Live blog: Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for riders, says study, MP to tale on Fred Whitton Challenge; Victor Campenaerts discusses gearing for hour attempt; Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig post-Flanders interview in Danish +more

Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for riders, says Australian study

Painted cycle lanes may make roads more dangerous for bike riders, according to a new report by Victoria, Australia-based Monash University.

The study, reported on here by the Herald Sun, followed 60 people who regularly commute by bike in Melborune and followed them on their daily routes.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/bicycle-lanes-no-guarantee-of...

Deputy head of prehospital emergency and trauma research, Ben Beck, said that the lanes made cyclists more liable to be subjected to close overtakes.

“Specifically, passing events on roads with a bicycle lane and a parked car were on average 40cm closer than events on roads with no bicycle lane or parked cars,” he explained.

“The magnitude of that ­difference is quite substantial. As someone who cycles myself, we all know that a painted lane next to parked cars is not a safe space.”

The solution he proposed? Unsurprisingly, create more protected cycle lanes for riders.

Rosie Pham, who took part in the study, said: “It’s scary and luckily nothing’s happened to me but there’s been a lot of near-misses, and when people yell, that scares me and I wonder if they are going to hit me.” 

The Scottish brand encourage us to bike to work with this inspiring video. 500 calories per day burnt on just a six mile commute, hundreds of pounds saved a month and a reduction in carbon footprint equivalent to a transatlantic flight each year are just some of the reasons given. 

Traditional tweet #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/G7aJv55ugh

— ProCyclingStats.com (@ProCyclingStats) April 10, 2019

It's cobbles or nothing!

So after falling off twice trying to get up Hardknott Pass yesterday I have got the fear about the @fred_whitton. Please consider sponsoring me for the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team. It is insanely hard and I am not very good at cycling https://t.co/TJablxoKh2 pic.twitter.com/ynNGJc4Ugh

— John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) April 8, 2019

An MP from Cumbria will next month ride what many consider to be the UK’s toughest sportive – the Fred Whitton Challenge, covering 114 miles and taking in climbs including the Hardknot and Wrynose Passes.

The event, first held in 1999, is on the doorstep of Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, who is aiming to raise money for the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team.

On his page on Virgin Money Giving, he says: “So everyone says the Fred Whitton is one of the very hardest one-day amateur cycling challenges out there – and I’m doing it as my first 100-plus mile sportive. Which I realise is nuts. 114 miles and ten of the biggest climbs in the Lake District - some with 30 PER CENT GRADIENTS.

“The Fred was started 20 years ago in memory of a legendary Cumbrian cyclist. It is pretty jammy to get a place in the ballot but I’ve just fallen off twice trying to get up Hardknott – which you do after 100 miles – and now I have got the fear.

“The event raises money for a number of brilliant local and national charities – I’ve chosen to focus on the Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team whose volunteers give an amazing service to stricken climbers and walkers on the fells from their base outside Broughton-in-Furness in my constituency.”

The owner of the Chicken Dinnerz Youtube account, who describes himself as a ‘cyclocross racer and editor of silly videos’, does his own version of Roubaix in Blighty in tribute to the famous race. He explains: “We don’t really have mountains in the UK so it’s hard to do Tour de France or Giro d’Italia-style riding.

“What we do have is grey skies, terrible roads and quite a few cobbles, so I thought I’d do my own version of the Paris Roubaix.”

Chris Froome says he had issues trusting Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 Tour de France due to experience of previous year's Vuelta. 

He made the disclosure to ex-Formula 1 driver Nico Rosberg for an episode of his Beyond Victory podcast which also includes the pair discussing issues such as training and the pressures faced in their respective sports.

The 23-year-old Dane captured the public's hearts with her storytelling of the Tour of Flanders, in which she described how the peloton were going full gas and said she was a "dead fish" at the end. She also gave a similar interview to the Danish media, and her enthusiasm comes across just as well in her mother tongue. Watch it on TV2 here. 

For those of you that haven't seen the English language version, here it is below...

Here's some speculation to start your morning off, courtesy of an email we got from Wahoo... what could it be? The Elemnt and Elemnt Bolt have consistently rated well with our reviewers but any negative comments usually refer to the mapping capabilities. Something more trail-orientated perhaps? We'll have the full story tomorrow.