“Did you not watch the coverage?”: Quinn Simmons says drafting behind race motorbikes helped Tim Wellens win Tour de France stage, but UAE Team Emirates rider hits back, “legs did the work, not the moto” + more on the live blog
First Published: Jul 21, 2025
SUMMARY
Alaphilippe celebrates too early (again), Ineos dodge doping questions, Evenepoel heads home… here’s your Tour de France-themed weekend roundup
It’s been a weekend of breakaways, furious DSs, a few finish-line blunders, and a very Tour de France-flavoured dose of controversy. Here’s your whistle-stop recap of everything we covered over stages 14 and 15…
It all kicked off with a fallout from Friday’s stage 13, when the race jury quietly changed the time cut for the brutal mountain time trial to Peyragudes from 33 per cent to 40 per cent, saving six sprinters, including Tim Merlier and Biniam Girmay, from elimination. Wout van Aert called the last-minute switch “really disappointing,” while his Visma teammates and even Victor Campenaerts piled in on the debate.
Stage 14 on Saturday brought a brutal Pyrenean showdown, nearly 5,000 metres of climbing, and a Tourmalet exit for Remco Evenepoel. The world time trial champion was dropped on the first big climb of the day and abandoned before the halfway point — waving goodbye to the race in a gutting end to his second Tour.
> Remco Evenepoel abandons Tour de France on the slopes of the Tourmalet
And then on a day when Ineos Grenadier’s Thymen Arensman marked a superb solo win in Luchon-Superbagnères, his team’s DS Oli Cookson hit a spectator with the car on the Peyresourde, earning a fine of nearly £5,000 and a yellow card under the UCI’s new warning system.
> Ineos Grenadiers sports director fined £4,700 for hitting fan with car during Tour de France stage
Then there was the growing storm around Ineos’ refusal to answer questions on the doping allegations linked to a long-time staff member. On Saturday evening, fresh from his biggest career victory, Arensman found himself fielding awkward press conference questions the team’s management wouldn’t address. Zak Dempster later admitted it wasn’t fair Arensman had to front up…
Sunday’s stage 15 gifted us another vintage Julian Alaphilippe moment. After crashing heavily early in the stage (and popping his shoulder back in himself), Loulou made the front group, sprinted to the line in Carcassonne, and threw his arms up for third, not realising two riders were already up the road…
Meanwhile, Pogačar and Vingegaard continued to trade blows with each other on Saturday, neither coming out on top and settling for a statement, while Sunday’s stage 15 was a classic breakaway day, with Wellens going long-range and the peloton enjoying a rare quiet day. With Ventoux lurking tomorrow, it’s going to be a fun last week of the Tour… Allons-y!
Alpecin-Deceuninck mark five years of “Merci Poupou” with tribute jersey and charity campaign
Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Merci Poupou tribute has returned today, and not only is it the fifth anniversary of the campaign this year — originally launched in 2021 to honour the legacy of Raymond Poulidor — but it also marks sixty years since Poulidor’s iconic stage win on Mont Ventoux in 1965.
To celebrate, the team rolled out a new Merci Poupou replica jersey, designed in collaboration with Kalas and inspired by the 1976 kit of Gan-Mercier-Hutchinson, the team Poulidor rode for. The Alpecin-Deceuninck squad donned the jerseys on today’s rest day coffee ride, ahead of tomorrow’s fittingly Ventoux-bound stage.
The campaign continues its charitable mission, with fundraising efforts benefiting youth sport initiatives, rehab projects for injured athletes, and causes like Kom op Tegen Kanker. This year’s fundraising includes a charity auction via Catawiki featuring signed jerseys, limited-edition Oakleys, ABUS locks, fan merchandise, and even a one-off Canyon road bike donated to Vive le Vélo’s fundraising drive.
Since 2021, the campaign has raised over €500,000. What started with Mathieu van der Poel’s Tour debut tribute to his grandfather has become a yearly fixture, and a wonderful symbol of cycling’s past, present, and future coming together at the Tour.
🫣 That save from Oscar Onley (and Niklas Märkl somehow keeping it together)
“Vuelta is out of the question”: Patrick Lefevere says Remco Evenepoel should focus on world championship and one-day races in autumn to avoid “being stuck with GC fixation”
Name a more controversial duo than Patrick Lefevere and a microphone in front of him? Anyone? No takers? Alright then…
The former Soudal Quick-Step boss, who was at the team hotel on Saturday and found plenty of microphones to occupy himself with, and one of his opinions was that Remco Evenepoel — who had to abandon the Tour on Col du Tourmalet after being dropped on the iconic climb — should lay off the Grand Tour treadmill, at least for now.
“As far as I’m concerned, the Vuelta is out of the question,” Lefevere told Het Nieuwsblad. “You’ll be stuck with that GC fixation again, no matter what. If not Remco himself, then the rest of the world. I’d take one-day races to the big goal of the autumn: the world championships in Kigali. I’ve been there, and that’s a route that Remco should be 100 per cent happy with.”
Lefevere didn’t hide his view that Evenepoel’s Tour abandonment on Saturday came as no surprise: “Remco didn’t have a good winter. His training camp after the Dauphiné was poor. We needed a miracle, but it didn’t happen.
The 70-year-old Belgian, who stepped down from his role as the team boss in December, also shared that as he arrived at the hotel, he found out that Evenepoel had taken the team to McDonald’s after Saturday’s stage. “Suddenly, I saw a group of mechanics arriving at the same time. Apparently, they’d all been to McDonald’s with Remco. Right on. Now he can eat something again.”
According to Lefevere, the warning signs had been there for days: “I saw it coming a few days ago. Hautacam, Peyragudes. You could already see there that he wasn’t feeling well. Saturday’s stage passed before the Tourmalet in Lourdes, but no miracle happened.”
Some have questioned whether Evenepoel should have tried to hang on longer — even if only in the gruppetto — a view shared by Zdenek Stybar on TNT Sports. But Lefevere felt the Belgian fought hard.
A sight no cycling fan wants to see 😢
Remco Evenepoel abandons the Tour de France 💔 pic.twitter.com/8LpJluYQRZ
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 19, 2025
“That’s what I remember most,| he added. |Of course, he was physically and mentally exhausted, but I think he fought bravely in this Tour. In the stage to Hautacam, everyone already thought he would lose thirty minutes. He really fought hard there. Honestly, he couldn’t do that last year.
“I think Remco behaved with great dignity. He didn’t say a single bad word about his teammates. If you’re not at your own level, you shouldn’t do that, of course, but speaking for myself: I think you can expect more from riders like Maximilian Schachmann or Valentin Paret-Peintre.”
Ah, there’s the shots…
Finally, he had some words of advice for Evenepoel: “Just clear his head, because there’s a bit of tension in that head. That’s typical of champions at Evenepoel’s level. They set the bar extremely high and always believe they’ll make it. If it doesn’t work out, the disappointment is commensurate.”
Rest day coffee rituals… and do I hear Alaphilippe’s gone for a training ride?
road.cc’s man on the ground Ryan tells me that Alaphilippe went for a training ride today, when he originally wasn’t meant to — a bit of a surprise, considering Tudor had hinted he’d be taking it easy after first disclocating his shoulder and then popping it back in during Sunday’s stage 15.
“He’s checking out his shoulder and seeing how it fares,” Ryan added.
J.Laverack Bicycles marks 10 years with archive sale, new HQ preview, and vlog launch
British titanium specialists J.Laverack Bicycles are celebrating their 10-year anniversary with a two-day archive sale and exclusive preview of their future headquarters, The Provender Store, in Rutland later this month.
On 25–26 July, visitors can check out the soon-to-be-restored Victorian building that’ll house the brand’s new showroom, café, and workshop, ahead of its official opening in November. There’ll also be pop-ups from ÆRA Components, Tailfin, and Gtechniq — plus a rare chance to pick up archive pieces from J.Laverack’s first decade.
The brand, known for its hand-built titanium bikes and high-profile collaborations — including the Aston Martin .1R — is also launching a behind-the-scenes vlog series documenting the transformation of The Provender Store. Episode one is out now.
The anniversary event is free to attend but with limited space, so you’ll need to book in advance via team@jlaverack.co.uk.
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“It’s not about restriction”: Former Olympian Emma Pooley shares diet struggles for pro cyclists and says, “enjoyment is a really big part of healthiness”
Former Olympic cyclist Emma Pooley has opened up about the pressures surrounding weight and body image in professional sport — and how her relationship with food shifted during and after her career.
Speaking to the BBC, Pooley said: “At the elite level, the idea that thinner is faster is wrong… and I think it’s quite damaging.”
While she described her own experience as “not that bad,” Pooley said she knew athletes who had struggled and warned that the effects of restrictive eating could last long after a career ended. “It affects your health long-term, so it is something I’m concerned about.”
Now 42, Pooley, who’s won multiple world titles, a silver Olympic medal at Beijing, and combined elite cycling with a background in mathematics and engineering, said she wanted her story to help shift the narrative. “My point is that enjoyment is a really big part of healthiness.”
In her new book ‘Oat to Joy’ (which received a rare 10/10 score in our review), she shares her personal story and favourite recipes, reflecting on that evolution: “Some of the meals I learned to make to support my training, but now I eat as part of a healthy lifestyle.
“Attitudes have changed for the better, and there’s a lot of really well-founded science-based thinking in cycling and other sports about a balanced diet and a healthy body. No one forced calorie restriction upon me… I inflicted it upon myself, but I realised… the more I ate the faster I went.”
As for the biggest takeaway? “It’s not about restriction, it’s about healthy fuel.”
Anyone interested in a sweaty watermelon?
Uno‑X’s Jonas Abrahamsen appears to have spent his rest day… stuffing a watermelon down his jersey and carrying it on his back.
Why? Not chasing marginal aero gains, I’m sure…
“Stick a fork in me, I’m done”: Imogen Cotter logs a big day out at the Ring of Clare
Imogen Cotter says her legs “quickly reminded me that I am, in fact, human” after she set out at the Ring of Clare on Saturday, less than 24 hours after racing a 10km run.
Cotter, who retired from pro cycling in April last year after battling back from a horrifying training crash in 2022, said she’d started with good intentions of riding hard but ended up grateful for the chance to jump on passing wheels, eventually covering 163.5km at 28.6km/h with a solid amount of tea, gels, flapjacks — and a lot of drafting.
“I love riding the roads around Clare, so this was my ideal day,” she wrote.
“Sounds like sour grapes to me”: Fans weigh in on Quinn Simmons’ moto-drafting complaints after Wellens’ stage 15 win
Quinn Simmons fired off some interesting comments about race motorbikes helping Tim Wellens to victory on stage 15… and cycling fans have wasted no time letting know how they feel about it all. From tactical advice to outright mockery, here’s how social media reacted to Simmons’ latest post-race grumble:
Imran Wahid backed Wellens’ response, saying: “Tim gave the perfect answer, ‘next time you attack first and get draft benefit.’ Boss man!”
Bryan Jameson didn’t pull any punches either: “Simmons needs to learn how to ride rather than whinging and telling other riders what to do. Look for any opening and conserve energy, don’t just jump on every breakaway and expect othets to get you out of trouble. Blaming the bike just shows frustration. You may get a small advantage but he wasn’t towed to the end of the race. His own legs won him the race. Sounds just like sour grapes to me.”
Phil Sithebe added: “If he really wants a stage he shouldn’t be jumping into every breakaway every day. You need to conserve and ride grupeto for maybe two stages then try again. Not for you to be out there in the breakaway every single day. That’s not planning. That’s just aura farming.”
Filipe Roberto saw the motorbike, but no foul play: “Indeed, that happened. Till the point the motorcycle was told to get out of there. When that happened, Tim almost entered through the back of the motorcycle. You can see that in the footage. But Tim did nothing wrong. He was clever to find the right spot and the right circumstances on the race to send it. And he did that on quite fabulous way.”
Robert Grover said: “He missed the move again. Either he’s not that savvy a racer or he’s not as strong as he thinks he is.”
And Jason Caldwell gave his own play‑by‑play: “I watched the footage and it went like this. Quinn mouths off and tells Tim where he should ride. Tim decides he doesn’t want to be around this moaning guy and opens the throttle and backs himself. He then drops Quinn.
“Quinn does his absolute best to try to bridge the small gap but Tim keeps the throttle down and then hits the top of the hill well ahead and descends quicker and keeps the pressure on all the way. I thought Quinn would have realised what happened because he was closer to the action than anyone else.”
“Did you not watch the coverage?”: Quinn Simmons says drafting behind race motorbikes helped Tim Wellens win Tour de France stage, but UAE Team Emirates rider hits back, “legs did the work, not the moto”
Quinn Simmons isn’t exactly tiptoeing around the subject. The American champion had plenty to say after Sunday’s stage 15 of the Tour de France — and most of it was aimed at the race motorbikes.
“It’s the third time this week that I think the moto drivers have played a little part in the victory here,” Simmons told reporters after finishing 21st on the stage into Carcassonne. The Lidl-Trek rider had been part of the key move over the Pas du Sant climb and looked close to escaping with eventual stage winner Tim Wellens — but, according to him, the Belgian champion had a little extra help.
“It’s unfortunate, but we know this is the game of the Tour. Luckily, if you’re the one that gets away, you get this advantage and there’s no chance for the group behind,” Simmons said.
“The strongest guy in the best moment with the moto”
Quinn Simmons says it’s clear Tim Wellens had motor bike assistance to win the stage 🇺🇸#TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/We0pZwPVUZ
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 20, 2025
Speaking to ITV after the stage, he said: “You spend not too much energy, but any energy you spend is going to affect you in the final. But in the end we get ridden away from him and that’s just how it is.”
And on the decisive attack from Wellens at the 43km mark? “The strongest guy and the best moment with the moto.”
When asked to be elaborate on what he meant by that, the US road champion replied: “I mean, did you not watch the coverage? I think… It is what it is, we’ve seen this a few times at the Tour, you know how that’s going to be. So, one day you take advantage, most of the times, someone else gets it.
“In the end we all know it, so we just have to find a way to be the first guy to get that separation. If you’re the first guy with the separation, you’re gone. We know it’s coming, he chose a good moment. Of course, you still have to be super strong, but it’s definitely a factor that you have to think about and be ready to start early the race.”
Tim Wellens launches a MEGA attack to go solo with over 40km to go 💪 pic.twitter.com/qKuFvZaxWD
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 20, 2025
However, the UAE Team Emirates rider wasn’t having it. “I think it’s a little bit optimistic from Quinn to say I win because of the moto,” Wellens told Velo at the post-race press conference. “I think the legs were very good, I don’t think the moto played a part in my victory.”
“I hope not. But if it’s the case, I think Quinn could also attack first and take the moto’s help — if there was help. But today, I think the legs did the work, not the moto.”
Simmons’ comments came after a hectic day of attacks and reshuffles on the road to Carcassonne — but also after a string of similar complaints at this year’s Tour. Geraint Thomas had already raised the issue on his podcast after stage 12 to Hautacam.
“The moto was maybe 20-30 meters ahead. At 54k an hour, you’re getting a draft, no question,” Thomas said. “Everyone was complaining. I rode up to Visma and asked the boys, ‘Is it just me or has that moto been there all day?’ And they agreed. But it’s not the rider’s fault — if the moto’s there, you’re going to use it.”
“It’s an age-old problem in cycling,” Thomas added. “The guys on the moto are just doing their job — getting footage — but it can change races.”
Simmons, meanwhile, didn’t just have motos on his mind. The American took a swipe at the tactics of his breakaway companions, too: “Some grade A cat-five tactics today.
“This morning, we had a few differences of opinion on what was going to happen in the stage. And unfortunately, I had to spend a bit of energy controlling in the start for something that probably was never going to happen. But you have to do what the radio says.”
> Ineos Grenadiers sports director fined £4,700 for hitting fan with car during Tour de France stage
Asked about those plans, Simmons’ sports director Steven De Jongh downplayed any conflict, saying that Simmons was allowed to go in big groups from the start — but also confirming that Lidl-Trek stopped pulling once Jonathan Milan didn’t have the legs in the intermediate sprint.
“I think the whole day, everyone’s tactics were a bit strange,” Simmons said. “We had such strong groups, but we never really worked well together.”
“Then when a guy like Wellens goes, we all need to commit. Unfortunately, we had Campenaerts just sitting there muttering something about Van Aert the whole time. No one else really committed when there’s one guy who’s playing a bit of games. It’s how it is.”
This latest row joins a long list of motorbike controversies in recent Tours. Just last year, Mark Cavendish slammed a Tour TV moto for blocking his chase back to the peloton after a mechanical, blaming the driver for “putting him out the back” during stage six, before being fined himself for drafting behind his team car. “A TV camera is there to capture images and not to influence the race,” Cavendish said at the time.
And the 2023 Tour saw even bigger flashpoints — like the infamous Joux Plane incident when two motorbikes blocked Tadej Pogačar from sprinting for bonus seconds at the summit, leading to fines and suspensions for the drivers. Just days later, Thomas Voeckler’s stalled moto on the Col de la Loze caused a traffic jam that forced Jonas Vingegaard to stop and unclip — and saw the French pundit and his driver suspended for a stage.
The women’s peloton has been caught up in similar rows. Two years ago, Demi Vollering was penalised 20 seconds for drafting behind her SD Worx team car at the Tour de France Femmes. The team called the penalty “ridiculous” and “unjustified,” with DS Danny Stam going as far as asking if the race organisers were “capable of leading such a race.”
Whether it’s sticky bottles, convoy antics, or motorbike drafts — the debate over race vehicles is one that’s synonymous with pro cycling at this point… so, is this just racing being racing, or has the line between fair play and free ride been crossed once too often? Should the Tour clamp down — or is it on the riders to play the game better? You know where the comments are.
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Or even the driver having a wobble because they've dropped their phone in the footwell or are busy changing track on the stereo. Or are just a bit crap at driving.
Ahh yes, the old "I was pulled off my bike by someone going too fast and too close". Thats the least of my concerns. I'm far more concerned about hitting a pothole and needing more than 20cm to wobble before I hit the passing car. Its got very little to do with wind/sucking effect of close overtakes and everything to do with giving space for cyclists needing to move laterally to avoid things. We all know that drivers are fucking awful at judging....anything, especially speed limits so saying 1m just means that they will do 50cm. At least 1.5m means that unless they are doing it intentionally, most give around 1m.
Regarding the photo from Police Scotland. Shouldn’t that be measured from the widest point of the cyclist? Handlebar or elbow? It hardly matters, because they have no intention of ever enforcing any minimum distance. We've had 1000 NMoTD, yet there still no acceptance from the police that there is any such thing as a close passing offence. The only evidence of 'passing a little closer than preferable' they're willing to consider is a KSI'd cyclist. For some inexplicable reason, there seems to be a great reluctance among cyclists that their greatest corporate enemy is the police.
Why would we need to count 'em when you've already numbered 'em?
dangerously close to hate speech there, talking about wide cyclists. and they actually arrest people for that sort of thing. 🙄
Regarding the photo from Police Scotland. Shouldn't that be measured from the widest point of the cyclist? Handlebar or elbow?
How about overhead platforms above the pavement with suitable on and off ramps for cycle access and stairs for pedestrian access - making space out of nothing and providing shelter from the rain for pedestrians?
Because its much cheaper to buy a second adjustable spanner for non cycle related bolts?
Re: Gt.Yarmouth cycle lane. What's with the give way markings at the edge of the road? It looks like another cycle path joining the cycle lane with stop lines for the cycle lane adjacent to the road. Does anyone have a bigger picture?
'Fag ash fuhrer', that comment's made my day, thank you.
31 thoughts on ““Did you not watch the coverage?”: Quinn Simmons says drafting behind race motorbikes helped Tim Wellens win Tour de France stage, but UAE Team Emirates rider hits back, “legs did the work, not the moto” + more on the live blog”
Simmons needs to be careful
Simmons needs to be careful or he’ll find himself on a yellow card for throwing his toys out outside the designated collection zone.
I’d like to see Quinn go full
I’d like to see Quinn go full heel and cut a promo reel lambasting the motorbike rider, the UCI, and Europe while he’s at it. That would liven things up.
Did Salty Simmons not get his
Did Salty Simmons not get his own way, boo hoo
Hi comment about the
Hi comment about the strongest guy and the best moto moment should have just been the former. As he knew so well about the moto advantage, he could have used it himself to attack or to stay with Wellens. He did neither and didn’t reel him him in over the next 42km.
Wellens also chose a smart
Wellens also chose a smart moment when Simmons was boxed in. So legs and brain.
It was actually the best guy
It was actually the best guy with legs and brain along with the strongest moto.
Poor old Quim. Such a nice,
Poor old Quim. Such a nice, non-racist bloke, feel for him.
Purposely blocking the
Purposely blocking the overtake
https://youtu.be/2RoL3QEdczk?t=434
Fortunately the majority of comments explain the positioning and suggest the driver undertakes a hazard awareness course.
Yet again, completely
Yet again, completely ignoring the women’s racing.
Bloody pathetic road.cc as ever. Why don’t you just state that you despise women’s cycling and will be ignoring it.
Chapeau to Zoe B for her double win and the overall.
Thomas’s breakfast is far
Thomas’s breakfast is far more newsworthy apparently.
So is Emma’s book. Will G
So is Emma’s book. Will G publish his own book of brekkie recipes?
England might have to many cycling champs. Hence the selective reporting.
Is Geraint or Zoe English? No
Is Geraint or Zoe English? No do you comment is BS.
dubwise wrote:
The Baloise Ladies’ Tour is UCI rated 2.1, in other words third tier; the equivalent level of the men’s Tour of Thailand or Tour of Taiwan, how often does road.cc report from them? Only one woman in the race was ranked in the world top 30 and there were only thirteen of the world top 100 competing. Sometimes road.cc rightly deserves criticism for not reporting, or not reporting enough, on women’s racing but not when not reporting a third-tier race with such a low-ranked field. They would never have reported on a race of that status for men either.
I’d have hoped that three
I’d have hoped that three stage wins and the overall from a promising 20-year-old Brit would have swung it, though.
lesterama wrote:
To be pedantic she won two stages and the prologue, not three stages…well Joseph Blackmore won the Tour of Taiwan last year, an equivalent level men’s race, I don’t recall any hullaballoo about that either.
How hard are a few lines
How hard are a few lines written acknowledging Zoe’s triump?
Not hard, but hey let’s tell everyone about Thomas’s breakfast. That’s the major news, screw women’s cycling. The lack of coverage of women’s racing on this site is bloody pathetic.
At least Cycling News and Cycling Weekly are covering it.
Road.cc have reported on junior and below events, only if they are the male races, mind you.
dubwise wrote:
CN and CW are both far more race and results oriented than road.cc, which only covers the very biggest races for men or women. If you want coverage of a minor third-tier race containing only one world top-30 rider in which virtually no readers would be interested at all whether it was for men or women, why not go where you know you can get it instead of coming somewhere you know you won’t and ranting about it?
Driver jailed for 11 years
Driver jailed for 11 years for killing cyclist moments after inhaling laughing gas
https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/21/driver-jailed-11-years-killing-cyclist-moments-inhaling-laughing-gas-23713872/
(edit, added link to)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jul/21/driver-cain-byrne-inhaled-nitrous-oxide-gas-killing-cyclist-jailed
No licence, previous
No licence, previous conviction for dangerous driving, further dangerous driving = manslaughter
Driver jailed for 11 years
Driver jailed for 11 years for killing cyclist moments after inhaling laughing gas
So is this- there are at least 2 pro-Lancashire-police apologist trolls on here, and they along with others may well say ‘how do you know?’ The video starts on one-way Garstang High Street, but I had come across these 2 doped-up scum only seconds earlier as I cut across their route around the one-way system, where they were shouting and screaming out of the window. They then came up behind me blaring the horn and shouting.
https://upride.cc/incident/mj55hro_berlingo_mobiledruguse/
No response from the police, of course. The wailing and hand-wringing begins: ‘but what could the police have done, nitrous has a low solubility and soon disappears from the blood? The[idle useless b******s]y could have nailed the driver for no hands on the wheel while displaying a naked woman’s torso on a mobile phone held in his right hand and interviewed me, for a start.
Watching the rest day
Watching the rest day highlights/recap show right now, which Quest never does, but anyone else remember, back in the mists of time, could have been back on 4 or early ITV, but there would be a full tour recap on the Monday after, just a bit to feed the monkey after the TdF comedown…
Seeing that He does seem to be in the form of his life, and could possibly get all three jerseys, should he just give the Vuelta a go? Get the triple done.
ktache wrote:
He is going to, that’s why he didn’t defend the Giro this year so he can (hopefully) complete the set.
This evening’s show’s last
This evening’s show’s last bit was about a gentleman’s 1hour 43minute and 46 second triple album of musical ventoux climb. Seemed very chilled, mine would be many hours of screaming…
Mine would only be about 30
Mine would only be about 30 mins long and would finish with a 200bpm techno track.
Freudian slip ?
Freudian slip ?
Entertaining as this is, I’m
Entertaining as this is, I’m not sure the writer can fairly blame the failings of speech to text transcription on the Tories in particular!
Isn’t there some rule-of
Isn’t there some rule-of-thumb about how long you can keep blaming the previous government for issues? IIRC for the next goverment (if there was a party change) it’s normally at least at least one more election…
I still blame Thatcher for
I still blame Thatcher for stuff
brooksby wrote:
100% – to quote Billy Bragg’s Take Down the Union Jack: “When did it fall apart? It was sometime in the eighties, when the great and the good gave way to the greedy and the mean.” Her governments were the first in the UK to tell people that it was not only okay to be selfish and try to contribute a minimum possible to society and the state in order to serve yourself but that it was virtually a moral duty. Sadly a lot of people gobbled the idea up and the scars have been clearly visible on my country ever since. Look at the way no government since has dared to raise income tax despite the fact that such a raise is clearly desperately needed if we want to keep the NHS and other treasured institutions, that all comes from her mantra that tax is effectively a form of theft. No such thing as society…anyone who takes the bus after the age of thirty is a failure in life… et cetera et cetera…
Rendel Harris]
Well… devil’s advocate just on some quotes (no Maggie fan) but those “mantras” are arguable:
Taxes can be seen as theft – some have characterised even democratic states as still being kleptocracies. For most who are citizens in the UK we’re living in a rather mild one, which has evolved feedback loops which mostly keep the populace mildly grumbling but paying, and diffuses and moderates the worst of the graft (plenty to see in e.g. Private Eye still of course…). But is tax not a direct progression from chieftains directing the efforts of their tribe as they chose (but throwing the odd banquet), lords taking what they liked from the peasants (but having an interest in them not actually starving in the bad harvests), tithes (but the church will provide spiritual / emotional and often some practical support) etc? And presumably many taxpayers would be much happier morally if e.g. certain military funding wasn’t going certain places – but we are essentially not at liberty to choose.
“No such thing as society …” – I’d not read the full version of this before (trigger warning – that is on the Maggie site I believe!) so I looked it up. Despite much of this being the argument I’d expect emphasising responsibilities first and a feeling that people who weren’t completely desperate were taking liberties with the welfare state (at involuntary cost to their neighbours) and that people striving for more money was mostly just about people looking to improve things for the next generation …
… surprisingly to me the actual quote leads into an argument about children’s rights and it not being fair to hold them wholly accountable if they had a traumatic upbringing! (Although she of course ignores and would probably vigorously reject that the lack of jobs / amenities / presence of inequity might relate to having such bad experiences).
“Anyone who takes the bus after the age of …” appears not to be attributable to Maggie – and it was certainly around before.
… though she did say plenty that was easy to challenge e.g. “The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.” Clearly she felt as the first UK female PM she’d proved something for everyone; decades later the statement looks like declaring a victory of largely theoretical rights for all…
And you are quite correct to
And you are quite correct to do so!