"All it takes is paint on the ground to make us feel safer": Cyclists call for action after bikejackings warning painted on popular cycle path; Cavendish talks down all-time Tour de France record; Impossible to use cycle lanes + more on the live blog

Is this the first time that paint on roads has been of any use to cyclists?

If you've been a road.cc live blog regular, you'd know that's not true. Because we have seen at least one more instance like this where fellow cyclists had to look out for each other, and warn about areas prone to not only bikejackings, but also being a risk to personal safety.

This latest public service graffiti can be found on Lea Bridge Road in Waltham Forest, London, with the text: "Bike muggings on the bridge ahead" (the text is upside-down, I know; more on that in a bit).

This is Lea Bridge Road in Waltham Forest, well known problem spot amongst local cyclists but why isn’t anything being done about this to make us feel safer? @Labourstone @willnorman @metpoliceuk pic.twitter.com/2EQXqUuzE1

— Mariam Sayed (@MariamCycles) June 29, 2023

Mariam Sayed of JoyRiders, a charity which helps women take up or get back into cycling, who posted this image on Twitter said that this area was a "well known problem spot amongst local cyclists but why isn’t anything being done about this to make us feel safer?".

It feels a little depressing to see instances like this (apologies for being a downer on the Tour de France eve). As Twitter user Alex said: "What a perfectly normal thing to see in a normal country with a normally working police and justice system".

> Richmond Park's Lib Dem MP blames Tory Government for “effectively decriminalising bike theft”

Bike robberies are scary, and have worryingly been on the rise. Earlier this month, Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney accused the Conservative Government of “effectively decriminalising bike theft”. Data uncovered by the Liberal Democrats showed that almost 90 per cent of cases were closed by the police with no suspect identified, while a thief gets charged in just 1.7 per cent of incidents.

Another Twitter user wrote: "That bridge has been a muggers paradise for years", while another London cyclist wrote: "Stick to the road. All round safer".

So basically it's either stay on the cycle path and ride in fear of getting robbed, or stick to the roads and get told off for not being on the cycle path. Got it.

Councillor Greg Collins of the Green Party, from Wealden District Council seemed to nail it on the head (bad phrase considering the topic?): "Surely you know that all it takes is paint on the ground to make us feel safer? At least that's what half the Highways teams in England seem to think."

Surely you know that all it takes is paint on the ground to make us feel safer?

At least that's what half the Highways teams in England seem to think.

— 💚 Cllr Collins 💚 (@gregrythegreen) June 29, 2023

If that's too much of a downer, take a brief minute out to chuckle at the way the message is written bottom-to-up, instead of top-to-down. Turns out that's how they do it over in the 'murica, and even some EU countries? New things you learn everyday. 

That's the standard way that text-on-road is written...

...In the United States. 🇺🇸

I'm going to hazard a guess this might've been sprayed by an American. 🚴⚠️😇

— DieselDragon (@DieselDragonUK) June 30, 2023

Also, a wild reimagining of the Star Wars opening crawl if the person behind this graffiti was in charge of the visuals for the sci-fi space capers, instead of Mr George Lucas.

Star wars would've been a bit harder to follow 😂 pic.twitter.com/ul6PeHpG5h

— Dave Tate (@DaveT_uk) June 29, 2023

Last year, a similar graffiti on the entrance to a section of Cycleway 10 near The Den, Millwall Football Club’s stadium, in south east London came our way from Facebook, following concerns over the path’s safety as reports poured in of robberies and muggings by “masked men” in recent months.

> Cyclists report multiple muggings and thefts on London cycle route

In fact, local cyclist Euan told road.cc that he has "stopped cycling into work entirely" due to fears that he will be targeted by muggers.

"This used to be my only safe route into work, but I’ve seen men in balaclavas watching cyclists on the route on multiple occasions and I simply don’t think it’s safe," he said. "I've heard about this happening via multiple sources for months and the police absolutely can’t be bothered."

Well, I hope the Lea River Bridge doesn't put off other cyclists. And those who do brave this activity called cycling, reach their destinations safely with their bikes still with them.

> Cyclist killed by hit-and-run driver, who should have been in prison, was “highly negligent” and “partly responsible” for fatal crash, says judge

Bad news from Italy. After suspending the opening day time-trial stage twice due to torrential downpour, the organisers have cancelled the stage after the rain made it near-impossible for riders to stay on the bike, with several hitting the ground.

Last year's winner Annemiek van Vleuten said that it was good that the race got cancelled. She tweeted: "I had to start in 1st block and was crazy crazy slippery. On the straight parts I felt my back wheel sliding...Hope everyone is ok that crashed. Was a lottery. Good got cancelled."

🇮🇹❌ CANCELLED: The opening TT of the #GiroDonne23 in Chianciano Terme will not be resumed.

No podium nor results - we officially start on Saturday with what originally was stage two.

📸 @GettySport pic.twitter.com/MsgRFutejQ

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) June 30, 2023

Van Vleuten and Marianne Vos had set the second and third-best time so far, while Trek-Lidl's home-racer Letizia Paternoster had the provisional fastest time.

Team DSM-Firmenich's boss said: "We knew before that the weather was going to be an influence so we changed the order for that. It started raining even earlier than expected though and was really heavy for the first riders."

Today's stage has been essentially neutralised then, with tomorrow's stage now marking the start of the official times for the Italian tour. The race will continue tomorrow with a 102km route from Bagno a Ripoli and finishing on a descent at Marradi.

Compared with the conditions of Annemiek & Marianne for example #girodonne pic.twitter.com/hvSbsgRIZt

— Bart Hazen (@Bartoli84) June 30, 2023

The biggest race of the season starts tomorrow. And playing along makes it more fun!

If you haven't played our Fantasy Cycling game before then it's simple: pick a team of riders you think will do well, and if they do, you get points. And if you get enough points, then you win. You can either play against the whole of the road.cc Fantasy Cycling community or you can create a mini league for your friends/family/work colleagues/cycling club/etc. There are bragging rights to be secured!

It's simple to get started with Fantasy Cycling:

1. You'll need to register as a road.cc user, if you haven't already
2. Head over to the Fantasy Cycling game and log in to create your account
3. Join the competitions you want to play, and get picking!

You can play up to eight competitions for free, every season. If you get the Fantasy Cycling bug then as a road.cc subscriber you can play as many as you want, all year!

> Start playing today at fantasy.road.cc

Speaking of, I should take a break from the blog and go make my team as well (full disclosure: This will be my first time playing the game so don't ask me for tips, but if I've learned anything from years of playing Fantasy PL, I hope I'm not too bad. Maybe, we'll see).

Rain and the Giro, name a better love story.

Absolutely treacherous conditions in Italy...

#GiroDonne 🇮🇹

The stage has been paused again ❌@rubyr_g was out on course as the decision was made, just like @BakerGeorgia earlier on 🫤 pic.twitter.com/bAwJFkRJFk

— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) June 30, 2023

Giro d'Italia Donne, which kicks off today with a time trial stage from Chianciano to Olbia, has already fallen victim to the downpour which bugged the men's race earlier in May. Today's stage has already been suspended, restarted once the rain calmed down, and then suspended again as the rain returned.

Team Jayco AlUla's Letizia Paternoster, in her home race, has gone provisional fastest, pipping last year's winner Annemiek van Vleuten from Movistar by one second.

And as you can see, the conditions are neither fortunate nor enviable.

There's rain... and then there's 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 at the Giro d'Italia Donne 😳💦 pic.twitter.com/THIm5fRaHR

— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 30, 2023

Riders’ starts are currently suspended in the #GiroDonne23, due to torrential rain. ☔️👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/qBqnq2Mtjn

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) June 30, 2023

It's all kicking off! Earlier this month we reported that ASO, the race organisers for Tour de France were considering broadcasting team radio live on television, similar to Formula 1. And some team bosses weren't pleased.

> "Bleep bleep! Go faster! Bleepity bleep... bleep": Tour de France to broadcast team radio live

But news from Weilerflits reveals that five teams have opted out of the initiative. The teams, namely are Alpecin-Deceuninck, Cofidis, Jayco-Alula, Movistar and Groupama-FDJ. Groupama's omission is probably expected, given boss Marc Madiot was opposed to the idea from the get-go.

"Can you imagine we’d reveal our conversations on TV?" said the French team's manager. "Do you really conceive a TV camera being allowed to film a football team trainer giving his players their half-time instructions?"

Rest of the 17 teams have apparently agreed to participate in sharing their radio messages for live broadcast. What's surprising is that the 'bigger' teams like Jumbo Visma and UAE Emirates seem to have accepted the format without much reluctance.

Can you imagine the scenes of Jumbo DS instructing Roglič and Vingegaard to tag-team Pogačar on Col du Granon, while UAE watched helplessly and tried to strategise what to do as the yellow-jersey wearing Slovenian used every muscle in his body to keep up, all while dealing with a Geraint Thomas on his wheel?

Just a thought, cycling with your kids shouldn't be an adventure sport?

Cycling in Acton with my kids - pavement and cycle lane both impossible to use @EalingCouncil pic.twitter.com/beQOQv2sZM

— Drew White (@drewsnx) June 29, 2023