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Live blog: Boris Johnson launches London cycle hire scheme (did we just wake from a weird three-year dream?), Team Ineos set to be confirmed, Man exposes himself as he cycles after 18 cans of super strength lager, Wiggins on spectator danger + more

All today's news from the site and beyond as we start a new week.....
18 March 2019, 18:14
London Cycle Hire Scheme Bikes On Docking Station (copyright Simon MacMichael).jpg
It's just like old times - Boris Johnson launches cycle hire scheme in London

Wait, what’s this just landed in the road.cc inbox? Boris Johnson launching a cycle hire scheme in London? So the last three years didn’t happen, and the political stalemate that leaves the United Kingdom’s population with no clue what our future holds just 11 days before we are due to leave the European Union was just some kind of dystopian nightmare?

Well, not quite. The former Mayor of London and ex-Foreign Secretary was acting in his capacity as Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip as he unveiled Brunel University’s bike hire scheme, made possible after students there emerged as joint winners, with Swansea University, of the Santander Cycles University Challenge.

The scheme, operated by Nextbike, will link the university with Uxbridge town centre and Hillingdon Hospital, with Brunel students, helped by ccontributions from alumni and local businesses, smashing a crowdfunding target of £48,650 to meet operating costs by £36,000 and Santander then chipping in a further £100,000 in capital expenditure.

Johnson said: “It’s wonderful, I think Brunel have been pioneering. It’s also a great thing for Uxbridge and the local community because what they are creating is not just a cycle scheme for the university but for the whole of the town centre. I’ve no doubt that it’ll expand and this is the start of something really beautiful.”

The capital's Santander Cycles - previously the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme (pictured above and named after the bank, not the Telegraph-owning twins from whom Johnson trousers three times his MP's salary for his weekly column) was launched while he was Mayor, although it was originally proposed by Liberal Democrat assembly member Caroline Pidgeon, with the green light given by his predecessor, Labour's Ken Livingstone.

18 March 2019, 17:31
Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome on Tour de France podium (via YouTube)
Ineos set to be confirmed as Team Sky's new sponsor

Ineos, the chemicals group founded by Britain's richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is set to be officially named as Team Sky's new sponsor from 2020 onwards.

With broadcaster Sky announcing in December that it was ending its decade-long association with the team, which has won six of the last seven editions of the Tour de France, Sir Dave Brailsford has been looking for a new backer, and in recent weeks the country's largest privately-owned company has emerged as the frontrunner.

Today, BBC Sport's Dan Roan tweeted that confirmation is expected within the next 48 hours, with a subsequent report on its website stating that from next year onwards, it will race as Team Ineos.

18 March 2019, 16:40
Pavement cyclists (well, velocepedists) in Oxford ... 1840s style

18 March 2019, 12:35
Magistrates court coat of arms (CC BY 2.0 licensed by Elliot Brown:Flickr)
Man who cycled through Blackpool after drinking 18 cans of super strength lager and exposing himself is sentenced

The Blackpool Gazette reports that 44-year-old Craig Lomax of Oxford Road, Blackpool had drunk 18 cans of super strength lager before embarking on a bike ride through the town. 

Lomax was lucky not to cause a serious accident after narrowly missing a collision with an electric disabled buggy. He eventually came to a stop by crashing into a large tree and a metal street post on Whitegate Drive, then as he staggered along the footpath Lomax removed his trousers and started exposing himself to passers-by. The previous day Lomax, who was said to have turned to alcohol due to family issues, also bared his buttocks at a passing car driver.  

He was sentenced at Blackpool Magistrates court this morning, receiving a six week jail term suspended for a year. He was also ordered to complete twenty days rehabilitation, and was placed on the sex offenders register for five years. 

18 March 2019, 12:19
"You've got a split second to make a decision" - Bradley Wiggins and Adam Blythe discuss dangers of fans/passers-by in Wiggins' latest Eurosport podcast

"When you're in a team time trial all you're focussing on is the wheel in front of you, they're not aware of what's happening up ahead. So it could have been devastating for the whole team", said Wiggins of Bora-Hansgrohe's nasty crash caused by a pedestrian last week.  

Wiggins and Blythe also discuss disorderly fans at the grand tours, with Wiggins making the comparison between the uproar over the assault on Aston Villa footballer Jack Grealish and the comparative indifference to when similar incidents happen in bike races.  

18 March 2019, 09:10
George Monbiot says cars need replacing in congested areas and denies climate protests are "virtue signalling"

Monbiot was debating with former UKIP Deputy Chair Suzanne Evans, who said "it's all very well virtue-signalling" regarding the latest climate change protests in London. He says Evans' comments suggests she has "no concept of what is important and what is not" and says a massive reduction in car travel, replaced by electric mass-transit and bicycles, is need to rapidly reduce pollution.

18 March 2019, 09:03
Top Trumps

Egan Bernal won Team Sky's sixth Paris-Nice in eight years yesterday, and has been immortalised in a Pro Cycling Trump for his efforts. Read our round-up of stage 8 here

18 March 2019, 08:54
Farage out of Sunderland to London tour...

UK Cycling Expert at the forefront of current affairs once more!

18 March 2019, 08:48
Tap dancing shoes > cycling shoes

Turns out cycling shoes and cleats are the ideal footwear to perform an St Patrick's Day Irish jig! Madline's pal who shot the video is Eric Bjorling, Trek's US Brand Manager. 

18 March 2019, 08:44
Joanna Biddolph twet
ICYMI: Councillor campaigning against CS9 schooled on cycling by police

A Chiswick councillor campaigning against CS9 has been given an education by police via Twitter after taking issue with cyclists “whizzing” past cars in moving traffic. Full story here

18 March 2019, 08:41
London cyclists at Hyde Park Corner (copyright Britishcycling.org_.uk).jpg
ICYMI: Lord Winston calls for urban cyclists to be licensed and insured

Lord Winston will this week urge the government to make it compulsory for cyclists to be licensed and insured when riding in the centres of towns and cities. The Labour peer has regularly blamed London’s Cycle Superhighways for causing congestion and pollution, without citing evidence. Article here

18 March 2019, 08:39
Pedestrian zone cyclist.JPG
ICYMI: Gravesend pedestrian zone cyclist fined £440 after breaching Public Space Protection Order

A cyclist caught riding through a pedestrian zone in Gravesend, Kent, has been fined £440 for breaching a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO). Article here

18 March 2019, 08:36
quickstep-specialized-venge2_0
In case you missed it: 6 of the hottest aero road bikes

Dave Arthur rounds up six of the most slippery road bikes around - watch the video here

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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14 comments

Avatar
mikeymustard | 5 years ago
1 like

PC Windows? Lol

Avatar
Organon | 5 years ago
0 likes

'Fined 10s(shilling?) and 11s.' Which was it then?

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to Organon | 5 years ago
0 likes

Organon wrote:

'Fined 10s(shilling?) and 11s.' Which was it then?

Sigh, bother to read, there were two defendents, Rev Dr.Leighton AND Senior Proctor James Knipe, ergo two fines, one for each!

Avatar
brooksby | 5 years ago
1 like

18 cans of super strength lager?? - I don't think I'd be even walking, let alone riding a bike... 

Avatar
Legs_Eleven_Wor... replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

18 cans of super strength lager?? - I don't think I'd be even walking, let alone riding a bike... 

I got utterly rat-arsed with my brother, at our father's funeral.  We had a box of forty-eight 1664 (25 cl each, IIRC) between us. 

Not sure that that would even make a dent nowadays.  

Avatar
burtthebike replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
3 likes

brooksby wrote:

18 cans of super strength lager?? - I don't think I'd be even walking, let alone riding a bike... 

Exposing himself after 18 pints of super strength lager?  Hardly a stiff drink.

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

Legs, as I understand it, pushing the bicycle whilst drunk is the same offence.

Avatar
Legs_Eleven_Wor... replied to ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

ktache wrote:

Legs, as I understand it, pushing the bicycle whilst drunk is the same offence.

It shouldn't be (IMO), because once one dismounts, one becomes a foot passenger, according to interpretation of s. 72 of the Highways Act 1835 in Crank v Brooks [1980] RTR 441.  Corkery v Carpenter [1950] 2 All ER 745 concerned the 'being in charge of' of a carriage whilst drunk, contrary to s. 12 of the Licensing Act 1872, however, so - yes.  You're goin' daaarn.  

Avatar
Legs_Eleven_Wor... | 5 years ago
2 likes

Can we pre-empt the inevitable comments about how you can't be nicked for cycling whilst drunk?

You can.

HTH.

Avatar
Kendalred | 5 years ago
5 likes

Riding a bike after 18 cans of headfuck? Chapeau! I think I'd be in the nearest A&E having a stomach pump inserted.

Point of order author - Blackpool is a town, not a city.

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to Kendalred | 5 years ago
2 likes
Kendalred wrote:

Riding a bike after 18 cans of headfuck? Chapeau! I think I'd be in the nearest A&E having a stomach pump inserted.

Point of order author - Blackpool is a town, not a city.

Strictly speaking I think actually it's a state of mind. Sometimes best to be out of it, too, as this gentleman has so kindly demonstrated.

Avatar
burtthebike | 5 years ago
3 likes

Suzanne Evans vs George Monbiot reminded me of the knock knock joke about Daisy the interrupting cow.  She seems to think that constant interruption is debate.  As a former deputy chair of a washed up, irrelevant party, what was she doing there anyway?

Avatar
brooksby replied to burtthebike | 5 years ago
12 likes

burtthebike wrote:

Suzanne Evans vs George Monbiot reminded me of the knock knock joke about Daisy the interrupting cow.  She seems to think that constant interruption is debate.  As a former deputy chair of a washed up, irrelevant party, what was she doing there anyway?

"Balance", innit?  George Monbiot has working brain cells so they need Suzanne Evans to bring "balance" to the discussion 

Avatar
Pilot Pete | 5 years ago
0 likes

I’m surprised you’ve not picked this story up yet...

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london/east/hackney/cctv-cyclist-fights-for-h...

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