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Police won’t prosecute dangerous driver… because incident was filmed by a cyclist; Wiggle customers claim accounts have been hacked; How much can a Deliveroo rider make in 24hrs?; Harry Tanfield’s ‘Coast to coast to coast’ ride + more on the live blog
SUMMARY

Weekend catch-up


Been too excited about planning your first socially-distanced shopping trip to think about cycling? Here’s what you’ve missed…
Man whose stolen bike was for sale on Gumtree was told by police to go and meet the seller himself
Pop-up bike lanes a necessary form of social justice says Chris Boardman
New quietway that replaced lorry-parking laybys being used as … lorry park
ScotRail reveals striking livery for its bicycle carriages
Teen gang is pushing female cyclists into Birmingham canal
UCI defends decision to honour Turkmenistan dictator
Everesting World Record falls yet again – to WorldTour cyclist Lachlan Morton
How well do you know your songs? The road.cc lockdown cycling music quiz
"There are too many bloody cyclists on Box Hill"
Box Hill would be nice if it wasn’t for all the cyclists pic.twitter.com/NRoO5Vzt59
— Mark Treasure (@AsEasyAsRiding) June 13, 2020
South Yorkshire Police allegedly say they won't prosecute uninsured driver who made dangerous overtake... because the incident was filmed by a cyclist
A police officer rang me for a statement, saying that this guy was going to be subject to six points and a fine, along with a further punishment for not having any insurance. I then got a second call an hour later saying that they were no longer pursuing it as I was a cyclist! https://t.co/pf73vmKHpK
— CBicycle (@sheffbicycle) June 14, 2020
The cyclist who recorded the footage above has claimed that South Yorkshire Police have refused to take action against the driver who made this dangerous pass; although the cyclist claims they were originally intending to give out six points and a fine when they thought the driver had overtaken another motor vehicle.
CBicycle continued in a further tweet: “I think what is the most depressing about this, is that i thought for a moment SY Police were starting to be active about protecting cyclists. I even started to write a letter of praise about them, then i got this phone call.”
Regarding the legality of the driver’s overtake when there are solid white lines on the road, The Highway Code states that drivers “may cross the line if necessary, provided the road is clear, to pass a stationary vehicle, or overtake a pedal cycle, horse or road maintenance vehicle, if they are travelling at 10 mph (16 km/h) or less”; and while there is a remote possibility the cyclist may have been travelling at less than 10mph, the road is not clear because of the oncoming car.
The cyclist has since claimed that police said they would pursue the driver for not having insurance, but the evidence or statement from this incident “was not needed.” road.cc have asked South Yorkshire Police for a statement.
South Yorkshire Police have reportedly 'shelved' video evidence reporting portal due to COVID-19
— PJM (@pjmhiatus) June 15, 2020
In reply to our tweet regarding the incident reported below, one road.cc reader has claimed to have received an email that says South Yorkshire Police have pushed back a video reporting portal due to “Covid related issues”. This would suggest that no action was taken against the driver in the below video footage because they aren’t accepting camera evidence from cyclists under any circumstances – we’re still waiting to hear back from South Yorkshire Police with a statement.
PS5 < very expensive indoor trainers
What new console??
How much can a Deliveroo bike courier make in 24 hours?
Spoiler… not that much, as knackered YouTuber Ben Morris confirmed that he made a grand total of £163.87 during a 24-hour stint delivering takeaway by bike for Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
Morris conceded that Tuesday probably wasn’t the best day to conduct the experiment, and that large portions of the 24 hour period – mostly in the early hours and before lunchtime – were completely barren. What money he did make will be given to charity, with Morris explaining: “I am donating all the money made to Crisis as I saw so much homelessness whilst cycling around, and I can’t imagine how difficult it must be during a pandemic with no one on the streets.”
Glasgow hospital report rise in kids' cycling-related head injuries during lockdown


The Glasgow Times report that the city’s Royal Hospital for Children has seen 18 children admitted during the three months of lockdown due to ‘moderate trauma’ from a cycling-related incident, compared to 13 for the whole of 2019.
Mark Lilley, who is the Major Trauma at the RHC, said that he had noticed a higher rate of hospital admissions where the child was not using safety equipment compared to those who were. He said: “Fortunately, the vast majority of children are able to go home following assessment and treatment, but for some children head injuries can be serious enough to require admission and can often go on to develop symptoms of concussion. This can lead to headaches, fatigue, poor concentration, poor balance or co-ordination, sensitivity to light or noise, changes in mood and nausea.
“I am asking that parents and carers to please continue to encourage their children to keep using their bikes!
“If they have a helmet, please check it is the right size for them. If they do not have a helmet, then many shops have online guidance on how to measure your child’s head correctly to make sure they can get an appropriate sized helmet. Or check out ROSPA for more information on safe cycling.”
Harry Tanfield shares epic 337km 'Coast to coast to coast' ride on Strava
25-year-old Tanfield – who joined AG2R La Mondiale earlier this year – rode from east to west to east again on the brutal 327km (203 mile) ride, starting and finishing near Saltburn. He average 31.7km/h and took in almost 4,000m of elevation, with various ride buddies joining him for some portions of the ride. Tanfield also revealed that he stopped for fish and chips by the sea, and thanked a friend called Ben for “letting us shit at his house and lend kit/electrical tape.”
Rapha clubhouses reopen after lifting of some lockdown restrictions


The cycling apparel brand have reopened their retail stores in London Soho, London Spitalfields and Manchester. Bike rental is available to Rapha Cycling Club members as usual, but the store cafés will only be serving takeaway and there are no toilet or changing room facilities – more info can be found on Rapha’s clubhouse pages.
UK bike exports up by 15%


The Department for International Trade’s report says that British exports of bikes, parts and accessories grew by 15% to year-end March 2020, which was worth £173.2 million.
With increased interest in cycling not just limited to the UK, British brands such as Brompton and Dashel Helmets reported strong export sales, with Brompton’s Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Loftus commenting: “Our export sales to year-end March 2020 were up over 30% compared to 2019 as people increasingly recognise the benefits of cycling in cities across the world.
“Since March, as the WHO and national governments promoted cycling as an alternative to public transport during the Coronavirus pandemic, global demand for Brompton has grown significantly. We expect that trend to continue.
“As the UK’s biggest bicycle manufacturer, we’re proud to be able to continue exporting safely and provide a sustainable solution to the way people move across cities.”
Numerous Wiggle customers claim to have fallen victim to hackers, with orders placed and money taken from their accounts
@Wiggle_Sport someone broke into my account and ordered this. I told customer services as it happened but no one has come back to me. pic.twitter.com/ydhe8tDUiU
— Kobi Omenaka (@Kobestarr) June 15, 2020
The online multisport retail giant appear to have fallen victim to a cyber security breach, with a number of their customers reporting that they have received order confirmations for items they didn’t purchase, and the delivery addresses were to locations they didn’t recognise. After alerts were first raised on June 12th and there were reportedly no responses from Wiggle on the matter, one customer got in touch with road.cc directly today to claim that a £30 order was made on his account. In the tweet above, another claims that an order for a £237.50 Castelli skinsuit was made without his knowledge.
Hi Hayley. We’re really sorry to hear about your issue. Please DM us or grab us on Live Chat at https://t.co/tZEvk54a35 from 8am-8pm GMT – there’s an email link there too if nobody’s available.
— Wiggle (@Wiggle_Sport) June 15, 2020
A number of people who say they have been targeted have complained on Wiggle’s social media pages, but so far the retailer appear to have just issued brief responses with no further acknowledgement regarding the issue; road.cc have asked Wiggle for a statement.
Wiggle have now promised to get back to customers directly regarding alleged cyber attack
Hi Alec, apologies for the delay in responding to you. We have passed your details over to our Account Security team who will investigate this and contact you directly.
— Wiggle (@Wiggle_Sport) June 15, 2020
The above tweet is the first we’ve seen where Wiggle have confirmed they are taking action, saying their account security team is investigating and customers affected will be contacted directly.
Wiggle account hacks: alarm reportedly raised last week
just to add – @Quacksteel reporting his account compromised on WEDNESDAY. Wiggle have known about this for AT LEAST 5 days. I reported on saturday and been told twice via live chat someone would contact me, but not heard squat. They are ignoring most ppl on twitter.
— Omid (@omidpyc) June 15, 2020
One road.cc Twitter follower claims the retailer was made aware of fraudulent activity on Wednesday last week, but has still not contacted those affected. road.cc have asked Wiggle for a response, but are yet to receive a reply.
Superintendent Andy Cox offers to support South Yorkshire Police launch dashcam and headcam reporting tool
I have just seen this. There may be many issues the host Police force are considering. Recently I introduced a national working group to review the approach to #Dashcam & #Headcam I’ll ask one of my team to contact @syptweet to see if we can offer any support #Cycling #RoadSafety
— Andy Cox (@SuptAndyCox) June 15, 2020
Superintendent Cox – who has become well-known for his stance on cycle safety – says “many issues” could be delaying a system that allows South Yorkshire Police to review and charge dangerous drivers based off headcam and dashcam video evidence. South Yorkshire Police also told road.cc that contrary to an email shared by a road.cc reader on social media, they “can’t confirm” the delay to the launch is because of COVID-19.
15 June 2020, 08:15
Whoever wins our tricky bike-related music quiz will have truly earned their pair of socks!
How well do you know your songs? The road.cc lockdown cycling music quiz
25 song titles that may be vaguely bike-related - name the artists and songs and win a pair of road.cc socks!
15 June 2020, 08:15
15 June 2020, 08:15
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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.
32 thoughts on “Police won’t prosecute dangerous driver… because incident was filmed by a cyclist; Wiggle customers claim accounts have been hacked; How much can a Deliveroo rider make in 24hrs?; Harry Tanfield’s ‘Coast to coast to coast’ ride + more on the live blog”
CBicyle, please make an
CBicyle, please make an official complaint and escalate it until you get a satisfactory response. It is the only way police will change shameful attitudes like this.
lesterama wrote:
And get Cycling UK involved. The police don’t like to back down and admit they have made a mistake, but cycling UK are pretty good at achieving this
Expect the “we’re sorry, but
Expect the “we’re sorry, but now you’ve shared it on social media we can’t prosecute” excuse to be trotted out now
I thought they said they
I thought they said they would consider this incident, but the evidence has to be presented in person (as the video uploader is no longer active ?) CBicycle decided against that. Seems a stupid state of affairs but, given the behaviour of the driver, i’d be tempted to go and make a statement.
Uninsured vehicle overtaking
Uninsured vehicle overtaking where there are double unbroken lines and an oncoming car – quite a lot of penalty points there for the driver. Does the person even have a licence?
I wonder if this was a PC
I wonder if this was a PC (wilfully) misunderstanding the rules about when you are allowed to pass a cyclist notwithstanding double white lines…?
brooksby wrote:
Instiutionally anti-cyclist
No I dont think it’s that,or
No I dont think it’s that,or that theyve wilfully misunderstood either, they’ll have read the Highway code rule says you can overtake a cyclist when theres double white lines…but not applied the and only safe to do so part specifically,measuring speed is harder if the cyclist cant provide that data,not that ime it stops cars overtaking anyway
Had similar experience this weekend out on a ride,fortunately no one was coming the other way,so not worth reporting, and the overtaking car took the whole opposite lane,great nice room for me,but not really the point is it, as they couldn’t see the road was clear at that point for them to overtake,which is why the lines were there to be observed.
the little onion wrote:
Could be…
brooksby wrote:
I had a call from Thames Valley police following up on one of my videos. Apparently drivers can always cross solid lines to overtake cyclists. There is a 10mph speed mentioned but they can’t enforce that as cyclists don’t have speedometers so drivers won’t know how fast we’re going. I had no comeback to that one.
Drivers have a speedo, so
Drivers have a speedo, so they know what speed they are going.
Why do they need to know what the speed of the vehicle being overtaken is ?
Let’s say I have a dashcam in my car and I’m going 20mph in the same section and I get over taken by a driver. Are the police going to say the overtaker didn’t know what speed I was going at so ‘no further action’?
Though even if a cyclist did
Though even if a cyclist did have a speedometer (and many do) the driver isn’t going to be able to see it as they whiz past, so I don’t understand that argument.
And if the lack of a speedometer makes that law always unenforceable, why was the law written that way in the first place?
bobbypuk wrote:
Ahh, the usual bollocks from
Ahh, the usual bollocks from TVP.
I’ll rarely if ever overtake a cyclist on double whites but if I think it’s safe to do so the first thing I’ll do is check my speedo, as it gives a good idea of the speed of the cyclist. And unless you’re on a long climb pretty much any cyclist on a road needing double whites is going to be doing over 10mph.
You literally couldn’t make
You literally couldn’t make that up hey?
Surely the cyclist’s awareness of their own speed is irrelevant. The idea of not crossing the double white lines unless the vehicle blocking your path is doing less than 10mph, is based on the assumption that you do not pass that vehicle. Instead you slow your speed to follow behind the blocking vehicle, realise that you are travelling below 10mph, and can therefore cross the lines to overtake.
The video does not show an accelerating car, therefore it did not follow the above… simples
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:
I think it was the usual:
*except when they’re travelling far too fast**
**and sometimes that can be at the very same time…
Cbicyle time to contact
Cbicylce time to contact Jeremy Vine !
Found this comment
A: it was miles away from you B: you could have been a further over to make it safer C: it was not a blind corner D: the pass was close but perfectly timed and legal E: nothing actually happened, to you F: stop policing everyone The obsession with ‘what if’ has got to stop.
Every single point is wrong.
The above comments were
The above comments were posted by a member of the Porn Pedallers apparently.
Looking at his tweets he does coincidently seem to be a brexiteering right winger as well surprisingly considering the charity that PP support.
There is nothing wrong with
There is nothing wrong with being pro Brexit or Right wing.
Give me one good reason for
Give me one good reason for Brexit then please.
He’s not shown to be a good judge of road safety. I don’t think he’s a good judge of anything.
How is that ‘Lloyd George’
How is that ‘Lloyd George’ bandwagon going? Lol.
NZ Vegan Rider wrote:
It’s the extremism that’s the problem. I stumbled across a useful video from a fellow squirrel trainer: https://twitter.com/JohnCleese/status/1271535485467283457
I’ve never seen that before.
I’ve never seen that before.
It’s funny how little the lists have changed in 30 years.
Those damn moderates still haven’t got the message.
NZ Vegan Rider wrote:
But seriously…
(Out of interest – are you in NZ or from NZ?)
It’s difficult to interpret
It’s difficult to interpret the meaning of those emoji’s but are you saying you think there is something inherently wrong with being pro brexit and/or right wing?
Rich_cb wrote:
In my personal opinion, at the present time but subject to change if and when new data comes to light: Yes, I’m afraid so.
Given the recent posts by the
Given the recent posts by the left wing/pro EU brigade on this story and others I remain very happy with the choices I’ve made.
Rich_cb wrote:
Fair enough. I think we’ll have to agree to disagree.
(and agree that cycle.london’s post above was out of line).
What kind of “covid related
What kind of “covid related issues”? This must be some reverse social distancing that I haven’t heard about. They can’t take evidence electronically, only in person?
It’s finally happened; I’ve slipped through the wormhole into a parallel universe.
Ridiculous. I’m at home
Ridiculous. I’m at home working full time and have been since lockdown. They clearly have put no effort into a VPN if they have to be in the office all the time to do their job.
Wat?
Wat?
Wiggle isn’t the first, and
Wiggle isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, company to suffer an attack, but the only option here is transparency. There is nothing to be gained by going all quiet and hoping it will all blow over. Wake up.