UCI reports zero hidden motors found during 700 Tour de France tests; Jeremy Vine breaks down pointless punishment pass; Top notch junction; UK’s most bike-friendly cities; Penny-farthing Deliveroo; Rest day round-up + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Jeremy Vine breaks down pointless punishment pass
This happened on a street where, for reasons to do with the width of the road, drivers simply cannot accept that the person in front of them is on a bicycle. They will try a risky pass — as this one did — despite there being no advantage in doing so. I tried to stay calm. pic.twitter.com/XWiaR5uxIZ
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) July 10, 2021
This driver was seemingly so keen to sit in traffic he just had to race past Jeremy Vine, barely missing the presenter as he passed. After getting a ‘get out my way’ beep from the driver, Vine continues to ride a safe distance away from the cars parked on the left. The 360-degree camera then shows just how close the driver came to hitting him as he speeds through…only to get stuck behind more drivers and watch Jeremy pedal off into the distance.
Back in January, Vine shared a video of a 4×4 driver pushing through on a narrow residential street with the caption, ‘Every. Single. Day’…
Penny-farthing Deliveroo
You see the strangest things… pic.twitter.com/LlOou1PPre
— Dr Streetlove (@Iwalklondon) July 10, 2021
Study picks out five of the UK's most bike-friendly cities
Leisure Lakes Bikes has done some digging to compile a list of the UK’s five most bike-friendly cities, based on data and routes from Bikemap. Edinburgh topped the table with 1,751 routes on Bikemap and 164,913km of mapped ways, green space and of course, cobbles…
London came second despite having the most amount of mapped ways (223,429km) and 1,730 routes, while Bristol was third with a similar number of routes (1,612) in a considerably smaller area. Glasgow was ranked fourth and York rounded out the top five. Where do you think the UK’s most cycling-friendly city is?
Bottle banter
When you have a flight with Ryanair but didn’t buy the extra baggage. pic.twitter.com/EoIgmn9002
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) July 11, 2021
Tour de France rest day round-up from Andorra: Pros put their feet up ahead of gruelling final week
Rest day at the #TDF2021 😁 pic.twitter.com/VpkpSOoUR4
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) July 12, 2021
No stage today so the pros can put their feet up before a brutal final week of the Tour de France. Tomorrow looks another good opportunity for the breakaway with the double second-cat climbs of the Col de Port and Portet d’Aspet either side of the first category Col de la Core.
Wednesday takes the peloton back above 2,000m with a summit finish at the HC Col du Portet. Stage 18 on Thursday is the final of the mountain days and sees the race traverse the Tourmalet before another summit finish, this time at Luz Ardiden. Friday is the penultimate ‘sprint’ stage but could be hijacked by a breakaway if Cav’s troops are too tired to chase, before a 30km flat TT and the traditional Paris finish round off the Tour at the weekend…
To get that full rest day experience check out our feature on what the riders get up to on their day off…
Did someone say it’s a rest day tomorrow? 😁 #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/ccnJiBblVY
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) July 11, 2021
A junction worth making a detour to visit
When in Cambridge . . . must detour to do a lap of this. pic.twitter.com/IsUEtqxgs0
— filter more streets (@iambrianjones) July 11, 2021
You could go round on this all day…
Deceuninck-Quick-Step becomes Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team for 2022
Same team, high ambitions, new name in 2022!
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team
Read more about this, here: https://t.co/4xVLrGx95k pic.twitter.com/Cn9bBJpzhm
— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) July 12, 2021
After teasing us with the promise of big news our imagination ran wild and left us wondering if a Cav contract celebration was imminent…alas, not today. Quick-Step’s big news is a change of sponsor and a new name for 2022….introducing…Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team. Out goes Deceuninck from the name and is replaced by Quick-Step’s Alpha Vinyl floor…”rigid, 100%-watertight, ultra-strong vinyl flooring solutions that are almost indistinguishable from real wood or stone – and they can be installed on different types of surfaces, level or fairly irregular.” That’ll set pulses racing…
Cheltenham & County Cycling Club celebrates centenary year
Cheltenham and County Cycle Club got in touch to share the news that it is their centenary year. The club offers regular evening and weekend runs and has over 300 members covering road, mountain bike, cyclo-cross and gravel. The club will be celebrating its special year by organising a few 100km and 100-mile rides as well as timed laps of a cyclo-cross course and slalom runs at a local mountain bike centre…
The picture above was taken at the start of the first club run in 1921 and shows the impeccably dressed founder members…
All 720 motor doping tests come back negative during first 15 stages of Tour de France
The UCI has published the numbers from the opening two weeks of the Tour de France. 606 tests for hidden motors were carried out on bikes before the start of stages using magnetic scanning tablets (like seen in this old photo from the Giro) and a further 114 at the end of stages. All 720 were negative. The stage winner and leader of the general classification are checked post-stage every day…so the testers must be getting sick of the sight of Tadej Pogačar’s Colnago.
A new backscatter technology will also be brought into use at the Tokyo Olympics…for those, like me, who have no idea what that means…the UCI says it is a light hand-held device that can provide instant images of the interior of a bike that can be shared in real-time to anywhere in the world via secure platform…
Former pro and UCI Innovation Manager, Michael Rogers confirmed tests would continue during the final week of the Tour.
Maybe England would win this...
Last night’s football was 🔥… but have you seen Cycle-ball? ⚽️ 😮#Euro2020 pic.twitter.com/9SCFP8YTuA
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) July 12, 2021
Thanks for the reminder, UCI…
12 July 2021, 08:21
12 July 2021, 08:21
12 July 2021, 08:21
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Latest Comments
@jackcycles I'm not sure my grandchildren got that memo. Cycling should not be just for hardened road warriors.
Chrisonabike There are a number of police forces in England and Wales that are using portable testing equipment already... How effective it is another matter, I haven't looked into the results of failing (I would hope they just seize and crush the motorbike without any faff but I am sure there are appeal processes, promises not to use them on public roads etc).
Woah there - a precision-engineered European-made product, with unparalleled adaptability, is somehow a ‘rip off’? Compared to what - Temu? As per the article, most quality through-axles go for £50-60+, but aren’t adaptable and don’t provide any stand or trailer capability. If you want to balance your £3-4-5k suspension or carbon bike, or bikepacking setup on a budget product subject to highly focused stresses, fair play. Cycling’s a broad church.
@eburtthebike I've found Spanish drivers to be almost entirely excellent around cyclists.
I agree, the study was made after cycle paths that had been introduced in Berlin during the 70’s and 80’s caused a big increase in cycling deaths. It is an interesting study for cyclists to read in order to know what dangers exist at badly designed junctions. Here in Paris we have very few bi-directional paths. The ones I have cycled on have no building entrances or courtyards (so no cars crossing the path) and every junction is traffic lights to prevent accidents.
We have enough regulation. They're running a motorbike without insurance/registration and possibly without a licence, and the punishment for being caught with all that is pretty severe already. The problem is lack of enforcement.
In my experience with anything less than one of those serious mid-bike two-foot kickstands, a wall / tree / hedge is the better option, or the bike will sometimes show you the alternative and lie down by itself. Maybe I've got panniers that are just too large and the wrong balance of (too much) cargo though? And of course Edinburgh streets are great at funneling gusts of wind...
I agree there's a clear legal line * but I do see something here. Like much tech it's entirely opaque from the outside (without even invoking things like the VW emissions cheating).** I know in NL they have trialled semi-portable "test stations" to check max motor speeds. However with the latest "but there's no money" crisis I can't see that over here. Indeed it's hard to see the police being motivated to do any more roads policing, with this even further down the priority list. Hope I'm wrong... While I guess many of us *would* be fine with EAPCs as a means to attract "non-cyclists" ... perhaps there's an "attractive nuisance" element to this? We're ushering people into an apparently effortless, easy and minimal consequence mobility mode without the "learning experience" of managing a lighter, unpowered machine on roads. And it's still (busy) *roads* where the new power-assisted riders will often find themselves. Not like in more advanced countries where people usually cycle in much safer and more controlled environments. OTOH we should always balance such concerns against "but cars and full-power ICE motorbikes now" though! Number plates, licences and insurance aren't necessarily mitigating that well... * As soon as there are laws games will be played. How long can you be above the "continuous rate power" for? Can we have *multiple* legal motors on one machine? ** Is the power / speed actually regulated by software, and how long will that keep a child armed with the internet from unlocking it?
And maybe a planning obligation to have traffic Marshalls controlling access out of the site not obstructing the path and restricting it if cyclists are likely to be obstructed …one can hope
I'll stick to my low rider with Karrimor Kalahari dry bag panniers and Karrimor Kalahari barbag thanks.
20 thoughts on “UCI reports zero hidden motors found during 700 Tour de France tests; Jeremy Vine breaks down pointless punishment pass; Top notch junction; UK’s most bike-friendly cities; Penny-farthing Deliveroo; Rest day round-up + more on the live blog”
The more surprising bit in
The more surprising bit in that Vine clip is the cyclist at the start deciding he isn’t allowed in the ASL box and staying level with the cars.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
It looks like he might have stopped to look at something on his phone? Not exactly where I would have chosen to stop, but arguably a more sensible place to faff than further forward.
So Jezza Vine get’s a ‘toot’
So Jezza Vine get’s a ‘toot’ from the knob-head driver. Now imagine what happens when you give the knob-heads a big red ‘bicycle toot’ button under their right thumb! Thanks INEOS for encouraging the knob-heads!!!
zedbedboy wrote:
And I think we can safely conclude, based on the evidence of who currently drives gigantic 4x4s, Ineos drivers will all be knob-heads.
Towing horsey trailers?
Towing horsey trailers?
ktache wrote:
The irony…..
I know this isn’t the point,
I know this isn’t the point, but doesn’t that 360 camera make Jeremy’s arms look funny?
Quote:
Think this is fantastic, although this particular rider has massive balls/trust/naivete [delete as applicable] assuming that the cagers are actually going to give way
Can imagine judges summing up: “You approached the new roundabout at speed, and, not understanding the eh new road layout, made the entirely logical and responsible decision to floor the accelerator. The only reason that I was unable to accept your mitigation that the sun was in your eyes was that you were heading north towards Ruislip at 2300 hrs. A sad case of wrong place at the wrong time. I sentence you to a life of wondering whether you actually did anything wrong”
Wasn’t the footage sped up?
Wasn’t the footage sped up?
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
Spoilsport.
Even so, I stand my view that drivers will blow through the give ways
Edit: have reread that, it’s a bit like saying that “I stand my view that the sun’ll come up tomorrow….”
he’s a witch, burn him.
he’s a witch, burn him.
Edit: Seriously though your future predictions are grimly correct, just watch the rest of the Dashcams video I posted to see the way drivers treat roundabouts and giveways for other drivers.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
he turned me into a newt….
Saw this awful driving and
Saw this awful driving and attempted murder of a cyclist on Uk Dash Cammers Youtube yesterday.
Footage is 4:43 in (should start directly there from the link).
https://youtu.be/h_2BwgUhjio?t=283
Wow, seems deliberate, and
Wow, seems deliberate, and far above the posted speed limit.
Just Feck’n Wow! WTF for me
Just Feck’n Wow! WTF for me that stands the test for attempted murder
wached a little further on, and the guy riding down the central reservation seems to be seeking a darwin award
Yep, was going to mention him
Yep, was going to mention him as well but then decided to not water down the seriousness of the incident above.
Clearly very dangerous
Clearly very dangerous driving, but I’m not convinced (and I doubt a jury would be either) that the driver was intending to hit the cyclist. Maybe attempting to scare their pants off, but not actually collide with them. By the time the van reaches the cyclist, it is already drifting back towards the main carriageway and not (IMHO) actively aiming towards the cyclist.
That chicane on the approach
That chicane on the approach to the Cambridge junction seems rather abrupt. Is that a deliberate attempt to slow down approach speeds (can’t make out whether the other approaches are the same)? How negotiable would that be for ‘non-standard’ cycles?
I have a disturbing image of
I have a disturbing image of blue vinyl skinsuits in my head now…
That looks like the same
That looks like the same penny-farthing rider who was racing in the 2017 London Nocturne. We thought then the deliveroo bag was just for a joke or a bet. Obviously not.