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Live blog: NYPD tickets cyclists heading to memorial ride for hit-and-run victim, Tour de Yorkshire stage winner flies flag (literally), Anti-fracking protesters chant “You’ve sold your soul, you’ve sold your sport out” at Team Ineos bus + more
SUMMARY

Dan Lloyd approves of our new General Cycling Nonsense feature
Touché
— Daniel Lloyd (@daniellloyd1) May 1, 2019
For some reason or another…
'Pure Skills'
Peter Sagan’s wheelies? That girl who does tricks while riding the rollers? It all pales into insignificance compared to the skill and endeavour of this gentleman riding through the Greater Manchester suburb of Leigh with a fireplace around his neck, spotted by April Fillingham. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Ms Fillingham said:
“I was in my friend’s car when I saw this guy riding down the road on a bike with this massive fireplace. We had to turn back and take a better look. It must have been really heavy but he had this massive smile on his face.
“It was pure dedication. He must have really wanted that fireplace.”
It's #bikesatpollingstations time
I couldn’t persuade Charlie Cat to join me for #CatsAtPollingStations so it was just #BikesAtPollingStations for me! @LovetoRide_ @TreasuryMog @roadcc pic.twitter.com/16km1TFjDM
— Rob Bounds (@rob_bounds) May 2, 2019
Voting in local elections has been happening this morning up and down the country, and as well as feline and canine friends some have been using it as an opportunity to take their two-wheeled friends along too…
The protests against fracking and Team Ineos have begun
The anti fracking protest is growing in size at the #TdY start in Doncaster #BBCTDY @RadioHumberside @looknorthBBC @BBCYork @BBCSheffield pic.twitter.com/4ZT3WlwaUe
— Andy Comfort (@andycomfort) May 2, 2019
The race has barely begun yet the protestors are out, making their frustrations known.
We’ll keep an eye out for roadside protests and amusing helicopter shots when we get live pictures at 1pm.
Your TdY Stage 1 Winner...
Today some of the team are helping our Selby colleagues engaging with crowds @letouryorkshire …. Sgt Leach has already finished the race …. Well ahead of the pack …. #TDY #community #engagement pic.twitter.com/evjHbtWgzs
— NYP York South (@NPTYorkSouth) May 2, 2019
…is Sgt Leach of North Yorkshire Police! But how did he train for such a historic win? Well…


Success hasn’t changed Connor one jot…
The British road champ is still proper Yorkshire, as you will see in this video courtesy of his team Madison Genesis. The Tour de Yorkshire began today, with Swift hoping to add some stage wins to his already impressive CV.
Faith in humanity = restored
We’re always glad of a good news story, and particularly one where someone gets their stolen bike back’ the suspects have been arrested too.
"You've sold your soul, you've sold your sport out"
Anti fracking protests outside the Team INEOS team bus at the start of the @letouryorkshire in Doncaster #doncaster #TDY #TdY2019 @DonnyFreePress #fracking @SheffieldStar pic.twitter.com/peFodI2Wo4
— Sheffield Star in Pictures (@pictures_star) May 2, 2019
Things aren’t so cheery down at the Team Ineos bus. The full quote from the most vocal man in the middle: “It’s unlawful, they’re trying to buy the law here. We’re checking them out. You’ve made the wrong decision here. I’m a cyclist myself and you’ve sold your sport out, you have, you’ve sold your sport out! If you think this is the end of it, you’re wrong!”
Meanwhile, here is Chris Froome's new Pinarello Dogma F12 race bike
You probably saw the news about Pinarello’s brand new Dogma F12 yesterday, well here today is Chris Froome’s brand new race bike. We’ve taken a bit of a detailed look at the new bike the equipment that sets his bike apart from the peloton. What do you think of the new red livery as well?
Read about Chris Froome’s Pinarello Dogma F12


































Tour de Yorkshire: Team Ineos controlling the race
A mixture of @TeamINEOS & Nic Dlamini of @TeamDiData have been keeping the break in check. 80km to go and the lead is just 1 min 20 seconds. #TDY pic.twitter.com/DwTjhvsz0H
— Tour de Yorkshire (@letouryorkshire) May 2, 2019
A small break has a lead of just over a minute, but it’s the new red and black jerseys dicating the pace of the peloton.
Ee bah gum, that looks grotty!
The breakaway at Howden during a heavy downpour – #TDY #Stage1 pic.twitter.com/eLIPyaPa8n
— British Cycle Sport (@VeloUK) May 2, 2019
It’s a lovely spring day in Yorkshire…
Perhaps this needs a rethink...
“Is the glue on the stickers waterproof?”
“I think so.” pic.twitter.com/2R1vvgJdg7— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) May 2, 2019
Bad weather. Awesome Photography
Proper @letouryorkshire #photography alert @TeamDiData rider Nicholas Dlamini #TeamSWpix @_AlexBroadway_ follow the race all on https://t.co/pZvqP4zLef pic.twitter.com/7TvU8JfmnC
— simon wilkinson (@swpixtweets) May 2, 2019
The weather may be bad on today’s stage of the Tour of Yorkshire but it has brought out the best in Alex Broadway. He managed to make the weather look quite beautiful.
Tour de Yorkshire stage winner flies the flag - literally- as he crosses line
Roompot-Charles cyclist Jesper Asselman flew the home flag – literally – as he crossed the line in Ripon this afternoon to win a rain-drenched stage of the Tour de Yorkshire from the break, with the peloton breathing down his neck but just unable to make the catch.
The Dutch rider, whose only previous pro win came at the Ronde van Drenthe in 2016, rode by the barriers on the right hand side of the finishing straight to overhaul his riders from the break – and somehow managed to inadvertently pick up a spectator’s blue Yorkshire flag with the white rose at its centre.
NYPD tickets cyclists headed to memorial ride for hit-and-run victim
We’ve mentioned several times recently on road.cc how the New York Police Department’s standard response to the death of a cyclist on the streets it patrols is to ticket riders in the ensuing days – at times, for ‘offences’ that don’t exist, such as not wearing a cycle helmet, which is not legally required for adult cyclists there.
But now it’s emerged that ‘New York’s Finest’ reacted to a cyclist being killed by a hit-and-run truck driver a couple of months ago by issuing fines to people heading to a memorial ride for her.
Aurilla Lawrence was killed on 28 February, and the actions of NYPD officers following her death have led her father, Kenny Lawrence, to pen a heartfelt piece for Gothamist in which he calls on the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, to protect cyclists.
“On February 28th, 2019, my daughter Aurilla Lawrence was struck by an oil tanker truck near the intersection of Broadway and Rodney Street in Brooklyn,” he wrote. “The driver attempted to pass Aurilla and came back in on her causing her to lose control. She ended up under the wheels of his truck.
“This driver took my daughter’s life, and he didn’t even stop. He left her to die alone on the street as he continued on his way.”
He went on to say: “Far too many families have had to bury a loved one this year because of unsafe streets and reckless drivers. Nothing will bring her back, but at the very least Mayor de Blasio ought to be doing everything in his power to make sure nobody else’s family has to go through what mine has.
“But they’re doing the opposite. I was furious to learn that the morning after Aurilla was killed, police were out giving tickets to bicyclists on the same block where she was struck. The truck driver was the one who killed my daughter and fled the scene, so why were the police out on the street treating cyclists like criminals? Did Mayor de Blasio not understand that many of these cyclists who were being targeted were actually headed to a memorial ride in honour of Aurilla?”
In conclusion, he said: “It’s impossible to feel that way if you live in fear that you might get run down every time you get on your bike. But Aurilla was a fearless bicyclist. Mayor de Blasio, please honour her by being a fearless mayor and doing everything you can to eliminate all this senseless death.”
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@mctrials23 When I was planning my 2025 World Record ride I raised this issue with Jenny Graham. She said Guinness was set up for records like balancing the most number of books on your head, not these multi day efforts. Fortunately, WUCA are putting in place much clearer rules and I expect that the Guiness rules will be less relevant. They are also quite limiting, I am the first disabled person to do the challenge, but Guiness don't recognise brain injury under their disability category. With regard to comparing the different routes, Mark Beaumont did a great GCN interview on this at the time of Laels last attempt. He pointed out that there are two approaches. Go fast which means avoiding Asia with big loops in North America, or keep to the 'spirit' of the challenge. The latter means if you put your route on the living room wall it looks like you circumnavigated the world. Jenny and Mark's rides were the latter, Lael's the former. I originally had a route very similar to hers but decided my record would be 'tainted' by being within the rules but not the spirit. So I went to one like Mark suggested, with over 7,000 km in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.
@mdavidford Same day, Same badge. They're out there! and no such driver has ever considered 'not driving' anywhere, or climate change, or not having a Panzer or 'cyclist ahead' etc. etc. ttps://upride.cc/incident/pg21fwa_bmw_uwlcross/
@mctrials23 When I was planning my 2025 World Record ride I raised this issue with Jenny Graham. She said Guinness was set up for records like balancing the most number of books on your head, not these multi day efforts. Fortunately, WUCA are putting in place much clearer rules and I expect that the Guiness rules will be less relevant. They are also quite limiting, I am the first disabled person to do the challenge, but Guiness don't recognise brain injury under their disability category. With regard to comparing the different routes, Mark Beaumont did a great GCN interview on this at the time of Laels last attempt. He pointed out that there are two approaches. Go fast which means avoiding Asia with big loops in North America, or keep to the 'spirit' of the challenge. The latter means if you put your route on the living room wall it looks like you circumnavigated the world. Jenny and Mark's rides were the latter, Lael's the former. I originally had a route very similar to hers but decided my record would be 'tainted' by being within the rules but not the spirit. So I went to one like Mark suggested, with over 7,000 km in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China.
@mdavidford Yeah, definitely Wilcox. And the depth of the research used here is also attested to by the consistent misspelling of Victor Bosoni's name...
@swagman - Lots of cyclists own cars - Lots of those car-owning cyclists like to drive their bikes nice places to cycle (we don't all live in the Lake District) - Lots of those holiday-making-car-owning cyclists like to use campsites when they do that - Lots of those holiday-making-car-owning-camping cyclists would find this setup interesting – Ergo, it's not a new low for road.cc but a perfectly legitimate and appropriate product review.
@swagman - Lots of cyclists own cars - Lots of those car-owning cyclists like to drive their bikes nice places to cycle (we don't all live in the Lake District) - Lots of those holiday-making-car-owning cyclists like to use campsites when they do that - Lots of those holiday-making-car-owning-camping cyclists would find this setup interesting – Ergo, it's not a new low for road.cc but a perfectly legitimate and appropriate product review.
Just to say your Tredz link is to the Continental Grand Prix, not the GP5000, they’re very different tyres.
Concur with KDee's comment. Also, how would a Vittoria T60 be the equivalent comparison, when this tyre has a centre section optimised for tarmac (or very hard packed gravel)? Surely Vittoria's T30 would be the equivalent?
Erm, Ruggins did manage to ride her bike very fast, perhaps in part because she'd headed up towards the Arctic Circle before the worst of the heat took hold. Are you perhaps thinking of Lael Wilcox?
@Rome73 The solar panels top up the battery. A battery is still needed especially when there isn't enough direct sunlight onto the panels to provide assistance. Brings a new meaning to fair-weather cyclist.
18 thoughts on “Live blog: NYPD tickets cyclists heading to memorial ride for hit-and-run victim, Tour de Yorkshire stage winner flies flag (literally), Anti-fracking protesters chant “You’ve sold your soul, you’ve sold your sport out” at Team Ineos bus + more”
Fireplace? Should have been
Fireplace? Should have been on a tandem with a stoker.
I’ll get my hat.
Typical, just when everyone else starts to realise that bicycles are the answer to pollution, this clown rides a coal-fired one. This has set cycling back fifty years as a green form of transport.
I bet he’ll sleep like a log
I bet he’ll sleep like a log tonight
I once saw someone cycling
I once saw someone cycling along with another bike over his shoulder.
He must really hate fixing punctures at the roadside!
I’m loving the look of
I’m loving the look of unrestrained joy on Sgt Leach’s face.
Can we check the spelling on
Can we check the spelling on soul out please? Unless they’ve actually been selling their shoes or Ineos have moved to selling fish
Fireplace guy must be on a
Fireplace guy must be on a hot lap….
…. I wonder if he’s wearing
…. I wonder if he’s wearing a hearth rate monitor?
shutuplegz wrote:
So fast, he absolutely flue past!
I can’t lose that image of a
I can’t lose that image of a blood transfusion bag in the same colours as teh kit with the tag line IntravIneos. Not that I have an axe to grind re Sky and doping or Ineos for that matter. Frankly. money into the sport is all for the better.
I’m at Doncaster station and
I’m at Doncaster station and bumped into a couple of elderly anti fracking supporters both holding their banners and wearing the tshirts.
Good luck to them
‘Peddling Plastic’ protestor
‘Peddling Plastic’ protestor in her pink microfibre fleece and plastic rucksack, demonstrating the challenges we all face. Don’t want to use plastic, but it makes such useful stuff!
Drinfinity wrote:
I suspect that may be our civilisation’s epitaph…
brooksby wrote:
On a similar topic, there have been umpteen reports on BBC R4 about climate change and the current wave of protests, almost always including electric cars, but as yet, not a single mention of cycling that I’ve heard. Nice to see their decades old policies are still in force and bicycles are still not allowed to be mentioned.
Drinfinity wrote:
Drinfinity wrote:
Well said. Whilst nobody these days can deny the problems plastic is causing, it is always galling to see protesters ignorant of the subject they are protesting about.
I am glad that the TdY are
I am glad that the TdY are doing their bit for equality and getting a man in a dress to present the race winners award.
Can I just say, I love
Can I just say, I love fracking!
alansmurphy wrote:
I agree – definitely one of the most positive things being done at the moment.