“Riders always have a big mouth… only after they retire”: Pro cyclist questions Luke Rowe’s ‘make dopers’ lives hell’ rant’; Spectacular home trainer crash; Lazkano denies cheating; “This is not how to pass a cyclist” + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"This is not how to pass a cyclist," Road safety group warns drivers after motorist slapped with five points and £250 fine
Vision Zero – West Yorkshire is a partnership group that provides road safety management in the region. These sorts of groups are run up and down the country and normally include councils, police, highways and other emergency service representatives. In short, hoping to make the roads safer as, in their own words: “No death or serious injury is acceptable on the roads.”
The West Yorkshire partnership posted a video on social media showing a cyclist on the receiving end of an impatient and dangerous overtake from a driver, apparently not put off by the parked cars flanking the road and the oncoming road users.
This is not how to pass a cyclist.
Seen a dangerous driver? Got footage from your dash cam?
Help to make the roads safer by submitting it to West Yorkshire Police through their online portal.
Visit https://t.co/bnoplaTMOG pic.twitter.com/8kE8WBJBqV
— Vision Zero – West Yorkshire (@VisionZeroWY) October 28, 2025
“This is not how to pass a cyclist,” the West Yorkshire road safety group captioned the video, the post then encouraging people to submit footage of dangerous driving to West Yorkshire Police via the force’s online portal.
“Seen a dangerous driver? Got footage from your dash cam? Help to make the roads safer by submitting it to West Yorkshire Police through their online portal,” the partnership told road users seeing the footage online.
In this driver’s case, the footage from the cyclist’s camera was reported and they were prosecuted for driving without due care and attention. The motorist’s impatience earned them a £246 fine, a £98 victim surcharge, £90 costs and five penalty points on their licence. By my calculations that’s roughly £54 per second during their overtake.
Police forces are being sent more camera footage than ever before. While much of the media and online attention centres around cyclists submitting footage, the vast majority of clips still come from drivers’ dash-cams.
Between January 2021 and April 2024, 30 police forces across England and Wales received over 200,000 Operation Snap reports, according to figures reported earlier this year. Reports increased by 90 per cent over that period, with 85,114 cases logged in 2023/24.
West Yorkshire Police received 3,500 video submissions in the 12 months to June 2025, with 71 per cent leading to action such as fines, remedial courses, or court proceedings.
Weekend round-up: Colnago's new track bike, Zoe Bäckstedt's "helmet saved my life" + is the bike industry doing enough on climate action?
Everyone have a spooktacular weekend of Halloween action? Put a few energy gels out the front of the house to keep the kids optimally fuelled for their trick or treating? Draw them in with a massive EPO syringe carved into your pumpkin? Or maybe, like me, you just made a brew and ignored the date entirely. Here’s a quick round-up of what you might have missed in the world of cycling this weekend… first up a flash new bike from Colnago…
> Colnago returns to the track with its “most aerodynamic bike ever”
Not quite so flash, but the holder of a top-tier road.cc review from Stu is the new Boardman SLR 9.4 Carbon Ltd 2025. In fact, our chief bike tester went as far to call it a “do-it-all road bike that masters it all, and at a great price”. Find out why.
Ryan was busy holding down the news fort and took a deep dive into Shift Cycling Culture’s annual global survey, a new report assessing climate action progress within the bike industry which found “there’s a growing gulf between how the bike industry views its sustainability efforts and what consumers now expect”.
Elsewhere, Zoe Bäckstedt this weekend said her helmet saved her life, that after she suffered hand and wrist fractures in a training crash. The reigning U23 cyclocross and time trial champion, who will miss the start of the ‘cross season due to the crash, posted a photo of her scuffed and cracked helmet on Instagram and urged others to “wear a helmet, please”.
Ryan also hopped on a call with former pro Crystal Palace and Wolves footballer Geoff Thomas, better known in the cycling world for his Tour de France charity rides, for the latest episode of the road.cc Podcast.
There was also just enough time for Mat to dip into the archives for Bike at Bedtime, taking a look at Mark Cavendish’s 2023 Wilier Filante SLR, and for George to explore, “What to expect for cycling if Reform UK get into power”… a classic road.cc weekend there…
Mud and mechanicals: it's cyclocross season
The Koppenberg’s fierce cobbled slopes were the scene of Thibau Nys and Lucinda Brand’s victories this weekend, Brand following up with another win the next days at Badkamers Trofee Rapencross. Nys wasn’t so lucky and ended up pretty annoyed with his equipment
Losing his cool ?
Thibaut Nys not happy with his bike at the X²O Trofee Veldrijden❌ pic.twitter.com/OelGm9Qmmo
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) November 2, 2025
Maybe he should take a leaf out of Emiel Verstrynge’s book next time, the Belgian rider taking a more relaxed approach to his mechanical misfortune at the Koppenberg race on Saturday.
"I am a clean athlete and a person of integrity": Oier Lazkano denies doping, reacts to suspension over biological passport
Oier Lazkano insists he is a clean athlete and has never doped, the Spaniard reacting to his suspension by the UCI over alleged irregularities with his biological passport.
Speaking to Spanish newspaper AS, Lazkano insisted: “I have never used doping substances or prohibited methods.”
“I am a clean athlete and a person of integrity. I will continue, with determination and transparency, to defend my name and professional dignity. My career has been built on effort, dedication, honesty, and daily work.”
He added that he believes in “the truth and in sporting justice” and will fight to prove his innocence with “all necessary actions”.
Lazkano broke through as a classics prospect at Movistar, earning plaudits for his breakaway second at Dwars door Vlaanderen back in 2023 and becoming Spain’s national road race champion in the same season. Another classics season followed in 2024, a third place at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne the highlight before, to the surprise of many, Lazkano quite suddenly emerged as a climbing prospect at that year’s
Dauphiné, finishing fourth on a mountain stage and taking 9th on GC.
At the start of 2025 he joined Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe but struggled all spring, a DNF at Kuurne, E3 and the Tour of Flanders, never finishing in the top 100 in any one-day races. He has not raced since a 117th at Paris-Roubaix and last week the UCI announced Lazkano has been suspended over biological passport abnormalities relating to his three-year stint at Movistar between 2022 and 2024.
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe last week confirmed Lazkano had left the team with immediate effect, while Movistar denied any knowledge of potential wrongdoing.
How's the turbo-training going?
Hopefully better than this…
Novembre, retour aux fondamentaux du home trainer. Vérifier son matériel. pic.twitter.com/pcEUcb6c19
— ?ntoine VAYER ??️ (@festinaboy) November 2, 2025
"I think it has to be that way, it's what we all want": Former teammate of Oier Lazkano comments on doping suspension
The Spanish press have been all over the story of Oier Lazkano’s suspension over biological passport irregularities. Speaking to Marca, one of Lazkano’s former teammates Iván Romeo suggested doping stories “always receive more attention” in cycling than other sports.
“It’s clear that in cycling, they’ll always receive more attention, partly because of the sport’s history,” he said. “And things will always be much stricter, but I think that’s how it has to be, and that’s what we all want. That’s how it should be, because the stricter it is and the more bad behaviour is punished, the cleaner it will be.
“The teams pay more to WADA than any other sport to have us tested more than everyone else. So, as I said, I repeat, we want it that way because the sport has had a very bad past and I think it’s heading in the right direction.”
Is a new Canyon Aeroad or Ultimate coming soon? Mathieu van der Poel spotted riding mystery new bike with redesigned handlebars and increased tyre clearance
Councillor demands utilities company repairs potholes after 85-year-old cyclist's crash
An elderly cyclist in Lancashire was knocked off his bike after hitting a major pothole, a councillor has warned, the local politician taking issue with the condition of the road and pressuring a utilities company to get it partially repaired. The stretch of road in Barnoldswick is outside a sewage works’ entrance and Pendle councillor David Whipp urged United Utilities to improve the state of the route before someone is more seriously injured.
“The accident last Friday was to a very active 85-year-old who goes cycling and swimming daily,” he explained to the Lancashire Telegraph. “Following the accident, which was witnessed by a young family that came to the aid of the cyclist, I contacted United Utilities. The company promptly barricaded off the nasty pothole and subsequently patched the pothole five days later.
“I’ve asked United Utilities to resurface the whole of the area in front of the sewage works entrance, which I believe is their responsibility, because it’s very uneven. The area is crossed by a lot of pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.”
United Utilities apologised and said the company had been in contact with the cyclist directly.
“Our teams carried out initial work to repair the pothole that developed during recent bad weather and further repairs to the wider area immediately outside the entrance to the wastewater treatment works will be carried out at suitable time to minimise disruption,” a spokesperson confirmed, pictures from the scene suggesting plenty of work still needs to be done.
An absolute belter from the Daily Mail
You can always rely on the Daily Mail…
Here we have paragraph after paragraph of fury and frothing at a 10mph speed limit that could see drivers, cyclists AND EVEN JOGGERS fined (ignoring the fact that cyclists and joggers obviously cannot be fined for speeding), before the punchline right at the end when the council explains the speed limit is simply just a temporary measure to ensure everyone’s safety during a period of roadworks. The absolute horror of it… disappointing lack of ‘woke’ in the headline though… other than that 9/10 Daily Mail-ing.
Now all we need is a video of someone 'crashing' this off their home trainer
Thought @ebiketips.bsky.social would enjoy this e-bike image. Not sure what’s gone on there… touchreviews.net/we-tested-th…
— Mark Annand (@markannand.bsky.social) 30 October 2025 at 15:18
"Riders always have a big mouth... only after they retire": Pro cyclist questions Luke Rowe's ‘make dopers' lives hell’ rant, after former Ineos Grenadiers domestique reveals he "flicked" and "rode through" convicted dopers in the peloton
Luke Rowe made headlines last week when he recalled his no-nonsense approach to dealing with dopers in the pro peloton, the Welsh domestique telling his Watts Occurring podcast alongside Geraint Thomas that he used to “make their life hell” and “ride through” convicted cheaters.
Rowe, now a directeur sportif at Decathlon-AG2R, said he wanted to “bully them out of the sport”.
Answering a question from a listener, asking if there were riders they disliked in the peloton, Rowe unloaded: “You know who I did flick? People who had been [tested] positive and came back to the sport. I would just ride through them and go out of my way to do it.
“If it’s black and white and you’ve been done for something and they’re next to me, I’m just going to ride through them. I don’t understand why every rider didn’t do this because then it would make their life hell. Because they don’t deserve to come back in my mind.
“And if they shout something, normally they don’t ‘cos they know they haven’t got a leg to stand on. That’s probably the only category of rider I was like, I don’t give a fuck about them. You’ve cheated me. You’ve cheated the sport. Fuck you.
“Imagine [if] every rider had the same mentality. Imagine you got caught for drugs, you’re cheating, [a] scumbag, [you] come back to the sport, you’re on the start line with 160 riders and all of them treat you like shit which is all you deserve. You wouldn’t want to be in that peloton for long. You could just bully them out the sport. Back to where they belong.”
Well, former Katusha rider Willie Smit heard the comments and decided to chuck some more wood on the fire on social media, writing: “My problem with statements like these is that riders always have a big mouth, ONLY AFTER THEY RETIRED.”
The reply from Rowe came at 4:03AM UK time on Sunday morning, assuming the rider-turned-directeur sportif hasn’t jetted off to a different time zone… early start or late finish?
Wore my heart on my sleeve my whole career mate ????
— Luke Rowe (@LukeRowe1990) November 2, 2025
It’s also not the first time Rowe has courted attention with his statements on doping within the peloton.
The retired Welsh rider previously branded former Giro and Vuelta winner Nairo Quintana a “little fucking rat” following his positive test for tramadol that led to his disqualification from the 2022 Tour de France. The podcast was later edited to remove that excerpt without explanation.
3 November 2025, 08:58
3 November 2025, 08:58
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Or more likely they just rode off the front because no-one in the main contenders was concerned about them and therefore bothered about stopping them. There wouldn't really have been any question of 'will they be caught?' yesterday - it would have been a foregone conclusion. If you were watching today you'd be seeing a lot of them standing around in space blankets and the like, waiting for an RTC to be cleared, unfortunately.
Fair point about Milan San Remo. But the article was about the Women's Tour of Britain, which is on at the moment. The fact that a break is doomed or probably doomed does not make it uninteresting. Quite the opposite. There are always points of interest. "Will they be caught?" "When will they be caught?" "Those 1, 2 or 3 riders were able to ride hard enough for ten minutes to make a break and are holding off the peleton. Amazing power." However, from a sponsor's point of view, I stopped watching yesterday and haven't bothered watching today. Wrongly perhaps. But there is a lot of cycling on television at the moment and I need a reason to watch.
Is it not possible to get jerseys that don't practically reach down to your elbow and shorts to your knee anymore? On the shorts front I just don't like the feel of them only a little bit above my kneecap. Also, the ones I've tried also seem much tighter fit (both jerseys and shorts). I'm slim, but I don't feel the need for everything to be like a second skin that needs to be manoeuvred on and off.
Vaughters - often gobby, sometimes very very right. Slightly sorry for Hansen but spectacularly stupid for focusing on helmets first.
Until 2 people die 2 days in a row of course.
Yes. That is my understanding as well.
@Mr Blackbird From what I've understood from multiple reports, there was a warning sign at the point the driver in Portugal joined the road and he obeyed its instruction to stop, but he then asked the spectators present if the race had gone through and if it was safe to proceed and he was told yes.
BBC seem to have got the language right here (on a cursory read): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgmkzm3318go
It might get a couple of sponsor names out there, but I can't see how it makes things any more exciting for the viewer when you know it's doomed from the start. 30 riders might be technically a 'bunch'*, but it's hardly *the peloton* settling for a bunch sprint. And that was only the end result, after multiple splittings apart and comings back together. You might as well argue that rider pay and coverage should be slashed for Milan-San Remo, because all the action only happens in the last 30km. [* What is the technical lower bound of a 'bunch'? When does it become a 'group'?]
Reply to Zermattjohn. I disagree. Sport is a branch of the entertainment industry. And it is possible to have more going on, without being too gladiatoral. After all, there are only 5 stages.
32 thoughts on ““Riders always have a big mouth… only after they retire”: Pro cyclist questions Luke Rowe’s ‘make dopers’ lives hell’ rant’; Spectacular home trainer crash; Lazkano denies cheating; “This is not how to pass a cyclist” + more on the live blog”
Great to see West Yorks
Great to see West Yorks police publicising footage like this.
Nobody wants to be reporting these sort of incidents, so publicity is really important for informing the ignorant and deterring the reckless.
Apart from educating those who don’t know any better, I believe it’s the fear of getting caught, rather than the consequences, that is the factor required for behaviour change on our roads.
HoarseMann wrote:
Exactly, if drivers thought there was a good chance that cyclists had cameras and the Police would act on any footage, you would soon see a change in behavior. Look at what happens around speed cameras.
The problem is that cyclists
The problem is that cyclists can also be deterred from submitting to West Yorkshire Police because there is an absolute lottery when it comes to the standards of the officer reviewing the footage – some cases, which would appear to show absolutely dreadful driving, such as this close pass/undertake combo I experienced, are actually blamed on the cyclist, and no further action taken. You cannot assume that the officer knows anything about cycling, danger, the highway code etc.
Some officers are great, some are terrible, some have attitudes towards cyclists which are far worse than the mysogeny and racism of police officers featured in Panorama documentaries….
Yes, you have had a terrible
Yes, you have had a terrible experience with the police recently. I too have experienced very mixed results from another force. I agree that it does sadly seem to be down to individual officers opinons and biases. There really needs to be a standardised process for this sort of thing to ensure consistency of enforcement nationwide.
There is absolutely no reason
There is absolutely no reason why there shouldn’t be a national system/centre that handles all case nationwide. It should be manned by civilian teams who vet the initial submissions to clear out any clearly poor quality submissions with no chance of prosecution. Once that has happened, a team of trained officers should view the footage and decide on punishment. A dedicated team is less likely to have biases on this sort of thing.
The whole process should be trackable to the person submitting it and anyone involved should be traceable and systems should be put in place to make sure that the people involved are not ignoring submissions that should be actioned.
ie. every submission goes through 2-3 civilians and if there is a pattern of someone dismissing videos while their colleagues proceed with them they are re-trained or sacked. A random selection of outcomes should also be checked to make sure the police are not doing the same thing.
mctrials23 wrote:
Oh yes there is! And you give one reason next:
The police don’t seem keen to do this (in Scotland they’ve basically been blocking any such thing). The government aren’t keen to push them either because someone either has to reallocate the officers (and then “you’re pulling officers away from handling *real crime*”) or pay for new ones (spendy, takes time to get them).
Then (because people having their right to their day in court) the politicians will also have to work at getting the lawyers out of the way (making this more “administrative penalty”) or the overloaded courts will be unhappy, the accused motorists will be doubly unhappy because “I can’t even clear my name for 3 years…” and defenders of justice will be up in arms…
I agree with you BTW, just saying this may be a much bigger ask than it appears!
Driving standards seem to be
Driving standards seem to be getting worse.
Had two drivers pull out across me at junctions last week – both occassions it was daylight and I was riding a silver bike, wearing a red jacket and yellow helmet and had flashing lights -travelling at over 30mph downhill (60mph limit) on a straight road. I have now ordered a camera for the bike.
There’s your problem, you
There’s your problem, you were going too fast !
How can drivers expect cyclists to be going more than 10mph ?
HoarseMann wrote:
They choose not to know any better. You have to pass the traffic rules theory, a hazard perception and practical driving tests to get a driving licence. If you don’t know any better you fail those and keep failing until you know better.
I doubt that simply catching them to just tell “you naugty, naugty” is enough to make them start behaving themselves.
You are right that the fear
You are right that the fear of getting caught is what determines peoples behaviour in most cases. Who really cares about the punishment if you aren’t getting caught.
As I always ask with these things though…why 5 points. The system is literally built on the idea that you have effective 4 marks before you are banned. 3 points for an offence, 6 points for a more serious offence (or more potentially) and 12 gets you banned.
Whats the betting that 5 points brings this twat to 11 points instead of 12 so they avoid a ban and can keep driving?
Whilst I appreciate it
Whilst I appreciate it whenever a police force takes action against dangerous drivers…
I can’t help but think that they did so in this case (and many others) mainly because the video evidence shows the inconvenience/danger to OTHER DRIVERS, rather than because of the danger to the cyclist.
How many times have we seen similar bad driving around a cyclist but with no other drivers affected and which hasn’t led to the police taking action?
I know I’ve had plenty.
Whilst I appreciate it
Whilst I appreciate it whenever a police force takes action against dangerous drivers…
I have shown many times on here cases like this, all completely ignored by OpSnap Lancs. The only Vision Zero they’re interested in is zero cyclists on the roads, and it has nearly worked.
This quest by turbo makers to
This quest by turbo makers to provide an ever-more-realistic ‘pro peloton experience’ is getting a little ridiculous.
I agree. I just got banned
I agree. I just got banned from Zwift for two years for failing a virtual EPO test.
When I’m allowed back, I can upgrade my package to include a virtual Luke Rowe ride up alongside me and call me a “cheating bastard”, rather than giving a “ride on”.
The worst must surely being
The worst must surely being forced to wait until the leader of the virtual peloton decides that everyone can have a virtual pee break?
Who films themselves riding a
Who films themselves riding a trainer?
Actually the crash is not as spectacular as one described to me by a rider I chatted to while riding in Cheshire. He flattened a coffee table then crashed into a china cabinet smashing his wife’s porcelain collection.
An accident prone chap, he also described crashing through the windscreen of a parked car and also falling when getting his front wheel stuck in a cattle grid.
I don’t know who films
I don’t know who films themselves on a turbo, but I’m so glad he did??
The trainer got to be faked
The trainer video has got to be faked surely. What is propelling him forward once the mechanism broke ??
So much is fake on social media that I’m glad I closed my Twitter account years ago and dont use anything else except specific interest groups in FB (like the Emley Moor Mast or Gate appreciation groups and Whats App. )
There is nothing attached to th erear frame to drive him forward
The flywheel was still
The flywheel was still rotating at high speed when the bike broke clear. It didn’t propell him at full speed because of slippage on the hard floor ; otherwise he would have gone through the window and the footage would have appeared at his wake.
That video has too many
That video has too many quirks and weird issues to not be faked (AI generated).
But in theory, given the flywheel within most trainers, if the body of the trainer was to disappear, leaving the flywheel connected to the bike axle, it probably would drive you along! Probably wouldn’t be a comfortable ride!
Difficult bit is for the trainer to disappear or more realistically – break apart so perfectly it doesn’t stop the flywheel.
Actually looking at it again,
Actually looking at it again, the flywheel does drop off quite quickly. Not sure it was attached long enough to give him enough of a forward push.
However, my need for this hilarious video to be real, is greater than my need for the truth.
Also his expletive-free,
Also his expletive-free, “Guess the ride’s over” reaction seems far too cool to be true and the way the rear dropouts remain perfectly balanced above the ground as he shoots forward seems completely unrealistic, they would surely hit the ground almost immediately under his weight? I’m with you, looks pretty fake.
Jules59 wrote:
I dunno, that account has some pretty legit other content.
I’m sorry doubters. This one
I’m sorry doubters but this one is certainly for real.
Why the chase? Because it
Why the chase? Because it doesn’t wear a helmet? It could be K9 undercover agent.
Is it because it’s a brown
Is it because it’s a brown bear?
The chain snapped. That is
The chain snapped. That is the root cause of the whole incident.
The rider could have been propelled forward because of how the chain snapped e.g. Newton’s 3rd law.
In fairness, they do say that
In fairness, they do say that ebike is only near-perfect. Obviously its drawback is that unfolding it correctly takes some getting used to…
In the review they say “To
In the review they say “To celebrate this transformation, we took the handlebars of the Afternoon Pro, now renamed UTO PRO20.” But this sentence seems unfinished. They took the handlebars and put them on the seat tube. Although rather than an intentional change the weird item pictured is perhaps the result of trying to create an image of something that doesn’t yet exist using AI.
Lorry driver causes life
Lorry driver causes life changing injuries to 3 people.
Result: 3 years in prison and disqualified from driving (doesn’t say how long).
Yeah. Lets make sure cyclists get “equivalent” sentences…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c201gyvr29ro
mitsky wrote:
four years and 11 months
https://www.sussex.police.uk/news/sussex/news/court-results/dangerous-lorry-driver-sentenced-after-chichester-crash/
Whilst one might have
Whilst one might have reservations about Luke Rowe’s advocacy of bullying other riders, no matter how much they might deserve it, this is the lad who was thrown off the Tour for scrapping with Tony Martin mid-stage so the “all mouth and no trousers” accusation doesn’t really stick.