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"He could do it twice in my best time": Cycling world in meltdown over Tom Pidcock's Sa Calobra time; Incredible on-bike footage of Buenos Aires erupting at winning penalty; Council defends cycling roundabout; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog

Only five live blogs 'til Christmas! Dan Alexander is in the house for Monday's ...
19 December 2022, 10:13
"He could do it twice in my best time": Cycling world in meltdown over Tom Pidcock's Sa Calobra time

The big news this morning is that Tom Pidcock is very good at riding a bike...

>  Tom Pidcock smashes Sa Calobra KOM by nearly two minutes

There are whispers that Tom's time is just 16 seconds off Wiggo's rumoured, but not uploaded to Strava, time of 22:30 in the winter before he won the Tour...

Anyway, more importantly, here's what the good people of our Facebook comments have been saying about the young lad from Leeds...

Gareth Thomas knows who he's blaming for Pidcock's faster time... "I bet he didn't get stuck behind four coaches at the pinch point like I did though!!!"

Phil Jones was disappointed to see the WorldTour pro only beat his Sa Calobra best by 30:17... that's enough for a second ascent and a coffee order.

Debaets Stevie isn't bitter, but just thinks "if you've got talent it's easy" while Anthony Walstow reckons "I could do it….if I really wanted to, but I'll let him have it on this occasion."

Alison Potter: "So that's around 12mph, I can do that on the flat, my average speed, probably be around 3mph up that!"

Pete Dougan: "He could do it twice in my best time..." 

19 December 2022, 16:03
Is Mathieu van der Poel riding a secret new Canyon Aeroad?
19 December 2022, 15:56
If the World Cup was pro cycling...

After a month of scouring Procyclingstats for tenuous links between pro riders past and present and their nations' World Cup fortunes... we reached the final... and as ever whenever Argentina were involved Eduardo Sepúlveda had to do the heavy lifting...

World Cup pro cycling (procyclingstats)
19 December 2022, 15:49
Motorists receive just 71 fines in three years for dangerously overtaking cyclists
oxon travel cycle lane picture 2 - via twitter.PNG

An interesting story in The Irish Times this weekend showed that over in Ireland motorists had received just 71 fines in three years for dangerous overtaking of cyclists.

Provisional figures from An Garda Síochána provided to the newspaper suggested that just 14 fixed charge notices have been issued for the offence so far in 2022, with 32 issued in 2019 and 2020 and 25 last year.

Phil Skelton from Safe Cycling Ireland said the "year-by-year drop" in the number of fines issued was disappointing and "we have certainly not seen any substantial evidence that this road safety issue has alleviated to such a degree as to warrant this decrease".

19 December 2022, 15:17
Is there another way to fetch your Christmas tree?
19 December 2022, 14:52
Why cyclists don't use cycle lanes... (Austrian edition)
19 December 2022, 14:31
Wrestling Filippo Ganna, Prévot piggbacks, Hayter's hangover... inside the Ineos Grenadiers end-of-season party

Too much Ineos news today... Pidcock's KOM, the new kit launch (which is getting a well-humoured online reception, seen above) and now the inside scoop from the team's big off-season bash...

Courtesy of the latest episode of Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe's 'Watts Occurring' podcast we've got the gossip, including young Leo Hayter having a few too many and Rowe vs Ganna for the Ineos wrestling championship.

"A few boys got carried off," G explained. "It was pretty grim, I couldn't imagine being bar staff working there sober." 

And apparently leading the way was new signing Pauline Ferrand-Prévot... "She can drink," a slightly shellshocked sounding Thomas continued. "Halfway through she goes to me 'jump on my back' and I'm like 'are you sure? I'm quite heavy, especially in off-season'. Jumped on half expecting to just fall on my face but fair play she held me up, running around the dance floor, I was giving it no hands... big night.

"Leo [Hayter] got carried off first, puking up outside."

"Someone said 'have you seen the state of Leo?'," Rowe picked up the story. "He's upstairs, outside, lying in a pile of spew, so yeah he went to bed early.

"I put myself to bed after the party when everyone was outside getting taxis to a club. I knew where I was but I was stumbling around and put myself to bed. Ganna came up with me and we started wrestling, woke up in the morning with a few bruises. If you're going to wrestle someone in the team... I picked the wrong guy..."

All the while Tom P was presumably outside breaking the Everesting record or something silly...

19 December 2022, 13:05
Francis Cade's USA-crossing epic is going well...

More seriously though, the fundraising page is up to £91,715 as Francis and Justin near a Christmas on the road a long way from home...

19 December 2022, 12:37
Council admits cycling roundabout "created debate" but also had "positive feedback"

Remember this?  

Salford cycling roundabout (@HarryHamishGray/Twitter)

Mike McCusker, the lead member for planning and sustainable development at Salford's Labour-run council, has accepted the cycling roundabout which caused much noise on social media "created debate" but also received "positive feedback".

"This is possibly the first roundabout of its kind in the country, so it is certainly creating some debate and we have had a lot of positive feedback," he said.

"The roundabout allows pedestrians to cross the junction safely in two short moves so they only have to be aware of one lane of cycle traffic at a time. It provides a quicker crossing for them and is safer than trying to cross a wider junction with traffic from both directions.

"It has been designed to accommodate people on foot or in wheelchairs or pushing buggies. Cyclists circulate round it like a 'normal' road roundabout so they, too, can get round this junction safely without putting pedestrians in danger."

19 December 2022, 12:25
Incredible on-bike footage of Buenos Aires erupting at winning penalty

Here's the best video you'll see all week...

19 December 2022, 11:03
Festive 500: Winter cycling challenge tips and tricks
19 December 2022, 09:19
The only opinion on Cav's rumoured Astana transfer you need to hear
19 December 2022, 09:07
What you missed this weekend

Right, that was a frantic start to the new week! Apologies for the lateness of the blog, Tom Pidcock required some urgent writing elsewhere...

Tom Pidcock Sa Calobra (Strava)

> Tom Pidcock smashes Sa Calobra KOM by nearly two minutes

I'm back now at your live blogging service, so let's start by rounding-up what you might have missed this weekend. The big news of the weekend — slightly overshadowed yesterday teatime by someone called Messi — is that Cav's reportedly signed a contract...

Mark Cavendish at Gran Torino 2022 (copyright Simon MacMichael)

> Mark Cavendish reported to have signed for Astana

Elsewhere on the site this weekend:

> Argentina fans cycle 10,000 miles to Qatar for World Cup final

> Priced at £800, is this "the best mechanical derailleur possible"? Plus more tech news from Bianchi, Brooks Wahoo & more

> REVIEW: Argon 18 Sum 2023

> Rode to victory! Check out Wout van Aert's Cervélo R5-CX cyclocross bike

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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19 comments

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wtjs | 1 year ago
1 like

An interesting story in The Irish Times this weekend showed that over in Ireland motorists had received just 71 fines in three years for dangerous overtaking of cyclists

What? This is supposed to be reprehensible?! Ireland is doing a fairly good job. In Lancashire, my FoI request to the police revealed NO penalties beyond possible 'have a word with', warning letter or joke driving course. I don't think anybody has ever been penalised in Lancashire with a fine or points on the licence for close passing a cyclist. Remember that offences like this receive no response at all from the unpleasantly lax and highly forgiving OpSnapLancs, who clearly think this close pass by Sainsbury's 44 tonner YN67 MVJ was the least I deserved for being on the road. This is a hotspot for similar offences- I have been passed at the same place (left hand bend approaching the top of a blind hill- the b******s overtake and when they encounter fast oncoming traffic they just squeeze the cyclist- with the approval of Lancashire Constabulary) by an equally close Stagecoach double-decker. I have written this before, too many times people may think, that the greatest single factor leading to danger for cyclists is the police

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
1 like

Has the remaining PBU been given another holiday?

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ktache replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
1 like

They popped up over the weekend, but other than that very brief smell, it's been good and pleasently fragrant for a while.

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marmotte27 | 1 year ago
6 likes

71 close passes, that's three weeks, not three years...

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chrisonabike | 1 year ago
1 like

RE: Cycling roundabout (before Flintshire gets here) - did someone confuse bikes with cars?

Mike McCusker (Salford lead for planning) wrote:

The roundabout allows pedestrians to cross the junction safely in two short moves so they only have to be aware of one lane of cycle traffic at a time.

Now that's a good general principle but really you don't need anything special for cycling / pedestrian interactions.  Unless you've designed something incompetently...

Mike McCusker wrote:

It provides a quicker crossing for them and is safer than trying to cross a wider junction with traffic from both directions.

It has been designed to accommodate people on foot or in wheelchairs or pushing buggies. Cyclists circulate round it like a 'normal' road roundabout so they, too, can get round this junction safely without putting pedestrians in danger

Yep - because "cyclists" we need to invent something that no-one else needs * otherwise the dark triad of tour-de-France wannabes, wrong'uns and incompetent riders will put pedestrians in danger.  Sounds like cycles = cars to me!

I'm not totally outraged because this whole "cycling" with its own space idea is extremely new to most in the UK - an "unknown unknown" if you will.  And because everyone ignores the standards guidance we do have for designing this infra no-one knows what to expect.

* Yes BicycleDutch has pointed out a couple of examples in NL e.g. this one- mostly as they're rare and notable because of how stupid they are.

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Bentrider | 1 year ago
3 likes

Re. Buenos Aires - There were similar scenes in Scotland when Archie Gemmill scored against The Netherlands in 1978.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to Bentrider | 1 year ago
0 likes

I live in Paris.  It was very quiet on Sunday night 

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Steve K | 1 year ago
9 likes

That Austrian cycle lane story means nothing to me.

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Hirsute replied to Steve K | 1 year ago
10 likes

Aaaaah Vienna !

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

Depressing reading today on the forum with those incidents.

 

Cycling mikey reckons it's the last day for submissions due to the 14 day limit for NIPs being messed up by strikes and christmas.

Manged a double ton on the way back from town - 101 passes and top speed of 103 kph. One benefit of radar being you can see if drivers are slowing down.

Pleased to say range rover drivers keep up the standards. Was confused to be overtaken by a black car when I knew a silver one was behind me. Then realised the silver car driver was giving me space but range rover overtook both with oncoming traffic (no rear camera to show this).

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
0 likes

Quote:

14 day limit for NIPs being messed up by strikes and christmas.

I did wonder about strikes, however the assumption is that the Police have proved they posted it in enough time that it will be delivered in the “ordinary course of the post”. This is normally taken that it should be recieved within 2 WORKING days of posting. So strikes and Bank Holidays are normally covered in that if the Police have posted it early enough. Of course whether the Police staff who process them are working is another matter. 

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nosferatu1001 replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

Not true. 
as you pointed out, it is working days 

bank holidays are not included in working days, ever.  So they have to post to ensure service within 14 working days. Pentip, the most common police software, knows about them and won't allow the issue if beyond the threshold

Gidden (of pepipoo parish) proved that a strike is indeed not the normal course of post, and so you can rebut the presumption of service given under the interpretion act. 
 

There is of course the get out of "reasonably practicable" which allows service beyond 14 days, but the police don't use it, presumably as it increaes the difficulty if a case is taken to court. 

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brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes

Did anyone see that footage of a woman in Burley being knocked down by a van on a zebra crossing, then immediately knocked down again by a car?  It's been covered on various tabloid sites.  You wonder about some people (the drivers, not the pedestrian): you really do...

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NOtotheEU replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23198141.video-woman-hit-van-portsmouth...

WTF? The car driver didn't even notice the woman had been knocked down right in front of them and then started to drive over her! And whats with the man who just crosses and walks off after quite clearly seeing the collision?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to NOtotheEU | 1 year ago
7 likes

He doesn't just cross and walks off, he stops as she is knocked down, then walks back so the fiesta can continue, then stops and walks to the fiesta, which you initially think is to stop them but seems to be a case to say now fine to drive off. Then walks back past the injured woman and stops the other side to .... do nothing.

The van-driver had already stopped their journey to voluntarily allow a car to turn right*, so that was their "good deed" and no need to legally stop their journey for a vulnerable road user crossing at a designated area.

*The right turning car doing a massive corner cut as well. 

 

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AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
3 likes

Those mentioning he could do it twice, he did do it twice. Second time was 31 mins but HR and power shows he was just "coasting" compared to the first time. 

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Secret_squirrel replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

Whoa...

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IanMSpencer replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
2 likes

When I did it, I set off a good number of minutes before the rest of the group. Very good psychologically. Took me 1 hour 1 minute having just looked it up - Autumn 2014 when I was about my most fit. Might have had a little rest before the top.

The hardest bit is judging the downhill corners depending on whether there was a bus coming up or not.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

I see that the Kensington & Chelsea court case, about the cycle lane, has been adjourned until January 13, 2023.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/council-high-street-kensington-cy...

 

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