GB Worlds medallist breaks collarbone due to 'punishment braking' driver; Uber teaches users Dutch Reach; Russ Downing retires; American Flyers script on eBay; Pedersen to debut rainbow jersey; Vandals kill off another bike-share scheme +more on live blog

Mads Pedersen, the Danish Trek-Segafredo rider who was the surprise winner of the men's elite road race at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Harrogate on Sunday, will debut the rainbow jersey in Belgium on Saturday, his team has confirmed.

World Champion @Mads__Pedersen will be showing his new @SANTINI_SMS jersey in 3 more races before he calls an end to his season:

Oct 5: Tour de l'Eurométropole (which he won last year!)
Oct 8: Tre Valli Varesine
Oct 9: Milano-Torino

@harperjojophoto pic.twitter.com/1KO9Tmn0SM

— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) October 1, 2019

What is being billed as the UK’s first school bike share scheme has been launched in Stirling, Scotland.

The initiative from the charity Forth Environmental Link (FEL) in partnership with Nextbike, has seen bike stations put in place at three high schools there, reports STV.

There are 10 bikes each at Bannockburn, Stirling, and Wallace High Schools, and pupils signing up will also have access to Nextbike bicycles across the city.

Membership is free for the first 12 months and pupils using the scheme, which has been launched with the help of a £103,560 grant from Transport Scotland, won’t have to pay if hire periods are no longer than an hour.

Shirley Paterson, active travel development manager at FEL, said: "There is a distinct drop off in cycling numbers between primary and secondary school.

"So, we're targeting pupils aged 14 and over to get them back on their bikes before they head off to the world of work or further study.

"By incorporating cycling into their daily lives now, they're much more likely to become active adults.

"Road safety is of course paramount, so we're giving every pupil who signs up to the scheme half a day's cycle training and a voucher for a bike helmet," she added.

How exciting! Stirling Schools Bike share scheme was launched today! The first UK bike share scheme for over 14's! @transcotland @StirlingCouncil @nextbikeUK @recykeabike @CyclingUKScot pic.twitter.com/wJRpQahnC0

— Stirling Active Travel Hub (@StirlingATH) September 27, 2019

Uber say they will soon be sending alerts out to passengers warning them to look out for cyclists when opening car doors in heavily trafficked areas and/or places that are popular for cycling - the reminders will also reference the "Dutch Reach technique", i.e. opening the car door with the hand that's furthest away from the door handle which forces the passenger to look over their shoulder. 

Research carried out by the ride-sharing giants found that 16% of people have opened a car door in front of a cyclist before. Fred Jones, head of new mobility at Uber, said: "By the end of October,
more than five million alerts will have gone to Uber passengers across the UK, encouraging them to use the Dutch Reach technique.

"By cleverly combining data and education, we hope that more passengers will practise caution around cyclists, and ultimately improve the safety on our roads. Whether you're an Uber passenger or a cyclist we want to help you get there safely."

Duncan Dollimore of Cycling UK said: "It's vitally important to educate anyone who uses a car to check before opening their door as every year around 60 cyclists are killed or seriously injured by car dooring incidents. It's also one of the reasons people tell us puts them off from cycling.

"The Dutch Reach is a simple technique that few people use but could make a real difference to the number of collisions in the UK, and combined with Uber's alert to passengers, encouraging them to look over their shoulders before opening their door, it should mean our roads are becoming safer for cyclists everywhere."

With a Buy It Now price of just over £300, the original screenplay of this  most classic of cycling movies starring Kevin Costner can be all yours, as it's currently for sale on eBay! Here's the description: "This is an Original Movie Script used during the making of the 1985 Movie, "American Flyers". This script has the original, Ladd Company, production cover. It has all white pages inside and it is 125 pages long. It is an early Working Draft. This draft has some pages inside that have written notations next to the printed text. However, this handwriting inside is not done by hand it is all copied from the master script. Furthermore, this is exactly how this early draft was issued to the various Writing and Development crew members. This script is in very good overall condition."

If you happen to make an impulse purchase (here's the link again), do let us know and send us pics... or we'll swap you for some irreplaceable road.cc socks perhaps? All this has reminded us, we need to update our guide to the Best Cycling Films with this classic, which you can watch on Amazon Prime or Youtube Movies for a small fee... 

Stanley St Bikeway, $100mil well spent. from r/brisbane

The clip, shared on Reddit, highlighted the fact that the cyclists were not using a narrow bike path while stopped at an intersection - the video is accompanied by the caption: "Stanley St Bikeway, $100mil well spent."

After the initial wave of hatred came a few sensible comments, with one pointing out how the cycle path is too narrow for a group of cyclists to merge into when going downhill at speed, so they took the lane as is permitted by Australian law, as is the same here in the UK. 

Another said: "The bike path is great for commuters riding slowly but not a large group like that.

"Know your road, know what's safe to do. This is the safest path to take for that group."

Have a peruse of Peter Sagan's kit supplier in our guide to Sportful's latest gear. 

 

 

 

 

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A lot can change in 48 hours. Sunday 22nd, the best feeling I’ve had so far in my cycling career; 48 hours later, I’m lying in hospital, feeling completely devastated.⁣ ⁣ After returning back home to Devon, I was back training on home roads with my father on Tuesday. Nearing the end of the ride, we encountered a frustrated driver, beeping on his horn behind us whilst riding single file. The man wasn’t able to pass immediately due to oncoming traffic on the other side of the road. ⁣ ⁣ To seemingly display his frustration / anger for the hold up, he passed us with inches to spare. ⁣ ⁣ As soon as the driver was directly in front of us at 45kph on a descent and with feet to spare the driver slammed his breaks on. I’ve learnt since that the police have a phrase for it - “punishment braking”⁣ ⁣ Having nowhere to go I tried to squeeze down the outside of the car between a traffic island and the car with my front wheel centimeters from the car. Needless to say my back wheel just clipped the island throwing me over the top of the bike. The car sped off. ⁣ ⁣⁣ I have had surgery on my left shoulder. I have a broken collar bone and “substantial” soft tissue damage. I’ve had a successful op courtesy of the amazing Mike Walters and his team at the arm clinic in Wilmslow.⁣ ⁣ This was a horrible act with malicious intent to harm a cyclist. The driver has been found but has denied his actions. Without camera footage or independent witnesses it’s going to be difficult to bring charges to the individual.⁣ ⁣ This type of behaviour is becoming all to familiar on our roads. It has become a culture that needs addressing and time for change is long overdue. ⁣ ⁣ I’ll be back into winter training soon, I am really looking forward to it, I have a great team around me and big plans for 2020. It’s going to be a great year! ⁣ #sharetheroad ⁣ Once again a massive thank you goes out @britishcycling and the Arm clinic Wilmslow for putting me back together again! ⁣#sharetheroad ⁣: @frankmurphyphotography ⁣ #sharetheroad

A post shared by Lauren Dolan (@laurendolan_99) on Sep 30, 2019 at 11:57am PDT

More details have emerged about the incident we reported on last week which left Lauren Dolan with a broken collarbone  just two days after winning a bronze medal at the Road Cycling World Championships in Yorkshire. 
Dolan, who scooped a bronze medal as part of Great Britain's Team time trial mixed relay squad last week, has revealed that on a training riding just two days later, she ended up in hospital with a broken collarbone thanks to an assault by an impatient driver who deliberately braked in front of her and her father on a training ride in Devon. 

She calls for a long overdue change to "a culture that needs addressing", and that the shocking behaviour shown by this driver is becoming "all too familiar".

As she says in the Instagram post above, Dolan isn't even hopeful of getting a conviction for the dangerous driver even though he has been tracked down, because of lack of camera evidence or witnesses. We're hoping the witness statement of her father and some common sense shown from the police will bring this criminal to justice, and Lauren is back on the road soon. 

 

 

 

 

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It's only about not fucking it up now

A post shared by Jani Brajkovic (@janibrajkovic) on Sep 29, 2019 at 5:15am PDT

We spotted this on Twitter earlier, and have now found out the leg/alien in question does indeed belong to Slovenian cyclist Jani Brajkovic.