Jeremy Clarkson "anti-cycling" column "peddles hate for easy money"... but does anyone actually care any more?; Coolest man in Flanders — Arnaud De Lie pops a wheelie on the Kemmelberg's cobbles; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog

Welcome to anti-cycling bingo with your host... Jeremy Clarkson...

The former Top Gear host is back from his Christmas on the naughty step having penned the single most complained about column in the UK press regulator's history. Moving on from Meghan, Clarkson's possibly suffering from writer's block this week, dropping back to an old favourite...

You'll probably be quite bored by the TV loudmouth's latest thoughts on cycling (you really have heard it all before), we even saw someone suggest it's like they've got an AI to write an anti-cycling article in the style of Clarkson because he was on holiday.

Bike lanes, Highway Code, "anti-capitalism with handlebars", Stasi camera cyclists, gEtTiNg In DrIvErS' wAy, lycra... it's a near full house on the anti-cycling bingo front. Has a more tired line ever been written than, "They are just pedalling around to annoy people who've worked hard and bought themselves a car"?

But does anyone actually care any more?

Anyway, let's not spend too much time on the column because from the reaction it seems the public has worked out the Clarkson "cartoon character"...

One person sharing one of his pieces on social media this weekend suggested "Clarkson makes much more sense when you realise he's a middle-class liberal who invented a right-wing blokey character to sell columns and TV shows".

Likewise, Abingdon councillor Nathan Ley said he was just "playing to the gallery". "Most of the time I just ride a bike — with a basket — slowly, to get to work, the shops, and school drop off," he added. "This frees up more space on the road for your Chelsea tractor, and makes me less likely to take your space at a hospital. Get a grip, man."

Never forget that Clarkson the TV host/columnist is a cartoon character he plays and that he just peddles hate for easy money. What he says and what he does often aren't the same. https://t.co/4Qx96o7JlG

— Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d [at] toot.bike (@gazza_d) March 26, 2023  

Mons-en-Pévèle today 😅🫠 pic.twitter.com/eZe3AB0vlo

— Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix (@A_ParisRoubaix) March 27, 2023

A repeat of 2021?  

According to the Daily Mail, Welsh international midfielder Aaron Ramsey was considering quitting football after Wales' group stage exit at the World Cup. The man credited with encouraging the now-Wales captain to keep at it? Dave Brailsford...

The former Team Sky and Ineos Grenadiers boss is now trying his hand at football, as part of the Ineos sporting empire, with French Ligue 1 club Nice, and told Ramsey to take an extended Christmas break, encouraging him to reconsider any retirement thoughts.

Since former coach Lucien Favre's sacking in January, Ramsey has been revitalised, helping new coach Didier Digard (of Middlesbrough 2008-10 'fame') improve the club's fortunes, climbing the league table and reaching the quarter finals of the Europa Conference League.

How long Brailsford will remain in the south of France remains to be seen, with the former British Cycling performance director reportedly trusted by Jim Ratcliffe to overhaul Manchester United should the Ineos billionaire's bid to buy the club from the Glazer family be successful.

Elsewhere in the press this weekend...

Coincidentally the front page came just hours after one Oxford cyclist had warned of the "real-world consequences" of spreading "anti-cyclist rhetoric", saying she had been spat at while cycling with her children on an "off-road designated cycling path".

Just got spat at and called a cow for cycling with my children on an off road designated cycle path. If the person in question could have scared me into the road I think she would have. People who spread anti-cyclist rhetoric should know that there are real world consequences.

— Laura Swift (@LASwiftClassics) March 25, 2023

"Thank you to everyone for being so nice. I actually wasn't scared but I was absolutely furious. The rage and hatred in her expression really took me aback and there was no reason for it other than some entrenched hatred of the existence of bikes," Laura added.

"And obviously the awful case of Celia Ward, who was killed because of a similar incident, was very present in my mind." 

Earlier this month, Auriol Grey, the pedestrian convicted of causing the death of a 77-year-old cyclist by gesturing aggressively for her to get off the pavement was sentenced to three years in prison.

As the saying goes... when life gives you a classic-ending puncture, make everyone's day by popping a wheelie on the rain-sodden steep cobbles of the Kemmel... or something like that.

When bad luck rules you out of @GentWevelgem, just make the best out of it, @Arnaud_De_Lie must have thought 😜

Credit: Erwan Bolle pic.twitter.com/bxxNSVFUYO

— Lotto Dstny (@lotto_dstny) March 26, 2023

It was a filthy day on the bike in Flanders fields, a point illustrated by a combined 131 abandons in the men's and women's races, Fred Wright calling the conditions "horrendous", while Jake Stewart was left to call his profession a "shit sport".

> Gent-Wevelgem leader takes wrong turn and strays off-course – but holds on to win 

De Lie was not one of the many riders to call it a day once off the back, the Belgian puncturing having been in decent shape the first time up the savage cobbled berg. On the second ascent, off the back and with little more to play for, the Lotto Dstny rider put his skills to the test... fatigue + soaked cobbles + testing gradients = a casual wheelie.

If you were busy this weekend doing fun things like, I don't know... riding your bike, here's what you might have missed on road.cc...

> "Raging" motorist mounts pavement and attempts to drive through 'die-in' organised in memory of cyclist killed in collision with driver

> REVIEW: Fulcrum Speed 25 wheels

> London's cycling chief says he was "punched in the face" by cyclist he confronted for not waiting for pedestrian at floating bus stop

> Tech of the week: Bryton takes on Garmin with new Gardia R300L bike radar + more tech news from Wattbike, Assos, Goodyear, Scott, Pirelli, Van Rysel, Muc-Off, Reilly, and more

> Retired neurologist says increased weight and acceleration of electric vehicles will lead to rise in cycling-related fatalities unless 20mph speed limits are introduced

> Shell UK chairman David Bunch joins Active Travel England board

> Win! GOREWEAR Distance bib shorts and jersey + gilet worth £420!