tomorrow’s stage heads up the Hatta Dam, an incredibly steep finish that favours the most powerful rouleurs.
26 February 2019, 21:49
UCI Track Cycling World Campionships start tomorrow - here's the BBC schedule
The UCI Track Cycling World Championships start tomorrow in Pruszkow, Poland.
18 months out from the Tokyo Olympics, it’s a chance to benchmark Great Britain’s progress as the next generation of riders comes through.
Follow this link for BBC Sport’s coverage of the event.
26 February 2019, 21:49
Can an e-bike pull a car?
The folks at online bike shop Tredz decided to find out! Head over to eBikeTips to see what happened next…
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Latest Comments
wtjs 6 minutes ago
I'm in the happy position of agreeing with everybody here! I've never considered a bike with a stand, yet I'm impressed by the ingenuity and adaptability of this axle. I tow a Yak Bob with a Robert Axle, employing my El Cheapo Vitus gravel bike and I just have to be very careful where I stop. Hedges are generally a dead loss, and I seek walls, telegraph poles and signposts and generally lean the widest part of the Bob against it. One very awkward task is removing the two steel pins which lock the trailer arms onto the special mounting slots on the Robert axle, and when you have one out, the sodding weight in the trailer can twist the whole caboodle and bend the Bob fitting before you can get the other out and unhitch. I doubt if a stand would help with that. You can imagine that this combo is a real pain when you have to get it over the bridge at railway stations, and it nearly resulted in Merseyrail nearly parting me and the trailer on the platform from the bike on the train. It's a long story for another time. Another axle example recently featured on here, with a 12mm front axle bearing the Herculean weight limit of a monster American front rack.
HoarseMann 2 hours ago
This has nothing to do with the type of bike - it's the type of behaviour that's the problem. Banning the sale of such bikes will not curtail the behaviour. They'll just find another type of vehicle and continue to drive dangerously as there's such a lack of enforcement. I'd sooner see them ban the bally. But really, all that's required is an improvement to roads policing.
AidanR 2 hours ago
The EAPC Bill is welcome, but full of holes. What's to stop an overpowered but temporarily limited e-bike being sold and subsequently delimited? This is often a trivial process.
Sredlums 3 hours ago
@KiwiMike Yeah, in my over four decades of riding all over Europe I've never 'been for a ride in the countryside'. That must be it. Or, and I know this is a wild concept, you just accept that I just voiced my personal experiences and never missed a kickstand, like I wrote. Anyway, what's the big horror of laying your bike on its side for the very few occasions where there is nothing to lean your bike against?
mdavidford 3 hours ago
They may have looked, but did they see?
jackcycles 4 hours ago
Ds2025: where they are going wrong is that they are crushing the motorbike rather than the person sat on top of it. If they did the latter this issue would be solved in less than 24 hours.
Rod Marton 4 hours ago
I came this way today with the car boot sale in operation. There was a marshal at the entrance, who stopped a car turning right across the cycleway as I was approaching. So that certainly works. I think it necessary for the marshal to be there, I couldn't say if the driver would have turned if he hadn't been there but you always have to suspect the worst. Unfortunately there is no marshal at the exit, and there was certainly a car stopped across the cycleway as I was approaching it. But he pulled onto the road before I reached it, and the following car stayed off the cycleway as I went through. Ideally there should have been a marshal there too. On the whole, though, it's a really high standard piece of infrastructure. Just a pity it doesn't extend a bit further.
eburtthebike 4 hours ago
“absolute carnage” So right! Just look at the bodies piled up, blood running in the gutters and injured people limping away. It's a bit of a problem with a road, delaying some people for minutes at a time: it isn't carnage, let alone 'absolute carnage'. Anyone who exaggerates so ridiculously really shouldn't be allowed to comment in public, unless they want to demonstrate their idiocy to all and sundry.
Jakrayan 5 hours ago
I'm criticising them for not riding in secondary position, not primary. At least 60cms (2 feet) from the edge of the road as the HC explicitly recommends. Leaving aside the small minority of riders who find mounting and dismounting a bike difficult - which sounds suspiciously similar to the motorists "but, but what about disabled drivers?" when talking about LTNs - what's wrong with able bodied riders walking the few metres over that narrow, Victorian bridge? Sure, if there's clearly no-one on it I wouldn't condemn anyone for riding it slowly, but if it's not clear forcing pedestrians to stop and squeeze to the side is, frankly, a rather entitled opinion. Plus it's easy to hold a road bike a little ahead of you and hold the saddle - normally no need to hold the bars if it's straight - so you're really not taking up much more room at all. There's a railway underpass near me that links to a shared then segregated path. It's narrow, and the path approaches at an angle so you can't see if it's clear, but many riders still choose to pedal through despite the clear 'no cycling' signage. Why?? Personally I don't go that way, except on foot, preferring the surrounding roads.
bensynnock 5 hours ago
I think you're giving drivers too much credit. Many would not think twice about blocking the road if it makes their life easier, such as when turning right onto a busy road.
12 thoughts on “Live blog: Can an e-bike pull a car? UCI Track Worlds schedule, Col Collective vid, and … I’m Alan Partridge … appearing on a cycle safety poster near you soon + more”
I would craft a ‘double tap’
I would work in a ‘double tap’ joke, but I’m still upset with SRAM for not offering a road triple 🙁
There are places in Harrogate
There are places in Harrogate where I would like to see these signs – they might make some difference.
Until the Ainsley Harriot story, I didn’t know that councils could put up such signs.
We have these signs in
We have these signs in Cumbria, but unfortunately they have a stylised image, not a photo of a cyclist, so would look pretty weird with a Partridge face stuck on!
They don’t stop close passes though, IME.
Knowing me Alan Partridge, knowing you driver passing too fecking close…aha.
That twitter thread is a bit
That twitter thread is a bit depressing…
Quote:
I sometimes feel like I’m the only person in the country who doesn’t get Alan Partridge…
brooksby wrote:
My wife hated last nights new Alan Partridge show. I am undecided, though there were a couple of funny bits and I will persevere with it as its only half an hour.
The problem is that with today’s presenters and programmes, it actually looked like a normal show. How do you lampoon the likes of Richard Madeley or Piers Morgan?
PRSboy wrote:
True. I suppose it’s like when you look at old episodes of ‘The Day Today’ and then compare it to Any Modern News Show…
brooksby wrote:
Be assured, you are not alone.
brooksby wrote:
Partridge was funny before Brexit. Now its too much like reality…
Would this be the Alan
Would this be the Alan Partridge who once commented,
“There’s a time and a place for cycling. The time’s Summer and the place is Center Parcs”
(And you probably read that in his voice.)
After watching the latest
After watching the latest version of Partidge I can only hope he gets run-over whilst cycling. Terrible ‘comedy’ with no edge at all. R.I.P. vintage Partidge and comedy.
Anyone who can get away with this joke in prime time is alright by me …
Alan introduces a guest as “Alice Clunt”
She says her name is “Flux”
“I think I know what I did there” he admits.