The only man who can beat Pogačar? Remco returns to Strava with Tenerife KOM spree ahead of Liège–Bastogne–Liège; Royal Mail delivers bike lane parking classic; Tadej and Vollering win Flèche Wallonne (+ Lizzie Deignan returns) + more on the live blog

Can't be long before the courier providers add a 'Your parcel is out for delivery, it has just arrived in your nearest cycling infrastructure' text to the process. Our live blog has, in recent times, told the story of the ongoing issue in Edinburgh of Amazon vans — sorry, Amazon-branded vans blocking the Scottish capital's bike lanes... (the company was very quick to point out the van below is not driven by an Amazon employee, so it would be wrong to attribute them to Amazon)...

On Friday there was an unwanted sequel too...

> The sequel nobody asked for — bike lane Amazon van is back

Well, the blogging prompted road.cc reader Daniel to get in touch with his own case of delivery parking pain where he rides in Doncaster, this time at the hands of the Royal Mail...

Interestingly, Daniel contacted the council's civil enforcement officer and was told:

Unfortunately we are unable to issue to the postal service as they are exempt. When we started in 2005 this came about as it's classed as interfering with His Majesty's Mail. Sounds silly but that is what we were instructed. I would suggest you contact the postal service to complain.

We are aware of the issues in this area and endeavour to have a presence here as much as possible.

"I noticed it cycling to work," Daniel told us. "They've just installed the lanes in the city centre as part of a huge active travel scheme.

"Never expected a senior enforcement manager at a city council to essentially say a royal mail van is allowed to park anywhere they want including over cycle lanes next to double yellow lines, be there it is — written permission!"

Daniel got in touch with Royal Mail... who apologised and said the issue had been raised with the relevant manager who will "stop this happening again"...

I'm sorry one of our vans was recently parked in a way that caused you concern. The safety of the public and our employees is something we take very seriously, so thank you for making us aware of this.

From the details you've provided I've been able to identify where the vehicle is based and report the issue to the manager. The manager will take the relevant steps to stop this happening again.

All our drivers receive ongoing training and monitoring, and incidents of bad driving/parking are rare. I'm very sorry you've had to report this to us and I hope this issue is now resolved.

British Cycling has released the route details for this year's national championships, to be hosted in North Yorkshire, with the men's and women's events to be decided on the climb of Saltburn Bank...

Great Britain Cycling Team rider Charlie Tanfield, who also rides for Saint Piran, said: "I'm so excited to be racing on home roads in Redcar and Cleveland. My first memories of riding on these roads were from when I was a young lad on the local club run, climbing up the local hills and trying to hang onto the older, quicker climbers in the group. I guess it hasn't changed too much since and it's a similar story in hilly races, I'm just the older rider now!

"Saltburn Bank is steep and it's over pretty quickly, but the drag out of Saltburn actually hurts me more."

The men's and women's events will be contested over the exact same 18.8km loop, the women completing 132km and 2,826m of climbing via seven laps, the men climbing 4,073m of ascent over 189km.

Some reaction to Cycling Time Trials, the national governing body for time trials in England, Wales and Scotland, announcing that there is to soon be a separate category for road bikes, opening the discipline up to those who don't have a TT machine.

The move has attracted praise from many, road.cc readers in the comments calling it "excellent" and "commendable".

Let’s hope that it gets more people out there

— Gareth (@Gareth05275440) April 18, 2023

Of course road bikes have been welcome before, if you're happy to see your time demolished by someone with a flash aero rig and a disc wheel, this change just means there'll be a separate category for those on road bikes.

Some have suggested the rules could go further, however, the rim depth of wheels a particular talking point as CTT has set the limit at 90mm, PRSboy commenting that "I think 50mm wheels are big enough for a road bike TT rig, if they want to keep it more accessible.

"That said, I've always been very happy just turning up and having a go — I regard TT as a competition against oneself rather than others (particularly at my level!)" they added.

On the official announcement on Facebook, Alice Lethbridge added: "Great initiative. Would have liked to see more restriction on the rim depth though to make it more friendly to beginners. 80-90mm wheels are definitely in the specialist aero category and will make a big difference against 30-50mm wheels which are much more common place."

Thoughts?

1,1,2,2,1,1 — those are Demi Vollering's race results since the start of March... a quite incredible classics campaign by anyone's standards. Not just any classics either, Strade Bianche (win), Dwars door Vlaanderen (win), Flanders (second), Brabantse Pijl (second), Amstel Gold Race (win), Flèche Wallonne (win), the SD Worx rider inserting herself as strong favourite for an Ardennes clean sweep at Liège–Bastogne–Liège this weekend.

🏆It's a win for @demivollering!

🏆 Succès pour @demivollering ! #FWWomen pic.twitter.com/E1nML3WdWM

— La Flèche Wallonne (@flechewallonne) April 19, 2023

Behind Lizzie Deignan's teammate Gai Realini took an impressive third, just behind Lianne Lippert. Deignan herself dropped out the peloton in the final hour of racing, her first race back since giving birth in September.  

The queen of British racing is back on the road today...

The comeback is now a fact!
Enjoy your day, @lizziedeignan ❤️💪#FWwomen @flechewallonne pic.twitter.com/CHzF1COihe

— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) April 19, 2023

Deignan had initially targeted La Vuelta in the first week of May for her comeback, having given birth to her second child in, late September. "Where did that 6 months go? I actually can't put it all into words, Flèche Wallone here I come," she wrote on Instagram.

The Trek-Segafredo rider has twice finished second at Flèche and the interrupted sleeping pattern will be great preparation for the crack of dawn start required by the race organisers sending the women's race off before 9am local time... yes, yes, I know that's a lie in by sportive standards...