Cycle paths “teeming” with dozens of “brazen” rats, say locals; Cyclist “appalled” at Sainsbury’s driver parking on bike lane – right next to empty spots; Signposted bike path or river? UK’s most waterlogged cycle route contender + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Hit-and-run driver admits being high and drunk before leaving cyclist with severed foot in “unforgivable and incomprehensible” collision
A cyclist whose foot was severed by a hit-and-run driver – who had smoked cannabis and got drunk at a pub before getting behind the wheel of a car and causing the serious collision which left the victim bleeding out, temporarily blind, and with fractures to his spine, shoulder, and ribs – has described the motorist’s actions as “unforgivable and incomprehensible” as she pleaded guilty to numerous charges in court.
After hitting off-duty police officer Niall Flood, causing life-changing injuries, Niamh McDonnell – who drank five vodkas, five shots of whiskey, and a tequila after finishing work – did not assist the cyclist, and instead drove home with a flat tyre and shattered windscreen, when her partner found Mr Flood’s foot still wedged into the front of the vehicle and alerted the authorities.
2025 Tour de France set for Lille Grand Départ and possible early cobbles stage
While most of us are still struggling to get our heads around next year’s incredibly tough Tour de France route, race organisers ASO – thorough as ever – have already turned their attentions to 2025.
And following what will be, by then, three consecutive foreign Grand Départs on the bounce, the 2025 Tour will get underway on home soil for the first time since 2021, ASO confirmed this morning, with Lille and northern France set to host the start of the race.
The 2025 Grand Départ will mark the third time that Lille has hosted the start of the Tour, after 1960 and 1994 (the route of which also featured a brief detour to the UK), and the opening stages will take place in the Hauts-de-France region, the Nord Départment and the Lille European Metropolis.
See you on November, 30th! 👀
Rendez-vous le 30 novembre ! 👀#TDF2025 l @hautsdefrance l @departement59 l @MetropoleLille pic.twitter.com/r0zQVUOm1b— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) November 14, 2023
While full details of the stages will be announced on 30 November, the very northern start to the Tour has already fuelled rumours of a possible early stage on the cobbles of the Hell of the North, with Roubaix and its famous velodrome located just up the road from Lille.
And what’s more – the last time Lille featured on the Tour route was in 2022, when it hosted the start of the bone-juddering day over the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to Arenberg, a stage won by Simon Clarke and notable for Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma’s infamous Keystone Cops bike swap moment.
The last time the Tour set off from Lille, in 2022 (A.S.O./Charly Lopez)
More of the same in 2025, please.
Pedestrianisation considered to address safety concerns about “optical illusion” cycle lane that caused 59 injuries in a year
Ah, looks like Jacob Rees-Mogg’s favourite piece of cycling infrastructure is back in the news…
“During a time trial I am basically blind”: Stefan Küng says he barely remembers horrendous time trial crash into barriers at European championships
Stefan Küng has spoken for the first time about his horrible crash during the final few kilometres of the European time trial championships in September, which saw the Swiss rider smash straight into the barriers, fracturing his cheekbone and hand and ending his season.
Küng also, notably, suffered concussion in the shocking spill but quickly remounted and continued on to the finish, where he placed 11th, despite being covered in blood and sporting a bashed-up helmet.
The decision by Swiss Cycling and the race organisers to allow the 29-year-old to finish the time trial while concussed and badly injured generated a huge amount of controversy in the days after the race, as fellow pros, pundits, and fans raised concerns about the welfare of riders involved in similar nasty collisions.
> “Should not have finished”: Boss of Swiss cycling team admits they got Stefan Küng crash wrong
Küng’s national federation later apologised for the incident, with Swiss Cycling’s sports manager Patrick Muller conceding that the Groupama-FDJ rider “should not have finished this race”, but that – amidst the chaos of the time trial – it was “difficult to assess the seriousness of the injuries”.
Meanwhile, others argued that Küng should have been warned by his team about the rapidly approaching barriers, preventing the crash in the first place, while former UCI president Brian Cookson called for a crackdown on what he called the “crazy” trend of head-down time trialling adopted by the Swiss specialist and many of his colleagues in recent years.
However, in an interview with SRF, Küng argued that the high-speed nature of time trialling, and its accompanying aero position, can lead to mistakes.
“I think it was a guiding problem. During a time trial I am basically blind, I can only see a few metres ahead due to the position I have to hold and I have to trust the indications that come via radio from the team car,” Küng said.
“We’ve looked at it again, but it all happened very quickly. During a time trial I cover 50/60 metres of road in a few seconds, so if I make a mistake in an instant I’m on the ground without realising it.”
The 29-year-old also revealed that, in the chaos that followed the race, he lost his wedding ring and has still not been able to find it – and that the concussion has impacted his memory of the day.
“The wedding ring is gone. In the finish photos, I’m still wearing it on my finger. In St. Gallen, when the cast was removed, it was no longer there,” he said.
“I asked the various doctors who treated me, but to no avail. I certainly don’t remember if they cut it in the first few hours in the hospital, maybe because my fingers were swelling.
“I myself lack memory during this phase.”
Pog and Rog: Nightclub edition
These two 😅😍♥️ 👇#rogla #roglic #pogacar https://t.co/pYLg1SmLgl pic.twitter.com/Dd9GFt3DS2
— Debby (@Debby_Drckx) November 13, 2023
Now I wouldn’t have expected Primož to be the one to pull off the classic duck face pose…
Travis and Sigrid do the helmet debate: Moped rider knocks cyclist and pet cat off bike – and ‘police’ scold the cyclist for not wearing a helmet
I was going to write that this may be one of the more bizarre stories you’ll read today, but in reality it’s becoming a depressingly common one recently…
Footage of Travis Nelson and his famous feline passenger Sigrid – who have appeared on, among other things, the road.cc Podcast since rising to internet sensation levels during the Covid lockdowns – cycling in London has gone viral, after the video showed the moment the pair were knocked off their bike by a moped rider… only for what appears to be a police officer to pull up at the scene and scold the injured cyclist for not wearing a helmet. Classic.
Oi, Wout, keep it steady at the front!
Imagine this lot – including Van Aert, Sergio Higuita, and Rigoberto Urán – flying past you while you’re trying to enjoy a nice, peaceful gran fondo ride…
Love this so much❤️
El Giro de Rigo🇨🇴@HiguitSergio launching into the draft & pulling the pros (including Belgian rockstar Wout appearance!) along🚂
Awesome seeing the best in the world having loads of fondo fun before re-engaging with structured prep ahead of the ‘24 season pic.twitter.com/hU152kIEdN
— Atlanta Rouleur Collection (@AtlantaRouleur) November 13, 2023
Looks like it’s that time of the year again…
Ugh, my birthday’s been and gone, which means only one thing – that dreaded season of gift giving (and more worryingly, receiving) is just around the corner.
But don’t worry, we’ve decided to give your long-suffering friends and family a hand by putting together our always useful 2023 Christmas gifts for cyclists buyer’s guide (no bike-shaped pizza cutters allowed)…
Wiggle Chain Reaction’s sister company Probikeshop enters administration
Le n°1 français des ventes en ligne de vélos🚴♀️ Probikeshop a été placé en redressement judiciaire par le tribunal de commerce de #Lyon. Ce site, créé en 2005 à #SaintEtienne, avait été racheté par le groupe allemand Internet Stores en 2017. pic.twitter.com/nvmGo1JhLl
— Frédéric Prou (@FredericProu) November 14, 2023
More news on the WiggleCRC front, as Probikeshop – the French online cycling retailer and sister company of the beleaguered British firm – has also entered administration.
Considered the leading cycling retailer in France, Probikeshop is also owned by Signa Sports United, which filed for insolvency last month and whose financial woes and lack of guaranteed funding plunged their companies into trouble over the past month.
According to French news agency AFP, Probikeshop entered administration on 7 November, and buyers have been requested to submit offers by 1 December.
You’ve heard of kitten mittens… Now get ready for bike hats for cats
— bakes (@bakesbikes) November 14, 2023
Jokes aside, after Travis and Sigrid’s collision with the errant moped rider, it’s only a matter of time before some attention-seeking MP stands up in the House of Commons and calls for feline cycle helmets to be made mandatory…
Signposted bike path or river? Another contender for the UK’s most waterlogged cycle route
We’re sticking with Edinburgh for the time being, and moving to the south-west of the city, where – following Manchester’s canal/cycle lane from Friday’s live blog – one particular off-road bike path is making its own bid for the title of the UK’s most waterlogged cycle route:
The officially signposted cycle route to the massive @HeriotWattUni campus. Of course the video doesn’t do it justice… but with uncharacteristic courage I did submit it to the local FB group as a mum was asking about routes down there. (Will mods approve it? Do I want them to?) pic.twitter.com/G0Cuq870il
— Dave McCraw (@david_mccraw) November 14, 2023
That looks like a very relaxing commute, I have to say.
In fact, as cyclist Dave McCraw noted, the “officially signposted cycle route” (which is admittedly a low bar for some local authorities) on Donkey Lane in Currie, on the way to Heriot-Watt University, also serves as the riverbed of a spring – which explains why the path so closely resembles an actual river.
It’s actually the riverbed of a spring, seen marked on O/S map here: pic.twitter.com/4uBvKNX6ad
— Dave McCraw (@david_mccraw) November 14, 2023
Never mind it not being lit, making it useless for start/end day commuting for 5months plus a year, you’d need a mountain bike and a good change of clothes to use that. Wow.
— Chris Young (@NotEnoughEarth) November 14, 2023
Unusable. Should never be listed as a cycle route…
— Mounsey. (@rosemeyer1939) November 14, 2023
Or maybe it’s the council’s way of honing the next generation of cyclocross talent… Who knows?
Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to appear under Dave’s video to point out that Donkey Lane’s river masquerading as a cycle path is, in fact, a perfectly serviceable commuter route to the university for people on bikes – as long as they don’t mind getting completely caked in mud before class…
Ha. There’s a thread on local Facebook where everybody, I mean everybody local is telling this mum not to use it and to cycle on the pavement to uni instead. But what do they know?
— Dave McCraw (@david_mccraw) November 14, 2023
Cyclist “appalled” at Sainsbury’s van driver parking on notorious Edinburgh bike lane – right next to empty spots
Another Edinburgh cycle path story? What is going on up there this week?
It’s only fitting, of course, that we complete our Auld Reekie hat-trick of cycling infrastructure tales by returning to the most notorious cycleway of them all: Leith Walk.
Yep, the infamous zig-zag, narrow, impractical traffic light-featuring, parked van-laden, super light cycle rack-adorned bike lane is back in the spotlight, as Sainsbury’s joined Amazon in the list of companies whose drivers view the controversial infrastructure as just another curiously designed parking bay:
Hi @sainsburys , do you think this parking is acceptable? pic.twitter.com/dsU4STBA1o
— Jester mouse 🐭 (@jester_mouse) November 13, 2023
Yesterday afternoon, after spotting the bike lane blocking delivery driver – parked, ironically enough, right on top of a painted cycle symbol close to the Foot of the Walk – an Edinburgh cyclist took to Twitter to ask Sainsbury’s if such parking was “acceptable”, before providing evidence of “plenty of legal parking bays a short walk away”:
Thanks, there were plenty of legal parking bays a short walk away. pic.twitter.com/DaGDmyzEgN
— Jester mouse 🐭 (@jester_mouse) November 13, 2023
“I was appalled that a driver would think it’s okay to park like that when there was plenty of unoccupied parking bays nearby,” the cyclist told Edinburgh Live.
The supermarket’s social media team responded to the post by apologising for the driver’s parking and “any inconvenience” caused, and by assuring that the matter would be forwarded to the “relevant team for internal review”.
Ah, Leith Walk, the (terrible cycling) gift that keeps on giving…
“I’m seeing dozens of them every day”: Edinburgh resident says the city’s most popular cycle paths are “teeming” with “brazen” rats
How about this for a delightful story to kick off a lovely Tuesday morning on the live blog?
While we normally focus our attentions on the poor design and maintenance of bike paths across the UK, and their plethora of terrible, crumbling surfaces, massive cracks, and accident-waiting-to-happen pinch points, another pleasant feature of Britain’s cycle paths is becoming increasingly common: rats.
The presence of our furry friends, scurrying across the edges of the country’s cycleways, appears to be particularly prevalent in Edinburgh, where one resident posted a video to X/Twitter yesterday of a whole gang of rats enjoying themselves on Chancelot Path, a popular cycle route in the north of the city:
Could someone from @Edinburgh_CC do something about the rat infestation on the cyclepaths?
Particularly the stretch of Chancelot Path from St Marks Pk to Clark Road. The place is teaming with them. I’ve never seen so many rats in one place that were so brazen in day time. pic.twitter.com/ZVr9m3AzlW— Ragged Trousered Philanderer (@RaggedTP) November 13, 2023
Arrrrggggghhhhhhh…
“Could someone from Edinburgh City Council do something about the rat infestation on the cycle paths?” the social media user, known as the Ragged Trousered Philanderer, asked.
“Particularly the stretch of Chancelot Path from St Marks Park to Clark Road. The place is teeming with them. I’ve never seen so many rats in one place that were so brazen in daytime.”
Ah, those brazen rats, always taking up the cycleways…
The Edinburgh resident continued: “Five years ago I don’t recall ever seeing a rat in the wild. Two years ago during lockdown you started to see one or two every few months. Then earlier this year I was seeing them every week. Now I’m seeing dozens of them every day.
“It’s difficult to tell the scale from the video but the largest one in the image is six inches, nose to bum.” Oh, great.
Meanwhile, a Liverpool-based Twitter user helpfully added: “Unfortunately, it’s not just an Edinburgh [thing]. The whole UK seems to be infested beyond control. I see them everywhere on a daily basis.”
But sure, as long as they’re making use of the cycle paths and participating in Rat-ive Travel it’s all good, isn’t it? I’ll get my coat…
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Latest Comments
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.
I cannot edit my post; the need for a clear distinction between the two is not for semantics, but for those of us who are convoy drivers, who are licensed for that role. We take it very seriously and can incur fines and punishment from the UCI for wrongdoing. Those in front, in the caravan, are just normal everyday drivers and do not have the experience of driving in a race convoy, sometimes at speed, with riders all around us. Therefore, should not be taking risks on any part of the route.
Your wording on this needs to be clear, you've mixed up two different parts of the race. The vehicle was from the publicity caravan (Out in front of the race), similar to what you get at the Tour de France, they throw out merchandise to roadside fans, but later in the article, you say "Tour du Rwanda’s official convoy". The convoy on a UCI race is the vehicles which travel behind the race "in convoy" which include the team cars, officals cars, neutral service...etc. You need to have clear distinction between the two. This was not a convoy vehicle, it was a caravan vehicle.
“when the government confirmed that Nottinghamshire County Council will receive £6.7 million for active travel over the next four years, with part of this funding to be used to repair the greenway” Wow - 6.7 million for the WHOLE council for a WHOLE four years for active travel. And once this one shared route has been repaired and the barriers paid for, there could be a WHOLE five million left for the rest of the county. For four years! Astonishingly generous. Imagine how much excellent infrastructure they will build.
Standard journalist protection against any possible action for libel or defamation when mentioning any accusation that hasn't been proven in court. Obviously it's pretty unlikely that an unidentified person (it doesn't even say in which country the incident occurred) would be taking legal action over this but it's good practice always to include it. While there is no reason to believe Swenson has made up the story there are always different perspectives: the driver or passenger might well claim that the door was already open before he arrived and he wasn't paying attention. Unless/until a case is proved in court or by admission it remains an allegation and so it's safest to add the "allegedly" proviso.
Swenson was hit by "a motorist’s car door, which was 'allegedly' swung open into his path." Allegedly swung open? Is there some reason to believe Swenson is making up this story?
And to show the sleeves with the dummy in the riding position.
The people who would listen to them aren't much of the problem. What're needed are for [insert high profile sportsball people of your choice] to do this.
Get some help you tedious fool.
No, now everybody can see the space after your opening bracket!
28 thoughts on “Cycle paths “teeming” with dozens of “brazen” rats, say locals; Cyclist “appalled” at Sainsbury’s driver parking on bike lane – right next to empty spots; Signposted bike path or river? UK’s most waterlogged cycle route contender + more on the live blog”
Looks like there’s an idea to
Looks like there’s an idea to pedestrianise Keynsham High Street to stop people from tripping over the optical illusion bike lane:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/optical-illusion-cycle-lane-street-8903888
However, it seems they want to ban cycle traffic through there too.
Ban cycle traffic? Well as
Ban cycle traffic? Well as today’s post from Edinburgh shows cycling just encourages rat-running.
Boom Boom!
Boom Boom!
Quote:
So, these people hate cyclists so much that they would rather spend all that money on digging back up the cycle lane and then pedestrianising the High Street (but allowing disabled people to continue to drive along there).
Aston Way (Ashton Way?) appears to be the road along the back of the shops, so not much use if you are – you know – cycling to the shops…
brooksby wrote:
Unless you want to use the back entrance to make discrete purchases. I don’t know what sort of shops are in Keynsham, so this may be unlikely
Just make it level to the
Just make it level to the kerb but a different colour so it’s obvious that’s it’s different and nothing to trip over. Simples!
mikewood wrote:
I think the lane was originally part of the road (haven’t been to Keynsham in a while) so that would mean a lot more work in making it level with the pavement. Maybe a sloping kerb between the lane and the pavement might work better
I’ll take brazen rats over
I’ll take brazen rats over murderous drivers any day. Easier to tuck my trousers into my socks than get people to stop using their phones while driving.
bigwheeler88 wrote:
I do that already – simpler than cycle clips. But isn’t that for ferret defence? (Probably better be safe though – I’ve seen the odd ferret out and about in Edinburgh also).
Can’t believe any Edinburgh resident who says that they’ve not seen a rat. Although they did add “in the wild” – mostly they’re in houses in my experience…
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Hey, good lookin’.
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Whaa cha got cookin’?
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Hows about cooking somet’in’ up with Rendy???
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Wasn’t there a discussion on
Wasn’t there a discussion on here the other day about deliveroo type app couriers subcontracting their accounts?
Children working as riders for food delivery apps – BBC investigation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67371473
Rats is just another Tory
Rats is just another Tory thing. There is loads of litter about because there is less money to clean the streets. Unclean streets leads to more rats. It is not the rats’ fault. treat the cause, not the symptom.
redimp wrote:
Last I heard, the conservatives were not running City of Edinburgh Council, or indeed Scotland.
mark1a wrote:
That’s why they’re appearing on the streets – it’s those (tory) love-rats of yore no longer getting the love.
I hear if you vote for (insert party here) though that they’ll send them all back where they came from (Norway?)
I can’t resist putting this
I can’t resist putting this in.
I just want to share my very
I just want to share my very own Alliston Moment with the room.
Riding home last night, after dark.
Big front light on – one that’s steady but does an intermittent BIG flash too. Single lane road in Clifton, Bristol (so, urban area), cars parked both sides, one-way.
Ahead of me a woman walks out into the road, crossing from my right to my left, and she did not look at all before walking out, and was walking diagonally across the road with her back towards me.
She was far enough ahead that I didn’t need to slow down or anything (it’s not like I’m a Fast Rider anyway), so I just moved my line slightly to the right so I’d quite comfortably pass behind her.
Or I would have, had she not caught me in her peripheral vision as she was literally only maybe three feet ahead of me and to my left: she suddenly stopped, twisted round, panicked, and jumped backwards (that is: towards the oncoming moving object which was apparently so scary).
I slammed on my brakes, hard, and stopped. She looked at me, said, “Sorry, so sorry” and looked like she was really scared. I said sorry too, said I’d tried to go behind her without scaring her and had assumed she would never even have known I was there – I also pointed out that she hadn’t looked before crossing.
At this point, I also noticed that she had earbuds in so was obviously also listening to music or something (which means my initial assumption that she had listened for oncoming traffic rather than looking must have also been wrong).
Takeaways: (1) having two working brakes is really good (too soon?), and (2) if you’re going to pass behind someone, aim for well in excess of their Jumping Distance.
brooksby wrote:
That kind of thing annoys me – there’s plenty of room for a pedestrian to cross and a cyclist to use the road without any conflict. That’s one of the reasons why we need more cyclists is to train pedestrians how to not react skittishly when confronted with one.
hawkinspeter wrote:
An interesting choice of words, maybe the conclusion that I should draw is that horses are not skittish around cyclists, it’s their riders that make them that way.
1) Horses with riders are often skittish around cyclists
2) horses with no riders (new forest / dartmoor) are not at all skittish around cyclists (neither are goats at cheddar gorge)
3) pedestrians are often skittish around cyclists
common factor in skittishness? Doesn’t appear to be horses after all.
Pedestrians are best treated
Pedestrians are best treated as squirrels. I was once cycling along a fairly wide country lane, approaching a small group of walkers with their backs to me. No problem, as there was plenty of space to give them a wide berth. I was about 2m or so clear of them widthways, but just as I was about to pass, one of them suddenly put out his arm and extended his walking stick out to the side to point something out to the others. My 2m gap had gone, and it was sheer chance that he didn’t knock me off my bike.
Is that an argument for a
Is that an argument for a default-ish cheery GOOD MORNING from 10-15 metres away?
mattw wrote:
Try it. I guarantee that at least one of them would be angered by this and do something as a retaliation.
Re the water logged cycle way
Re the water logged cycle way. It’s an old rural right of way absorbed by 60s and 70s housing developments. It has always been prone to flooding as the map extract shows. So much so the local kids refer to it as “the muddys”.
The real problem is that it was ever designated a cycle route.
The signs either end say it’s
The signs either end say it’s basically a Bridleway or the Scottish equivalent now. They look like shared walker, cyclist, horse in a blue circle
Dave McCraw is inviting
Dave McCraw is inviting trouble, cycling without a cat.
I think that Road.cc needs to
I think that Road.cc needs to distunguish between big councillors and little councillors.
This lot seem to be Town Councillors (ie Parish Councillors if that) – that is Captain Mainwaring and Mrs Pike.
(Update: It seems they are actually District Councillors. Still refugees from the 1940s, though.)
I’ll take rats over
I’ll take rats over ratrunners any day.
“Unfortunately, it’s not just
“Unfortunately, it’s not just an Edinburgh [thing]. The whole UK seems to be infested beyond control. I see them everywhere on a daily basis.”
Best if we kick them out at the next election.
Do you mean rats or hit and
Do you mean rats or hit and run drivers – much the same thing?
– just seen your second line – yes goes for most MPs too.