Welcome to Thursday on the road.cc live blog with Simon MacMichael and the rest of the team.
- News

Live blog: Puntastic! – our fave headlines from the MSM after they picked up the Porn Pedallers story we broke yesterday, Epic fail for BMW pedestrian (and cyclist) avoidance system, Olympic champ Callum Skinner retires + more
SUMMARY

Women’s Tour of Scotland route revealed
The route for the inaugural Women’s Tour of Scotland was unveiled in Edinburgh yesterday.
The three-day race takes place from 9-11 August, with the opening stage running from Dundee to Dunfermline.
That will be followed by a stage from Glasgow to Perth, with the closing stage starting and finishing in Edinburgh.
Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald was at yesterday’s launch in the Scottish capital and will ride the event this summer.
“There’s a huge significance that it’s a standalone women’s event,” she said.
“I’m proud to be attached to it and hopefully events like this say to young girls that they can get on a bike, and to women that ‘this world is ours, we’re competitive and we can race just as hard as the men’.
“It should really give a chance to showcase Scotland and some gorgeous scenery,” she said. “Most years I end up missing the Scotland National Road Race so it will be a privilege to be on these roads.
“There are lots of nice moments that may not be globally iconic but to me will feel very special,” she added.
In the Neutral Service car at Strade Bianche
If there was one race last year where the Neutral Service car was most needed it had to be Strade Bianche. The rain turned the chalk roads to sludge and things quickly got interesting.
Take a look behind the scenes with the unsung heroes of the pro peloton.
Le Samyn 2019 highlights
Missed this Belgian semi-classic earlier in the week? Grab a quick cuppa and catch up with the racing.
How is anyone going to beat QuickStep this year?
Why is online cycling so popular? Oh…
Virtual reality vs reality – Tower Bridge, London both this Am @GoZwift pic.twitter.com/jSKUDuKPpo
— Rory McCarron (@CyclingLawLDN) March 7, 201
It might get a bit lonely in there. Eventually
Video: Sam Hill Vs Killian Bron
Nice riding, or should that be ‘sick edit’?
Olympic champion Callum Skinner announces retirement – but will work with British Cycling to “make the athlete experience more human”
Olympic champion Callum Skinner has announced his retirement from elite cycling at the age of 26 – though he plans to remain involved in the sport by working with British Cycling “make the athlete experience more human.”
Two years ago in Rio, Skinner helped Team GB retain its team sprint Olympic title, and also took silver in the individual sprint, won by team mate Jason Kenny.
In a post on his blog today, the Scot said: “Cycling has been very good to me, I’ve made lifelong friends and realised my dream for which I am eternally privileged.
“I appreciate that 26 might seem to many quite young to be transitioning away from the track, but I have never considered myself just an athlete; I consider myself far more than that.”
He continued: “I’m looking for a new challenge, my next Olympics. I want to build on the skills and perspective I’ve learnt and gained as a competitor over the last few years, and go on to greater things.
“As some of you will know, I’m particularly passionate about giving back to sport, using my profile for good, whether that’s in supporting the long overdue reform of sports governance, LGBT rights and encouraging people to get on their bikes.”
Last August, Skinner announced that he was taking an extended break from cycling, saying that he lacked motivation, although today he revealed that his hiatus from the sport was due to a deterioration in his health.
> Olympic champion Callum Skinner taking break from cycling
“This has proved to be a very challenging time,” he said. “Through seeking help outside the programme, and by the unswerving support of my friends, family and agent, I have made incredible progress and I’m pleased to say have almost fully recovered.”
As for his future role, he said: “My focus and effort now lies in working in partnership with British Cycling to continue to make the athlete experience more human whilst still maintaining that performance mindset. These two essential aspects are not mutually exclusive of each other.
“Overall, I have had an amazing time at British Cycling and would like to thank my current and former coaches, performance support staff and team mates for an amazing and unforgettable ten years,” he added. “I wish them every success going forward.”
Watch out for the BeeMer… but you knew that
Interesting vid from the US insurance industry backed Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showing their testing of pedestrian detection/auto braking systems on a number of small and luxury SUVs from different manufacturers in simulations of typical incidents in which cars collide with pedestrians. Two of the cars, the 2019 versions of the Toyota RAV 4 and Subaru Forester managed to avoid collisions in all scenarios and only one failed the test entirely – BMW’s X1 which comes equipped with the company’s Daytime Pedestrian Detection system, and which the IIHS noted “didn’t brake at all in the 37 mph parallel adult scenario. The luxury SUV had minimal to no speed reductions in the other tests.” More work needed there then.
Guess where we are…?


Top punning from Fleet Street's finest on the Porn Pedallers story
When we reported yesterday that Porn Pedallers Cycling Club had seen its licence revoked by British Cycling due to infringing UCI rules, we suspected it wouldn’t be long before the mainstream media took up the case.
However, chapeau to the sub-editors of Fleet Street (well … the Baby Shard, Kensington High Street and elsewhere) for some totally puntastic headlines today.
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.

1 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
"~15% of the riding time that I’m forced to use the road(because the infrastructure for cycling is insufficient or nonexistent) " Amsterdam?
Same here. I have a helmet with built in front and rear lights and have a red light clipped onto my bag plus lights attached to my bike front and rear but still have drivers putting me in danger. My commute is about two miles and I normally have around four incidents a week where I have to brake hard or take other evasive action to avoid being hit by distracted drivers. A big percentage of these are drivers coming on to roundabouts when I am already on them.
Glasgow's South City Way sounds great, does it not? As a user from before and after I wholeheartedly welcome the construction of the segregated route, but so much of the detailed construction is poor, if not unsafe. I provide a link to a presentation I made when construction was half complete (a personal view) and the construction errors remain outstanding to this day: crossed by high speed flared road junctions, poor colour differentiation, car door zone risks and so on. And yet cyclists come because they feel safe. It's a complex subject but IMHO the feeling of safety (or lack of) is a critical component. https://drive.proton.me/urls/B67AK44G90#CFueBGjscoWr
I can only conclude that you haven't been into a city in the last few years. Food delivery riders in particular are riding overpowered "eBikes" that are basically mopeds ... powered only via the throttle without pedalling at significantly more than 15mph. Problem is they look like normal bikes/ebikes and not like mopeds so that is what people describe them as. My reading of the article is that it is those vehicles that are being talked about here.
I have the Trace and Tracer, which have essentially the same design, albeit smaller and less powerful. The controls are a little complicated but only because there are loads of options. In reality, once you've chosen your level of brightness, you'll only cycle through 1 or 2 options and it's dead simple. The lights are rock solid, bright, with good runtimes. The only thing I find annoying is charging them - if your fingers are slightly wet or greasy, getting the rubber out of the way of the charging port is a pain in the arse.
Dance and padel is all very well, but when is Strava going to let me record my gardening?
You can use it to check whether it's raining.
If it's dusk, i.e. post-sunset, then the cyclists should have lights on and thus the colour of their top is irrelevant. If you want to complain about cyclists not having lights when it's mandatory then by all means do but their top has nothing to do with it.
All of my Exposure lights with a button allow cycling through the modes with a short press. I have five of those; it would be odd if Exposure didn’t allow this functionality with the Boost 3. I also have two Exposure Burners if I remember correctly: they are rear lights for joysticks that clip on and are powered through the joystick charging port. They don’t have a button. None of my Exposure lights have failed. I looked at the Boost 3 review photos but none showed the button, so far as I could tell. I also have Moon lights. Good experience generally. One did fail, possibly because it was so thin it used to fall through the holes in my helmet onto the ground. Also, the UI and charge indicators vary for my Moon lights. Perhaps the latest ones are more consistent. My worst lights ever were from See.Sense.
Steve really doesnt like exposure products does he? Boost and Strada marked down for being too complicated. While the Zenith and Six Pack reviewed by his colleagues give them rave reviews (as most exposure products have on road.cc), the Zenith even touted as 'even more intuitive to use' with the same controls.


















1 thought on “Live blog: Puntastic! – our fave headlines from the MSM after they picked up the Porn Pedallers story we broke yesterday, Epic fail for BMW pedestrian (and cyclist) avoidance system, Olympic champ Callum Skinner retires + more”
Nice work, BMW, you should
Nice work, BMW, you should partner up with Uber.