Monopoly launch a pro cycling edition; Alan Shearer’s new gravel bike; Ben Foster and Tao Geoghegan Hart go for a spin; Cycle lane blocked by eight cars; Suspected bike thieves caught cutting lock with angle grinder + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
7,000 capacity bike parking facility in Amsterdam
A massive hole in the ground is what will soon be a new 7,000 capacity underground bike parking facility in front of Amsterdam Centraal station pic.twitter.com/2xTIu1v5Wc
— Hackney Cyclist (@Hackneycyclist) November 19, 2020
Nobody does cycling quite like the Dutch. This massive hole in the ground will soon become a new bike parking facility next to Amsterdam Centraal station. It will have space for 7,000 bikes on top of another 4,000 spaces in a second facility which will be built on the other side of the station when construction begins next year. A similar bike park opened in The Hague in July.
The new 8,500 capacity underground bike parking facility at the main train station in The Hague which opened last month. Just like in the UK Dutch trains and offices are mostly empty, so this parking garage is too. I’m sure it’ll fill up once normal service resumes pic.twitter.com/PmlwLGVmWj
— Hackney Cyclist (@Hackneycyclist) August 16, 2020
Schoolboy completes Everesting to become one of the youngest to complete challenge
Zak Burgess, 14, completed the Everesting challenge back in August and will tell his story at the Kendal Mountain Festival this weekend. Burgess rode 122 miles over 28 hours, amassing 52 ascents of Birdy Brow, near Clitheroe. Remarkably he had only trained for the event for five weeks.
Zak said: “There were some extreme highs and lows as part of the ride. I don’t really get emotional about things but the extreme tiredness brought a flood of emotion at the end. When you’ve been dreaming of that final moment and then it hits you, and it’s big. I’ve never felt anything like it. Crying was my only option – I was speechless.
“Riding through the night was the toughest. It started to rain about 3am and it got cold, I thought I wasn’t going to make it but people stayed out through the night and some rode with me to keep me going – shout outs to them all, I wouldn’t have made it without the support.”
Shearer 'a big fan' of cycling, saying it keeps him fit without the joint pain
Our earlier blog post about Alan Shearer’s new Vielo V+1 gravel bike went down well so we spoke to Trevor Hughes at Vielo to find out more about the Premier League all-time leading goalscorer’s love of cycling…
“Since finishing his football career, Alan’s been a big fan of road cycling. As he’s had a number of operations through injuries from football, he said that he’s found road cycling paired with Speedflex HIIT training gave him the training and fitness buzz, without any pain on joints the following day.
“This year he’s been on the road bike more during lockdown, but was looking for something fast and comfortable to explore the networks of gravel routes the North of England is blessed with. Being a passionate Geordie, he was keen to support a North East company and came to see Vielo (based in Gateshead) to get his gravel fix!”
Police sting catches bike thieves in Newcastle
A pair of suspected bike thieves were caught by Northumbria Police in a sting operation using bait bikes in Newcastle city centre. The Northern Echo report both men in their 30s were arrested, with one using bolt cutters to steal the bike. Sergeant Fran Joyce explained the sting: “We have seen an increase in bicycle thefts during lockdown as more and more people take to two wheels.
“We have increased our patrols in areas that have seen a spike in incidents. The return of students has seen a second spike in thefts and so we have decided to run another sting operation. A similar initiative led to the arrest of nine thieves over the summer and in just a week we have already taken a further two suspects in to custody.”
Scottish cycling deaths hit six-year high
Edinburgh Evening News reports that the number of cyclists killed in Scotland rose to ten last year, the highest number since 2013. The amount of serious injuries also increased significantly from 157 in 2018 to 183 a year later. However, Cycling Scotland spokesperseon Denise Hamilton suggested the jump could be explained by there being more cyclists on the road. She said: “Cycling casualties are increasing in line with increases in people cycling.
“While the likelihood of being killed or seriously injured cycling is relatively low, it’s completely unacceptable that anyone is being killed or seriously injured on our roads. The highest priority to make cycling safer is cycle paths separate from traffic. Police action against dangerous driving behaviour is also crucial, as is reducing the volume and speed of vehicles on streets that people are cycling and walking on.”
Since 2018, kilometres cycled increased by 17% from 313 to 367 million km. Despite this the overall number of casualties fell from 638 to 572 and is at its lowest for ten years. Unsurprisingly the largest number of casualties occured in Edinburgh and Glasgow with more than a third coming from Scotland’s two biggest cities.
Birmingham cycle lane blocked by eight parked cars
8 vans and cars parked half on the pavement and half in the cycle lane 👍 pic.twitter.com/mHonn9yLO6
— Sophie Watson 🚲 (@swat_transport) November 20, 2020
This short stretch of Birmingham cycle lane has eight cars parked, six of which are in the lane…
One Twitter user replied: “Definition of self-entitlement! Too many drivers think society owes them a parking space!”
‘Entitled cyclists’ feel entitled to cycle in a way that helps them stay alive
‘Entitled drivers’ feel entitled to space which should be for the most vulnerable road users. https://t.co/BVtFQ624nr
— Just Another Cyclist (@justacwab) November 20, 2020
Monopoly's pro cycling edition launches... and there's a waiting list already
Monopoly is an inevitable (and often long-winded) part of the festive season for many of us… but what if you could swap Old Kent Road for the Poggio? Professional cycling Monopoly is now a thing, and even Remco Evenepoel is getting in on the act in this bizarre video posted on the young Belgian’s Instagram account.
It seems cycling Monopoly is such a popular idea that the company selling the board game have already sold out. It ditches famous London properties and landmarks in favour of the the key battlegrounds from the spring classics: La Redoute, Carrefour de l’Arbre, Roubaix Vélodrome and the Muur van Geraardsbergen are the prized assets here. Don’t forget to collect two energy gels when you pass go, if you eventually manage to buy it!
Stay safe, be happy, just ride bikes
‘Stay safe, be happy, just ride bikes’ is a slogan we can get behind, and these Just ride bikes t-shirts are in support of a great cause too. With 10% of proceeds going to NHS Charities Together you can do your bit and bag a decent stocking filler at the same time.
Ben Foster and Tao Geoghegan Hart go for a spin
Continuing our football theme following a sneak peak at Alan Shearer’s tasty Vielo earlier… what happens when a cycling-mad international goalkeeper and the winner of the 2020 Giro d’Italia go for a ride? Turns out it includes plenty of dad jokes, coffee stops and chats about football as Foster tries to keep up with Geoghegan Hart, who he describes as “an absolute sicko” and “legend of a bloke”. He’s also giving away a signed Maglia Rosa; you just have to subscribe, comment and like the video on Foster’s YouTube channel by 7th December.
20 November 2020, 09:16
20 November 2020, 09:16
20 November 2020, 09:16
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Latest Comments
In his closing speech to jurors on Tuesday, Jaime Hamilton KC, defending, said: "You are likely to hold Simon Richardson in contempt. That contempt may well manifest itself in a loathing of Simon Richardson and, in fairness, you are probably right to. Because it is right that we acknowledge it was the actions of Simon Richardson that led to the death of Michael Mullins. Not only is he responsible for the death of Michael Mullins, he acted in the most selfish of ways with one thought in his mind – himself. But that does not make him guilty of the homicide offences on this indictment." (emphasis mine) what a piece of shit.
@mctrials23 yeah ... but that's when we look at places like car parks and conclude that in fact 10 or even 5mph does in fact make a lot of sense!
@Mr Blackbird where can I find photos of this study? Asking for a friend.
@Gd29 I was waiting for the classic "why don't we just ban driving completely by reducing the speed limit to 5mph or 0!" argument and here it is. The statistics are very clear on the benefits of reducing the speed limit from 30-20mph. It doesn't remove bad driving but it mitigates the damage. It also makes fuck all difference to journey times. Everything with driving is risk vs reward. Sure, dropping it to 10mph would save a lot more people but it would make travel by car ridiculous and have minimal benefit vs 20mph. The reward wouldn't be worth the cost.
@Gd29 "Speed limits are an ineffective tool when the problem is drivers not driving in an appropriate manner for the conditions and environment. Those drivers weren’t following the speed limit and/or paying sufficient attention anyway!" That is a question, not an assertion. What are the relative numbers of drivers who are eg. "don't care" criminals who may never have taken a test or are happy to take life, how many are "criminally negligent" eg. may have a licence and not intend to break the law regardless, but just aren't fussed about basic safe driving (maybe regularly drive while tired, never slow down when conditions require), how many are just normal humans (who occasionally make unfathomable mistakes)? What are the relative rates of collisions? What are the casualty outcomes? What effect does simply changing a number on a sign have? If any, why? (There's the psychological "anchoring effect", if 70% of people *are* below the limit does that slow down others, do the "don't cares" maybe just overtake dangerously (but would they anyway? ) ) etc. Reduced speed is a mitigation in that it leads to better outcomes in collisions, that's a known I believe. IIRC there's also agreement that it can mean that fewer collisions happen as there's more time to react. "If that is the problem and you don’t deal with it, but you want to keep reducing injuries/fatalities, you have to keep dropping speed limits until you prohibit road use entirely" "If" (plus as noted other safety measures are available)
@Rendel Harris - I think that driver must live near me.
@Gd29 it's good to "point out potential abuse of stats - and for "keeping it concise for the public" no doubt some measure of "lies, damn lies and statistics" applies. But unless you have your own analysis / evidence, this may sound like a "just asking questions!" rhetorical tactic.
@Gd29 exactly what variables / controlled experiments would suffice to convince you, and then how would you believe that would still hold in "real world" situations? We all know there are excellent ways to stop motoring-related KSIs - one being stop humans operating vehicles) but that isn't normally seen as realistic. Then there's another "remove the hazard" approach eg. completely isolate motorists from vulnerable road users (and "footways" alone might not be sufficient, as more people are killed there most years by drivers than eg. by cyclists in total, although that fact doesn't say much ). Though that by itself doesn't address motorists killing themselves / other motorists. Currently the UK - like many countries - is mostly doing a "remove the vulnerable road users" approach, partly by design but mostly indirectly by prioritising convenience for motoring (including journey time, which is seen to involve higher speeds).
Do you really need an AI tool to tell you that 80% of a cyclist's drag is the rider or that getting in a more streamlined position you'll reduce drag etc.? Fabulous for the professional riders who use this site but for the rest of us our money would be better spent on yoga or pilates classes to help you hold a more streamlined position in the first place.
Of course drivers need to be responsible and take care but we are in danger of getting a bit high and mighty when police raise issues like this. Since the clocks went back last weekend, I have been commuting home this week in the dark for the first time this year. I am gobsmacked by the number of cyclists I see who have no lights and no reflective gear, often with no helmets either. It's common sense to take precautions and we've got our head in the sand if we pretend all cyclists are taking appropriate steps to protect themselves and others.
14 thoughts on “Monopoly launch a pro cycling edition; Alan Shearer’s new gravel bike; Ben Foster and Tao Geoghegan Hart go for a spin; Cycle lane blocked by eight cars; Suspected bike thieves caught cutting lock with angle grinder + more on the live blog”
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Is that like that character in League of Gentlemen who says, “You’re MY wife now”?
Quote:
I once needed to saw through my own bike lock in public, having lost the keys. It’s not a comfortable experience. And I didn’t have an angle grinder, so I was there a while.
Not sure I’d be challenging anyone with an angle grinder.
I had to cut through my own
I had to cut through my own bike lock some years ago, and my motorbike lock more recently. Nobody stopped either time.
Once locked my MkII Golf with
Once locked my MkII Golf with a new steering wheel lock in Carnforth. Key was still in Kendal. Bought a hacksaw from nearby hardware shop, and 20 uninterrupted minutes later we were off.
Just unplug it then approach
Just unplug it then approach them.
Did anyone bike fit Lord
Did anyone bike fit Lord Shearer – looks a tad big…
It’s not at all clear from
It’s not at all clear from the picture which one is actually Deputy Lieutenant Schearer, but it’s true to say that they’ve both got tiny legs. It seems to be the fashion these days.
slappop wrote:
IIRC (it was a *very* long time ago) The Divine Alan Who Sitteth Upon The Right Hand of God was always a bit follically challenged, if that helps…
The cyclists is the one all
The cyclists is the one all in black – tsk – you should know that.
He’s allegedly 6ft,I’d drop
He’s allegedly 6ft,I’d drop the seat down by quite a bit personally, but maybe its just the bike is near and he’s far away…
It would be really good to
It would be really good to state how many cars you could get in to that bike care park, just to show how efficent the use of space is….then talk about the congestion difference between the bike and care parks.
The Ben Foster video is
The Ben Foster video is absoultely fantastic. It put a smile on my face the whole time – even a dad joke at the end! It is also amazing that seemingly no-one notices a grand tour winner cycling around and having a pastry outside Greggs! Ben Foster really does love his cycling and what a great ambassador for our sport.
cycling Monopoly – from what
cycling Monopoly – from what I read, the In Jail square will need to be quite big.
Buy Box Hill for £50: a cycle-friendly b & b is £10 (you can charge £7 /visit) and a bike store £25 (£15 at least if anyone lands on that).
Chance card – close pass, go back three squares; Community Chest – NIP sent to driver – advance three squares. You are assessed for road tax – pay £0.
Free Parking becomes a secure cycle pod. Do the train stations become bike shops? St John, Wiggle, Spa and Ridewill?
On that Birmingham car park
On that Birmingham car park/cycle lane: many councils have put them in but there’s zero enforcement to stop people continuing to use the now-cancelled parking spaces… What did they think was going to happen? And comment 2: why is the new lane on the downhill side of the road?