Televised city centre crit racing will be back in the UK next year with the a new 10 race Tour Series. The races will happen every tuesday and thursday evening over five weeks starting in late May. Among the cities currently in line to host a round of the Tour Series are Darlington, Derby, Exeter, Milton Keynes, Southport, Stoke-on-Trent, Woking and York. A final line-up will be announced “in due course” say the organisers. One of the central purposes of the Series it to promote cycling, and, like on the Tour of Britain (the organisers of which are behind this) the main races will be preceded by a day of cycling and cycling related activities in each venue, including youth and amateur races, demonstrations and skills sessions. All the races will be free to attend – and the organisers promise “a carnival atmosphere with music and entertainment catering for families and children”. Most of the venues that make it on to the final list are likely to be Cycling England demonstration towns or cities. We’ve got our fingers crossed that Bristol will feature, and a London event is pretty much guaranteed. In a bid for maximum viewer appeal the Tour Series will be about open, fast-paced racing with plenty of excitement from the word go. There will be sprint prizes and prizes for the fastest lap, but what sets the Tour Series apart is that it will be a team-based contest, so the fastest lap award will be to the team with the fastest collective lap rather than the fastest rider, likewise the emphasis will be on the winning team rather than the first rider across the line. All the riders in a Series-leading team will get to wear the leader’s jersey. Circuits will be between 1-1.5Km long and will seek to incorporate local landmarks and reflect the topography and terrain of the town or city hosting each round – so cobbled sections, short, sharp hills, twists and turns could all figure. How it will work • The event is Team based, rather than focussing on individual performance, with 10 teams of 5 riders fighting it out for team honours and an end of season leader board. • The Tour Series will be contested by the top British professional teams, with special guest stars appearing at each round of the series. • There will be a Leader’s Jersey and Sprints Jersey competition, as well as an award for the fastest lap of the night. All awards will be made to the team with the fastest 3 riders ‘past the post’, with all team members wearing the Leader’s Jersey at the following round. • Teams will be able to change their line-up from event-to-event, substituting injured or unavailable riders throughout The Tour Series, without affecting the team’s overall Series position. SweetSpot, the company putting together the event are talking to both a major terrestrial and a satellite broadcaster about televising each round of the series – details will be announced when a deal has been struck and a spokesman for SweetSpot was adamant that a television deal would be worked out. ITV4 has been the leading terrestrial broadcaster of road racing in recent years with both the Tour de France and the Tour of Britain and Sky have recently announced a major sponsorship of British Cycling, so they are the names likely to be in the frame.
Tour Series city centre crits announced for May ’09
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Video of crash mentioned above: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NfCdbwPdK9M
I do try not to enter into discussion with you on this Bert, because I know you will never change your stance one iota, but I've crashed a motorcycle at around 35 mph and hit my head on the kerb hard enough to compress discs in my spine and tear neck ligaments but above the neck I came away with nothing worse than a mild concussion. If you're going to tell me that I could've done the same thing without a helmet on and walked away with the same injuries I'm going to have to say that's nonsense. Anyone who's ever watched MotoGP will have seen riders coming off at high speed and smashing their heads and getting up to walk away. Just as an example, check out this crash from Marquez this season: up in the air at high speed, down straight on his head, got up and walked away. Screenshot below, I'll post a link to the video as a reply so I don't get stuck in link quarantine. Again, it's clearly nonsense to say the helmet hasn't worked when someone's walked away from coming down headfirst on the tarmac from a height at high speed.
To understand any active travel scheme, you only really need to ask one question: “How does this impact on free/cheap parking?” In this case, it explains the majority of the ‘controversy’ It is not long since someone sat on a bench in RVP was hit by a driver and hospitalised. But do let’s worry about those “speeding cyclists”. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/teenager-hit-car-sat-bench-11070561.amp
@kingleo I've still got a label from a helmet, and it says something like 'this helmet may not protect you in all foreseeable accidents' which just gives them an out when someone claims that it didn't work. Not sure the professionals should wear motorcycle helmets, as they are heavy, very well insulated and only work up to about 16mph: not sure you'd win too many TdF's at that speed, and anyway, your brain would fry.
@EM69 To be clear, my comment relates specifically to the new Sirius that came out a few months ago. As far as I can tell, the new Strada retains H/M/L steady levels in program 1.
@mitsky If I were a police officer involved in implementing the scheme I think I would find it very hard to hear the details given by those self-important/rich/arrogant (in the City these terms may be synonymous) enough to accept the fine, meaning they had to be repeated multiple times. I might also experience frequent pencil lead breakage and a difficulty in finding the right form to fill in, perhaps also frequently breaking off to use my radio ("Excuse me sir, it's an important message from my superintendent. What's that sir? Soya latte, a pain chocolat and a blueberry muffin, right you are sir"), so that by the time the paperwork was completed and they had been sent on their way with a fine those who chose to stop and watch the video had already departed.
@Mr Blackbird always heartwarming! ❤️ Do you remember Nick Clegg declaring his love for David Cameron in a rose garden? No, wait, was it his love of a better seat in parliament and more solicitous lobbyists? Or more recently Nigel Farage declaring his love for strong, manly figures like D. Trump, V. Urban and V. Putin, before declaring his love for money and his lack of snobbishness about its origins? (Would that some of the others were so candid - although eg. Lord Mandleson didn't need to declare his love for wealthy, dodgy businessmen).
@eburtthebike Hmm; Lost my original reply. I think the key point to (likely pro helmet biased research given funding sources etc) for ski helmets is that basically all research says they make no difference to fatals and minimal if any difference to serious injuries (despite claims of massive effectiveness). (Outside of some older research into racers where a reasonable look is the benefit is related to secondary impacts - the helmet doesn't prevent injury, it prevents the distraction after racers get it wrong and clip a gate (fibreglass pole on a spring) head first that leads to subsequent dangerous crashes when they lose control at 80-100mph...)) Showing part of the problem with 'XX% reduction in all injuries' claims (which they now seem to use in ski helmet promotion to imply its a XX% reduction in deaths or hospitalisations rather than because 90+% of injuries are minor cuts from catching a ski edge/pole in a fall where treatment is clean and put a plaster on it...) A 70% reduction in incidents with total harm being cuts and bruises can easily be a 60% reduction in all injuries because theres likely dozens of serious injuries for every fatality and dozens of minor injuries for every serious injury (and dozens of near misses for every injury...)
@MatzeLoCal Indeed. It's notable that the agency's excusing of itself makes much of the fact that the athlete did not raise any concerns; in such circumstances, where the athlete's thoughts and actions are going to be severely disrupted by her grief, it shouldn't be up to her to raise any objections. As soon as the testers were advised of the circumstances they should have immediately offered her the option of postponing the test. If they had and she said no it's okay to carry on that would be some mitigation, but clearly they didn't.
Received my Strada 13 SB on Saturday, just in time for an overnight ride. Worked flawlessly. The Aktiv function worked well. The only issue was the Ant+ connection to my 1050, but i'm placing that squarely at Garmins feet!
1 thought on “Tour Series city centre crits announced for May ’09”
Good!
Saw a few back in the ’80’s at York and Nottingham. Now live in Derby so will be great to go along. Famous landmarks! We got the oldest factory in the world and only monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie in the world to race past…