Mr Loophole doubles down on two abreast rant (+ Jeremy Vine gets involved); More Surrey cops zingers; Valtteri Bottas: I’m getting more podiums in cycling than F1; Van der Poel eyes green jersey; LTN news; But cyclists + more on the live blog

Captain Badger wrote:

brooksby wrote:

....Wait until they hear about ocean cruises...

 

Never done one of those by bike....

You're definitely missing out! "But what about under the waves" I hear? That's available too - and indeed was a thing long before "bicycles" or pedal-propelled contraptions.

Steve K wrote:

Garage at Large wrote:

Completely disagree. Having a leisure ride without undertaking a real journey (as the net distance travelled is zero) on a major road, knowing full well that you're going to hold up others, is objectively "inconsiderate". It would be great to get judgement on this from a senior judge to act as a precident for future cases with similar intent.

Even your favourite lawyer isn't trying your completely spurious 'real journey' argument.

Several here have been fishing for Garage, N, L before around this point and strangely he wouldn't bite...

Nige didn't bite about the 35 classic Land Rovers going for a not journey in the New Forest blocking a single track road for other motorists on their vital missions.

Garage at Large wrote:

Completely disagree. Having a leisure ride without undertaking a real journey (as the net distance travelled is zero) on a major road, knowing full well that you're going to hold up others, is objectively "inconsiderate". It would be great to get judgement on this from a senior judge to act as a precident for future cases with similar intent.

Lol. But Nige, you claim to be a cyclist yourself. Are you lying about that, are you lying about thinking leisure cycling is by definition against the Highway Code or are you lying about both?

Wingguy wrote:

Lol. But Nige, you claim to be a cyclist yourself. Are you lying about that, are you lying about thinking leisure cycling is by definition against the Highway Code or are you lying about both?

I wonder if Nige also feels the same about every classic car rally that goes on where people randomly drive their relics from a byegone age round the countryside for no reason resulting in a net zero distance journey..... Or the hoards of people with their caravans who do nothing productive on their net zero distance journeys. 

Of course not because Nige will be towing his caravan in his clapped out drop top MGB....

The whole idea that all car drivers are going on important journeys is nonsense anyway.

hirsute wrote:

The whole idea that all car drivers are going on important journeys is nonsense anyway.

Loopy's attention-seeking stuff is beneath contempt and Garage's trolling is no better.

The Law makes no distinction as to the purpose of your journey, regardless of mode of transport or speed at which it is undertaken. Any trip is a 'real' journey, as Garage-boy knows perfectly well. What a tosser.

Surely both are needed. There's little point in a great grass roots programme if the elite level is broken.

One of the problems for women's elite road cycling is that money is so tight that pay for domestiques has always been awful, so riders without some other support struggle. Job security system is poor as well - teams fold as sponsors are few. That means talented riders drift off to normal jobs or other possibly other sports. Surely the elite level is where the sponsorship opportunities are, with TV exposure, such as it is.

I don't know if Lefevere's decision will make things better, but we can be sure it will be an interesting story. I just hope for the right reasons.

at UCI wwt level, which is the level Lefevere would be expected to set a Quickstep team up for, the riders get a minimum wage, next season its 27,000 Euros, by 2023 it will match the minimum mens pro tour level.

sponsors are as in any sport,especially at the moment,always tricky to come by,but most of the top wwt teams seem stable enough currently, even if occasionally you worry if some teams arent delivering the results sponsors want.

but there arent enough quality riders at wwt level to support another pro team be that Quickstep or Ineos Grenadiers or whoever, Lefevere highlighted I think youd want a  van der Breggen, D'hoore (both who have now retired) and a van Vleuten on your team to stand any chance of winning a race or stage, so youd end up with a pro-conti level team at best, but paying for a wwt team instead, which is a sure fire way of folding very quickly.

so it absolutely makes more sense to tackle the problem from the junior/lower rank levels with developing the talent where all the issues you highlight are preventing riders making it to wwt level in the first place by giving them the pathway to wwt.

Deceuninck are sponsoring a womens pro conti team,setup mainly as a trade team for a group of cyclocross riders, they havent applied to wwt level, of note NXGT (the team Lefeveres company is working with) have.

GMBasix wrote:

"Look Mum, no hands"

And the comments in the article are switched off.  You're not kidding!  We don't want anybody highlighting the irony of who the defending solicitor is!

Closing the comments, but then highlighting the story on here where we can comment seems a bit counter productive.

I'll just say I'm glad Palace appointed Patrick Vieira instead of Lampard.

A case involving Freeman and Cycling Mikey.

If only we could get one of Sadiq Khan or the Surrey Traffic Police involved then I am sure Nige would self combust.

Got to be worth going for.

Sniffer wrote:

A case involving Freeman and Cycling Mikey.

High time UK courts were televised - I reckon that one could start a bidding war between Eurosport and ITV4 for the rights.

Rendel Harris wrote:

High time UK courts were televised - I reckon that one could start a bidding war between Eurosport and ITV4 for the rights.

ITV4 please - Ned Boulting and Chris Boardman any day rather than Carlton Kirby. Mr Kirby can say he's named after a bike, which shows parental ambition, but St Chris has a bike range named after him, which shows achievement.

Steve K wrote:

My daughter's birthday is 7 April so I'd better stop her driving.  

Well, to be fair, more because she's only 10.

Just cycled 26kms with Mrs H running various errands in central London. You certainly shouldn't let a ten-year-old drive as their patience, manners, roadcraft and spatial awareness would embarrass the majority of the "professional" drivers.

OnYerBike wrote:

I'm not sure what the takeaway message is from this...make of it what you will...

I think the "results" have about as much useful information in them as my horoscope.

However, to give credit where it's due, I suppose it is a useful example of how, if you ask enough leading questions and cherry pick some results, it is easy to manipulate surveys to give you pretty much whatever bullshit conclusion you want. This example is innocent enough because there's no chance anyone would take its results seriously, but I've seen exactly the same techniques used by more "reputable" organisations and to support arguments that might have real-world consequences.  

I'm pretty sceptical about it tbh, Mind you I am a typical virgo...

I'm arrogant enough to know I could do this survey better, but too lazy to bother, speaking as a typical Leo.

For an even handed approach, better ask a Libran.

Captain Badger wrote:

I'm pretty sceptical about it tbh, Mind you I am a typical virgo...

Mary Whitehouse Experience:

A belief in astrology is based on two premises: 1) That a small handful of the infinite number of gravitational masses of cosmic gas, billions of light years away... exert a direct influence on the lives... of one of the 50 million species... on one planet, in one solar system... 2) That the best person to interpret the effects is Russell Grant.

If there's something to it, could it be for the same reason as the "sports star" effect?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100202101251.htm

Someone has always been the biggest of their peers, or the smallest, which influences their outlook, and hence their driving.

I'm not surprised that scooter riders are falling off due to Bristol's "roads", but 90 patients does seem to be a lot.

Mungecrundle wrote:

Make no mistake, Nick Freeman's ideas re cycling; Registration, licencing, annual MOT, mandatory PPE and the other nonsense restricting how and where you can ride are categorically nothing to do with road safety but are instead designed solely to make the act of cycling such a PITA that no-one will bother.

Well, either that or - has been suggested before - just to create more potential clients for himself.

Mungecrundle wrote:

He must be robustly challenged and certainly on MSM, the official cycling lobby, when given a right of reply, have to put up more coherent and maybe less polite spokespeople not afraid to tear his reputation to shreds.

Agreed - for a start, they might ask why anyone should listen to road safety advice from someone who has made his career out of increasing road danger.

Agreed, if all cyclists were made to complete a proficiency (bikeability?) test would drivers perceive an increase or decrease in 'bad' cyclists?