“More traffic, more crashes. Who knew?” Telegraph ridiculed for Tube strike bike “chaos” story on eight extra crashes (as cycle numbers up 32%) and “terrifying cycling” poll; Good service on all Limes; Snapped seatpost Zwift crash + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Podcast Klaxon! And we’re getting all cultured in this week’s episode (for a change)
What do you get if you cross a New York-based Australian actor, the 2011 Tour de France, and a turbo trainer on a stage in Edinburgh?
Well, a few weeks ago, I braved the throngs of street performers and leaflet distributors on the Royal Mile to find out…
> “Timothée Chalamet can’t replace me in this one!” Actor behind Cadel Evans one-man show on taking the Edinburgh Fringe by storm, cycling “full gas” on stage, and why creating a play is like riding the Tour de France
Two arrested and 12 others identified by police as pro-Palestine protest foiled during Vuelta time trial – as organisers count down the days until Madrid
The Vuelta organisers’ decision to drastically shorten yesterday’s time trial in Valladolid – cutting what should have been a potentially crucial 27km effort down to a 12km blast through the city’s streets, having little impact on the GC – appears to have paid off, at least in a safety and security sense.
With police officers and security lining the course, no riders or teams were affected by the expected protests, though hundreds of activists stood at various points along the route, where chants of “boycott Israel” and “get out” could be heard as Israel-Premier Tech’s riders passed.
AS have also reported that Pablo Fernández, a member of the left-wing Podemos party and outspoken critic of Israel-Premier Tech’s participation at the Vuelta, claimed that spectators carrying Palestine flags or wearing keffiyehs, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, were prevented from standing near the start line.
Democracia ejemplar…
Así detienen a comuneros en Valladolid por solidarizarse con Palestina y denunciar el genocidio sionista?Gobierno de progreso?
Democracia dónde, terrorista quién?Palestina o Barbarie #NoPasaran
🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸#LaVuelta pic.twitter.com/vixBpDPL3c— Izquierda Castellana (@IzcaNacional) September 11, 2025
However, while everything appeared calm, if a little tense, on the race coverage, it has since emerged that one group of protesters did try to enter the course and block the route.
According to footage posted on social media, two protesters – who were not captured by TV cameras – jumped over the barriers and held Palestine flags around 600m after the start of the time trial.
They were quickly stopped by police officers and removed from the road, while a third activist was also stopped as they attempted to join in. The abruptly curtailed demonstration did not have any impact on the race, with no rider on the course at that time.
So, for the beleaguered Vuelta organisers, another day ticked off on the long, bumpy road to Madrid.
His hair’s all Ganna: Filippo joins in the fun and gets the chop – along with Egan Bernal – after Vuelta time trial win
Filippo Ganna spent three hours sitting in a chair yesterday, just to get a bog-standard haircut. No, the big Italian wasn’t experiencing what passes for ‘service’ at most trendy barber shops these days.
Instead, he was keeping the Ineos Grenadiers’ run of stage wins and buzz cuts going by securing the second Vuelta time trial victory of his career in Valladolid, after his triumph in the same city two years ago.
Unipublic/SprintCyclingAgency
The British team’s Vuelta bet means that every stage win results in a nominated rider being acquainted with the clippers that night at the hotel (a wager that would have left the squad looking like a 70s rock band at most other recent grand tours, if we’re honest), with Ben Turner and Egan Bernal’s wins already leading to number ones all over for Michał Kwiatkowski and Brandon Rivera.
This time, it was Bernal’s turn to be nominated for the chop, while Ganna also gamely stepped up, losing his luscious, curly locks in the process:
[Ineos Grenadiers]
Maybe that’s what Ineos have been in dire need of these last few years, free haircuts as an incentive to win bike races.
Dave Brailsford’s just back and he’s already coming up with new, groundbreaking marginal gains, what a genius…
My personal highlight of the Vuelta
It’s fair to say that this year’s Vuelta, for lots of reasons, has been pretty rubbish.
So, thank goodness for Marc Soler. The Spanish maverick has lit up the race with some of the most flamboyant, tactically befuddling riding you’re ever likely to see, GC team ambitions and common sense be damned.
And he’s also responsible for my personal favourite moment of this year’s ill-fated race, when he pulled off a spectacular bidon trick on a roadside fan:
marc soler’s face is so funny sldjsksk
📹 thomsonbiketours pic.twitter.com/CBpFt1HFI9
— robyn (@robyn_emz) September 11, 2025
That face… Never change, Marc, never change.
Unibet Tietema Rockets “shocked” after UCI announces team’s Italian rider Giovanni Carboni has been provisionally suspended due to biological passport abnormalities
Social media’s favourite cycling team, Unibet Tietema Rockets, says it is “shocked” by the news that their Italian rider Giovanni Carboni has been provisionally suspended by the UCI following “unexplained abnormalities” in his biological passport.
The abnormalities in Carboni’s passport, which tracks a rider’s biological markers to indirectly identify potential doping, stem from 2024, when the 30-year-old was racing for Japanese team JCL UKYO, winning the Tour of Japan and a stage at the Tour of Bulgaria.
Since signing for Unibet Tietema Rockets this season, Carboni has finished eighth overall at the Tour of Turkey, seventh at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali, fourth on a stage of the Ruta del Sol, and won the mountains classification at the Tour of Hellas.
“The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announces that Italian rider Giovanni Carboni has been provisionally suspended in accordance with the UCI Anti-Doping Rules, due to unexplained abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport in 2024,” the governing body said in a statement yesterday.
Carboni in the white best young rider’s jersey at the 2019 Giro d’Italia (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Unibet Tietema Rockets quickly issued their own statement, confirming that they have suspended the Italian with immediate effect and launched their own internal investigation.
“Today, we have been informed by the UCI that they assert that in a period prior to joining our team, rider Giovanni Carboni possibly committed an anti-doping rule violation,” the ProTeam said.
“We have therefore decided to suspend him with immediate effect. As a member of the MPCC, we fully support clean sport and therefore cooperate with all investigations conducted by the relevant authorities. Additionally, we have launched an additional internal examination.”
“We are shocked by this news, as it goes against our values and principles. We remain fully committed to transparency, integrity, and the fight for a clean sport.”
“He was driving home from work and foolishly he’d had a couple of drinks… He did not see the victim coming towards him on the pedal cycle and that’s very unfortunate”
> Driver who drank two pints before swerving across road and crashing head-on into cyclist, leaving him with a broken back, avoids jail
“When will the cycle lobby get it through their thick skulls that Londoners just don’t want to cycle”
More jampacked London bike lane ‘strikelist’ reaction here, as the capital’s tube strike enters its last full day:
Cue the ‘but, but, but, they don’t want to be cycling’ comments in three, two, one…
“It hurts like hell”: No broken bones for world champion Lotte Kopecky after race-ending crash at Tour de l’Ardèche, SD Worx confirms
Lotte Kopecky is weighing up whether to call an early end to her 2025 season, despite avoiding any broken bones in yesterday’s crash at the Tour de l’Ardèche, the world champion’s SD Worx team confirmed this morning.
Kopecky was leading the French stage race, after taking the win on the opening day, when an early crash during Thursday’s third stage forced her to abandon. The 29-year-old initially attempted to continue but eventually withdrew, due to “too much pain in her back”, SD Worx said.
She was later taken to hospital, where scans revealed that she did not break any bones in the crash.
“This was not the week I dreamed off”, Kopecky said on Instagram this morning. “I’d hoped to end my last race in the rainbow jersey on a high but it wasn’t exactly my lucky week.
“I crashed on Monday during the recovery ride, which resulted in seven stitches in my knee. Despite that, I was really motivated and hungry to race. With a nice victory on a pretty nice and hard finish.
“Wednesday’s stage got cancelled due to protests. And yesterday I crashed early in the race. I could feel it was not a good one, tried to step on the bike again but was forced to stop. Medical examinations luckily did not show anything broken in my back, but it hurts like hell.”
Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com
Kopecky’s 2025 season, the remainder of which now hangs in the balance, has proved a turbulent one, at least by the Belgian’s incredibly lofty standards, with only three wins to her name (though one of those victories, to be fair, was at the Tour of Flanders).
SD Worx says that she will now take time to recover before deciding whether to compete at the world track championships in October or “call it a season”. Kopecky already confirmed earlier this month that she will not defend her rainbow jersey at the world road race championships in Rwanda at the end of September.
These people on hire bikes are getting out of hand…
Live coverage of London’s cycle lanes right now, at least according to the Telegraph:
Are we finally going to see a sprint at the Vuelta this afternoon?
It’s been 13 whole days since the last proper bunch sprint at the Vuelta a España, way back in August in fact, when Jasper Philipsen took his second win of the race in Zaragoza on stage eight.
And, considering what’s happened at the Vuelta since then, that feels like a lifetime ago.
So, we shouldn’t be that surprised that the sprinters’ teams are keeping a tight lid on things on the windy, occasionally lumpy road to Guijuelo this afternoon.
In fact, they’ve only allowed only one man into today’s breakaway, Caja-Rural’s Jakub Otruba, who is currently languishing around three minutes ahead of the peloton, all on his own.
Well, I suppose the fast men deserve a bit of fun after slogging their way over all those 20 per cent ramps the past two weeks. Unless, of course, the wind rips everything apart towards the finish. Then all bets are off…
“They asked us to get rid of the word Israel”
Pro cycling’s Israel-Premier Tech problem reaches Canada:
> Israel-Premier Tech to abbreviate team name for Canadian WorldTour races in bid to avoid Vuelta-style protest chaos
Drivers to be banned from Bristol city centre’s Grade II-listed swivel bridge to promote active travel
A Grade II-listed swivel bridge in Bristol city centre will be closed to cars as part of plans to promote active travel, the council has confirmed.
Prince Street Bridge on Bristol harbour is crossed by approximately 24,000 pedestrians and cyclists and 1,700 motorists every day.
The bridge is currently only open to southbound motor traffic but will soon be fully closed to drivers, as part of a £2.3m scheme to promote cycling and walking.
The scheme will also see 20 additional cycle hangars installed in the city, while more traffic-free ‘school streets’ will be implemented during pick-up and drop-off times, and improved cycle and walking routes implemented towards Temple Quarter.
“With more people travelling sustainably, we can cut congestion, improve health and wellbeing, and support the city’s journey toward becoming carbon neutral,” Ed Plowden, chair of the transport and connectivity committee at Bristol City Council, told the BBC today.
“The A4 Bath Bridges project could include new infrastructure, such as a new pedestrian and cycle bridge or bridges between the Three Lamps junction and Cattle Market Road.”
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA), the body funding the initiative, was recently awarded more than £4.6m from the Department of Transport to promote walking and cycling.
The rest of the funding includes a further £160,000 from the combined authority’s Investment Fund and will go towards schemes in the wider region.
“We all want better, safer walking, wheeling and cycling routes across the West for people’s everyday journeys,” said WECA mayor Helen Godwin.
“Getting the basics right now by improving our walking and cycling infrastructure, and fixing our roads and bridges, will lay the foundations for a better transport system overall for our part of the world.”
Perfect timing: Jasper Philipsen bides his time before storming to Vuelta hat-trick in brutal uphill sprint – as Jonas Vingegaard nicks back four seconds at intermediate sprint and causes chaos in crosswinds
Today was all about timing at the Vuelta a España.
Alpecin-Deceuninck and Jasper Philipsen may have spent the last fortnight patiently waiting for another sprint opportunity, such is the dearth of flat finishes at modern Vueltas, but they were careful not to use things on the steadily rise to the line in Guijuelo this afternoon.
Instead, they left the hard work to Filippo Ganna, fresh from his time trial victory yesterday and a new stealthy haircut, who drove the peloton along for an inordinate amount of time in the closing kilometres.
As the peloton entered those draggy final two kilometres, Alpecin’s grey train were nowhere to be seen, as inconspicuousness as they were during those long, hard days in the mountains.
Alpecin preparó el tren y Philipsen remató. Revive el último kilómetro gracias a @CarrefourES pic.twitter.com/kKCs99u7qT
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 12, 2025
But when they did finally appear, the peloton by then well under the flamme rouge and Ganna finally spent, they made it count, dropping Philipsen off expertly with 200m to go.
And, as we’ve known throughout this Vuelta, when Philipsen kicks, there’s not much anyone can do. Ben Turner, positioned perfectly on the Belgian’s wheel, looked like he was sprinting through treacle compared to Philipsen’s blistering acceleration. Mads Pedersen, who held off Orluis Aular for third and some green jersey-securing points, never really got close.
He may have had to wait a while, but Philipsen, as ever, got his timing spot on.
Unipublic/Naike Ereñozaga
And when it comes to time, red jersey Jonas Vingegaard knows he needs as much of it as he can get.
At the intermediate sprint with 59km to go, the Dane caught his big GC rival João Almeida napping, bursting ahead through the streets of Salamanca to take some potentially crucial bonus seconds, extending his overall lead to 44 seconds.
And on a long exposed section with around 35km remaining, Visma and Vingegaard went after some even bigger gains, forcing a split in the crosswinds and briefly distancing Almeida and UAE before things swiftly regrouped.
It’s no surprise that, on one of the Vuelta’s sleepiest days in a while, Vingegaard was alert and ready to pounce. Because, with Bola del Mundo looming tomorrow and the red jersey on the line, he knows every second counts.
Cyclist issues “gentle reminder” to check the bike on your turbo trainer – after seatpost snapped “with no warning”, leaving him with nasty burn and broken wrist
It’s coming up to that time of year. The nights are getting longer, colder, and instead of hopping out for a pleasant evening spin on the roads, you’re now opting for the gloomy confines of the shed, with its flickering lights, array of spiders… and the dreaded, dreaded turbo trainer.
But, if like me, you’ve neglected that poor, old, battered bike nestled on the fly wheel for the last seven months or so – here’s why you should probably give it the once over before jumping on Zwift and sprinting for some gold coins (or whatever they do on Zwift).
> Keep bike fit over winter! Turbo trainer set-ups for all budgets
Because, while we’re well used to seeing decrepit images of handlebars ruined by shed sweat, there are other parts of your indoor-only bike that could be creaking now, too.
Just ask Hugh Colvin, who ended up with some nasty injuries when his seat post snapped out of nowhere during a recent turbo session.
Ouch.
“If you haven’t checked the bike you have on your trainer for a while this is a gentle reminder that it is worth a few minutes of your time,” the cyclist wrote on the Zwift Riders Facebook group, complete with the gnarly images.
“The seatpost on mine snapped with no warning on Friday. I toppled over backwards, put my arm out to break my fall and now have a compressed fracture of my left wrist and a nasty burn on my calf where I ended up with my leg against the flywheel and couldn’t unclip from my pedals.
“I was seated and doing a moderately hard interval, so all of my weight was supported by my saddle. It snapped with no warning so no time to react to take my weight up on to the pedals.
“Very painful, inconvenient and now six to eight weeks in plaster! I keep an eye on my handlebars but never occurred to me to look at the seat post. It is a (very) old bike so might have been avoided with a bit more care.”
Hold on, I’m just going to nip out to the shed… for something.
“Good service on all Limes”
Now, that’s what I call clever marketing.
Lime – the hire bike company on the receiving end of negative publicity in certain sections of the press almost every week – have responded to this week’s Tube strike in London, and the flood of ‘stikelists’ on the capital’s cycle lanes, with this genius PR stunt:
[Credit: Ross Lydall]
Brilliant stuff. Can’t imagine Transport for London will be too happy with that one.
The Great Tube Strike Cycling Debates: Drivers claim ‘strikelists’ will “return to the Underground the moment the strike is over”, while cyclist’s take on massive Elizabeth Line queue divides opinion
Opinions about cycling during this week’s Tube strike in London are like the number of people currently using the city’s cycle lanes – there are almost too many of them.
Over on the lovely debating platform that is X/Twitter, the wonderfully named ‘Cycleway, my arse!’ kicked off a lively discussion after sharing a video of huge line of commuters queuing for the Elizabeth Line:
A line of people trying to get on elizabeth line at Liverpool Street in rush hour home today in London.. pic.twitter.com/CH6HSVDjOu
— London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) September 9, 2025
“It’s sobering to think how far these people could’ve cycled in the time they stood in this queue – if only we had a proper network of quality cycle tracks and improved access to bicycles,” Cycleway, my arse said.
Cue (pardon the pun) the angry anti-cycling responses.
“Yeah, but maybe they just don’t want to,” hit back Dave Cornish. “I know that’s hard to get through your head but a lot of people simple have no interest in cycling. Stop trying to force it on people!”
“That might apply to a select few people, but most would happily use a bicycle to from A to B if it were an easy and safe choice,” replied Cycleway. “As proven in places where they have done exactly that.”
Others, meanwhile, were quick to jump on the ‘what if they live miles away?’ bandwagon. One of those, ‘The Slime’ said: “I bet most live a good hour or two cycle from there.”
“If that were true then that doesn’t stop them using a bicycle for at least part of their journey, such as cycling to a station not affected by the strike,” Cycleway said. “What’s stopping them is the lack of a coherent and joined up network of protected cycle lanes and access to bikes.”
Some, finally, just can’t see past the wonderful virtues of the car when it comes to travelling anywhere.
“Or how far they could have driven if they had a car,” pointed out Malgis.
Here, Cycleway’s response was very straightforward: “Not very far at all if you cared to look at the state of London’s roads during a tube strike!”
I can’t get enough of these “cycling in a striking city” videos. https://t.co/0UJBQxwwEE
— Carla Francome (@carlafrancome) September 11, 2025
And in a different part of Twitter, motorists were doing their best to point out that the flood of cyclists on London’s streets this week isn’t that impressive, I’ll have you know.
After cycling campaigner Carla Francome shared a video of a bike lane rammed with cyclists, the typically anti-cycling Social Environmental Justice account replied: “Enjoy the moment while it lasts, Carla. Most of these people will return to their first choice, the Underground, the moment the strike is over.”
That particular response didn’t impress the Open Chiswick group, who wrote: “They really can’t stand seeing so many people on bikes.”
Talk about summing up all of these debates in a single sentence, chapeau.
“More traffic, more crashes. Who knew?” Telegraph ridiculed for Tube strike bike “chaos” story on eight extra crashes (despite cycling numbers jumping by 32%) and bizarre “terrifying cycling” poll
It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it?
Never one to shy away from an anti-cycling story, no matter how ridiculous – from taxpayer-funded bikes for refugees to 52mph cyclists and Cycle to Work scheme rants – it should come as no surprise to anyone that the Telegraph have decided to weigh in on this week’s Tube strike-related cycling surge in London.
And their conclusion? That it’s causing chaos and injuries, of course.
The paper’s headline on the topic tells us that cycling crashes in the capital have risen by a third during this week’s Underground industrial action.
Of course, the second paragraph of the article clarifies that, according to figures from the London Ambulance Service, bike-related collisions have actually increased by 28 per cent during the first part of this week.
And if you keep scrolling down to the seventh paragraph, you’ll discover that those percentages actually equate to a grand total of eight extra crashes involving people on bikes in London.
“Between Monday Sept 9 and Wednesday Sept 11 last year, there were 28 reports to the LAS mentioning the words ‘bicycle, cycle, bike, push bike and e-bike’,” the Telegraph noted.
“Over the same period this year – Monday to Wednesday this week – there were 36 reported bike collisions.”
So, eight extra collisions. When, as we noted yesterday, the number of people riding bikes in London jumped by 32 per cent at the start of this week compared to last week. So, 28 per cent versus 32 per cent… those numbers sound pretty favourable to me.
And some Telegraph readers on Facebook are also not very impressed by the paper’s mathematical gymnastics.
“So? Increased riders, many less competent, plus more cars and buses, equals a statistic waiting to happen. Nothing odd here,” noted David.
“More traffic on the roads, more accidents, who knew?” asked Dawn.
The Telegraph also claimed that the “traffic chaos” resulting in the increased number of cyclists in the capital – and not the rise in car drivers during the strike, you understand – has “delayed ambulances from getting to sick patients”.
“We are very busy this week and seeing more traffic on the roads which means even ambulances on blue lights are taking longer to reach our sickest patients,” the London Ambulance Service’s director of ambulance operations Darren Farmer told the paper.
“We have also seen an increase in the number of road traffic collisions involving bikes, so would ask drivers to avoid unnecessary journeys, and pedestrians and cyclists to be extra careful on the busy roads.”
And finally, the Telegraph rounded it all off nicely with one of the most bizarre, biased readers’ polls I’ve ever seen (and that’s coming from me, and my ‘Why is the Giro the best grand tour’ live blog polls).
“Have you resorted to cycling in London during the Tube strikes?” the poll asked.
Nice, balanced use of the word ‘resorted’ there, you might say. But wait it gets better. The options were:
“Yes – and it was terrifying. No – I stick to buses and trains. No – but I might if the strikes continue.”
I feel like they’re missing an option there, maybe…
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
10 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
"I promise to make sure that I am seen..." Good luck with that. Hi viz doesn't work for stupid and inobservant, as we all know.
[Stupid comment editor - ignoring line breaks :o( ]
And it's not just the RSA, most Irish motorists believe that if they are barrelling down country roads, in the dark, in the lashing rain, travelling much faster than they can stop in the distance they can see, that if they encounter a pedestrian and only just miss that pedestrian, then it was _the pedestrian's fault_ the driver didn't see them in time cause they weren't wearing high viz. Just check out the number of comments in this insane reddit post backing the bonkers driving of the OP: https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1r7xczz/venting/ Shite driving and victim blaming is utterly normalised now.
Whenever I drive my overlarge car I'll make sure I know where people are And make it all the way safely home By putting away my goddamn phone!
The RSA is _obsessed_ with hiviz. They regularly have campaigns giving out hiviz to pedestrians, to school kids. I am convinced someone high up in the RSA is very good buddies with a hiviz vendor, and is funneling the government money to them in return for kick-backs. Only way to explain the insane level of obsession RSA has with neon-yellow plastic.
"According to the Hi Glo Silver Pledge, children in Ireland’s schools sign up to the following (not legally binding, I assume) agreement: “When I walk or cycle, night or day, after school or when I go to play, I promise to make sure that I am seen, in reflective clothing that is bright orange, yellow, or green.”" This is actually quite dark. How about, "When I drive I'll use my lights, 'cos unlike the dim drivers I'm quite bright, I look out for others because I should and, erm, the end."
This clip on Cycling Mikey's channel states: "The public made 150,000 video allegations across England and Wales in the last year, and most were prosecuted/ 2/3rds from drivers with dashcams, and 1/3rd from cyclists and pedestrians." https://youtu.be/rjnAiHOuIx8?t=113
In the world of work life Health and Safety the Hierarchy of Risk Management Prioritises Elimination, Substitution, Engineering Controls, Admin Controls, PPE - PPE is the Least Effective. An Engineering Control would be something built into vehicles that prevent driving when the driver is drunk/drugged up, on the phone, driving too fast, or slow it when approaching a vulnerable road user etc. But moto-normativity leads us to wrap up the non-drivers in brightly coloured clothing and make it illegal for them to go outside if not.
Per yesterday's piece about report submissions to the police... This clip on Cycling Mikey's channel states: "The public made 150,000 video allegations across England and Wales in the last year, and most were prosecuted/ 2/3rds from drivers with dashcams, and 1/3rd from cyclists and pedestrians." https://youtu.be/rjnAiHOuIx8?t=113
When they're not simply using the terms interchangeably, most sources seem to consider the [publicity] 'caravan' to be a subset of the 'convoy', which starts with the police riders ahead of it. A couple even consider there to be multiple 'caravans' within the 'convoy' (the publicity caravan, a caravan of race-related vehicles ahead of the race, another caravan of race-related vehicles behind the race). Given that the words are roughly interchangeable in English ('convoy' just having a slightly more 'organised' connotation to it), plus the element of translation across languages, it's perhaps not surprising if there's no hard and fast rule about how they're applied.
10 thoughts on ““More traffic, more crashes. Who knew?” Telegraph ridiculed for Tube strike bike “chaos” story on eight extra crashes (as cycle numbers up 32%) and “terrifying cycling” poll; Good service on all Limes; Snapped seatpost Zwift crash + more on the live blog”
If like me, you don’t have a
If like me, you don’t have a bike permanently attached to your turbo, make sure you use a very large towel to protect your front wheel, brakes, gear levers and handlebars from sweat corrosion and wipe down with a damp cloth at the end of training. After a hard session or zwift race I would often find about 5 mm of sweat accumulated in the front wheel raiser. And one day one of my front wheel spokes snapped. Luckily I wasn’t riding in traffic and it didn’t jam anywhere and I was able to remove the spoke and slowly ride the 20 miles home with a wobbly wheel.
Quote:
I suppose that’s one way of describing body-slamming them into the barriers… 🤔
[Also, someone can’t count – there are clearly three of them in the road before the police intervene, and then a fourth who doesn’t get far past the barriers before being ejected.]
Marc Soler
Marc Soler
Well Done Unibet Tietema
Well Done Unibet Tietema Rockets.
Nothing like throwing your employee under the anti-doping bus without so much as a by-your-leave.
What happened to suspended pending investigation?
<slow hand clap>
It’s a bit pot and kettle to
It’s a bit pot and kettle to mock the Telegraph’s* reporting of statistics, while at the same time reporting an increase in the small amount of mileage logged via the ‘YuLife’ platform as “the number of people riding bikes in London jumped by 32 per cent”.
[* Obviously I’m all for mocking the Telegraph in general]
Tube strike bike “chaos”
YAWN
Tube strike bike “chaos”
YAWN
I know I should be all for
I know I should be all for increased cycling, and ‘chaos’ is putting it too high – but I have to admit I didn’t enjoy it much yesterday – incredibly busy, and you really had to have your wits about you because so many riders seemed to have no awareness or bike handling. My usually consistent 35 mins commute took an extra 10 because of the volume of cyclists on the Emabnkment cycleway. Still better than the tube though.
Very much my experience, due
Very much my experience, due to various unusual circumstances – tube strike, relative in hospital to be visited daily – I’ve been doing 55-60km each day this week in central London and on the main SW-leading arteries (Kings Road etc). The number of people on the road with no idea of how to ride safely in busy traffic has been incredible, especially those on hired ebikes. It’s been properly stressful.
One way to think of a Lime
One way to think of a Lime bike (other brands are available) user is as a pedestrian on a bike. Pedestrians don’t obey any rules – they cross on a red man, they walk into the road without looking, they stare at their phones whilst walking, they stop or turn without signalling and they don’t always use the infrastructure as it should be used, even though it is ubiquitous. A Lime bike user can cause more harm potentially but we don’t rant about pedestrians all day and their erratic behaviour. And pedestrians don’t pay ‘road tax’ either and look at all the infrastructure they get – it’s everywhere.
It comes as no surprise to
It comes as no surprise to see the right-wing rags like the Telegraph and Mail using this to bash cycling. Telegraph used to be a good paper, but now it’s just a Reform mouthpiece. One thing they can’t argue with is the sudden jump in London cycling this week and the fact that the cycleways they reviled have been well used.