“Perhaps the way to support cycling is by not putting it behind a big paywall?” TNT Sports’ grassroots campaign slammed as “sportswashing” amid price hike – but others say encouraging cycling is “British Cycling’s job” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Is this the biggest leap in pedal tech for 40 years? Ekoi certainly thinks so – and now it’s finally available to buy
> Ekoi’s radical road cycling pedal system that “has Look and Shimano scared” is now available to buy, priced at £592 with compatible shoes
Rare ‘good bike storage on trains’ alert!
He’s not long back from taking on the gruelling unsupported Atlas Mountain Race – and, after scratching, enjoying a more relaxed cyclo-tourist’s journey through the mountains, deserts, and coastlines of Morocco – so it was nice to see our very own intrepid explorer Matt Page receive a ‘welcome home’ gift fit for a bikepacker from Transport Wales:
“As I’m often so reliant on trains it’s brilliant to see Transport Wales doing something positive on the Heart of Wales line,” he wrote on Instagram after trying out some nifty new on-board bike storage.
“By chance I was the first person to use the refurbished carriage that has space for 10 bikes… 10! The spaces have been well designed too, big wheel space and good security.
“Such a huge upgrade compared to the old layout. There is only one carriage currently, but it’s easy to spot. Hopefully there will be more to follow.”
More of this, please.
Lance and the giant American footballer
What is it about disgraced doper Lance Armstrong that these celebrities and old sportsmen admire so much?
(Come for the TNT subscription debates and active travel furores, stay for the references to press conferences from the 2009 Tour of California.)
Joining Valtteri Bottas, Brad Wiggins, and (maybe) Jake Paul on Big Tex’s Blackberry contacts list (damn, another 20-year-old reference) this week is retired American footballer Jimmy Graham.
A former tight end – yeah, I don’t know what that is either – for the New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks, and Green Bay Packers, 38-year-old Graham joined the hitherto seven-time Tour de France winner for a group ride at the weekend… and made George Hincapie look like Roberto Heras in the process.
“Hard to believe a guy who’s 6’7”, played at 265, can get into cycling and have a pedal stroke like Mathieu van der Poel,” Armstrong posted on Instagram last night.
“Having seen it with my own two eyes, I’m now a believer.”
If any team needs an extra lead-out man, they know who to call. Though I highly doubt he’d be using any of those 150mm or 160mm cranks that are all the rage these days in the peloton.
Graham, for his part, described the ride as “an absolute life moment with the man, the myth, the legend” Armstrong.
Well, he got the myth part right, anyway.
Rush hour in Copenhagen
“Now imagine one car per person” – I don’t think we’d have to use too much imagination to conjure up that particular image in the UK…
Is this the most reasonably priced (relatively speaking) WorldTour bike in the peloton?
> Chinese X-LAB AD9 aero road bike as used by Astana on cycling’s WorldTour now for sale to the public at £2,553 for the frameset
Planned ‘Copenhagen crossings’ on watered-down Cambridge cycle route “an accident waiting to happen”, claims councillor – because “we are introducing new things that people are not going to be familiar with”
Plans to install Copenhagen-style crossings – where the cycle lane continues across sideroads, giving people on bikes priority – have been branded an “accident waiting to happen” by a councillor in Cambridge, during a meeting discussing the creation of a new cycling and walking route in the city.
The plans for improved active travel infrastructure on Madingley Road, a major arterial road linking the west of Cambridge to the city centre, originally featured a two-way protected cycle lane, which had been agreed by the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s (GCP) executive board.
However, objections to the felling of 27 trees to make way for the two-way path, along with difficulties surrounding land acquisition, which would have made the project more expensive and time consuming than initially expected, have led to substantial changes to the scheme.
Peter Blake, interim director of the GCP, told members of its joint assembly this week that a “semi-segregated” one-way cycleway has now been proposed, which will include (the much-maligned) floating bus stops and Copenhagen crossings.
Speaking at the meeting, councillor Heather Williams voiced her concerns that the Copenhagen-style crossings would be unfamiliar to many drivers and pose a threat to cyclists’ safety.
“We are introducing new things that people are not going to be familiar with,” she said. “Also, it does make it dangerous for cyclists by the fact that they will be having to judge when they can just go straight ahead and not stop and pause, and when not.
“It just feels like an absolute accident waiting to happen, it creates me a lot of anxiety just looking at the diagram as a driver or as a pedestrian. We have zebra crossings, everybody knows what they are, they are highly visual, and they give the people on the zebra crossing right of way, so it is not as if we are not used to that system.”
Williams also highlighted that the Copenhagen crossings relied on line markings on the road, which despite being “great and visible straight away”, could fade over time, arguing that if they are not maintained they could be “potentially putting people into a dangerous situation”.
Responding to Williams’ concerns, fellow councillor Paul Bearpark pointed out that Copenhagen crossings were “just reinforcing the Highway Code, which says drivers are to give way to pedestrians crossing side roads”, and that road designs need to evolve to increase safety.
Meanwhile, Tim Bick added that some of these features had already been installed in the city and noted that it has been proven that “people do and have adapted”, to which Williams responded that she was not claiming there should never be any change, but said she did not think there needed to be “change for change’s sake”.
She also raised concerns about the proposed installation of floating bus stops along the route, which she argued are a “complete and utter nightmare for anybody with sight impairments and disabilities”, and argued that local authorities need to “stop pursuing” such infrastructure.
So, you think you’re pretty cool putting on your jacket while cycling… But have you ever cooked a three-course meal on your bike?
In the daftest, most bizarre, and – to be fair – most impressive cycling-related thing you’re likely to see on the internet today, MTB content manufacturer Andew Atnip decided to take his ‘no handlebars’ challenge to extreme lengths… by cooking some steak, soup, and making a dessert on his bike, hands-free:
@andrew_the_park_rat ⚠️I’m a professional don’t try this at home! #mtb #mtblife #fyp #CapCut ♬ original sound – Andrew Atnip
And here was me thinking someone taking off their coat while riding in the middle of the bunch was crazy. At least they didn’t light anything on fire.
Oh, and safe to say, don’t try this at home, kids. Unless you’re on the turbo trainer in your kitchen, right beside the oven. And even then, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Anyone else ready for lunch?
The aftershocks of Mike Ashley’s purchase of Wiggle Chain Reaction continue to rumble on, as Frasers Groups sells mountain bike brand Nukeproof to Belgian Cycling Factory
> Mountain bike brand Nukeproof sold by Frasers Group to Belgian bike manufacturer after less than a year
Will 2026 mark the rebirth of the TTT? Next year’s Tour de France set to start in Barcelona with team time trial – for the first time in the race’s history – as part of difficult opening Spanish salvo
The art of team time trialling may have fallen out of favour with grand tour organisers in recent years, but the discipline – and the sight of a featherweight climber desperately struggling to hang on to his big rouleur mate’s back wheel – could be back with a bang in 2026.
That’s because the Tour de France’s organisers announced yesterday evening that next year’s edition of the race will get underway on the streets of Barcelona with a 19.7km team timed effort – the first TTT-based Grand Départ in the race’s history.
According to ASO, the 2026 Tour’s opening stage – which will finish outside the city’s Olympic Stadium, perched atop Montjuïc, meaning an 800m climb to the line at seven per cent – will also feature the new-fangled timing rules first seen at the 2023 Paris-Nice, with riders given their own individual finishing times.
Traditionally, all riders in a team who finished together were given the time of the fourth (or previously fifth) rider in their squad to cross the line. But in the last two editions of Paris-Nice, the individual timings have enabled the likes of Tadej Pogačar to solo clear of his teammates in the closing stages to either expand or limit gaps to their rivals.
The Barcelona Grand Départ will be the third time the Tour has started in Spain, after San Sebastian in 1992 and Bilbao in 2023.
The Catalan capital has, of course, played host to a grand tour-opening team time trial very recently, the Vuelta a España’s controversial dark, wet, and slick 14.8km first stage in 2023, which sparked furious safety complaints from the likes of Remco Evenepoel, who branded the evening start time as “ridiculous” and like driving “at 200km/h on the highway in full darkness without any lights”.
(ASO/Charly Lopez)
Meanwhile, other riders also criticised the organisers after they were forced to ride through the city’s heavy traffic in the dark to make it back to their buses. I imagine ASO will be planning an earlier stage time just in case this time around.
The following day, the Tour will make history once again, reaching its southernmost point ever by starting in Tarragona, before weaving its way back up to Barcelona again for a Volta a Catalunya-inspired circuit featuring three ascents of the 1.6km, 9.3 per cent climb to Montjuïc Castle, before finishing on the drag to the Olympic Stadium.
“There are many roads in this district and as a result plenty of possibilities for drawing up a circuit. I think we have managed to find the most difficult combination possible,” race director Thierry Gouvenou said yesterday about the 2026 Tour’s second stage – and he’s not wrong.
2026 will also mark the fourth time the Tour has visited Barcelona in its history, after stages in 1957, 1965, and 2009, when Thor Hushovd won on a rainy Montjuïc, on his way to eventually winning the green jersey following an epic battle with Mark Cavendish.
The third stage, meanwhile, will start in Granollers (the capital of Spanish handball, in case you were unaware) before crossing the Pyrenees back to France – by which point, if the routes of the opening two stages are anything to go by, the fight for yellow could be well underway.
Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lane? #12,890: Because it’s slowly turning into a muddy rally course… Oh, and there’s a van parked in it
A harrowing clip of Swansea’s finest cycling infrastructure here, courtesy of cyclist and close pass academic Ian Walker:
The glorious nature and cycling facilities of Swansea
— Prof. Ian Walker (@ianwalker.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 4:56 PM
You’ll also be pleased to hear that the following morning, the same van was parked upon what Walker describes as “the destroyed public land” featured in the video. Lovely.
Active travel revolution or just a bunch of bendy bananas?
In his latest column on cycling in Britain, road.cc reviewer George Hill has gone nuclear on the UK’s poorly thought-out, bias-confirming, opposition-fuelling approach to cycling infrastructure:
> George Hill: Want more high-quality cycling infrastructure? Then stop building sh**e
The classics go crypto: Milan-Sanremo and Strade Bianche announce partnership with digital currency exchange company Zondacrypto, Canyon-SRAM’s new co-title sponsor
If there’s one thing you can never accuse professional cycling of, it’s keeping up with the times.
Years after the rest of the world seemed to bin off cryptocurrency, it appears cycling still can’t get enough of all that blockchain, planet-destroying nothingness.
Three years on from Wout van Aert’s NFT collection, Rich Mitch’s ill-fated foray into blockchain-based cycling clubs, and Colnago’s $8,600 virtual bike, today it was announced that two of Italy’s biggest one-day races, Milan-Sanremo and Strade Bianche, will be sponsored by crypto exchange Zondacrypto.
If the name sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that – the Polish company has previously partnered with both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour of Poland, and is the current co-title sponsor of Tour de France Femmes winner Kasia Niewiadoma’s Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
According to zondacrypto’s press release, the company has partnered with Strade Bianche and Milan-Samremo as the races’ ‘Official Crypto Exchange Sponsor’ (whatever that means), as part of its “ongoing commitment to support both professional and amateur athletes”, while also providing an “exciting opportunity for fan engagement” (apparently).
“zondacrypto has made it a priority to support the growth and recognition of European and global athletes,” the digital currency exchange’s CEO Przemysław Kral, who is set to ride Strade Bianche’s Gran Fondo as part of the extremely ambiguous deal, said in a statement.
“This partnership furthers our mission to strengthen the relationship between digital assets and sport. Sports create an environment filled with positive emotions and memorable experiences. In such an atmosphere, where endorphins are high, learning complex concepts like cryptocurrencies becomes much easier and more engaging. Furthermore, these events hold cultural significance in Italy, and we’re honoured to contribute to the rich tradition of European athletics.”
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Meanwhile, Paolo Bellino, the CEO of Giro organiser RCS Sports, said: “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with zondacrypto as the Official Cryptocurrency Partner of the Milano-Sanremo and Strade Bianche.
“These iconic races represent the essence of cycling, combining history, passion, and innovation. Partnering with a dynamic and forward-thinking company like zondacrypto aligns perfectly with our vision of embracing new technologies and enhancing the fan experience.”
Alright, for £20, could someone please tell me how crypto enhances the fan experience? Anyone? Anyone?
Magnus Cort launches ferociously long sprint to win opening stage of O Gran Camiño after surviving late scare in final kilometre
Magnus Cort sure does love the opening stage of O Gran Camiño, doesn’t he?
The moustachioed Dane won the very first stage of the Spanish 2.1 race back in 2022, and after a three-year absence, followed that up with another victory and race leader’s jersey this afternoon, launching his sprint extremely early to win in Matosinhos.
As a number of riders collided with the barriers behind him, Cort used all his power – and Polti’s inadvertent lead-out – to surge clear with over 250m to go and hold off the late-charging Santiago Mesa on the line.
The Uno-X rider was lucky to even contest the final, however, after hitting something on the road with about a kilometre to go, almost sending him flying across into Efapel Cycling’s Mesa.
But Cort, who’s been there and done that, stayed calm to secure his first win of the season – and, possibly, just possibly, install himself as a potential dark horse for Milan-Sanremo next month. You heard it here first.
“Inattentive” driver with “comprehensive loss of concentration” who drove on wrong side of the road and killed cyclist jailed for two years
> “Inattentive” driver with “comprehensive loss of concentration” who drove on wrong side of the road and killed cyclist jailed for two years
Ominous Instagram post of the week
Almost three months on from the dooring incident that derailed his winter, ladies and gentlemen, Remco Evenepoel is back.
This morning, the double Olympic champion joined his Soudal Quick-Step teammates as a “special guest” for a pacey recon ride on the bergs and cobbled roads of western Flanders ahead of Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Opening Weekend, of course, will come too soon for Evenepoel, who fractured his rib, shoulder blade, and hand in the December crash (not that he would have been likely to line up at Omloop or Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne anyway). But the lengthy recce nevertheless proves his recovery is on track as he builds towards his belated season debut at Brabantse Pijl in April.
And the questionable-moustache-sporting 25-year-old (which he says he grew for a film premiere and will soon shave off) told the Flemish press before setting off that the “desire is great, but at the moment not much is possible. But everything is okay. You will receive updates soon.”
But in an Instagram post on Wednesday afternoon, featuring photos from his ride, the Belgian star offered a rather more tantalising update on his progress:
The caption? “Dear peloton, ready to be calling again soon.”
Be afraid, everyone, be very afraid.
“It’s like when they ran a cycling safety campaign and then published lots of anti-cycling articles”: The Times accused of hypocrisy following article calling for car-free ‘play streets’… after “persistently opposing” low traffic neighbourhoods
It’s been quite the week for active travel discourse in The Times, hasn’t it?
Yesterday, we reported that journalist nepo baby, multiple Twitter account holder, and less successful sibling Giles Coren had, in one of his always thoughtful columns in the newspaper, responded to the latest spate of bikejackings in London by describing them as “excellent” and arguing that the violent criminals responsible “are doing society a favour”.
And now, an altogether different Times article has attracted controversy – after the paper’s editorial board called for more councils to close off streets to traffic to encourage children to ditch their screens and play outside.
“Parents are only partly to blame,” the leading article claimed when it comes to why time spent outdoors by British children has halved in the space of a generation.
“More traffic has been combined with fewer playgrounds. Public spaces are too often festooned with signs prohibiting ball games. Councils have allowed an obsession with rules to smother enjoyment.
“But not all is lost. Some are now closing off streets and roads for limited periods to encourage outdoor play. This should be a national scheme.
“Most of the supposedly intractable problems facing today’s youth — phone addiction, poor mental health and obesity — would be solved if children were allowed to be, well, children. Time again for jumpers as goalposts.”
Which all sounds excellent – if the Times wasn’t also opposed to the very schemes that would restrict motor traffic on residential streets and allow children to reclaim them as their own.
Just last June, the newspaper came under fire from local active travel activists for repeating a claim made by an Exeter resident that the ill-fated Heavitree and Whipton Active Streets scheme meant that doctors weren’t able to visits patients at home due to the traffic restrictions.
In its story on the council’s decision to bring an early halt to the initiative – titled ‘Exeter rejoices as low-traffic scheme scrapped’ – Shannon Mac, the administrator for the Heavitree and Exeter Community United Facebook group, was quoted as saying: “Some older people became isolated, shops didn’t get the same level of passing trade, doctors couldn’t do home visits, carers had to cut the time spent with patients, and the list goes on. I still cannot comprehend how those who wanted the LTN can shut their eyes to obvious suffering.”
Meanwhile, another interviewee, Tracy Courtney, told the Times was “forced to drive extra miles and spend longer in traffic on her way to and from work at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital” due to the LTN.
So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that active travel campaigners have taken the newspaper’s latest call for safe streets for children with a pinch of salt.
“The hypocrisy of The Times is massive. It has persistently opposed Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, in the same way that it once ran a campaign for safer city cycling and published anti-cycling articles continually afterwards,” road safety expert Dr Robert Davis wrote on Twitter, referring to The Times’ Cities Fit For Cycling campaign.
“Would that be the same Times which is always publishing anti-LTN articles?” Christoper Day said.
“Do anti-LTN people want children to have space to play? I suspect they simply prefer streets full of cars,” noted Peter Kelly.
Meanwhile, Douglas Macfarlane asked: “But aren’t the ones who played games in the street as kids now the ones driving around everywhere today?”
“Our local carbrains tell me that kids shouldn’t play on the roads, they should go to the local park. So they can drive down your road whenever they feel like it without looking out for inconvenient kids,” added Malcolm.
However, not everyone was up in arms about the Times advocating for ‘play streets’ while lambasting LTNs at the same time.
“I totally agree with The Times’ view here,” former West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter said. “It’s time to reclaim our streets so that children can be active and gain independence.
“More councils should close off streets to encourage outdoor games.”
And Peter Graham said: “Agree – however, it’s a brave council who try this… just witness the right-wing hysteria in Wales over 20mph speed limits.”
No prizes for guessing which national newspaper described 20mph limits as a “war on motorists” last August, either…
“Perhaps the way to support cycling is by not putting it behind a big paywall?” TNT Sports’ grassroots cycling campaign slammed as “meaningless fig leaf” amid price hike – but others say encouraging people to ride bikes is “British Cycling’s job”
Finally, after a month of complaints, cancelled subscriptions, and social media debates, the day is almost upon us.
On Friday – the day before Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the start of the ‘real’ cycling season for many fans – cycling coverage in the UK will move to TNT Sports, as Eurosport shuts its doors after three decades of broadcasting in Britain and Ireland.
And on Tuesday afternoon, TNT’s owners Warners Bros. Discovery unveiled its cycling calendar for the remainder of 2025, which will feature over 1,000 live cycling events and 2,500 hours of racing, including every men’s and women’s WorldTour race for the first time ever.
> How to watch cycling for less now it’s moving to £30.99-a-month TNT Sports
This “unprecedented” coverage will, of course, now cost you £30.99 a month (though you can get cheaper deals if you know where to look), a price hike of 343 per cent compared to the old Eurosport sub.
And with ITV set to broadcast its final Tour de France this summer (for the foreseeable future anyway) after losing the rights to the sport’s biggest race, TNT’s impending status as, in Discovery’s words, the “new ultimate home of cycling for fans in the UK and Ireland” has led these very fans to mourn the demise of free-to-air cycling coverage, and with it the accessibility of the sport to new viewers.
However, as we reported back in January when the news first broke of cycling’s move to TNT Sports, Discovery have attempted to assuage some of these fears by sticking daily free-to-air highlights packages of the men’s Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España, as well as the men’s Paris-Roubaix, on Quest.
A new weekly magazine programme, ‘The Ultimate Cycling Show’, fronted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, will also air on Quest, starting tomorrow night at 10pm, with 15 episodes to follow throughout the season (so not that weekly then).
(ASO/Billy Ceusters)
In a statement published yesterday, Scott Young, Warner Bros. Discovery’s senior vice-president of content, production and business operations said: “Our commitment to cycling has no boundaries, and we will continue to deliver further investment to elevate the fan experience across linear, streaming and digital.
“Our approach to the 2025 season continues our mission to shine a light on every aspect of this epic sport – from the world’s greatest male and female riders to the stories from the passionate people at grassroots level keeping this industry spinning.
“Our live race coverage is unprecedented, broadcasting 100 per cent of the men’s and women’s UCI World Tours for the first time ever. The Ultimate Cycling Show will serve as the perfect story-telling platform across the season with engaging analysis, discussion and content formats. Its free-to-air access will ensure a broader audience reach, whilst satisfying the seasoned viewer and attracting new fans. We will have an enriched digital operation with upscaled presence at key races, providing added depth and insight to the experience.”
Meanwhile, in another bid to calm everybody down (good luck with that), Discovery also expanded on TNT Sports’ new “grassroots cycling initiative”, Just Ride, which it says aims to “inspire the next generation of riders” and encourage families and communities to “embrace cycling by getting out on their bikes”.
The initiative will offer kits and cash prizes up to £10,000 for “cycling tribes who can demonstrate their passion for the sport” by submitting videos as part of a nationwide competition, with the winner set to be announced during the worlds in September.
And with the price hike debated to death over the last four weeks, it’s this grassroots scheme – largely ignored when it was first announced last month – that has attracted the attention of fans online, who noted a certain irony in the notion of a broadcaster aiming to promote a sport while increasing the cost of watching it by 343 per cent.
(ASO/Charly Lopez)
“I don’t know. Perhaps the way to support grassroots is to put more cycling (such as the Tour) on free-to-air, rather than a big paywall?” asked Scott Bryan, the TV critic behind those brilliant end-of-year news blooper compilations (if you haven’t seen them, go check them out).
“Free to air television has a huge impact in getting viewers behind a whole range of sport. TNT are doing a free weekly cycling show on Quest, but the best way is to just to show viewers more races.”
“The grassroots must have a lot of roots to pay the sub,” agreed Ultratorque on Threads.
David, meanwhile, described the Just Ride initiative as “a meaningless fig leaf that doesn’t obscure the fact they’ve decimated access to the sport for most viewers. Terrible news for cycling and its fans in the UK.”
“Is this sportswashing? Looks up definition…” added Joel.
Meanwhile, others also weren’t convinced that shoving a few highlights and panel shows on Quest is the answer to the big ITV-shaped hole facing the sport in 2026.
“Quest. I mean, come on,” wrote Gareth. “They’d get more viewers just by sticking it on YouTube. Quest, my arse.”
“Good idea Scott,” added Paul. “Maybe they could set up a free to air channel showing lots of different sports from all round Europe. They could call it something like SportsEuro…”
“Imagine sport broadcasting to increase participation and not for shareholders, a novel idea,” another BlueSky user said.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
However, not everyone agreed with the concept that free equals good.
“I really do think people should stop moaning about this. Discovery/Max spend huge amounts of money covering cycling across the world,” argued Pepepig on Threads.
“It’s a quality product and many races are now covered from start to finish without adverts. The commentators are pretty good, with the odd exception.
“Why do British people think that a European broadcaster should have any sense of responsibility for encouraging cycling in the UK? Surely that’s the job of British Cycling.”
And Lorien wrote: “They said the same about BSkyB and the Premier League breakaway. OK, it’s a bit different as football was the nation’s darling, but Sky made football in the UK and the Premier League the biggest and best league in the world by viewers and commercials.
“Not everything that sounds good as a common-sense argument is actually correct. Mountain bike was free for decades, and the UCI Downhill World Cup was on Freecaster then Red Bull, but downhill bikes sales slowed to enduro bikes.
“Enduro was free for nearly a decade and yet enduro bikes sales slowed to e-bikes. The growth of enduro, participation, and viewing figures stagnated. And yet it was all free.”
Meanwhile, Leo noted that encouraging people to get on their bikes in the UK boils down to more than just showing them Tadej Pogačar sprinting against Jonas Vingegaard on a Pyrenean climb.
“I would argue that while taking content such as the TdF away from free-to-air is a problem, there’s also a far wider hostility towards cycling in the UK that needs to be addressed,” he said.
“But couldn’t agree more about the paywalling. The loss of the ITV coverage is such a shame, the entire production there has been top class.”
And finally, Mike said: “Only way they’ll get me back on my bike is if they somehow lobby the government to abolish cars.”
Now that’s something I imagine quite a few of our readers would happily pay £30.99 a month for…
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
40 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
One of those inflatable saddle covers, surely...
Hiplock are offering 10% off their series 1000 ultimate bundles, the lock and the anchor, with ULT10, until the 28th. It's something.
Stage 4 - the bot turns up and wants to do the ride with you. :o(
Very good.. And if white shorts reflect the aesthetic of where amateur (road) cycling is, I have one more reason why road cycling is dwindling.
I see LLMs as returnung the internet to its proper form. We had stage 1, where we could use the internet to dodge human interaction. Result! Then stage 2, social meeja, where suddenly the internet was about interacting with more people. Boo! Now stage 3: we can dodge the humes again and instead prattle on to chat bots and ask them to plan bike rides.
We are told day in day out that AI is the future, mankind's only way forward. One step at a time, the environmental damage and human costs of AI start to surface. Mega data centres require plenty of electricity to power servers and gazillion of cubic meters of water for cooling, each year. This means more atmospheric pollution and respiratory diseases and less water for humans, animals and agriculture.
It seems we hardly hear of doping cases involving women conti and pro cyclists. Here is the latest data : Of the 20 total professional doping cases recorded in 2025, four involved female cyclists.
40 thoughts on ““Perhaps the way to support cycling is by not putting it behind a big paywall?” TNT Sports’ grassroots campaign slammed as “sportswashing” amid price hike – but others say encouraging cycling is “British Cycling’s job” + more on the live blog”
Quote:
(No subject)
surely the important question
surely the important question is whether these new carraiges have clearance for 50mm gravel tyres
thehill wrote:
From the photograph it looks as though you could fit a motorcycle tyre in there.
I think the pictures say it
I think the pictures say it all…
I live in a household where
I live in a household where we have two people earning six figures. Irrespective of that, we aren’t willing to shell out what TNT is asking for. My mobile phone bill goes up almost 40% next month (£5 monthly contract currently), Council tax, water, power, etc. All of them are increasing above inflation. I can guarantee my employer will not give me a pay rise that even matches inflation. In fact, I am on the same salary that I was earning in 2019 thanks to redundancy in 2021, so in real terms I’m down a lot. People can only be squeezed so much. Going back to TNT, I just hope the lack of people willing to pay doesn’t result in the degree of coverage being slashed in the next couple of years due to “lack of demand”.
I’m trying to find some
I’m trying to find some sympathy for your situation but struggling 😂
Not looking for sympathy
Not looking for sympathy (although I am being made redundant again shortly and have no job in the pipeline). The point is that even if you are lucky enough to have a good income there is still a value to everything and the TNT price exceeds the value.
You have a household income
You have a household income in excess of £200,000 a year and a £5 a month mobile phone contract? Respect! Yorkshireman, by any chance?
“Rush hour in Copenhagen” –
“Rush hour in Copenhagen” – seems to me that the motorists are getting the better end of this, with the cyclists queing as far as the eye can see while the occasional motorisit glides past on an empty road…
brooksby wrote:
My experience of Copenhagen was that the cycle lanes are very busy, but cycle traffic does flow well (apart from when stopped at traffic lights). However, it’s usually too busy to overtake, so everyone tends to move at the same speed until you leave the busiest central areas. Also, it’s highly advisable to signal when you want to slow down or stop.
“We build these roads for
“We build these roads for them and they never bloody use them. Should rip them out!”
Motorists always get a good
Motorists always get a good deal (given that they need vast amounts of space / costly infra – and indeed lots of “cycle infra” and even “footways” are sort of there because they’re needed to protect people from drivers…)
… but – despite getting an A* for marketing, Copenhagen is also mostly still “second class cycling infra” (just very far ahead of e.g. UK) [1] [2] [3]. You can kind of tell – by the giant wide roads mostly still for motor vehicles, and the shonky, not actually very safe junctions.
Unfortunately we may have to get there on the way to somewhere better *, because we might not be able to get to the “best in class” designs from where we are (without creating a lot more cyclists – for which we need infra etc.)
* If we’re actually aiming to change anything and not just “build more beautiful freeways, and let driving enrich us alll…”
Quote:
Does anyone else read this corporate bullshit speak as WB looking to buy up all the free to air cycling? Are they com,ing for Red Bull Rampage?
Someone should point out that
Someone should point out that Sky lose money on their football channels, how does that fit into the bull they put out? And as for watching free to air cycling from start to finish with no adverts!
Lorien is deluded. Most
Lorien is deluded. Most people who do not support one of the big clubs will tell you that the Sky deal was one of the worst things to happen to, and has ruined football, for all but the big clubs
Football clubs get a slice of
Football clubs get a slice of the money spent by the television companies to air the matches. That is not the case for cycling where none of the money will go to the teams participating in the races being shown. Therefore if you are a sponser for one of the cycling teams or one of the tours you must be wondering if it is a worthwhile investment. Cycling already relies heavily on wealthy individuals or companies that have a passion for cycling and this is no way to run a professional sport. Bicycle manufacturers must be slightly questioning the reasoning along with the various tourist office in france/spain/italy.
i know so many of my friends (incl me) have visited places just because they saw it on the tdf or the giro and thought that place looks amazing.
Likely this will push the cycling teams to develop and organise a league themselves outside of the UCI
I live near Manchester and
I live near Manchester and even United and City fans don’t think TV money and foreign ownership has improved their experience of the game.
Wait is someone seriously
Wait is someone seriously complaining the “free” highlights aren’t on a popular enough channel for them ? They’ve got one of those old teles with only 3 buttons ?
I think the complaint is more
I think the complaint is more that (1) the free highlights on Quest are likely to be poor compared to what ITV / C4 were giving for free previously; and (2) while existing fans will seek it out, you won’t attract many new viewers putting it on a channel like Quest.
ITV didn’t lose the rights to
ITV didn’t lose the rights to the TdF, they didn’t even bother trying to renew.
Quote:
In this case, given the history of doping in gridiron, it’s probably the fact that he managed to get away with it for so long.
Is Gridiron televised BBQ
Is Gridiron televised BBQ contests? I hear they’re popular in Murica.
Quote:
Doesn’t (cycle) traffic going straight on over a side-road already have priority? Pedestrians certainly do, so I’d presumed that the cyclists do too…
I think HC only specifically
I think HC only specifically mentions pedestrians and kind of ignores the fact that other kinds of traffic may be needing to cross too
Only pedestrians here:
Only pedestrians here:
…and here.
…and here.
This one’s confusing – you should give way to them if they’re waiting to cross / they have priority if they’ve already started to cross.
I think Rule H3 covers the
I think Rule H3 covers the cyclist version (cyclists wouldn’t be allowed on a pavement): “You should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane, just as you would not turn across the path of another motor vehicle. This applies whether they are using a cycle lane, a cycle track, or riding ahead on the road and you should give way to them.”
Cyclists wouldn’t be allowed
Cyclists wouldn’t be allowed on a ‘pavement’ unless it’s a shared use space, which I think is what we’re talking about here, and seems to be overlooked by the current rules.
Even if you consider that it constitutes a ‘cycle track’, in most current cases, that stops when it reaches the side road and only starts again the other side, so people turning in wouldn’t be ‘cutting across it’.
(Plus there are other modes which could be using footways and shared use spaces which don’t get a mention at all – presumably there’s just an assumption they can be lumped in with ‘pedestrians’.)
The more you follow this
The more you follow this argument (priority for various users) the worse it seems to get. What with interpretation, education and rights; or lack of
.
I was wondering the other day about what is supposed to happen at a signal controlled junction (no pedestrian lights/crossing). Can I as a pedestrian claim priority, as a vunerable user, and cross the minor road; irrespective of the lights, as they do not apply to me. Ballsy, but stupid, I know.
ChrisA wrote:
Rule 21
If no pedestrian signals have been provided, watch carefully and do not cross until the traffic lights are red and the traffic has stopped.
But what(aboutery) turning
But what(aboutery) turning traffic ?? I have priority, but they have a green light, there is no all red phase
.
The full rule covers it:
The full rule covers it:
At traffic lights. There may be special signals for pedestrians. You should only start to cross the road when the green figure shows. If you have started to cross the road and the green figure goes out, you should still have time to reach the other side, but do not delay. If no pedestrian signals have been provided, watch carefully and do not cross until the traffic lights are red and the traffic has stopped. Keep looking and check for traffic that may be turning the corner. Remember that traffic lights may let traffic move in some lanes while traffic in other lanes has stopped.
I don’t think it does.
I don’t think it does.
“ Keep looking and check for traffic that may be turning the corner.”
I have priority, but they have a green light. Who’s going to win?
I think my point is, that ever increasing regulation seems only to create additional confusion & ambiguity.
” courtesy & common sense seemed more common. Now it’s all about (poorly worded) rules & rights.
“When I started driving
Ultimately I guess the
Ultimately I guess the hierarchy of road users applies. All users have a responsibility to look out for themselves, but “those in charge of vehicles that can cause the greatest harm in the event of a collision bear the greatest responsibility to take care and reduce the danger they pose to others”. Green for the driver only means proceed if safe, so they should give you priority.
Cycle traffic on the main
Cycle traffic on the main carriageway (whether in a lane or not) has priority over anything turning into or out of the side road. But if you’re on a shared use path at “pavement level” if you will, then often those have give way lines at side roads. I have assumed those give way markings still apply and aren’t overidden (no pun intended) by the new priority rules – particularly, as mdavidford says, as they’re only for pedestrians.
quiff wrote:
I think that’s what I was thinking of, quiff: thank you.
I have to say that everything else makes the whole thing so stupid IMO – the idea that pedestrians on the footway have priority but that cyclists using the shared facilities (ie. the very same stretch of tarmac) might (do?) not.
Unfortunately we’ve already
Unfortunately we’ve already had a child killed in just such circumstances and a grown man, apparently a “professional driver” – given excuses by a collision investigator and a coroner…
I know there are probably some rules in the way here * in the UK. And “that’s just how people drive”. But again, in principle we’ve got the new interpretation of guidelines:
At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.
…
Rule H3 – Rule for drivers and motorcyclists
You should not cut across cyclists, horse riders or horse drawn vehicles going ahead when you are turning into or out of a junction or changing direction or lane, just as you would not turn across the path of another motor vehicle. This applies whether they are using a cycle lane, a cycle track, or riding ahead on the road and you should give way to them.
Do not turn at a junction if to do so would cause the cyclist, horse rider or horse drawn vehicle going straight ahead to stop or swerve.— Highway code
* There always seem to be … except when all the media is having a go, or someone’s turned up with the promise of concentrating millions of pounds of cash, that is. Then it seems that somehow our politicians manage to get new laws agreed – or new interpretations of them – sharpish. Merely saving (qute a lot of) cash or saving lives doesn’t do it apparently.
Quote:
If that were so I think I’d have to break with the principles of the last 20 years and catch a flight to Barcelona to watch it, that would be quite something in a TTT. Sadly the stage entails an 800 metre-long climb at 7% at the finish, meaning it’s only actually about a 55 metre climb.
RE: Cambridge Continuous
RE: Cambridge Continuous Footway (apparently AKA “Copehagen Crossings”):
“We are introducing new things that people are not going to be familiar with,” she said. “Also, it does make it dangerous for cyclists by the fact that they will be having to judge when they can just go straight ahead and not stop and pause, and when not.
“It just feels like an absolute accident waiting to happen, it creates me a lot of anxiety just looking at the diagram as a driver or as a pedestrian. We have zebra crossings, everybody knows what they are, they are highly visual, and they give the people on the zebra crossing right of way, so it is not as if we are not used to that system.”— road.cc
I don’t think getting party political helps (active travel is still a political football) … but I did feel drawn to check, and indeed she just happens to be a Conservative councillor (fancy that, Flinty…).
Anyway: I note that yes, “if we change things, they won’t be the same”. (As her fellow councillors pointed out). It is true – there will be some “learning by trial and error”. That’s not an excuse though – proper versions of these new designs are generally safer. And the idea we can somehow educate everyone in theory, then get the infra in – nope. (It would be great but just won’t happen).
Fortunately, we can just point to the existing principles that drivers are supposed to be following e.g. “just don’t drive into people” and “if you’re unsure as to what you’re doing, don’t barrel on regardless”.
And our current transport infra is an accident not waiting to happen at all, but doing so fairly regularly and predictably.
I do worry that they’ll install failures of continous footway though. For example Edinburgh has had quite a few goes at this over the years and only just managed to (almost…) get it right with the section of CCWEL at Haymarket. Here’s a checklist for them.