“This has UK written all over it”: Another why cyclists don’t use the cycle lane classic; Local wearing builder’s hat drops Israel – Premier Tech pros in Rwanda; Wiggo predicts “amazing” Pidcock success; Britain’s best LTN + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"This has UK written all over it": Another why cyclists don't use the cycle lane classic
Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lane provided? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/DMXwvzT4yg
— Geoff (@geoffallard) February 28, 2022
It’s been dubbed the ‘Danny MacAskill special edition bike lane’…an opportunity to practise your jumps and tricks on the way to work…
Today’s ‘why cyclists don’t use the cycle lane’ comes from an unspecified, secret location where anyone looking to stay off the road will have to dodge a sneakily well-camouflaged…hmmm, what would you call them? A utility box, perhaps?
Someone speculated this particular ingenious infra idea is in Walthamstow, with another saying that would make sense as Waltham Forest Council, “have a policy of putting in the lanes before street furniture is moved rather than waiting for it all to be shifted before starting as I remember.
“It gives them some leverage with the utilities I guess.” Now we might be getting somewhere (just not in that bike lane, as things stand). Either way, it was a really nice touch to paint the bicycle as close as is physically possible behind the obstacle.
In the meantime you better get practising your bunny-hopping…
Presuming the box will soon be kicked out, attention turned to the end of the lane which appears to quite abruptly chuck cyclists back into the road…
I presume the utility box will be moved when it’s finished, but I’m not happy with that re-entry arrangement. Lurch suddenly back into the traffic unprotected.
— Is this a bike lane? (@IsItABikeLane) March 1, 2022
I’m more scared of the “rejoin the carriageway” bit than the jump obstacle
— Neil Gatenby (@wadoNeil) February 28, 2022
So how will it look when it’s ‘finished’?
Apparently the lane ain’t finished yet and the box will be moved. After that it will be perfect. pic.twitter.com/IRJZZx73Xe
— Shipp_Helm (@Don_Shipp) February 28, 2022
That’s the special “Danny McCaskill” edition cycle Lane!!
— Angus Thomson (@theAngusT) February 28, 2022
Meanwhile in Edinburgh...
Edinburgh’s Leith Walk. New build cycle lane on the widest street in the city. pic.twitter.com/ijZ29NpzTy
— 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 (@overlandertheb1) March 1, 2022
POLL: Pick your fighter?
Let’s have a silly poll to brighten up Tuesday morning…
Backpack-wearing local is more dependent on his teammates’ aero savings for his speed, but builder’s hat-wearing local might tire himself out with an explosive long-range attack.
We know Colombia produces loads of incredible climbing talent too…so maybe the stage profile makes a difference too…
Local wearing builder's hat drops Israel – Premier Tech pros in Rwanda
Respect!#RacingforChange #Rwanda 🇷🇼 pic.twitter.com/NcC3iMuNPQ
— Israel – Premier Tech / Israel Cycling Academy (@IsraelPremTech) February 28, 2022
It’s the long-awaited sequel to Rigoberto Urán drafted by backpack-wearing local at 45km/h. Different continent, different team, different outcome. Not content to just sit on the wheel of the flash pros visiting Rwanda for the country’s premier bike race, this local took an attack, winding up the watts before flying past the three-man group. Sign. Him. Up…
Sporting a fetching yellow builder’s hat the rider powered his mudguards past the group in full team-issue kit aboard their sparkly Factor machines. It’s all about the rider, eh? Shades of Ian Stannard mugging three Quick-Step riders to Omloop in 2015.
Back in June 2020, Urán’s impromptu training partner, a man in khakis, work boots and carrying a backpack, grabbed a tow with the WorldTour pro at 45kph. No amount of Cannondale SuperSlice TT aero tech could budge the plucky punter from his wheel.
Sign him up and he can race for the yellow jersey to match his helmet.
— Blank (@justsnooping74) February 28, 2022
The question is: backpack-wearing local vs builder’s hat-wearing local? Individual pursuit. Who wins?
Britain's best LTN? Snake Pass becomes a cyclist's paradise...
Snake Pass closed. 😍. Best.LTN.ever. Bit of a headwind and didn’t have time to drop down to ladybower. But will be back pretty much every week until it opens I reckon. 🚵 holy grail. pic.twitter.com/YRR0Dn2hW9
— Peter O’Hare (@peterohir) February 27, 2022
Make the most of it if you live near the Peak District…
"Amazing" Tom Pidcock will be a "force to be reckoned with this year", predicts Sir Bradley Wiggins
As far as safe bets go, predicting Tom Pidcock will be successful in 2022 seems sensible. The 22-year-old is making his return to the road after a rainbow jersey-winning winter in cyclocross, and was prominent if not podium-threatening at the Opening Weekend of the Classics.
18th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad having made the front group and visibly animating the race at Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne on Sunday, Sir Bradley Wiggins is predicting big things for Pidcock once again this year.
“He is amazing, isn’t he,” Wiggins said on his Eurosport podcast. “Obviously he has moved on now from his Olympic title and the Vuelta a España he rode. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year. He has got a very old head on his shoulders, hasn’t he.”
Wiggo also spoke about Mark Cavendish’s early season form, saying you “would not put it past him” to get Tour de France win number 35…
“Another superstar, Mark Cavendish, he is already winning this year,” Wiggo continued.
> Mark Cavendish will race Tour de France if he’s better than Fabio Jakobsen, says Patrick Lefevere
“He has picked up where he left off last year, which is fantastic for us, and he has hit the deck again. If Cav does do the Giro — which starts in Budapest — or the Tour — which starts in Copenhagen, which will be great for Mark because he loves Copenhagen — you would not put it past him to go one better than Eddy Merckx and beat that record.”
Tech detective work...Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rocking new wheels at Le Samyn?
Greetings from #LeSamyn, the 209km one-day race featuring cobbles, hills and narrow roads that kicks-off the month of March. pic.twitter.com/mjKHabZcdd
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) March 1, 2022
You’ll need to go through to the tweet to see the full photos, thanks to the way embedded tweets crop the photo, but Liam reckons he’s spotted some interesting details on the Quick-Step boys’ bikes before the start of today’s one-day race, Le Samyn.
Firstly, those are definitely some new S-Works tyres which interestingly, with the painted sidewall, we can assume are tubeless. Meaning that, well, so are the wheels…a new tubeless offering from Roval?
"You couldn't make it up": Reaction to that dodgy bike lane + another classic of the genre
You couldn’t make it up #cycling https://t.co/QyLv4o1lPf
— VeloVoice (@velo_voice) March 1, 2022
Reaction time…
Do we have a higher bid in the crap cycle lane auction?
Reminds me of this belter in Greenwich pic.twitter.com/CqWuglrlcv
— Sam Hodges (@SamHodges) March 1, 2022
Looks like bring your kid to work day went well…
Luke Edwards had some local knowledge: “That’s a virgin media box, the council can’t remove it so build around then fix after virgin remove it, it’s quicker and cheaper to do that than to wait for its removal first. (Pic is from the Chingford Road side of the Bell junction in Walthamstow)” In the meantime, get bunny hopping…
Ali Dow couldn’t help but point out there’s a “perfectly good bike lane to the right of box”.
Tony Carroll’s after a job at the council…he suggested this edit…
While Alex Hemmingway reckons Danny MacAskill pulling off some of his famous stunts on Britain’s worst infra would be a decent video idea…good luck to whichever producer would have to compile the list of potential sites…
Le Samyn interrupted by rogue tractor on the route
Uno-X driving the peloton, a tractor driving in the opposite direction #LeSamyn pic.twitter.com/yTyu484i6n
— Katy M (@writebikerepeat) March 1, 2022
Tim Declercq may have missed the Opening Weekend, but at least one tractor sighting has made it onto our TV screens this week. We’d rather it was the breakaway-munching Quick-Step pro too, but this will have to do. This incident passed without any riders crashing or tanks being stolen…
Ukrainian tractor driver steals Russian tank. Iconic. pic.twitter.com/i9Uk3efZMf
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) February 27, 2022
Glasgow cycling charity Bike For Good launches emergency crowdfunder
Glasgow Live were the first to report the news that the city’s largest cycling charity Bike For Good has launched an emergency crowdfunder to help fund its work refeurbishing and selling donated bikes, repairing bicycles and enabling people to make cycling their main transport method.
The charity has pointed to inflation and rent and utility increases for its struggles, saying its property costs (rent and utilities) are up 51 per cent, while admin and overhead costs are up 22 per cent.
Bike For Good hopes to raise £10,000 through a crowdfunding campaign and has so far received £3,981 from 117 backers.
Further 70 bike hangars to be installed in Glasgow this week
Following on from the last post, it’s a double-header for Scotland’s most populous city…
In partnership with Cyclehoop the council has announced another 70 bike shelters (like the one in London pictured above) will be installed across the city this week. The Glasgow Times reports Cyclehoop has opened applications for 36 of the shelters, with the remaining units applications expected to go live in early March.
The initial 61 shelters installed last June saw huge demand. More than 1,000 applicants are currently on the waiting list for full shelters.
Cllr Anna Richardson, city convener for sustainability and carbon reduction, said: “It’s great that we are now able to expand our on-street cycle storage scheme following the fantastic response to our initial pilot programme.
“A lack of suitable storage in flats and tenements has long been raised as an issue as bikes kept in stairwells can cause obstructions and be at greater risk of being stolen.
“We always knew there would be interest in the storage scheme but the demand for spaces during our initial programme has been remarkable.”
Spaces will cost £6 per month and each shelter holds space for six bicycles.
G celebrates St David's Day
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Seems like a good day to confirm I’ll hopefully be competing at the Commonwealth Games again this year. Winning the road race in 2014 is up there with the best days of my career 👌 It’s gonna be very special competing in the Welsh jersey again #StDavidsDay pic.twitter.com/61dY6z0zKD
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) March 1, 2022
Happy St David’s Day!
LOOK ends sponsorship of Gazprom-RusVelo Cycling Team "in light of the recent shocking and unforgivable news"
— LOOK Cycle (@lookcycle) March 1, 2022
1 March 2022, 09:00
1 March 2022, 09:00
1 March 2022, 09:00
What better way to get in the mood for Strade Bianche...
Want to ride some US-style gravel in the UK? Check out this guide with some epic UK gravel routes
Ok, so maybe vast desert plains is a bit too much to ask... but there are still plenty of places to ride gravel all around the UK! Check out these routes if you're a fan of the gritty stuff
1 March 2022, 09:00
1 March 2022, 09:00
1 March 2022, 09:00
1 March 2022, 09:00
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@chrisonabike True, things went back to normal once the pandemic was over. In this case, however the problems are still ongoing, and aren't likely to be resolved in the near future. If anything, they're going to get worse. Food shortages are predicted because of the effect that the heatwave has had on crops. This is bound to push prices up. The Straits of Hormuz aren't likely to reopen anytime soon and the strategic oil reserves are running low. Russia is having to import petrol because its own refineries have been badly hit, so that's even more competition for an even more scarce resource. I think that more and more people are going to see cycling as a way of cutting household bills.
I think if "grown up" cyclists * are quibbling about ASLs we've very much missed the road safety point anyway. (Not to mention the wider "better transport choices" picture). ASLs are poor-to-useless "cycling infra", even for their design intent. If the idea is "for less confident cyclists" then a design that requires that you re-position in front of the motor traffic - waiting to accelerate - seems unhelpful. Of course they're only designed to help when traffic is stopped, and you can reach the front in time and if vehicles aren't already occupying them. As we're noting here drivers frequently ignore them - whether that be deliberate, a lack of road craft, because they were concentrating on following the vehicle in front, or because the paint has rubbed off. * Aside: shouldn't cycling also be safe and accessible for kids? Or should they only be allowed to do this when accompanied by sufficient qualified adults? Or be limited to parks and otherwise being driven around by their carers? Perhaps there is another way...?
Hi Bungle, I saw you follow-up comment. I can't imaging there's a tolerance of 4 seconds on camera enforced lights, seems an odd decision - an offence is committed if a vehicle starts crossing on a red, any tolerance is discretionary. There does seem to be some odd thinking about 'advanced stop lines' where the rules relating to them are identical to a regular stop line, as explained correctly elsewhere in the Highway Code. It does seem a regular offence. Where I live it doesn't help that some of them are very faint and disappear in rain.
@ktache Not sure he's totally ruled out of the worlds yet (though I think it would be best if he doesn't), normal recovery time is about eight weeks but surgery can halve that...depending on the nature of the break he could be just about fit to ride by the time of the elite men's race, but he'll have missed a lot of training. Hopefully his managers and team will persuade him to wait until Lombardia, if not just to knock it off for the rest of the year.
@Bungle_52 The Met told me a couple of years ago when rejecting a submission that they needed a clear three seconds of red visible before they would consider it for an RLJ prosecution. I pointed out to them that this meant that at 30 mph a driver could see a light change to red from 40 metres away and still get through without sanction, or 55 m if they accelerated to 40 as most do. They just replied "them's our rules..."
@Ben Graham I have just checked the footage from my report. The driver crosses the 1st stop line 4 seconds after the light turns red. All on camera from behind the vehicle. No further action. So I assume the margin is at least 4 seconds.
Oh, and active travel funding per head (in England at least) is laughable compared to other places. Plus it is delivered intermittently. It's more like a Blue Peter contest...
Yup, I see those opportunities being missed all the time in Edinburgh. When it gets really bad, dig it all up and put it back down again how it was. Contrast with what seems to happen in NL - when things are dug up the whole thing seems to get a "let's redo this according to the current standards" treatment. They even coordinate with the utilities, so that after a refurb the street isn't immediately dug up again because of leaking pipes / we suddenly realised the new estate being planned for round the corner will want broadband etc. Pros and cons of course - you may wait longer there for changes as smaller changes may be deferred until a major redo is due. (Though in the UK case you likely wouldn't get them at all...) It seems we "can't have nice things" in the UK in part because a) we have greater motor traffic speeds/volumes spead across "streets" / within urban areas b) the funding and organisational responsibility differs. Are we in the "Sam Vimes boots" territory (being too poor to afford better products which not only save money over time but actually work)? There is long term money pressure on LAs and it seems that due to poor construction and maintenance we have to regularly pour money into (pot-)holes in the road. And it seems there's no budget to check up on or enforce adequate standards from utilities work or even private building.
Shame about the world champs defence. Speedy recovery. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/30/tadej-pogacar-vuelta-a-espana-cycling-crash-hospital-stage-nine
I believe the accepted form for this kind of argument is "I know you are, you said you were, but what am I?".
9 thoughts on ““This has UK written all over it”: Another why cyclists don’t use the cycle lane classic; Local wearing builder’s hat drops Israel – Premier Tech pros in Rwanda; Wiggo predicts “amazing” Pidcock success; Britain’s best LTN + more on the live blog”
Gina Harris, 82, is preparing
Gina Harris, 82, is preparing to cycle the length of Britain for charity
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-60560375
“I will be riding my old steel touring bike and carrying my luggage, which has a combined weight of more than 30kg, so a lot of hard work and practice begins now.”
Inspirational. And 30 kg is
Inspirational. And 30 kg is not too bad of a load if she’s camping, my last bikepacking trip I was a little over that including two bottles of water. If she’s not carrying camping gear, she’d probably enjoy the ride more if she took less.
The 30kg is bike plus load –
The 30kg is bike plus load – doesn’t say how much is which.
mdavidford wrote:
I’m including it too, I was at about 33 kg with everything on the bike except me and what I was wearing.
At 82, I’d want a good bed
At 82, I’d want a good bed for the night and a couple of concubines to warm it up !
30 kg – you could probably
30 kg – you could probably carry one…
hirsute wrote:
Concubines!
Forsooth, me-thinks tha hath been hitting the wordsearch books again!
I’m just thinking of King
I’m just thinking of King Solomon – 700 wives and 300 concubines !
After yesterday’s positive
After yesterday’s positive Rouvy item, a rather more negative development today. They’ve severely restricted the ability to create your own routes, only accepting ones that meet rigid requirements that allow them to overlay their cartoon gimmickry on the video. As a result of that (and a history of generally rubbish communication / engagement), several of the most prolific and well-rated creators have chosen to ditch the platform and delete their routes from the catalogue.