"If you use my lane, I'll use yours": Driver films himself using bike lane to overtake cyclist; Rain, rain and more rain...grim Roubaix forecast; Van der Poel hoping for wet cobbles; Bike lane petrol queues; Mudguard season + more on the live blog

54.724km ✅@DanBiggles22 just broke the British Hour Record, held by @SirWiggo since 2015! 🇬🇧👏#BrokenBrad
📸 @HuntlyCaptures pic.twitter.com/BLWVmHc5w5

— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) October 1, 2021

What an achievement! Right up there with his recent appearance on the road.cc podcast I'm sure... here's the full story on Bigham's ride, hot on the heels of his partner Joss Lowden's new world Hour Record yesterday. 

Here we go... Dan Bigham's about to see if he can repeat the Joss Lowden magic by conquering the British Hour Record this afternoon. Dan's riding the same aero machine as Joss, the Argon Electron Pro with some Fast Forward Disc TSL wheels and Vittoria Pista Speed 2.0 23mm tyres.

Interestingly, Dan's bike is kitted out with some of his own WattShop kit, including the Olympic edition Pentaxi base bar and Anemoi aero extensions. That's an £8,500 cockpit alone...as per Dan's website.

He'll be turning a monster 64x14 out on the track too...

As for his kit, Dan's opted for the Kask Mistral helmet and a brand new Vorteq Hour Record edition skinsuit in WattShop colours of course.

Those are the details...the short of it is he's going to be a very aero lad powering around a velodrome for an hour...how far can he go though?

Ermmm 🤨 https://t.co/MnLRIHj8eT

— Dan Bigham (@DanBiggles22) October 1, 2021

Here's an interesting take on the Hour Record - a challenge famous for being about riding as far as possible. If the record was about taking metres off, I reckon a fair few of us here could give it a go! Damn, checked the comments and everyone beat me to that joke...

I reckon I could knock a few kilometres off the men's record.

— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) October 1, 2021

I could probably knock 10 minutes off the men's record

— Justin Belcher (@justin_belcher) October 1, 2021

Dan Bigham's up next...we'll share the link to watch his effort just before 3pm. Unfortunately, as we shared with you yesterday, he can't take the outright record, even if he beats Victor Campanaerts' distance. That's because he hasn't been in the UCI Testing Pool because he doesn't ride for a WorldTour or second division team. Either way, Sir Brad's British record is on the line...

oh I’m BIG mad about this https://t.co/Tz3CwgflV6

— kate wagner (@mcmansionhell) October 1, 2021

 Plenty of lunchtime reaction to this...€7,005 is embarrassingly precise as well. Should we give them €7,000? Nah, add an extra few cents in...

Should be €49,000 each

— Gordon Haywood (@flashpixx8) October 1, 2021

So much horror going on at the moment, I've been holding onto @JossyLowden's #UCIHourRecord yesterday and the first ever women's #ParisRoubaix2021 tomorrow (ignoring the fact that not all of it is being televised 🤬) but this is just an insult. 🤬 https://t.co/uhLM9U9vHz

— Jo S (@sockeyejo) October 1, 2021

Live blog favourite Dom Whiting's latest Drum & Bass outing made it onto ITV News...

At this rate he's going to need a bigger city, having attracted a mega crowd for his Boiler Room special in London. The full episode is up on Dom's YouTube, which now has more than 120,000 subscribers...

The latest episode features a tunnel rave on CS3 and a man with a parrot...now get yourself over to Amsterdam, Dom...

In amongst the lost blog yesterday were some quotes from Mathieu van der Poel ahead of Paris-Roubaix. We hopped on a Zoom call with the pedalling phenom to see how he's feeling ahead of his Hell of the North debut, and there was no sign of nerves from the Dutchman about the prospect of biblical conditions...

"I think it would be quite cool if it rains!" he laughed. "But yeah, dangerous too. If you avoid the crashes then it counts for a lot. It's always the case in Roubaix. You have to try not to get a flat tyre or crash. When it's wet it's even more the case. If they crash in front of you it's hard to avoid it. But yeah, it would be nice to ride a wet Roubaix once!

"He also gave us the latest on the course and confirmed it was mainly dry on Thursday morning when he did his recon..."The cobbles were dry except for one small part that was bit muddy, but I can imagine it is very slippery when it is raining. If you can stay out of trouble and at the front then wet cobbles are okay. I hope the Worlds added a bit to my shape and I can finish my season in a nice way on Sunday."

A final nugget is that after Sunday the 26 year-old will take a well-earned rest for a couple of months, returning to competition for the cyclo-cross calendar in December. 

As someone who commuted through one of Britain's wettest winters without mudguards, I now feel ready to join the dark side. And when I say dark, I really mean dry and comfortable...

The white socks are back in the draw and the winter tyres will be making an appearance when the clocks go back. Anyone folded early and got the mudguards on already?

Resisting the temptation to put the mudguards back on the gravel bike. Normally try and wait until the clocks go back. A bit like holding off on the central heating until it gets really cold.

— Velotastic (@Velotastic) October 1, 2021

 If like me you're in the market for some...check out our 20 of the best mudguards - how to stay dry on any type of bike feature.

Yesterday road.cc had a massive tantrum, which ended up with us having to create a new version of it and get rid of everything from yesterday... that means unfortunately yesterday's live blog was lost! Obviously we're really sorry about this, it's as frustrating for us as it is for you and it's certainly not how we wanted our day to pan out. 

To very briefly summarise what happened yesterday... Joss Lowden broke the Hour Record, smashing the previous record to set a new distance of 48.405km. Read all about her bike here. 

There were scenes of chaos around petrol stations again, with motorists seen using a cycle lane as a petrol queueing lane in Brighton. 

Scottish MP Colin Smyth waded into a helmet row when he commented on the Twitter post of Green MSP Patrick Harvie. 

And our big 'debate' of the day... someone on social media suggested that there should be a six-month trial banning cleats in London to encourage riders to stop/slow down at lights. A pretty wild suggestion, and many of you surprisingly didn't agree. 

Peeta Stebbenwolf on Facebook said: "Cleats actually make you more stable on a bike, better at riding in a straight line & faster. For drivers who think they’re dangerous, try them! Oh & if you’re hit by a car, whether you were clipped in or on flats is likely to make little difference."

Sam Field added: "Maybe we could have 6 months with no booze so drivers drink and drive less?" 

While Bobby Carvell suggested: "Just ban life and have done with it."