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Total ban on bikes on trains in Yorkshire during World Champs? Netherlands win first ever mixed relay time trial at Euros; Cyclists in Canadian city face $400 fine for speeding on bike paths + much more in today’s live blog

All today's news from the site and beyond.....
07 August 2019, 18:32
Delivery driver convicted of trying to steal £1,200 bike he was carrying

A delivery driver working for DPD Local has been convicted of fraud at Hull Magistrates' Court after attempting to steal a £1,200 Clockwork Orange bike he was carrying in his van.

The Hull Daily Mail reports that Samuel Palmer, aged 27 and from Hull, received a 12-month conditional discharge and was also told to pay costs of £85 and a £20 victim surcharge.

07 August 2019, 18:20
07 August 2019, 18:02
Netherlands win first ever mixed relay time trial at European Championships

The Netherlands have won the first ever mixed time trial relay at a major cycling championships, winning the event today on home soil at the UEC European Road Cycling Championships in Alkmaar.

The format, which will make its UCI Road Cycling World Championships debut in Yorkshire next month, sees each competing country field a team of three men and three women.

The men set off first, with the women taking over once the second of those three riders has finished the course. The final time for each country is taken when its second woman crosses the finish line.

Today, the Dutch were ahead by 14 seconds from Italy when the handover took place. That remained the winning margin, although it was Germany who had moved into second place once the woman had finished, with the Italians a further 1 minute 10 seconds back.

Eight countries took part in today’s event, Great Britain not being among them, and you can find the full results here.

07 August 2019, 18:45
Total ban on bikes on trains across Yorkshire during World Championships?

According to the official spectator guide for the UCI Road Cycling World Championships next month, there will be a total ban on carrying bikes on trains in Yorkshire during next month's event.

During the 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire, train operators strongly advised passengers not to travel with bikes, but the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) stopped short of imposing a blanket ban.

We enquired with ATOC's successor body, the Rail Delivery Group, as to whether there is indeed a total ban on taking a bike on a train anywhere in Yorkshire during the event, which takes place from 21-29 September, with their response being that we should check with individual operators.

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group told us: "In general, there is limited space for bikes on trains and while we welcome people with bikes onto services where possible, though not necessarily during peak times when trains are already busy, for major cycling events it could cause disappointment if people expect more room than there is."

All events at the championships will finish in Harrogate, and restrictions on carriage of bikes between there and the railway hubs of Leeds and York, say, is understandable.

The starting locations of a number of events are spread around the region, with the East Riding, for example, hosting the beginning of just one event - a Para-cycling race on 21 Semtember - and it seems to us strange  that there may be a ban for the entire week and a half of the event on trains from, say, Beverley to Hull, well away from the action.

We are checking the situation with individual train operating companies, so look out for the full story on road.cc soon.

07 August 2019, 16:05
While the US has more guns than people...

The Netherlands apparently has 128 bikes for every 100 people.

07 August 2019, 16:02
Free Santander Cycles will be available for Cycle to Work day tomorrow

If you live in London and your bike is out of action for any reason, you can always hop on a free hire bike to make sure you get your Cycle to Work Day miles in. 

07 August 2019, 15:46
"I didn't have him down as a 2019 winner of the Tour de France": Chris Froome talks about Egan Bernal's success

Froome said his teammate's achievements are "phenomenal", and although he knew Bernal was special, was surprised that he got his maiden Tour de France win at such a young age: "Egan's life is about to change forever."

"I don't think he quite knows what's going to hit him when he gets home."

07 August 2019, 15:33
Velolife debacle: RBWM 'clarify' their position in letter sent to cycling clubs

You can use the café, but you sort of can't use the café. Of course this has left us with more questions than answers, and we'll have a full story to follow... 

07 August 2019, 15:07
Cycle to Work weekly challenges - the big one
cycle to work day

It's the main event this week, with Cycle to Work Day officially taking place tomorrow. To celebrate, Cyclescheme have two chances for you to win from their £5,000 prize pot. All you have to do if log you cycle or commute on the Cyclescheme Love to Ride community on Thursday, and you could win one of two Specialized Turbo bikes worth over £2,000 that are up for grabs - make sure your upload is tagged as ‘to/from work’ to qualify!

If you miss out on one of the bikes, you could also win one of two Endura accessory bundles worth £250 each. To enter this comp, snap a photo of you and your bike this Thursday and share along with #cycletoworkday on the Love to Ride community or the Cycle to Work Day social channels.

Best of luck, and be sure to register with the Love to Ride community if you haven't already! 

07 August 2019, 11:44
Cyclists in Canada face $400 fine for speeding on bike paths

Cyclists in a Canadian city who speed on bike paths could be fined up to $400 (£250) under a bylaw introduced earlier this year in Calgary, Alberta.

The bylaw applies to riders caught travelling at between 10 and 15 kilometres an hour over the posted speed limit – usually, 20 kilometres an hour – with the fine representing an eightfold increase on the previous maximum penalty of $50.

According to globalnews.ca, people caught cycling at up to 10 kilometres an hour over the limit could face fines of between $100 and $150.

City councillor Giancarlo Carra said that the fines were disproportionate and contrasted them with the ones motorists face.

“That seems a bit aggressive,” he said. “I am definitely of the opinion that we should probably weight the fines to reflect the actual damage that can be inflicted on property and life.

“If you mess up at 160 kilometres an hour on the highway, it’s way worse than 15 kilometres an hour, bumping into another human being.

“Any bicycle on human, human on human, car on human, car on bicycle – these are terrible things when they happen but there’s definitely a sliding scale of terrible and it has to do with the mass and velocity of what’s striking what and I think our fee system should probably reflect that,” he added.

07 August 2019, 11:00
Lotto-Soudal gives Tour de Pologne riders chance to leave race after Bjorg Lambrecht's death - but all decide to continue

Lotto-Soudal says it gave its riders at the Tour de Pologne the chance to leave the race after Bjorg Lambrecht's death on Monday - but all six decided to continue with the race, and were on the start line of today's Stage 6.

07 August 2019, 08:18
Labour MP accused of supporting 'victim blaming' petition calling for compulsory bike lights

Emma Dent Coad shared a tweet from the Labour MP for East Leeds Richard Burgon, that urges followers to sign a petition that calls for all bikes to be sold with working lights. 

The petition was started by the mother of 14-year-old Charlie Fox, who was killed by an overtaking van driver on a blind bend in October 2018 - the 28-year-old driver was charged in suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and released under investigation. 

The petition, which currently has over 4,000 signatures, has been called 'victim-blaming' by some on Twitter, with numerous people suggesting that is was very unlikely bike lights would have prevented the van driver from killing Charlie Fox. 

Dent Coad was also opposed to plans for a cycle route in Kensington's Holland Park recently, even though colleagues such as Tom Watson called it "a wretched decision" for the council to overturn the plans when the road is considered an accident blackspot for cyclists and pedestrians. 

07 August 2019, 08:17
Bloody cyclists...
07 August 2019, 08:11
First male Transcon finisher finishes... second

Ben Davies from Bristol arrived at the finish line yesterday evening to finish the Transcontinental in 10 days, 13 hours and 10 minutes - 11 hours behind first female finisher, and the overall winner, Fiona Kolbinger. 

He's now been joined by Job Hendrickx of Denmark in third and David Schuster of France in fourth, the latter finishing this morning in a time off 11 days, 3 hours and 55 minutes. 

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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19 comments

Avatar
burtthebike | 4 years ago
3 likes

"Total ban on bikes on trains across Yorkshire during World Championships?"

And the answer is, of course, simplicity itself.  Just tack a few guard's  vans onto the trains.

Avatar
jobro | 4 years ago
4 likes

Sorry to be a bit of a stat pedant, the dutch don't quite have 128 bikes per person, it's more like 1.28.  Storage would be a little easier with the lower number.

Damn. I just told my wife its perfectly normal to have 12 bikes as they have 128 each in Holland!

Avatar
brooksby | 4 years ago
3 likes

Total ban on bikes on trains across Yorkshire during World Championships?

I wonder what would happen if Silverstone banned access by car for the duration of the F1 championships?

Avatar
Dingaling replied to brooksby | 4 years ago
0 likes
brooksby wrote:

Total ban on bikes on trains across Yorkshire during World Championships?

I wonder what would happen if Silverstone banned access by car for the duration of the F1 championships?

They would probably ban people putting their cars on trains to get to Silverstone!  Passenger trains have never been built to cope with more than a few bikes so a ban on hoards of cyclists seems reasonable to me.

Avatar
burtthebike replied to Dingaling | 4 years ago
3 likes
Dingaling wrote:
brooksby wrote:

Total ban on bikes on trains across Yorkshire during World Championships?

I wonder what would happen if Silverstone banned access by car for the duration of the F1 championships?

Passenger trains have never been built to cope with more than a few bikes....

May I refer you to my previous answer.

Avatar
brooksby | 4 years ago
1 like

Velolife debacle: RBWM 'clarify' their position in letter sent to cycling clubs

Still seems very odd - does it matter if you're a large group but not an organised cycle club?  Would a group of school kids who've just passed their Bikeability be allowed to stop there or is that an organised club meet?  As a Twitterer says, what about if five people turn up, then another two who happen to know the first group but aren't in the same club?

Avatar
HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
1 like

The Netherlands apparently has 128 bikes for every Dutch person.

Ktache, you're not being a pedant. Mr Sexty has totally failed to read the texty of the Tweet, or at least interpret the picture correctly. It does make quite a difference.

Avatar
ktache | 4 years ago
5 likes

Sorry to be a bit of a stat pedant, the dutch don't quite have 128 bikes per person, it's more like 1.28.  Storage would be a little easier with the lower number.

Avatar
ChrisB200SX replied to ktache | 4 years ago
0 likes
ktache wrote:

Sorry to be a bit of a stat pedant, the dutch don't quite have 128 bikes per person, it's more like 1.28.  Storage would be a little easier with the lower number.

128 bikes per person is serious (n+1)!
Hopefully someone will understand that joke.

Avatar
Rick_Rude | 4 years ago
0 likes

Lol at that bylaw. Sounds like something Clarkson would dream up.

Avatar
Bmblbzzz | 4 years ago
16 likes

How about a law making it illegal to overtake on a blind bend? Oh, we've got one. Well that worked, didn't it. 

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to Bmblbzzz | 4 years ago
1 like
Bmblbzzz wrote:

How about a law making it illegal to overtake on a blind bend? Oh, we've got one. Well that worked, didn't it. 

Better yet make it illegal to drive on anything except a MOTOR-way between the hours of 7am and 11pm.

No doubt CPS will fold make it a careless driving case and they'll get 18 month suspended and judge stating "momentary lapse" bullshit!

Avatar
alansmurphy | 4 years ago
3 likes

And just how long would these lights remain working for, until mother needed to buy new batteries?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to alansmurphy | 4 years ago
3 likes
alansmurphy wrote:

And just how long would these lights remain working for, until mother needed to buy new batteries?

Well, we obviously need a law to make it illegal for the lights to stop working. Especially the battery powered ones.

Avatar
Miller | 4 years ago
2 likes

Don't the Transcon leading riders all look very young...

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism | 4 years ago
8 likes

It does seem to be a strange thing from the mother. I'm assuming she didn't buy lights for her sons bike as they were "an additional cost" and is trying to do this as some kind of penance even though the likelihood of these lights  stopping it from happening is slim. 

Edit: As no mention of a helmet, I'm guessing he was wearing one so this is the new thing now. 

Avatar
burtthebike replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 4 years ago
13 likes
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

It does seem to be a strange thing from the mother. I'm assuming she didn't buy lights for her sons bike as they were "an additional cost" and is trying to do this as some kind of penance even though the likelihood of these lights  stopping it from happening is slim. 

Edit: As no mention of a helmet, I'm guessing he was wearing one so this is the new thing now. 

Yup, if they were wearing a helmet and were killed by a dangerous driver, it must be their fault because they didn't have lights, and if they had lights, it was their fault because they weren't wearing hi-viz etc, etc.  But it's always the cyclist's fault, no matter how bad the driving by the person in the killing machine.

Avatar
brooksby | 4 years ago
12 likes
Quote:

I am not sure I understand how lights on a bicycle would stop a van overtaking cars on blind bends though, what am I missing?

Says it all, really... 

Avatar
Hirsute replied to brooksby | 4 years ago
2 likes
brooksby wrote:
Quote:

I am not sure I understand how lights on a bicycle would stop a van overtaking cars on blind bends though, what am I missing?

Says it all, really... 

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