“So of course, who do people take their anger out on?”: Facebook group learns of driver’s crash, blame cyclists…; “Wooden that be fun to ride”: Definitely not the new Trek — but cyclist’s DIY Madone is rideable…(apparently) + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Billionaires' Row banning cyclists over speeding claims forces riders to risk "A-road with grisly collision record", argue "reeling" campaigners
Let’s kick Friday off with the latest from Billionaires’ Row, that’s Britain’s “most expensive street” (thanks to its £35 million average house price) that is home to private homes and embassies belonging to the world’s super rich, but also a crucial quiet and safe active travel route used by thousands of cyclists. Well, it was used by thousands of cyclists… until the Crown Estate banned pedestrians and cyclists after complaints about “dangerous” cyclists causing “near misses” and putting residents and diplomats “at risk”.
Needless to say that didn’t go down too well, the Labour candidate for Kensington & Bayswater calling the ban “a selfish and spiteful act” and starting a petition calling for its reopening. Naturally, then, Conservative candidate Felicity Buchan also started a separate petition immediately afterwards, some cynics suggesting that might have more to do with the upcoming election than a sudden newfound want to champion the interests of cyclists (just type Felicity Buchan road.cc into your browser for the source of people’s cynicism).
The London Cycling Campaign said it was “reeling” from the closure and shared a screenshot of a collision map, to demonstrate the choice now facing riders who can’t use Kensington Palace Gardens for their journeys… “a park shut at night” or “an A-road with a grisly collision record”… pick your poison…
We’re still reeling from @TheCrownEstate‘s decision to close #KensingtonPalaceGardens to walking & cycling (but not to cars!)
The N-S cycling alternatives?
– A park shut at night 🤦♀️
– An A-road with a grisly collision record 💀
Image via @betterstreetskc pic.twitter.com/PDzZ9ZMJzJ
— London Cycling Campaign (@London_Cycling) June 12, 2024
Well, there might be some hope, the Crown Estate yesterday telling the Evening Standard the installation of “temporary measures” may allow a “safe controlled reopening”. The organisation claims it would “rather not” restrict access but near misses caused by “dangerous” cyclists meant there is a need for a “review of continuing cycling and pedestrian safety incidents”.
And it seems like nobody is happy (except perhaps some residents), the two major party candidates, locals and the council all saying they want to see it reopened.
A council spokesperson said: “The council was very disappointed to learn that the Crown Estate has taken the decision to close Kensington Palace Gardens to pedestrians and cyclists, without any prior consultation with us. The closure of Kensington Palace Gardens removes a much-valued and largely traffic-free link for people walking and cycling between Notting Hill Gate and Kensington High Street.
“In addition, the closure of part of the pedestrian link from Kensington Church Street to Kensington Palace Gardens has removed an important connection to Kensington Gardens for Kensington residents.”
Something tells me the Crown Estate might be announcing a U-turn in the near future…
Bianchi launches e-Oltre: an 11kg ebike that feels like "a true road bike" (says Bianchi)
> Bianchi launches e-Oltre: an 11kg ebike that feels like “a true road bike” (says Bianchi)
Great Britain loses Olympic cycling silver medal to France 100 years after cyclist's death
I’ve got to admit, the 1900 Paris Olympics wasn’t really on our radar as something we expected to cover in 2024. We’re probably a bit late (124 years late) to the party if we wanted to produce any news copy around the action, or so we thought. A curious case has been brought to light, the International Olympic Committe rectifying its historical records to award a silver medal from the men’s 25km cycling race at the 1900 Games to France rather than Britain.
The IOC has agreed to rectify its historical records to reflect the fact that a silver medal from the Olympic Games Paris 1900 will now be credited to France rather than Great Britain. This was approved today by the IOC EB.
More: https://t.co/EZTyLRSJXy pic.twitter.com/sxMtrwxG2j
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) June 13, 2024
The medal was, and remains, awarded to Lloyd Hildebrand, a British citizen who was born and brought up in France (even if the beacon of truth Wikipedia says he was born in Tottenham), competing for a French club before and after winning his medal at the 1900 Olympics.
“As was the norm then, and for several later editions of the Olympic Games, athletes had only to send the number of their licence, established by the national federation where they were regularly competing, and pay the entry fees to compete at the Games,” the IOC explained. “National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were not involved in the process, as they are today.
“Based on this newfound information, the IOC EB decided to apply the same policy as in previous cases brought to the IOC’s attention. The medal won by Hildebrand will now be credited to France instead of Great Britain in the official records of the Olympic Games Paris 1900 and in the IOC’s database.”
"Wooden that be fun to ride": Definitely not the new Trek — but cyclist's DIY Madone is rideable...(apparently)
Introducing the Trek Board-one — heavier, less aero, but oh so much stiffer (some would say ‘too stiff’) and available for a fraction of the full carbon offering…
[Rock Rider/Facebook]
Now, I might be wrong, but there appear to be some slight differences between this model and the new bike we spotted Lidl-Trek’s riders using at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Enjoy some ‘spot the difference’ if you’re able to, it’s a tricky one…
> New Trek Madone breaks cover at Dauphiné
Facetiousness aside, us and everyone else who saw this pop up on Facebook were well impressed by the crafting and work that’s gone into this, and it’s rideable! Well, we’re taking the creator’s word for it. Shared by Rock Rider, who is apparently based in Kenya, he replied to the inevitable question about whether you could actually clock any kilometres on it with a bullish one-word declaration… “Yes.”
“My Trek Madone, actually stronger than your carbon fibre,” he joked.
Top marks all round but those internally routed cables in particular got plenty of love in the comments.
Patrick Shea: “Are you sure that’s a Trek? Looks more like a Specialized Rootbaix to me”
Tim Clements: “The ride probably feels a little wooden”
Cesar Tan: “Trek Mad-One”
Robert Alan Pearce: “Wooden that be fun to ride”
Cyclists riding "at excessive speeds" and causing crashes prompt Royal Parks to review cycling policy, as charity cancels time trial events because "they directly encourage cyclists to go faster than speed limit"
Tree-mendous punning
"A sad day for women's cycling": RideLondon Classique cancelled for 2025 as UCI "unilaterally" moves dates "without consultation or prior warning"
Tour de Suisse stage shortened to just 42km due to snow blocking climb
Snow on top of the Nufenenpass means today’s sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse is just 42km, which basically makes it an 8km bunch hill climb, the peloton currently tackling an easy pre-ascent warm-up before the fireworks can be set off shortly. Another Adam Yates stage win is the most likely outcome of course, his UAE Team Emirates teammates almost certainly hoping to repeat the destruction of yesterday. Can anyone else get close? Will João Almeida be granted some freedom? All will be revealed very soon.
Zwift unveils £1,199 Zwift Ride smart bike with singlespeed frame, Kickr Core trainer and Zwift Cog system: how does it ride?
João Almeida wins Tour de Suisse stage six
🇵🇹 João Almeida VENCE a etapa 6 da Volta à Suiça 🔥🔥🔥
Que exibição fantástica do Português 👏 🙌 🥇 pic.twitter.com/Kf7tEU8PP0
— Eurosport Portugal (@EurosportTV_Por) June 14, 2024
UAE Team Emirates pulled off another 1-2 this afternoon on today’s shortened stage six, the order of the winner and runner-up reversed from yesterday’s result, João Almeida gapping Adam Yates in the closing metres atop the climb to Blatten. With another summit finish tomorrow before a mountain time trial on Sunday, the British rider takes a lead of 27 seconds into the weekend.
Egan Bernal and Mattias Skjelmose were the best of the rest, Enric Mas suffering a worse day than yesterday, while there were signs of improvement from Lenny Martinez after a tricky week for the Frenchman.
Tom Pidcock and Oscar Onley are in seventh and eighth on GC respectively.
DEALS
Free virtual riding app MyWhoosh lets users transfer levels and ratings over from Zwift profiles
> Free virtual riding app MyWhoosh lets users transfer levels and ratings over from Zwift profiles
"So of course, who do people take their anger out on?": Facebook group learns of driver's crash, blame cyclists...
road.cc reader Simon got in touch with a tale from his local Facebook group where people have learnt of a road traffic collision, a second in recent times after a previous driver’s crash took out the BT box that provided internet for most of the area. While Simon reports there have been some complaints previously about speeding on the roads, there was only one thing to blame for this one…
“For context, there’s also been a bridleway upgrade recently, which caused various people to be very angry for various contradictory reasons (I’ve written a blog on it here, and in general, cyclists are generally seen as the lowest of the low,” Simon reported.
“So of course, when a car (driver) crashes, who do people decide to take their anger out on? Couldn’t make it up really, the usual anti-cycling insurance and tax bingo in there as well, plus the suggestion that people are both cycling so slowly they need to be overtaken, but so fast it’s also a race track: Schrodinger’s cyclists evidently. One of those where it’s been brought up so many times that road tax hasn’t been a thing since the 1930/40s etc, that people must be deliberately ignoring the rebuttals to push the agenda they want to believe in, rather than the reality.”
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Latest Comments
As I recall it made cycling more popular rather than doing for it...honestly, this article is an absolute dumpster fire of factual errors (Orson Welles did not write 1984 and Warner Bros do not organise MTB races) and grammatical and syntactical mistakes ("TV coverage is also, in no short order, what rings in the lion’s share of sponsorship money" - what?). What on earth happened?
@Sriracha It is indeed ridiculous that one can buy these illegal machines just on a promise that one won't use it on public roads; almost as ludicrous as being able to buy a motor car that can do 230mph with a promise that one won't ever do more than 70mph. By all means let's have a crackdown on illegal electric motorcycles, but there should be simultaneous legislation restricting all cars to 70mph maximum with severe confiscate/crush penalties for any vehicle that has been modified to circumvent the restrictor.
Yes, let's send in the army to go after the group that kills 1750 people a year and seriously injures 25,000 more, 85% of whom admit to breaking the law when it suits them. Shocking that these thugs have been allowed to get away with their illegal behaviours for so long and at such devastating cost to their victims and their families.
@Steve K Yep, at the time I had a back wheel conversion ebike, fully legal kit from a reputable UK supplier, all three of my LBSs refused to do a front brake fluid replacement for me; they were very polite and apologetic but they all had a policy of only working on purpose-built ebikes from well-known manufacturers. One explained that there were plenty of falsely-badged dodgy kits around with 750W motors masquerading as 250W and they didn't want to risk any potential legal issues if they were found to have facilitated getting an illegal machine back on the road.
@leedorney Nowt wrong with inner tubes, but if you'd have spent £100 buying tyres to use them tubeless I bet you'd be at least marginally annoyed.
The cheery face of occupation...
Much as you cannot outrun a polar bear, but you might be able to outrun the bloke next to you, it's about persuading the scrote that the bike next to yours is easier to steal, though of course not as nice. And mine will always be grubbier. And it helps with the insurance payout. I like my hip lock DX1000, at the time of purchase it was the only lock that would fit around the rim and tyre, securing the rohloff to the frame and secure object. And it definitely looks the part. Yet to see the LPL attack the locking mech, the key, to my untrained eye looks better than my many kryptonites. As the above has it, these diamond sold secure locks are getting cheaper and that is no bad thing.
It's good to see that there are bike shop owners with principles. I was in a bike shop recently when some of the Deliveroo fraternity brought their bikes in. The staff saw that the bikes were illegal and refused to touch them. Fortunately the riders didn't cause any trouble, although this might have been because there were another 4 guys in the repair shop, with a lot of spanners and wrenches in easy reach! Illegal bike are a real problem, whether they're modified e-bikes or electric motorbikes. The Police and councils to occasionally run operations to try and catch them but they won't chase them. In my area they're being used for drug dealing.
Perhaps the friendly approach might work?
I don't believe tall stories about invincible bike locks, period. Even IF it could withstand an angle grinder, what happens if the thief doesn't use a grinder but another means? Say he douses that hard but brittle lock with refrigerant spray and gives it a good whack with a hammer? Or -what happened to me but fortunately with a low value bike- they don't manage to cut the lock and out of spite they attack the frame and cut through it?
18 thoughts on ““So of course, who do people take their anger out on?”: Facebook group learns of driver’s crash, blame cyclists…; “Wooden that be fun to ride”: Definitely not the new Trek — but cyclist’s DIY Madone is rideable…(apparently) + more on the live blog”
This closure is so
This closure is so transparently about rich people wanting to shut out ‘the masses’. With all that money, they’re aghast that they’re forced to share a road with poor people.
And the standards are doubled
And the standards are doubled all the more when you consider how much money is owed to ‘the masses’ by diplomats (embassies on that road, IIRC) who don’t pay their congestion charge.
Well, to be fair, there is no
Well, to be fair, there is no congestion on their road. (Unless you count the hordes of rampaging cyclists. )
I wonder whether they’d call
I wonder whether they’d call the Police if they were burgled? You know the Police that we all pay for with our taxes, then again taxes are for little people I suppose.
I imagine that places like
I imagine that places like that have very private security (black suits and mirrorshades), and wouldn’t dream of bothering the police.
Shouldn’t that be a Tree-k?
Shouldn’t that be a Tree-k?
Although I suspect actually it’s a Pine-arello, or possibly a Boardman.
Maybe a Willow-er
Maybe a Willower, or a Branchi.
Any rider would have to wear
Any rider would have to wear Oakleys, of course.
I said it before but will
I said it before but will repeat myself:
Imagine if any road was closed due to complaints about “near misses with drivers”.
There would be uproar.
They would also have to close
They would also have to close every road…
I had a wooden car once.
I had a wooden car once. Wooden chassis, wooden wheels, wooden engine. It wooden go anywhere.
Wooden frame looks like it’s
Wooden frame looks like it’s got a com-ply-ant ride
‘Tree-mendous punning’
‘Tree-mendous punning’
Knot really.
NotNigel wrote:
Oh yew!
Sir Mark Cavendish, well
Sir Mark Cavendish, well deserved.
Gordon Ramsay sharing useless
Redacted
I’ll just leave this here
I’ll just leave this here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/16/the-brain-is-very-vulnerable-dutch-cyclists-urged-to-wear-helmets-as-road-deaths-rise
Oh ho ho ho!
Oh ho ho ho!
Does this come under “problems of success”? E.g. being so successful at achieving mass cycling that the proportion of frail or uncertain cyclists is much higher than in “non-cycling countries” like eg. UK?
I think even NL may not be quite at the point where “mandatory helmet” is *on balance* a public safety-improver. (Though they’ve already tried to address some other more relevant things like making using a phone on your bike an offence).
Perhaps they might be justified in the case of certain groups eg. those over a certain age? (I’ve posted the study details before but while older people are significantly likely to experience bad outcomes in crashes I am not sure they linked that with head injuries per se – perhaps a wiser idea would be to mandate trikes for older people? Maybe even semi-recumbent ones to reduce fall heights?)
Also according to Mr. Hembrow’s analysis some of the recent increase in KSI comes from more car / backsliding on safety for vulnerable road users.
https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2023/04/whats-gone-wrong-with-road-safety-in.html
For a quick review of the recent figures see: