"I missed the start of a wedding... because of LTNs"; "I was struggling": Peter Sagan reflects on first WorldTour win in 13 months; Timmy Mallett hammers the Highlands; You can't carry that by bike! + more on the live blog

Merida, I realise you know far more about the industry than I do, but with good weather for some of the country, summer about to start (I refuse to accept June 1st as the new start to meteorological summer, I'm talking to you met office) and fuel prices sky high, and not going down anytime soon, then entry level mountain bikes and hybrids make perfect shortish distance commuter machines.

I know that road bikes and tourers are the thing around here, but what you have a surplus of are great for crap cycle routes, the ncn, towpaths and shit roads.

TBH what is even more impressive than being knocked off by a leopard is that there was webcam footage of it.

The modern world amazes me at times.

Good to see Metro bank getting it right; I only wish the new Lidl in Lydney had the same.

The plans showed the cycle parking clearly, near the entrance and overlooked, but, of course, the reality is that they are as far from the entrance as possible and not overlooked.  I wouldn't leave a bike worth more than 50p there, let alone my RadWagon.  I contacted my councillor who says he's had words but it is unlikely that anything will happen, despite the fact he provided me with wording from the planning approval which says that the cycle parking must follow the plans.  I've got back to him suggesting rather more robust action than collective shoulder shrugging.

I also looked up Lidl's environmental transport policies, and I'm sure nobody here will be the slightest bit surprised to find it majors in electric cars, but fails to mention cycling or walking.  I've written to them expressing my disappointment at the cycle parking in Lydney and their failure to even mention active travel.

Honestly, if we can't even get something as simple as cycle parking right, maybe the human race deserves extinction.

Re: Bike Bank. Should be safe.
My Mrs stopped a robbery in a bank, not robbing the bank but mugging someone in the queue for their takings. Of the 4 other people in the queue, one ran out the door and the other chaps stood around. She pushed both "muggers" off the guy and stood in between them and the victim. Then when they ran out the door, she held it shut even when they tried to come back in as she had forced one of them to drop the phone. Only then did the others help to keep the door shut. Dropped phone meant two of the three were caught. Her and the victim were the only ones who were also willing to give evidence in court as well.

Am I the only one that is getting a bit fed up with the car driver vs cyclist narrative constantly being pushed?  If anything the constant articles and clickbait titles is doing more harm than good and just created more of an us vs them mentality. 

We're all road users trying to get somewhere safely and it's going to take a long time to get the infrastructure in place to support and change people's attitudes towards cycling.  While I've always considered myself a safe driver, it wasn't until I took up cycling that I realised how unsafe it can feel for a cyclist. That made me more aware and a much better driver when I see cyclists on the road. I can't help but think getting more people cycling will let them have the same experiences and make them better drivers and more frequent cyclists. 

It's really interesting how the wedding planner gets so animated about being an hour late to their venue because they failed to plan properly.

'Chris Jones, partner in Boys and Girls Promotions, based in Magdalen Road, said: “We have a number of staff who live off Cowley Road and we were not aware the LTNs were being implemented on the Friday night.'

I'm pretty sure that statement is a complete lie.  Or is he seriously expecting people to believe that people who are going to be living in an area directly affected by an LTN wouldn't know when the LTN was due to start to operate?  I find that very difficult to believe.

Surely weddings can be organised on zoom or MS teams? It seems so 2019 to attend in person an event.

From that Strava, Timmy Mallett didn't climb the Bealach na Ba, just e-biked past the Tornapress end of it.

The wedding planner: "Oxford has too much traffic going through."

Also wedding planner: "We should replace Oxford traffic with electric Oxford traffic."

Marketing 101: when trying to persuade people to employ you to run the most important event of their lives, publicising the fact that you will screw up when faced with predictable and long-advertised changes to the local environment is possibly not the best look.

Maybe he should become an "Events Planter"....

"We know Oxford has a major air pollution problem and the town is just not built for the amount of traffic that goes through. But our company has electric minibuses and we like to think we are ahead of the game.

"The LTNs seem short-term. What's needed is a big, grown-up conversation about where we can make a city where everyone drives electric vehicles and that way we can reduce the air pollution. This is just short-term fixes."

Classic.  Acknowledge air pollution/congestion/climate change issue, sees answer as *buy electric vehicle and carry on as before* - problem solved.  

The usual - I don't want congestion etc BUT  I don't want to be personally inconvenienced as part of the solution thanks very much.

Oh, and I'm sh*t at planning.

What if it hadn't been an LTN, but a road closed due to road or utility works?