“Are those the big worms from Tremors?!” Cyclists told to avoid “extremely dangerous €10 million-plus” bike lane with bizarre mini ramps; Tour de France disrupted by protester at finish; “Inexcusable” stage 11 road defects slammed + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Finally, we answer the question every newbie Tour de France fan asks after stumbling across the race on ITV4…
> How much does a Tour de France bike cost?
Are cyclists riding in cycle lanes too aggressive? Journalist and recent cycling convert says she was “astonished at the levels of aggression and speed” in Dublin bike lanes, claiming “it’s every person for themselves”
Sticking with Ireland for the time being – Ben Healy is in the yellow jersey, after all – and a Dublin-based journalist has said she was “completely horrified” by how unsafe the city’s cycle paths are during her new bike-based commute to work.
Irish Independent writer Melanie Finn told radio station Newstalk this week that she has started riding her bike more as a response to a recent health issue.
“I naively thought it would be a nice relaxing way to get into work,” she said on the Pat Kenny Show.
“It’s only about a 10, 15-minute cycle, but I was completely horrified by how unsafe these cycle paths are to use.
“There’s a cycle path pretty much the whole way into Amiens Street. The problem with the cycle path is there are a few issues that I encountered – and this is just in a couple of weeks.
“One thing is, no one seems to bother obeying the direction of them; it’s supposed to be a one way route and then often you have people cycling towards you during a stretch of the Clontarf Road.”
Finn went on to claim that “no one seems to obey any of the traffic lights” and “it’s literally like every person for themselves”.
“So, I was kind of astonished at the levels of aggression and also the levels of speed that some people go in these cycle paths,” she said.
“It doesn’t feel like the social contract has broken down, there’s no social contract in the first place. It didn’t feel safe, it doesn’t feel relaxing – and I actually do love cycling.
“But particularly around the city centre, and that’s where we need people to be using things like the cycle paths, getting onto the buses, out of their cars.”
> Dublin food delivery cyclist settles for €60,000 over dooring by driver parked in cycle lane
The journalist did, however, recognise that cyclists aren’t the only ones to blame for making her bike lane commute not as relaxing as she’d imagined.
“There’s a number of businesses and roads along the route, cars have to cut across the cycle path in order to access them,” she noted.
“So, oftentimes, they might be late for their classes or rushing into the creche there as well to pick someone up.
“Oftentimes, they’ll be stalled or stopped in the middle of the cycle path, which is extremely dangerous.”
“To the poor, very kind, and dumbfounded man who opened his RV door to me, I want to first say thank you, but also apologise profusely for the state I left your bathroom in”
If you were left slightly baffled by Mike Woods’ sudden disappearance from the break during Monday’s stage in the Massif Central, here’s why – the Canadian experienced his very own, as we call it in the industry, Dumoulin moment out on the road.
“Finally, at about the 135km mark of the stage, my legs began to cramp, and my stomach started to gurgle,” Woods wrote in his column for Velo.
“Defeated and dejected, I rode at a pace I felt I could hold, but the knot in my stomach only got worse. I tried to breathe, I tried to ride through it, but I was hit with the realisation that I was about to have my Dumoulin moment.
“Now, doing a number two on the side of the road, at the Tour de France, is just not really possible. There are too many people. Even stopping for a pee is challenging enough.
Zac Williams/SWpix.com
“So, as I started to think, ‘Am I going to shit my pants?’ I had a wonderful realization: ‘RVs have toilets!’ and the Tour has more RVs than Burning Man. Within seconds, I was riding past an RV, and I shouted, ‘Toilette, toilette, toilette!’
“To the poor, very kind, and dumbfounded man who opened his RV door to me, I want to first say thank you, but also apologise profusely for the state I left your bathroom in. Let’s just say, 120g of carbs per hour for four consecutive hours does not come out nicely.
“As a crowd of confused fans watched, I finally, and embarrassingly, left the campervan, I jumped back on my bike and realised I had no idea where I was in the race relative to the rest of the peloton. I’d been in the camper for longer than I care to admit (unlike Dumoulin I didn’t have a jersey to defend and was in less of a rush), and when a group of riders caught me, I told Julian Alaphilippe, ‘I have no idea if I’m still in front of the peloton or behind’.
“I explained why, we both laughed, and then talked about how much easier racing used to be.”
Classic. I reckon Woods now needs added to the list:
> From Deux Moulins to Dumoulin: Pro cycling’s most iconic toilet stops
“How can a company as big as the ASO be so small-minded?”
Forget Pogačar versus Vingegaard, it’s all about Pro Cycling Stats versus Amaury Sport Organisation at the Tour de France this time…
Remco’s rest day essentials: oats, omelette… and sticking his face in a massage table
Breakfast like a king, recover like a hostage. Evenepoel’s rest day Insta haul included pineapple, coffee, cereal, omelette, avocado toast, a healthy dollop of Philadelphia (most likely a sponsor) and what looks like the most intimidating massage face-cradle selfie you’ll see all Tour.
"How has the commissaire deemed this acceptable?" Video taken towards finish line of today's 11th Tour de France stage shows "inexcusable" road defects
Hope they informed teams about this pothole in today’s final @LeTour . It’s also at a pinch point. Be careful and Goodluck #TDFF2025 pic.twitter.com/OiZoMI9jny
— Willie Smit (@williesmurfy) July 16, 2025
I know, by UK standards this barely qualifies as a scratch on the road surface. If your pothole isn’t at least waste height so an angry high vis-wearing parish councillor can climb in for a photo in the local paper, we don’t wanna know.
However, this road defect is reportedly present on the final stretch of today’s stage at the world’s biggest bike race in Toulouse, where riders could reach speeds of around 80km/h. Even Mr Pothole himself may expect better.
“How has the commissaire deemed this acceptable?”, someone asked under the post from South African pro cyclist Willie Smit, while others asked if teams and riders were aware. Smit warned that riders whose hands are not tightly gripped to the handlebars would have “a problem” as the course narrows.
Our man on the ground Ryan Mallon will be at the race finish watching the action. Let’s hope he doesn’t witness any incidents as a result of this, and most of the riders can somehow take a line that won’t see them have to negotiate the poor road surface if it’s not fixed in time.
VecchioJo is sweetly nostalgic for the new Tour de France leader's kit
Forget Olive the sausage dog for a moment (who definitely needs her own yellow jersey and leash, btw)… Ben Healy’s kit is reminding VecchioJo of something fruity and highly processed from his youth. What do you reckon?
And a matching yellow Wahoo Elemnt Bolt computer* for Ben Healy too
We’ve add the asterisk because it actually just looks like some yellow stickers lobbed over an existing Wahoo computer and heart rate monitor.
How about a yellow Cyclists Stay Awesome sticker too, Ben?
The Tour’s heating up… Literally
Bonjour!
Apologies for the patchy live blog service so far today. I’ve been busy running around Toulouse, gawping at Ben Healy’s yellow bike, and trying (and failing) to capture a nice video of the peloton rolling out of the city centre during the neutralised zone (head over to our Instagram stories if you fancy a quick game of ‘spot the rider’).
I know, it’s a hard life.
Zero days until the Tour…
A speaking of hard lives, the second half of the Tour has started with a bang, today’s relatively flat loop north of Toulouse featuring a relentlessly fast, attacking start, with Wout van Aert – notoriously quiet by his standards so far at this Tour – at the centre of things.
After a few panic-inducing splits, including one which caught out Jonathan Milan, the pace has finally slowed with around 80km to go, as a break of five coalesce at the front, featuring Fred Wright, Mauro Schmid, Davide Ballerini, Mathieu Burgaudeau, and Jonas Abrahamsen.
And just as I type that, more attacks start flying off the front of the bunch. It’s going to be a fun day…
Things you see at the Tour de France
What are you laughing at, mate?
“What more could I want? It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to wear the yellow jersey, so you have got to go all out if you can”
A closer look at Ben Healy’s yellow dream machine:
Now, that’s how you mark leading the world’s biggest bike race.
“They’re doing this because they’ve got nowhere else to go”
We’re midway through July, and that means it’s time for our 115th story of the summer about angry residents giving off about youngsters riding their bikes in the woods. I’m not even exaggerating that much…
> “Kids need somewhere to ride”: Cyclist’s campaign calls for pump track to stop young riders digging up woodland and damaging ancient archaeological sites
If Carlsberg made breakaways
As I said earlier, the attacks have kept on coming during today’s loop around Toulouse.
With the five-strong lead group, including Fred Wright, two and a half minutes up the road, a real échappée royale is currently attempting to bridge across – featuring Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Quinn Simmons, Arnaud De Lie, and Axel Laurance:
Ben Healy has followed the attack of Jonas Vingegaard! 💛🇮🇪🇩🇰
What a crazy day 💥#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/RvBULfi4Kh
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 16, 2025
Yes, that’s right, the Wout and Mathieu show is back on at the Tour.
I’d bet the house that Ben Healy is sitting in the bunch right now secretly fuming that he can’t join the fun, after the yellow jersey tried to follow Jonas Vingegaard’s acceleration when the counterattacks were flying.
It really has been a mad day.
Too much Toulouse? Our on-the-ground preview of today’s Tour finish
Following Willie Smit’s complaints about the bumpy road surface in Toulouse this morning, I’ve been walking the final few kilometres of today’s stage.
And while I haven’t personally spotted any of the patchiness pointed out by the South African pro, that doesn’t mean the finale won’t be a tricky one.
In fact, it’s going to extremely fast – the final 2km are on the same, arrow-straight road.
However, that road is really quite narrow, and crucially its super straight character is broken by only one thing: a mini roundabout with 500m to go, which will quickly shunt the riders to the right, and then the left, before the final straight blast to the line.
Speeds will be supersonic by this point (provided we do get a bunch sprint, of course), and that narrow roundabout could well prove decisive. At that point, I might be watching through my fingers…
Ads, ads, ads!
Just in case you’re sitting at home getting increasingly annoyed about the plethora of ad breaks on ITV4 (have you taken out that funeral policy yet?) or TNT Sports (boy, I need some caffeine shampoo), don’t worry.
Because, even in the lofty environs of the Tour de France press room, we still have to suffer through the ads like everyone at home. It’s only fair, I suppose. But at least we get to watch them on a big jumbo screen.
And now I want some Orangina…
Tour de France stage 11: high drama as protesters disrupt finish, Pogacar crashes and Jonas Abrahamsen wins stage
Those are the things that are grabbing the headlines pretty much in that order, and our senior news writer Ryan Mallon was there to witness it all, taking the photo above of the protester who stormed onto the finish straight as Uno-X Mobility’s Jonas Abrahamsen and Jayco-Alula’s Mauro Schmid were battling it out in the closing metres.
Full story here, with more to follow and extra updates on this here blog as we get them.
Visma waiting for Pog: the Right Thing To Do or... game's gone?
Pogacar crashes and they wait for him despite him not even wearing yellow…pic.twitter.com/B0fswC6sHe
— #SiempreGino (@NairoInGreen) July 16, 2025
💥 @TamauPogi has crashed but the group of other favorites is waiting for him.
💥 @TamauPogi a chuté mais le groupe des autres favoris l’attend.#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/wfrc5t6bLI
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025
Visma’s noble decision to wait for Pogacar following his crash – even though the Slovenian ceded the yellow jersey to Irishman Ben Healy on Monday – is splitting opinion, with some saying Visma had no obligation to stop, while others say it was the correct decision as it appears the crash occurred due to a clash with Uno-X’s Tobias Johannessen. What do you reckon?
🤝 Sportsmanship at its best!
🤝 La sportivité du peloton !#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/W2pdKL7UUl
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 16, 2025
Ben Healy, the Irish Beatle
Soak it in, Ben, soak it in.
“Are those the big worms from Tremors?!” Cyclists told to avoid “extremely dangerous €10 million-plus” bike lane with bizarre mini ramps, as locals slam “waste of money that nobody uses”
Watch out, Edinburgh’s gone but never forgotten zig-zag cycle lane, there’s a new video game-inspired piece of cycling infrastructure in town.
Because a newly constructed bike lane in Co Donegal has come under fire after a photo was posted on social media of a rough, seemingly unfinished section, featuring a few bizarre, trip-ready mini ramps that wouldn’t look out of place in Mario Kart – or, as one local memorably put it, resembling the Graboids from the Kevin Bacon film Tremors.
Looks… fun
Cyclists and pedestrians have been told by one local politician to avoid the protected cycle lane in Letterkenny, which stretches from the town’s Port Bridge to the townland of Drumnahoagh, due to its “extremely dangerous” trip hazards.
Which shouldn’t be a problem, because – according to Letterkenny’s Facebook enthusiasts – nobody uses the path, anyway.
Posting an image of the lane and its mini ramps, sent to her by a resident, Mary T Sweeney, a representative of Irish right-wing party Aontú, wrote: “Dangerous Surface Alert: This is a photo sent to me of the NEW €10 million PLUS, THEN PLUS MORE… Bicycle lane going out from the Port Bridge in Letterkenny, heading towards Drumnahoagh.
“I HAVE FORWARDED THIS PHOTO TO THE council… extremely dangerous for pedestrians or cyclists so avoid avoid avoid… until it’s repaired.”
She loves her caps lock, does Mary.
“Are those the big worms out of Tremors?” Charles asked in the comments, referencing the 1990 horror cult classic.
> Zig-zag corners on “moronic” Edinburgh cycleway to be replaced to improve cycle safety
However, not everyone saw the funny side.
“Very dangerous looking. The Council would need to get on their bike as it will cost them a lot of money if someone gets injured,” said Kathy.
“Sure it’s only the tax payers’ money that they are wasting,” wrote John. “Suppose to repair this now, again just stick the hand in the tax payers’ pocket for another few hundred thousand euros.”
Meanwhile, Sean added: “Waste of money sure, the cyclists never use it anyway, still on the roads.”
“The council should run a ‘spot the cyclist’ competition,” Tricia, keen to partake in the game of anti-cycling bingo in the comments, chipped in. “I’ve yet to see a cyclist on it! Great big waste of money. The lanes are too narrow now!”
And Paul wrote: “As a truck driver, travelling the land, I can testify our country is littered with these absolutely useless cycle lanes and absolutely NOBODY using them, roads have been narrowed to a dangerously narrow width.”
Yes, Paul, but do they have ramps in the middle of the lanes, too?
For a few moments, a pro-Palestine protester dominated the narrative at the world’s biggest bike race. But it doesn’t take long for the Tour de France to move on
Ryan’s view of today’s Tour de France protest from on the ground in Toulouse:
> Chaos follows the Tour: Protests, arrests, and apathy as anti-Israel activist – briefly – disrupts the Tour de France’s shiny façade
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Never mind the police - many cyclists (at least in the UK) would be totally unfamiliar with a velomobile, so perhaps police can be forgiven for ignorance there. (I've "normal" recumbents and even those cause lots of head-turning). And for "e-things" the tail of the market is very much wagging the dog of regulation. Or rather there's almost zero political interest in that. In an ideal world someone would find the money and time to get the police trained - but I wonder if most of them even keep abreast of things like the highway code wording tweaks? (Do those not specialised in road policing / pursuit driving get any more training than the average driver eg "enough to pass the test, once per lifetime"?)
I thought that the lengthy technical downhill section on narrow roads was a poor piece of organisation. It was inevitable that faster riders with their team car would catch up with team cars of slower riders. Riders passing each other was a bit of a lottery at times. The camera motorbikes struggled to get out of the way at times.
It's not a 'statement' though - it's road.cc's words, based on l'Equipe's interpretation. The actual statement issued on it said that the judge authorised it "guaranteeing strict proportionality between the infringements on the rights of the athlete and the stakes of the fight against doping in terms of fair competition and protection of his health."
Trust me Callum, if you'd grown up watching the Tour in the 1980s, as I did, you would not be hankering after those long flat stages that weren't even as exciting as watching paint dry, it was more like listening to paint dry. As for the supposed benefits of those long TTs, what did they give us? Indurain winning five Tours in a row without winning a single road stage in any of them. As McT says below, you simply can't Pogacar-proof a course and we just have to accept, and enjoy, the fact that we are watching the greatest GT cyclist of all time. Anyway I think it has been a great Tour so far, yes no enormous drama about the inevitable winner (though of course Vinegaard and now Lipowitz have shown us that anything can happen) but just about every day has had a fascinating plot and multiple subplots. Some time in the future there will be another Indurain-style winner, playing it cautious, following moves, making incremental gains and winning without ever lighting up the race and we'll be saying I wish the old days of Pogacar making those spectacular solo breaks were back.
The main issue is the layout of the stages with the bigger climb first then a shallow finish climb. It means pogacar can get a gap at the top of the big climb and then stretch 10-15 seconds to a minute plus at the finish over smaller riders like Vingegaard. A summit finish on the hardest climb might not lead to the most exciting racing but equally would keep the gaps closer. I totally agree with the TT kms though, they should have 60+km tts in the grand tours.
@MaxiMinimalist I mean, that statement makes it sound like they had reason to think those two are doping. Either they didn't follow procedure and are making shit up to cover themselves up or something is going on.
Quite possibly. But the changeover time loss would be a bit more significant if it was done on the flat just after the downhill when the riders are travelling faster, the deceleration, changeover and acceleration loss could easily be around 30 seconds, which is quite a lot of a 34 minute effort.
So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump's book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?
@Mr Blackbird Fair points, though I was wondering if doing the climb and descent on a standard bike and swapping to TT for the flat section would have been worth it? Certainly quite a few riders seemed to be having handling difficulties maintaining the best line on the descent with their TT machines.
No. The climb wasn't severely steep and allowed a reasonable speed to be maintained on a TT bike, his bike handling skills on road or TT bike are outstanding for the descent and on a road bike he would have lost a lot of time on the flat last 9k section. Terrific performance by him though!
11 thoughts on ““Are those the big worms from Tremors?!” Cyclists told to avoid “extremely dangerous €10 million-plus” bike lane with bizarre mini ramps; Tour de France disrupted by protester at finish; “Inexcusable” stage 11 road defects slammed + more on the live blog”
The problem with the Dublin
The problem with the Dublin cycle lanes is that they aren’t wide enough. There’s a car-brained assumption that all ‘traffic’ will travel at the same speed, but bicycles are (mostly) human powered and therefore travel at diverse speeds. Someone might bumble along happily at not much more than walking pace, but another cyclist may be traveling at 20mph. The lanes need to be wide enough for the latter to safely overtake the former. That’s not to excuse aggressive close passes by faster cyclists on slower ones, but is a call to factor this into design.
Even more – if we genuinely
Even more – if we genuinely want to
save lots of moneyimprove ease of transport for all modes, not just bikes (even motorists)make life better for pedestriansencourage cycling slightly, one of the first things that needs to happen is making it so people can cycle socially. Side-by-side, just like every other mode e.g. driving, taking the bus, train, plane, or even walking. Although the latter is often compromised by giving all the space to motorists…Doing that should mean that overtaking is possible and the cycle paths feel more inviting as those cycling solo have more space. More than e.g. England’s LTN1/20, here’s where we should be aiming. Of course we’ll fall short but hopefully end up better than if we didn’t.
chrisonabike wrote:
Having to explain to people celebrating better UK infra that meets LTN1/20 isn’t GOOD. Its minimum viable product – i.e. the WORST you can build a cycle lane that is still USABLE, not top of the range super infra…
Presumably the ramps are to
Presumably the ramps are to allow faster cyclists to take off and fly over the top of slower cyclists.
This save’s money as it allows cycle paths to be made narrower.
I don’t really understand
I don’t really understand what happened with those “flagstones” (?) in Dublin. It looks like they’re the wrong size, so when they’ve tried to lay them flat they won’t fit (had it when tiling in my bathroom, one time). Except unlike the Dublin highways engineers, I didn’t say “Ah, f- it; it’ll do” and walk away…
Looks like they’ve lifted
Looks like they’ve lifted from expansion (although not seen it that extreme before), might not have had the correct joints between them. Cant see whats either side of the tactiles, that might be rigid ehnough forcing any expansion of the pavers to out through the middle.
Quote:
You’re not just exaggerating – you’re thoroughly misrepresenting the story, which is more about people campaigning for more facilities for the youngsters than it is about angry people complaining about them.
Figured this might amuse some
Figured this might amuse some…
During the months leading to
During the months leading to the TdF, construction and repair works pop up all long the itinerary. Alas, French coffres are empty, so it’s mainly about applying patches here and there, random fig leaves that can’t hide the sorry state of the network of secondary roads, particularly in Southern France. Who said riders’ safety first? Nope, ASO fees come first.
I’ve just had a few days
I’ve just had a few days cycling in Normandy, related to the Tour. From my point of view, as someone living in England, the French roads are fantastically well surfaced. The towns are lovely with excellent local shops. There seems to be plenty of local services. The countryside is beautiful.
Why do French people come across as being so angry with France? France is the world’s top tourist destination. Basically literally everywhere else is worse.
Absolutely the right thing to
Absolutely the right thing to do from Visma. Jonas has form on this, refusing to attack when Pogacar fell on a descent in the 2022 Tour. Not a huge fan of him as a rider but he’s obviously a class act as a sportsman. Should also be noted that, according to reports I have read this evening, Evenepoel was also instrumental in calling on the lead group to wait.