Motorist urges “anti-car people” to “have a bit of consideration for drivers” – but baffled cyclists slam “entitlement” and say “nobody is coming for your cars!”; “He wants Demi in a gilded cage”: Tour rivals blast Vollering’s team + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
The greatest (or most immature) accidental Strava ‘art’ ever?
Yesterday, we covered the artists who are busy turning penis graffiti into brilliant on-road ads for the Tour de France Femmes (yes, that is a real job, apparently. What a life).
Well, at the weekend, road.cc co-founder Dave and a few mates were seemingly inspired by the Tour’s immature graffiti enthusiasts and accidentally created their own, ahem, ‘artwork’ on Strava, after one of them of took a detour home to look at a fat bike (I’m not making this up, I promise).
You’re welcome:
Can someone get me ASO and Škoda on the phone? I have some more work for their artists…
Shared-path arguments are a preference for the habitual practitioner of what is known as…
> Parkrun organisers apologise after runners direct “abusive language” at cyclists and pedestrians and “barge” a female rider on her way to work
Hand-made carbon fibre glitter lace-up sandal road shoes anyone?
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe part ways with chief of sports Rolf Aldag as former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout joins team – paving the way for expected Remco Evenepoel transfer?
After guiding Florian Lipowitz to third place and the white jersey at the Tour de France this month, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s chief of sports Rolf Aldag has parted ways with the team, the clearest indicator yet that Remco Evenepoel is poised to join from Soudal Quick-Step this winter.
The news of Aldag’s departure, announced by Red Bull-Bora yesterday, was swiftly followed by a statement confirming that Sven Vanthourenhout, Evenepoel’s coach at the Belgian national team, will replace the German as one of the team’s sports directors.
Evenepoel’s reported move to Red Bull-Bora has been this season’s longest-running transfer saga, and the squad’s latest management overhaul appears to be paving the way for the double Olympic champion’s arrival, with the team saying it is currently “realigning” its “sporting direction”.
Aldag, who rode for Telekom during the 1990s and 2000s, and admitted to doping in 2007, joined Bora back in 2022, overseeing GC victories at the 2022 Giro d’Italia and 2024 Vuelta a España, courtesy of Jai Hindley and Primož Roglič respectively, along with Lipowtiz’s success in France this month.
The 56-year-old was previously a DS at HTC-Highroad, Dimension Data, and Quick-Step, working with Mark Cavendish at each of those teams, even clashing with Dimension Data owner Doug Ryder over the decision to omit Cavendish from his 2019 Tour de France squad.
“With the white jersey win and podium placement by Florian Lipowitz at this year’s Tour de France, we have reached the goals we set four years ago,” Aldag said in a statement, confirming that his departure was both mutual and amicable.
“Accordingly, we have jointly decided that now is the right time for both parties to pursue new challenges. My time at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has been deeply formative, both personally and professionally.
“Together, we successfully navigated the complex transition from a sprint-focused team to one built around stage racing, and celebrated major victories – always with a clear vision in mind. I am proud of what we achieved as a team. Now is the moment to take a new path. I wish the team continued success and all the best for the future.”
I imagine that future will contain a certain Belgian star…
Sealant much?
Just when you think you’ve seen it all in the bike shop:
According to the mechanic, the customer came into the shop and said: “I think there’s something wrong with my wheel.” You don’t say…
Buyer’s Guide: What is an all-road bike? We delved into this emerging road bike category and selected some of our favourites
Both road bike and gravel bike clearances have ballooned in recent years, but the grey area between them remains. We’ve seen plenty of brands releasing bikes that claim to be neither gravel nor road lately, instead dubbing them ‘all-road’ bikes.
So, what exactly is an all-road bike? Should you get one, and are they really the N+1 killers that they’re cracked up to be? Our tech team delved into what an all-road bike actually means, picked a selection of the best, and answered some questions about this emerging genre.
> What is an all-road bike? We delved into this emerging road bike category and selected some of our favourites
Tour de France Femmes stage 5 preview: Punchy climbs and fast descents promise a frenetic, attacking finale – and a possible GC shake-up?
After the previous two stages went the way of the sprinters – and by that, I mean Lorena Wiebes – the Tour de France Femmes returns to the hills today, with a punchy, potentially explosive 166km between Futuroscope and Guéret.
(Futuroscope, if you’re scratching your head wondering why you’ve heard of it, is the futuristic theme park where David Millar won the prologue and secured his first ever yellow jersey at the 2000 edition of the Tour Hommes.)
The final 30km today is littered with small, tough climbs, the last of which – Le Maupuy, 2.8km at 5.4 per cent – tops out with just 7km to go.
A fast descent almost all the way to the finish follows, so the stage is likely to suit a rider with a strong uphill kick and rapid descending skills. Puck Pieterse, anyone? Or will multidisciplinary superstar Pauline Ferrand-Prévot capo off her return to the road with a comeback triumph at her home race?
ASO/Thomas Maheux
Kim Le Court will also be eyeing up the yellow jersey she relinquished to Marianne Vos on a stage that suits her down to the ground, while Demi Vollering will be hoping that the aftershocks of Monday’s crash don’t haunt her on the hills.
This could be very interesting.
“Riding in the peloton, I just no longer enjoy that. I feel that it’s no longer my place”: Triple world time trial champion Ellen van Dijk announces plans to retire at the end of 2025, citing risk of crashing and injuries
One of the peloton’s longest-serving members is set to hang up her wheels at the end of the year, as Ellen van Dijk announced this week that the 2025 season will be her last as a professional cyclist.
The 38-year-old triple world time trial champion revealed the news while appearing as a guest on the Dutch sports programme De Avondetappe, where she cited her recent string of injuries as one of the key factors behind her decision, which will bring an end to a glittering 20-year career that has, to date, boasted 70 victories.
“I still very much enjoy it. And I think time trailing is the most beautiful thing there is, but cycling isn’t just about time trailing,” Van Dijk told the programme.
“Riding in the peloton, I just no longer enjoy that. I feel that it’s no longer my place. I have teammates who are literally half my age. There’s a new generation of riders now.
“I’ve had a couple really hard crashes now and I don’t want that anymore. I’m so over that,” she said, referring to the shoulder and ankle fractures, the latter of which scuppered her preparation for the Paris Olympics, and concussion she has suffered over the past year alone.
“When I look at the big picture, I think my time has come. I want to stop at a moment where I still feel that I’m truly competing. Not at a moment where I think I no longer belong.”
Van Dijk celebrates winning the 2022 world time trial championships, her third rainbow jersey in the discipline (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
Despite believing that her time to quit has come, Van Dijk has still been competing at the very top level this season, winning a stage and the overall at the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, and finishing second at Amstel Gold and last month’s Baloise Ladies, the latter to Zoe Bäckstedt, a rider 18 years her junior.
The Lidl-Trek rider has been one of the most successful riders of a revolutionary two decades for women’s cycling, winning three world TT titles, the 2014 Tour of Flanders, the 2018 Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta, the European road race championships in 2021, four European TT titles, a world track title in the scratch race, and two editions of Dwars door Vlaanderen.
In 2022, she also set a new Hour Record, which has since been surpassed by Vittoria Bussi. The following year, like her Lidl-Trek teammate Lizzie Deignan, she stepped away from the sport to start a family, giving birth to son Faas before returning to racing in March 2024.
Fancy a free Santander Cycles membership for a year? Get your cameras ready, then, because Transport for London is celebrating the 15th anniversary of London’s bike hire scheme – with a photography competition
Today, in case you didn’t mark it in your calendar, marks exactly 15 years since London’s public bike hire scheme was launched, with 315 docking stations installed across eight boroughs in the capital.
And it’s fair to say the ‘Boris Bikes’, then backed by Barclays, caught on. Today, there are over 12,000 bikes now available as part of the scheme, including 2,000 e-bikes and 800 docking stations.
So, to celebrate the scheme’s birthday, Transport for London (TfL) and Santander (which have sponsored the bikes since 2015) have launched a new photography competition, which aims to “find 15 iconic images of Santander Cycles that showcase London’s beautiful natural landscapes, landmarks, and hidden gems”.
Cyclists are encouraged to “capture a moment with their Santander Cycle”, TfL said today, which showcases “beautiful sights that define cycling in the capital”, and send it in to the government body by emailing cyclehire15@tfl.gov.uk before 10 September.
TfL is working with Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, who will judge the submitted photos and select 15 winning shots.
Those 15 winners will receive a free annual Santander Cycles membership (worth £120) and a pair of tickets to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum. One first prize winner will also receive five tickets to a breakfast reception at the museum on 6 November and a chance to explore the museum before it opens to the public.
In a statement announcing the competition, London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, said: “For 15 years, TfL’s cycle hire scheme has helped make cycling more accessible and supported Londoners to choose cleaner, healthier ways to get around – playing a key role in the Mayor’s plans for a more sustainable city.
“I encourage Londoners to enter this anniversary competition. There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs and it’s a great opportunity to celebrate the brilliant places you can discover by bike, whether it’s a famous London landmark or a hidden gem off the beaten track.”
DT Swiss and Swiss Side issue safety recall on wheels
Swiss Side has issued a safety recall on certain of its Hadron wheels following yesterday’s product recall by its manufacturing partner DT Swiss. Owners of the affected wheels are advised to stop using them immediately due to risk of “serious injury or death” due to rim delamination.
Read more: > DT Swiss and Swiss Side issue safety recall on wheels
History-maker Kim Le Court sprints to first ever African Tour de France Femmes stage win and regains yellow jersey as GC race explodes into life
It’s worth remembering that Kim Le Court has only been racing her bike on the road as a professional for a year-and-a-half.
But this afternoon in Guéret, the Mauritian champion looked every inch the bona fide Tour de France star, dominating a group containing the best cyclists on the planet to reclaim the yellow jersey and take the stage win – the first stage victory by an African rider at the Tour Femmes.
Through the final few corners and into the finishing straight, Le Court – part of an elite seven-rider group which had winched its way clear on the final climb – just oozed confidence, gliding to the front (a timing mistake, she later admitted) before slotting back in on reigning champion Kasia Niewiadoma’s wheel and finally relaunching her devastating sprint.
In fact, she was so confident in her ability to seal the win that she even raised her arms a few bike lengths before the line, just as a fast-finishing Demi Vollering charged up on her left-hand side.
But Le Court, as she revealed in her post-race interviews, wasn’t concerned. She knew she had it.
The African trailblazer is in the form of her life – and she’s looking unstoppable.
After her breakthrough win a Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier this year, it was a mini-Liège-style course that enabled Le Court to continue her rapid ascension to the top of the sport, as the GC race exploded into life on the short, sharp climbs of central France.
And it was the on-fire Le Court, predictably, who helped detonate it.
After both the day’s breakaway and series of attacks on the first two climbs (both featuring Brodie Chapman) were snuffed out – but only after Lorena Wiebes and the under-par Lotte Kopecky were jettisoned from the bunch – the peloton shattered on the Cat 3 Maupuy climb, thanks to the mischievous placement of a sprint for bonus seconds halfway up the hill.
It was Le Court who won that sprint, nabbing the six seconds ahead of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Kasia Niewiadoma. That sprint dragged that trio clear, along with Demi Vollering, Anna van der Breggen, Pauliena Rooijakkers, and Le Court’s AG Insurance-Soudal teammate Sarah Gigante.
Vollering – passing her latest fitness test after Monday’s crash – then drove the pace on at the front, before Gigante took over, widening the gap between the attackers and Marianne Vos, who looked set to cede the yellow jersey to Le Court for the second time at this Tour.
That outcome wasn’t nailed on, however, as dithering in the front group was only quashed when the featherweight Gigante regained contact after losing it on the rapid, technical descent to the finish. The Australian, on spectacular form at the Giro this month, played her domestique role to perfection, teeing up Le Court for a history-making triumph in Guéret.
A few minor tactical errors, which she very quickly sorted out, aside, Le Court was in complete control on the finishing straight. When she launched down the middle of the road, no-one could touch her.
Not even an ill-advised early celebration and a late Vollering charge could stop the marauding Mauritian’s march to history-making status.
Two stints in yellow and a stage win: it’s been quite the Tour for Le Court. And the way she’s riding, it’s going to take something special to stop her making more history by the weekend.
“The universe sure knows how to test me”: Around-the-world cyclist Vedangi Kulkarni forced to scratch Transcontinental after bike shipping issues… and losing passport at a filling station
Of course, the Tour de France Femmes isn’t the only big bike race on this week (and no, I’m not talking about the Tour de Wallonie).
On Sunday, the 11th edition of the Transcontinental got underway in Santiago de Compostela, as 400-odd riders set off for a gruelling self-supported ride across Europe, all the way to the Romanian city of Constanta, on the shores of the Black Sea.
This afternoon, early race leader Nicolas Chatelet was the first rider to reach the second checkpoint, at the Col du Tourmalet no less, as this year’s pack cross the border into France.
One rider that won’t be joining them, however, is around-the-world cyclist Vedangi Kulkarni. The adventurer and endurance cyclist, who back in 2018 became the youngest women ever to cycle the globe, at the age of 20, was beset by logistical troubles before the event had even started.
Her bike was supposed to be shipped to the start in Spain, but didn’t arrive, forcing to schlep all the way to Germany to pick up her old Canyon, and back to the start.
And to make matters worse, she then lost her passport after stopping at a filling station. Disaster.
“Sooooo, I fucked up, I have lost my passport. And my gears won’t work. I don’t think I am having a good day,” she posted on Instagram yesterday.
It’s no surprise then, that Vedangi was forced to scratch, leaving her searching for a new ultra-cycling challenge as the TCR heads off without her (she did manage to find her passport, at least).
“Alright then. That’s Cap No. 243 scratching from the Transcontinental,” she wrote this morning.
“Big thank you to everyone involved in organising this year’s TCR and all the volunteers. I’m so proud of all the participants out there pushing themselves. It was a pleasure riding my round the world bike again for a little bit.”
> Vedangi Kulkarni – the accidental adventurer who rode around the world aged 19
And later on, she posted another photo, complete with a Burger King takeaway, announcing that she’d found her passport – her key, she notes, to tackling some other cycling challenges as soon as possible.
“Passport tracked to a gas station where I had stopped to charge my phone. With all my favourite machines dying, I took a quick break to charge my phone and go to the loo yesterday. Of course, let the hip pack there. It contained my passport and Invisalign.
“After some extreme Spanish kindness, I retrieved my passport – the one thing that allows me the freedom to go anywhere I want (yes, I need visas, but still). Time for some food and a big boi internet surf for my next challenge. My legs feel good, I feel good. I want to push myself. It’s either going to be frantically signing up last minute to another ultra or I will create my own. The universe sure knows how to test me, at times.”
Ultra-cycling sounds fun, doesn’t it?
Peace talks in the theme park
After the war of words that broke out between Visma-Lease a Bike and FDJ-Suez over the past 24 hours concerning Demi Vollering, respect in the peloton, and gilded cages, it appears that peace talks commenced before today’s stage in Futuroscope:
[Credit: Jeremy Whittle]
Cycling journalist Jeremy Whittle, who took the above photo of the Franco-Dutch “peace talks”, wrote on X this afternoon that Visma DS Jas van Emden and Vollering’s FDJ-Suez boss Stephen Delcourt enjoyed a “tense 20-minute meeting” at the futuristic theme park before today’s roll-out.
Now that’s what I call bike race diplomacy. But is a treaty on the way before the race hits the mountains?
“Demi really thinks she’s in a gilded cage”: FDJ-Suez boss claims “disrespectful” rivals are “cutting off” Demi Vollering – but Visma-Lease a Bike DS hits back, telling Dutch star, “Maybe you should do another sport”
Demi Vollering’s stuttering attempt to regain her Tour de France Femmes title continues this afternoon, after the Dutch star managed to finish yesterday’s stage to Poitiers in the main group and without losing any time on GC to her rivals, following her high-speed crash on stage three.
That outcome, as run-of-the-mill as it should have been for the pre-race favourite, appeared an unlikely prospect at the start of the stage in Saumur, where Vollering was seen wincing her way through her pre-race warm-up, in clear pain.
However, at the finish in Poitiers, where Lorena Wiebes sprinted to her second stage of the Tour so far, Vollering said she felt “good” during the stage and that she was “able to ride and to keep my head up”.
ASO/Pauline Ballet
“That’s the biggest relief,” she admitted. “From now on we will see, day by day. I was a bit anxious for the final because it was kind of similar to yesterday, so you feel tension. A crash like that takes its toll on you. Again, no time loss, and now I think the shock is over.”
The 2023 Tour winner, who crashed out of last year’s Tour in a very similar incident to the one that almost scuppered her 2025 race on Monday, also noted that she chose to race towards the front of the peloton for the majority of the stage “mostly to stay safe”.
“It’s better to spend energy in the front of the peloton than be behind. My team did a very good job with keeping me in front of the bunch. When I was a bit anxious they were always next to me,” she said.
However, while Vollering is cautiously optimistic that she can race herself back into potentially Tour-winning form over the next few days, a war of words has erupted between her team and Visma-Lease a Bike, after FDJ-Suez manager Stephen Delcourt claimed the Dutch star’s rivals were showing her a lack of respect in the bunch.
“That crash wasn’t ASO’s fault, it was the riders. It all comes down to respect,” Delcourt said at the finish.
“The mentality of some teams is unbelievable. Truly disrespectful. They’re playing with people’s lives like this. Demi wants to ride at the front, but they keep cutting her off.”
A.S.O./Jennifer Lindini
But Delcourt’s complaints have been given short shrift by Visma DS Jos van Emden, who directs current yellow jersey holder Marianne Vos and potential GC contender Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
“I have no respect at all for those comments,” Van Emden told Dutch media at the race.
“Let me be clear: what he’s saying is completely ridiculous. He seems to want a peloton of eight riders, with Demi in it, riding in a gilded cage.
“Come on, this is sport, isn’t it? Nothing happened that shouldn’t have. He’s just been influenced by Demi, by Demi’s dramatic posturing.
“Let me leave it at this. But it needs to be said. Demi really thinks she’s in a gilded cage. Sure, she’s the best rider. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to move aside for her. And Delcourt saying people’s lives are being put at risk – that’s just not true. That’s not reality. If you think that, maybe you should do another sport.”
Things are certainly heating up at the Tour de France Femmes. And that’s just in the team cars…
“Please, won’t someone spare a thought for poor drivers for once?!” Motorist urges “anti-car people” to “have a bit of consideration for those in cars” – but baffled cyclists slam “entitled drivers” and say “nobody is coming for your cars!”
It’s been a while since we’ve featured a cycling-themed letter to the editor on the live blog, but believe me, this one is a classic, if only for the meme potential.
This week in the Bournemouth Echo – where letter-writing readers enjoy nothing more than mulling over the latest cycle lane project – Mrs Thorne from Poole decided to weigh in on the ongoing cyclists versus drivers ‘culture war’, under the thought-provoking headline, “Have a bit of consideration for those using cars”.
Yes, that’s right.
“There seems to have been a lot of letters in the Echo recently from people either for or against cycling and driving, so can I add my halfpennyworth,” wrote Mrs Thorne.
“I’m retired now but when I worked it was at a place some distance from civilisation. Buses stopped running for the night before my late shift finished, so we had no choice but to drive there and back.
“I don’t think many people would have appreciated having to cycle or ‘scoot’ there, because most of them lived many miles away. Some things it is just more pleasant and convenient to use a car for, especially on a rainy winter night in the middle of nowhere.”
Mrs Thorne then went on to note that she still has her “lovely car”, but that her “main use for it now is to take my cats for occasional vet visits”.
“This is something that is definitely not a public transport job, and I dread to think how even the best cyclist would get on with carrying a cat basket with its shifting inhabitant on their bike!” she pointed out.
“My nice local vets have recently moved to a new surgery out in the country, off a 50mph road, and the idea of going along that on a bike with a basketed cat is a dreadful thought. Any other vets are not near enough not to need a car either.
“So please, anti-car people, give a bit of consideration to the people you see out in their cars. They might have a good reason to be using motor vehicles, or they might, like me sometimes, just be giving their little-used car a bit of exercise from time to time!”
Unsurprisingly, Mrs Thorne’s letter – which probably says more about the lack of handy local amenities in her area than anything about an anti-car culture war – has left cyclists on social media baffled.
“The author of the letter has presented two examples where nobody is going to say that the car is not the best option,” cyclist Russell Trent wrote in the BH Active Travel group, in response to Mrs Thorne’s argument.
“Live in a rural area and have to travel home from work late at night? Use a car. Live a long distance from your vets that would require multiple buses etc? Use a car. Seriously nobody is suggesting otherwise.
“As those of us who promote active travel keep saying – almost all of us own and drive cars. The difference is in the mindset, many of use actively do our best to use alternative forms of transport other than the car as much as is practically possible.
“I really wish people would listen and understand this message and stop resorting the type of hysteria we often hear by US gun nuts, nobody is coming for their guns, nobody is coming for your cars.
“If you ‘can’ do your bit to reduce congestion on the roads by choosing alternative methods of transport, especially for short, in-town journeys, then great. If you can’t then we understand. If you simply don’t want to, then stop moaning about congestion because you are part of the problem.”
“I sometimes wonder what was going on in other schools than mine during maths lessons,” added Susan Stockwell.
“I learnt counting, measuring, shapes and sums. Fewer cars on the roads, which are bigger than bikes, means faster journeys for remaining cars. Especially if cycle lanes allow safe overtaking.”
Meanwhile, Philippa Clark was on hand with the perfect Simpsons meme: “Please, won’t someone spare a thought for poor drivers for once?!”
However, not everyone was amused by Mrs Thorne’s stance – some drivers on the Echo’s Facebook page appeared to view her letter as a call to social media arms.
“Taxed on my pensions, savings, clothes I wear and food I eat, fuel and just about everything else, so no one has the right to tell me I shouldn’t be using my car… I’ve more than paid for that privilege,” wrote Gerry Baines.
Psst, Gerry… Probably best to read Russell’s comment above, mate. Cheers.
“Both sides are relevant, wind the clock back a fair few years when cyclists and motorists had a reasonable mutual respect,” added Matt. “There were no cycle lanes, the green cross code was drummed into us as well so even the pedestrians had a clue. It’s all about one’s conduct in public. Sort that out and you’re onto a winner all round.”
Ah yes, the glory days of no cycling infrastructure and vulnerable road users being responsible for the actions of motorists, bliss…
And finally, Chris wrote: “Here for all the entitled motorists commenting. But of course, that’s the point of the post!”
Good point…
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Not talking about just bikes shops, but any business that cannot afford to pay its staff a living wage, is not a viable business. Big companies whose staff have to claim benefits despite working full time are exploitative. And yet it's 'benefit scroungers' that get attacked and demonised by the press, not the extremely wealthy, tax dodging companies not paying their staff properly. Oh, like large say newspapers businesses.. Smaller businesses like your LBS, are like poor Vs rich folk, their existence costs them more than big businesses it does due to economies of scale etc, just like rich folk can afford to buy better quality suff that lasts longer or stockpile food when it's on offer whilst poor people have to scrape by.
The problems mentioned in this article are far more wide-ranging than simply affecting the viability of hiring Saturday lads/lasses. Fixing bikes or selling bikes now requires so much more skill and knowledge than it did 10-20 years ago, but the pay is still rubbish, partly because public perception is that the job is easy and is just a hobby. Therefore people with the ability to be good at the job are not encouraged to stick around and they look elsewhere for a career that can earn a decent wage. I don't enjoy the fact that half the bikes that I work on have almost-unique parts that requires odd techniques, tools, or parts to repair and I first have to research what I need for many of them (despite having 20 years of experience). I'm now getting so much work that I could consider hiring someone else, but it would be impossible to find a skilled person who would work for the wage I can offer and it would take far too much of my time to train someone to a level where they can do more than the simplest 10% of the jobs that come in (whereas 10-20 years ago, after a small amount of training they probably could have done 30+% of the jobs). The complexity and uniqueness of modern bikes is apparently necessary to sell them, but soon there are going to be no mechanics left who will work for the wages that people are prepared to pay. At some point, people are going to have to admit that bike mechanics and salespeople are highly skilled and knowledgeable and should be reimbursed accordingly. Or, everyone can just order bikes online and watch YouTube repair videos and end up with a bike that barely works and isn't safe; but that's fine because they're just simple kids' toys, right?
I think the author is trying too hard to "both sides" this one. The basic error is Gove's - he was wandering across a pedestrian crossing on red for him with his head in a cup of coffee, and started well after it was on red. The Highway Code says "should not cross" in these circumstances. He then tried to excuse this by red herrings. Conservatives, including Gove, are supposed to have taking personal responsibility for their actions as a core value. Perhaps having the crooked coward Boris Johnson and Fruit Loop Liz as elected leaders demonstrates that this is merely historical. Gove is permitting a culture war being fought in the pages of his magazine; that is a war where Conservatives are demonising cycling because they hope it will save the rump Conservative Party. One example was their sudden reversal of support for the Welsh 20mph default limit. Should noodles have reacted less sharply - perhaps. A chat with Michael Gove to stop him wandering around the streets like a lobotomised koala may have been beneficial.
@mdavidford Funny, as soon as I saw your comment on the ticker on another article I knew to whom you must be replying.
@mctrials23 People have been suffering for years because they have been unlucky enough to have been hired by bad people, or had the bad luck to become ill. This is just bringing the system more into balance. I don't have a problem with encouraging people to start businesses but I don't agree with doing it by letting them exploit the poor and the desperate, if they need encouragement then offer state benefits for small businesses and use the claims process to make sure that they are doing everything they should to run the business properly including paying and training their employees. If they just want to get rich quick by exploiting others then they should be in the USA.
One may wonder why you've brought up DEI when it has nothing at all to do with anything in what Lappartient said. Or why you care about the state of the women's sport if you're so down on diversity, equity and inclusion. 🤷♂️
Not quite the first time, I rode over it back in the late twentyteens, just happened to see it was jammed nose-to-tail so thought it would be fun to filter along...turned out there was an overturned lorry at the eastern end blocking all carriageways. I honestly didn't know cycling was banned (the signs aren't very prominent), just assumed nobody rode on it because it would be suicidal in normal circumstances. Fortunately the weary copper at the other end who saw me just cut off my apologies and said, "Fuck off over there [a gap in the barrier to a slip road] and don't do it again."
They're not slalom barriers, they're Sheffield stands for parking your bike.
@momove I would think that spending time training someone up, putting the time and effort into that only to have most people move on relatively quickly isn't a great business model. I know there is the argument that "if your business has to take advantage of people to run then its not a viable business" but thats the reality of some of these shops. Up to a point, thats exactly what apprenticeships have always been. A business get cheap labour that might help them a bit and the apprentice learns something.
One may wonder why bureaucrat Lappartient wants to reinvent the wheel with a massive injection of DEI and drastic reduction of money. Let the best cyclists win, period. Meanwhile, women's pro peloton needs means and support to attract new sponsors, increase TV coverage, improve salaries and prize money.
41 thoughts on “Motorist urges “anti-car people” to “have a bit of consideration for drivers” – but baffled cyclists slam “entitlement” and say “nobody is coming for your cars!”; “He wants Demi in a gilded cage”: Tour rivals blast Vollering’s team + more on the live blog”
And here again we have so
And here again we have so many contradictions in use of the term “e-bike” whether legal or not…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpqe0qn25glo
mitsky wrote:
The BBC in that area seem to have a problem with what an e-bike is. In this article you only have to look at what he admitted to realise that that was an e-motorbike https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5rm4q1gm4o
Agreed. They seem to be
Agreed. They seem to be happy to take a stand on some definitions (see “migrant”) but in others give the journalists’ “we merely follow popular usage; we have to convey the stories in language and concepts the public understand”.
Perhaps it’s simply “cycling barely occupies any moments in most people’s consciousness, either way”? While a few BBC folks appear not to like cycling for most maybe it’s simply a niche subject which comes up rarely so doesn’t get much interest or effort.
Irate of Bornemouth wrote:
Ah – so is this the reason for the epidemic of excessively large cars? They’re not getting enough exercise?
It is probably also worth
It is probably also worth asking the author how many “anti-car” people/online posts there are… versus the “anti-cycling” equivalent.
Ahh yes ‘anti-car people’.
Ahh yes ‘anti-car people’.
Which appears to include anyone who suggests we should allocate infra for something other than cars…
Effectively everyone uses cars for transport. Even if you don’t personally drive, I bet you regularly get driven. Its extraordinarily rare to actually be ‘anti-car’.
Of course you point out a bunch of road changes based on NL and get accused of being anti-car, despite NL having the highest driver satisfaction with roads of any country in the world – turns out a bunch of ‘anti-car’ measures that appear bad for drivers are actually good for them… (e.g. most LTN’s – oh, main road becomes quicker because fewer junction movements; Filtered permiability = cyclists/peds elsewhere so don’t need to navigate round them on main road; better for walking + cycling = people choosing to walk/cycle instead of driving in already congested areas; easier navigation – you only have 1-2 options, rather than sat nav offering 10 routes through (which it switches between to ‘save’ 30s, less than deviation from when you hit traffic lights within cycle, or one oncoming car + parking, while being smaller, harder to navigate roads)
1. Whoever is going around
1. Whoever is going around Bournemouth with this pro-cycling advocacy sure is getting some reach, and some reaction, so chapeau! and a coffee there;
2. Said driver reaction often being “BUT I HAVE NO CHOICE” – oh, noticed that, have you?
qwerty360 wrote:
Absolutely – but (certainly in the minds of those accustomed to the current version of motornormativity – which is in fact all of us, to some degree…) “can’t get there from here”. Any move away from the default looks bad, and things appear to get worse until some major shift in numbers doing / not doing the activity occurs.
Since others (other than NL / the Danish) have managed to change to some extent though (Seville, Paris, some other places in Scandinavia and Finland…), I am – very slightly – optimistic.
Meanwhile as you say here’s “bike-mad” NL. Just look at the oppression of drivers / non-cyclists:
“Best country in the world for … drivers?”
“But NL is practically car-free” (see also misunderstandings of “autoluwe“)
“Car free day” in NL
“But it’s a tiny, densely populated place so they don’t have long journeys“
How on earth do pedestrians cross the cycle paths / board buses safely?
It’s easy to overdo it on the snark though. When NL stopped removing provision for other modes in favour of cars, there was still a very high rate of cycling and in fact had some seperate cycle infra across the country. For that and various other reasons they are an outlier. But the lessons of “what works (when there is mass cycling)” are widely applicable.
Something, something hills.
Something, something hills.
David9694 wrote:
It’s the clogs really…
I absolutely get the good
I absolutely get the good lady’s need to take her cats to the vet in a car. I too take our cats to the vet in the car as our vet is several miles away along the South Circular and I wouldn’t dream of risking them in a basket on my bike. What I do though is take an Uber or we rent a Zipcar. Probably costs about £50 a year if that, we don’t have an enormous piece of private property that we expect to be allowed to store on the public highway, we don’t pay every minute of the day for VED, insurance, servicing et cetera whether we use it or not, and, importantly for a lazy bugger like me, we don’t have the temptation to take it out for a quick run to the shops just because it looks like it might rain. Mrs T should give it a try, according to her statement that’s the main reason she needs a car so she has nothing to lose but an expensive millstone.
I would probably give the cat
I would probably give the cat basket on the bike a go – certainly in Poole. It actually looks like quite a nice cycle along the bay path. 10 mins by car, 16 mins on a bike…
Her plea works even with
Her plea works even with phone autocorrect – anti-car, anti-cat!
I wonder if any experienced transporters-of-cat-by-bike have views on this one…
I agree with you on the owning cars – I’ve found that the best way to not use a car is to not have one.
I always take my cats to the
I always take my cats to the vet by bike – cat box strapped onto a trailer. It’s only a 5min ride in my case. The vet’s receptionist doesn’t really approve but the vet thinks its fine.
I did a few times when I had
I did a few times when I had young cats and it was about 10 min by bike, on a very quiet / very low traffic route. Cats didn’t seem to mind any more than they minded going anywhere in the box.
I’m slightly confused by her
I’m slightly confused by her comment about a trip to the vet being “definitely not a public transport job”. I chose our vet specifically because we could get there by bus. I understand, of course, if there is not a vet easily reachable on public transport (which seems to be the case for her now, but possibly not previously).
Sadly, the missus has banned me from taking the cat on the bike!
The irony is that her car
The irony is that her car usage pattern is not the subject of active travel campaigns. If more people followed those patterns (admittedly not so easy for non-retired folk) we’d be a lot further down the road (pun may or not be intended)
I would love a world with a
I would love a world with a fraction of the cars currently in it. It would make everyones lives nicer. The noise, the pollution, the danger. Its horrible. I also imagine that like 95% or more of cyclists, I just want drivers not to put my life in danger for no fucking reason. I want people not to drive at me and force me into the hedge because they aren’t going to let a cyclist boss them about on the roads. I want them to consider the face I have a family and young children who would like to see their dad every day.
I know that people aren’t going to stop driving without a massive sea change. I just want them to stop killing vulnerable road users because they simply don’t care.
Thank you for sharing this
Thank you for sharing this candid statement, which sounds like a beautiful dream.
It’s not a dream (it’s has
It’s not a dream (it’s has been shown to be possible), but the current situation is a nightmare (for everybody – even if they refuse to see it)
Ryan Mallon wrote:
Time to go gluten free
Mrs Thorne reminds me of a
Mrs Thorne reminds me of a local transport consultation, where a lady said that cycling isn’t practical because you can’t carry anything: I pointed to my pannier.
Indeed – see “quaxing”.
Indeed – see “quaxing”.
The Son of Satan is named
The Son of Satan is named Thorn- this must be his real Mam, sowing discord in the World of Men and encouraging the use of the true Wheels of Satan by disparaging the users of God’s Own Wheels
Naaa. She’s been
Naaa. She’s been radicalicalised and has Daddy issues because her father ran away to Bristol to found a Touring bike manufacturer.
Ellen van Dijk said according
Spending some time trailing sounds like an excellent way to relax after retiring to me.
E-bike rider dies after crash
E-bike rider dies after crash with cyclist
Officers said the man on the electric bicycle, who was in his 60s and from Fareham, died at the scene, while the other cyclist was uninjured.
As a car driver, I do really
As a car driver, I do really feel that we are under attack. It seems that all the ills of the world are due to car drivers, cars and driving. The things that will be solved by not having cars are:
1. Road deaths and injuries
2. Global warming
3. Deaths from poisonous fume inhalation
4. Deaths from particulate matter inhalation
We are accused of speeding, jumping red lights, driving distracted, driving dangerously and many more. Hardly a day goes by without some attack on motorists including increased taxes, fees, parking charges, indeed removal of car parks (3 in my area under attack at the moment), congestion charge, ULEZ charge, reduction in road space by bus lanes, cycle lanes, LTNs, road charging (to come) etc etc. I don’t think I’ve seen a positive motoring message in at least 10 years – probably 20, if I’m honest. Is it any wonder that we feel persecuted and being priced off the road? It’s because that is exactly what is happening.
It may be that this is a good thing if all of the benefits are actually realised in full (hint: they won’t be) and glory be to those who can go car free either because they are sedentary stay at homes or have the luxury of brilliant public transport (that isn’t a bus or a taxi because vehicles are banned remember) or have thighs the size of the aforementioned buses to transport their week’s shopping in the cart behind their bike and who are such stalwarts that they’ll do all this in all weathers and all temperatures.
I know you’ll all jump on this and claim that nobody is trying to take away car use and you’ll all put forward loads of places where car use is justified. But hear me out. I commute by train because it works for me. I walk to the shops because it works for me. I used to commute by motorcycle because for 2 years the trains that now work for me, didn’t. But here’s the rub: I still feel persecuted and set upon for needing to use a car for everything else that I do and for which you lot will say is entirely justifiable. Perception or fact?
Try driving a little white
Try driving a little white van. Then watch the levels of villification rise. Car drivers? hah! you’ve got it easy.
I’ll just be off to polish up my horns and give the hooves a quick buff for tomorrows outing in downtown Sheffield.
Good news – more cats out
Good news – more cars out there than ever.
More people driving than ever!
According to the RAC page here:
https://www.racfoundation.org/data/cost-of-motoring-index
…Total motoring costs have risen pretty much in line with average wages – and fuel costs have fluctuated lots but overall have only increased slightly in a decade, adjusted for inflation!
Millions of people are still committing driving offenses without penalty (pavement driving, speeding, fewer but significant numbers not bothering with insurance, MOT or even licence).
You can still kill or main someone with a motor vehicle and you are likely to receive a lesser penalty than for similar harm in different contexts.
All good news?
chrisonabike wrote:
More cars mean more congestion. If cars can only move very slowly due to the sheer number of them on the roads it could become safer for all other road users. Perhaps we should be encouraging people to buy more cars?
Perhaps this is the explanation for why the govt. thinks it is a good idea to heavily subsidise the purchase of new electric cars, as they have given up on the idea of ever enforcing any traffic offences. I can’t think of any other reason.
Pub bike wrote:
Well, it might be marginally better… but I believe larger vehicles can still be lethal enough even when moving slowly. Stationary / slow moving traffic may tempt pedestrians and cyclists to cut between wheels. Motorist vigilance will decrease the longer they’re static, so I am not sure this would even cut casualties much. Then of course we can factor in things like reduced health (people sat for longer), more space taken up by motor traffic, definitely not “nicer places”…
Congestion is just “natural” feedback which acts to limit the amount of vehicles in a certain area – and we’ll get it sooner in the absence of any other controls. If we wanted to leverage this we could simply reduce the space available for driving. Which is one part of what the Dutch have done – or rather they’ve reduced the attractiveness / utility of driving some trips / places for most people. Think “LTNs far more widely” and “have to take the ring road rather than drive through the town centre”.
Electric cars – currently “emit a little less perhaps, but importantly elsewhere” – address very few of the current issues with mass motoring of course.
BigDoodyBoy wrote:
I wouldn’t want to disappoint – particularly “big boy says the smaller kids are persecuting him by not telling him how great he is and asking that he foots his bills”…
Well, “perception” as far as I’m concerned, in that I pay “road tax” (eg. my normal taxes) which fund all the things that the specific motoring taxes don’t cover (see “externalities of motoring”) but don’t drive – and as a cyclist and pedestrian the number of motor vehicles and behaviour of some drivers I help fund is not helping me exactly…
(OTOH that’s tax – we get very little control on where it goes…)
You have a point in that the
You have a point in that the whole “equality sounds like oppression to the priveledged” thing. Or in more detail a) driving is more than just about travelling – it’s bound up with social expectations, social status and feelings of agency. b) well known human relativity and adaption, so give us ten pounds each year, then one year only 8, and we’ll be moaning or even claiming we’re been stolen from!
In that sense you’re perfectly normal!
PS. even in NL there’s still tons of driving, and they’re still aiming to scale it back in many places. People are sensitive about this there too but most seem to think it’s working. So it is possible that it’ll get better for you!
First two paras. – was
First two paras. – was enjoying the apparent sarcasm; second: two poor little me.
Tell us, how does the “persecution” manifest itself for you personally?
Are you an innocent motorist by any chance?
And yet the fuel duty
And yet the fuel duty escalator/stabiliser continues to be frozen at 2011 levels.
PS: Helsinki has just managed to achieve zero road deaths since last year
Pub bike wrote:
That’s what I call good motoring news!
Good news (long term): in the UK reported road casualties have consistently fallen since the late 1960s, though numbers killed have pretty much stabilised since 2010 (various reasons, but I note a change of governing party around then…).
BUT … I believe there’s some study data to back up my claim we have in part achieved that safety by chasing the vulnerable road users off the roads and streets (e.g. see here).
You’re right, but I
You’re right, but I understand from the readership of the echo that the unused cycle lanes are causing immense congestion among normal people as well as a large number of near misses of pedestrians by lycra clad idiots who charge around the place, while seemingly remaining invisible. It’s been calculated that the number of people in Bournemouth who have nearly died at the hands of the monstrous cyclists exceeds the population of the town by almost double.
Apparently there’s even one
Apparently there’s even one unfortunate wheelchair user who posts on this forum who is hit by cyclists almost every day. (I’ve been wondering if they could apply for a grant as a semi-mobile bollard?)
Snark aside there are some truths here.
For one there *will* be more conflict with pedestrians if numbers cycling go up (especially until the UK sorts its “shared use path” ideas out and creates separate, clearly marked spaces). And I think public spaces probably need push (negative feedback if you’re doing the “wrong” thing) as well as pull (your own “safe” space) to self-organise.
On “but cycle lanes cause congestion” there is also some nuance (e.g. see this thoughtful blog on this in central London from some years back here). In some places, at some stage along the redesign of streets to promote less private motoring we may get stuck until we can make some more far-reaching changes than re-allocating existing road space and changing rules. For example area / city-wide rethinking of how stuff like deliveries work, or even where and how people access some services.
Utrecht has some examples – they’ve brought in several schemes for more effective deliveries such as the beer boat (canal barge delivery), batching business deliveries together, delivering using a mini-tractor with multiple trailers etc.
BigDoodyBoy wrote:
I’d say mostly perception.
The use of the word “ban” is the key thing, for me. The real aim of most of the measures that you mention is to discourage car use and promote other options, so that a better balance is reached. Buses and taxis will still exist – it’s just that there use will be more structured, reliable and available.
If persecution does exist, it’s by the motoring industry, at the expense of everybody else.
Balance is the key thing, here, and it does sound like you’re already on that track.
‘Have a bit of consideration
‘Have a bit of consideration for those using cars’
has the writer not noticed that the entire western world (and beyond) is designed around the private motor vehicle? Cities, inter city mobility, all amenities (shops, suburbs, satellite towns etc) are designed around the car. Even airports and railway stations have vast areas of land around them put aside solely for the use of parked cars.