“You can watch these ‘tourists’ in the Tour of Flanders”: Pro women’s team mistaken for fans as Van Aert climbs the Koppenberg; Hot Fuzz’s Sandford Police look after cyclists (sort of); But cyclists… + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
But cyclists...
🇧🇪 Louvain player Sofiane Kiyine had a serious car accident after hitting a roundabout at very high speed.
The roundabout served as a springboard, and threw him into a gymnasium. 🤯🤯
His injuries are not life threatening but we wish him a speedy recovery. 😢💔 pic.twitter.com/7VaaXuGS3T
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) March 30, 2023
Hot Fuzz's Sandford Police look after cyclists (sort of)
A bit of fun to kick off the live blog this Friday…
Working with Sandford Council we have improved the signage along Swan Lane pic.twitter.com/ispC4R2NDf
— Sandford Police (@Sandford_Police) March 30, 2023
Of course a few who presumably have never seen Hot Fuzz get caught out by the apparent English police force each time it puts something on social media. The clue is probably the bio (presented in its unedited original form)… “Englands smallest Police Farce, committed to catching crinimals & swans #TheGreaterGood” … oh, and the “parody/satire” warning.
Anyway, there are always a few…
One reply asked: “You don’t think the sign is actually blocking the bike lane and creating a hazard?”
Others suggested it was the work of Peter Ian Staker (P.I.Staker) to better protect the village’s swans (it’s just the one swan, actually)… hopefully those reference land and you don’t just assume I’ve lost the plot…
More bad news... Women's Tour cancelled for 2023, organisers cite lack of financial backing
> Women’s Tour cancelled for 2023, organisers cite lack of financial backing
British Cycling said it was “really sorry to hear this news” but “we’re looking forward to your return to the calendar next year”. More reaction to this one soon…
"We appreciate mistakes happen but they still happen too often"
We appreciate mistakes happen but they still happen too often.@HLN_BE you’re welcome to come join us on Sunday so you can get more insight on our side of the peloton
If not Sunday @martusialach would be happy to take you bikepacking instead. Just let us know which you prefer😊 pic.twitter.com/uWvSrY8O1B
— CERATIZIT – WNT Pro Cycling (@ceratizit_wnt) March 31, 2023
"The update we didn't want to read": Teams and fans react to Women's Tour cancellation
> Women’s Tour cancelled for 2023, organisers cite lack of financial backing
Eurosport presenter Orla Chennaoui called it “the update we didn’t want to read”… “Make no mistake, The Women’s Tour blazed a frickin trail for women’s racing. It set a standard for professionalism, platform and prize money. I don’t believe we’d have a Tour de France Femmes if it hadn’t been for The Women’s Tour.”
The teams too expressed disappointment, Jayco AlUla saying they “love” the race and hope for its return in 2024, while Trek-Segafredo called the cancellation “very sad news”.
"A sad indictment of the state of the professional sport away from the men's WorldTour": Your thoughts on the state of pro cycling in the UK
You’ve been having your say on the dreary news about the Women’s Tour this morning…
Matthew Acton-Varian said it is a “sad indictment of the state of the professional sport away from the men’s WorldTour.”
“Not enough investment, not enough sponsorship, and not enough opportunity for female cyclists to show their mettle from the bottom up. Whilst recent additions such as the Paris-Roubaix and TdF Femmes are great news, the fact that other women’s calendar stalwarts are struggling is very sad indeed.”
Awavey: “I’m not sure it’s an indictment of the whole sport, just the sport in general in the UK, those London Olympics were over a decade ago now, I suspect the Tour of Britain’s finances are equally perilous, given the piecemeal fashion the event is being announced,and has the same lack of sponsors and potentially lack of vehicle provision.
“That to me was the most shocking part that Skoda didn’t want to be involved in the Women’s Tour at all. You could tell just last year the Women’s Tour was struggling, and struggling to engage people too, so I’m not the least surprised it’s come to this.”
Over on Twitter, Matt L asked if British Cycling is doing enough… “Last year Shell joined British Cycling as an official partner. For the Women’s Tour to go ahead they needed to find £500,000. Why did I mention Shell? £500,000 is less than eight minutes of profit. Want to help British Cycling? Save our races!”
This is more terrible news with regards to not only Women’s cycling in the U.K. but British cycling overall. Collapse of pro teams, pro races, tour series reduction, etc. when there is funding for British Cycling. What actually are @BritishCycling doing?
— Charlie Pilkington (@ChazPilks) March 31, 2023
Anything big happen to a certain former cycling race sponsor overnight?
So long…
> It’s official: Donald Trump hates cyclists
> Toe strap-gate: Trump mocks Biden bike fall with spoof golf video
> Cyclist flips Trump the bird as she joins motorcade procession
Caption contest
First day of recess and we’ve already got outstanding pothole content pic.twitter.com/h8Cr5uM4f2
— Calgie (@christiancalgie) March 31, 2023
‘Chicken and mushroom? Yep, definitely chicken and mushroom…’
> Mr Pothole teams up with Pot Noodle to highlight the increasing damage on the UK’s roads
Lincolnshire councillor says lowest Active Travel England capability to deliver infrastructure rating won't prevent county implementing schemes
Active Travel England recently scored all English local authorities outside of London’s active travel credentials…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the headline figures weren’t positive… 94 per cent in the lowest three categories and more than half in level one. One of those level one authorities was Lincolnshire whose executive member for highways Cllr Richard Davies has insisted the poor rating “won’t affect schemes we are working on or considering”.
“We will still be able to bid for funding, although it should be noted that government has dramatically cut the amount of funding available to Active Travel England,” he told the Grantham Journal.
Meanwhile on the Koppenberg, cycletourists struggle with the wet cobbles
— Katie (@medicinexthings) March 31, 2023
Hope they didn’t get in the way of any pro riders…
Cage fight: CarbonWorks founder claims Topeak bike bottle cage infringes copyright of brand's own design
"You can watch these 'tourists' in the Tour of Flanders": Pro women's team mistaken for fans as Van Aert climbs the Koppenberg
The year is 2023…
That’s a nice photo, I hear you say… Wout van Aert getting some support from his
CERATIZIT – WNT Pro Cycling counterparts just days before they all take to the Ronde van Vlaanderen course for their respective races. What isn’t so nice however is the circled caption on the side, which has seen Het Laatste Nieuws land themselves in hot water online…
As per one translation: ‘Toiling but also smiling among the cycling tourists on the Koppenberg.’
One exasperated fan (an actual fan, not a pro rider) wrote on social media: “Meanwhile, at the self-proclaimed Flemish #1 sports newspaper they still know f*** all about women’s cycling, even when Kopecky is one of the biggest stars.”
https://t.co/mFAKpPffsZ pic.twitter.com/HbnncbllXq
— CERATIZIT – WNT Pro Cycling (@ceratizit_wnt) March 31, 2023
The team added: “Well, this is disappointing. The girls were told to ‘get out of the way for the pros’ by a photographer during their recon yesterday… think we found which one it was… You can watch these ‘tourists’ in the Ronde Van Vlaanderen this weekend.”
Of course, those of you in the UK will probably remember something similar back in 2017 when Cycling Weekly apologised after publishing this caption…
Editor Simon Richardson said the incident was an “appalling lack of judgement by an individual” and “not a reflection of the culture in the CW office”.
“Unfortunately during the magazine’s production process a member of the sub-editing tea decided to write an idiotic caption on a photo of one of the female members of the club,” Richardson said. “The caption is neither funny nor representative of the way we feel or approach our work. Sadly in the rush to get the magazine finished it was missed by other members of the team and sent to print.”
31 March 2023, 08:05
31 March 2023, 08:05
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Latest Comments
I'll counter that by saying the Bryton 750se I have drives me nuts at times. Inconsistantly picks up on routes created on Komoot and the app re-syncs every few seconds when trying to set up the device and sends me back to the home screen. The most infuriating one is that I turned live track on. Once. It now won't turn off and repeatedly flags up the live track is starting, and then disconnecting every few seconds whilst riding. I haven't timed it but it wouldn't suprise me if 10-20% of the time the the screen is covered with an error message. That's been about 6 weeks now. Other than that it's great :/
RE: Police launch road safety operation... by clamping down on cyclists using footbridge Meanwhile in Glasgow, Police Scotland are riding their motorbikes over the pedestrian and cyclists only bridge. https://x.com/FietserGlasgow/status/2065106152917012523?s=20
@Paul J Van Schip certainly seems a bit of a dick, but he's a European and multiple World Champion on the track, pretty sure you don't get there without having some talent in your legs.
Poor Vincent cannot get over the simple fact that given the choice people prefer dedicated cycling spaces, rather than pretending to be cars like vehicular cyclists.
What is the point of the fancy air sensor if it can't account for changing weather conditions?? If all you care about is a delayed approximation of aerodynamic watts in steady conditions, you don't need any special sensors for that. Just your speed on a decently flat course is enough to approximate rolling resistance and drivetrain losses. And the rest must be aero. If you assume a less aero body position at the same watts, your speed will drop while rolling resistance also drops, which means approximated aero watts goes up. And that's enough to demonstrate what you've shown in your testing protocol ("I sat upright and the number went up a little while later").
Your correction is accurate - it's almost always been "the (lack of) thought that (doesn't) count". "Massive" - less than a billion a year spent on active travel (trying to catch up / building a network across the entire country) Not massive - 6 billion every year (2026-2030) spent on road *maintenance* of existing "already built, goes everywhere, very convenient" road network for inactive travel Ultimately the reason "cycle infra" is *needed* is those unbelievably colossal amounts spent every year (and for more than a century now) on making mass motoring not just viable but apparently the "best choice" for most journeys. As the Dutch and others have shown, the majority of people *are* prepared to cycle and even mix with very light, slow local motor traffic *if* cycling is also made safe and convenient for the whole of their journey (including secure parking at both ends). (The history of the financial drivers of the current situation are a complex topic but note that while people complain about "crumbling roads" and underfunded motor infra - with some reason - by us continuing the fuel duty escalator freeze (for example) we're actually helping motorists pay *even less* for that activity / subsidising more of the cost of driving than ever.)
yes, but people will still object - which was my point.
So ' Priority of Road Users' and 1.5 metre clearance at 30mph has been been reduced to 'sharing'? NCN route 2 here in South Hams is an absolute scream with white vans, tractors and total idiots who refuse,or are totally incapable,to reverse on high Devon banked lanes ...means you have to get off and pedal back to a passing place....could be at that all day...so I don't bother...
@MaxiMinimalist Agreed. The big problem I see now is today's parents grew up being driven to their schools, and therefore, see private motor vehicles as the only viable form of transport. The vast majority of UK infant and primary schools have a catchment area that is within easy walking distance from home to school. Yet, the traffic caused by pupils being driven to/from school is astonishing. Banishing the "School Run" should be a priority for all schools.
When I was a kid (that was during the previous millenium when phones were connected to a plug in the wall), I rode my bicycle to school, music academy, sport grounds, parties even during the winter. The government didn't have to spend, correct that, didn't have to think of spending massive amounts of money to build cycling specific infrastructures. Over the past 3 or 4 decades, cars have grown bigger, taller, safer (for their drivers) and faster. Meanwhile, motorists have become abusive, aggressive, hypersensitive to people moving on two wheels, aka cyclists. Spending billions upon billions on new infrastructure won't address the crux of the matter. Sadly.
43 thoughts on ““You can watch these ‘tourists’ in the Tour of Flanders”: Pro women’s team mistaken for fans as Van Aert climbs the Koppenberg; Hot Fuzz’s Sandford Police look after cyclists (sort of); But cyclists… + more on the live blog”
Was the roundabout wearing
Was the roundabout wearing high vis?
If the gym didn’t have a helmet on then what did it expect to happen?
Hope he recovers – it’s a
“Accident”…
Hope he recovers – it’s a physical job.
That is an extremely impressive height and distance he’s got though. So perhaps he’s got a promising new career in motor shows.
Perhaps he didn’t have a chance because it was a “fast road”… and with the roundabout causing the car to fly like that maybe it’s a danger to speeding motorists and should be removed?
chrisonatrike wrote:
I hear there’s a vacancy at Top Gear.
I just looked at the photos
I just looked at the photos properly and saw where he entered the gym like 25 feet up. He should be served with a lifetime driving ban. That kind of speeding is insane. He must have hit that roundabout at well over 100mph.
Patrick9-32 wrote:
I thought we wanted to encourage people to be more active and get out of their cars and into gyms?
He was halfway there…
He was halfway there…
but we don’t
but we don’t
Thank f*ck it wasn’t one of
Thank f*ck it wasn’t one of those dastardly bike hangars……
An actual plane hanger would
An actual plane hanger would be more appropriate.
Pay attention, everyone. It
Pay attention, everyone. It was the roundabout that did it – it says so.
“The roundabout ………. threw him into a gymnasium”
Cognizant infrastructure could be the answer to our prayers – break the speed limit and the lamp posts shall smite you down.
That sign in Sandford……..
That sign in Sandford………
Makes me want to fire my gun the air and go “aaaaaaaaarrrrrhghh”
Clem Fandango wrote:
not actually in Sandford, that photo has been doing the rounds for some years. I’m guessing it was taken in Australia since
wycombewheeler wrote:
You’re close with Australia. The photo was actually taken from a Canberra (flown from RAF Luton by Sqn Ldr Vine at an altitude of 800.85ft).
wycombewheeler wrote:
On closer inspection it seems that none of the Sandford Police photos are actually taken in Sandford! I wonder if there’s a very obvious reason for that…
Clem Fandango wrote:
You ever fired two guns while flying through the air?
(No subject)
🙂
The cancellation of the Women
The cancellation of the Women’s tour is a sad indictment of the state of the professional sport away from the Men’s World Tour. Not enough investment, not enough sponsorship, and not enough opportunity for female cyclists to show their mettle from the bottom up. Whilst recent additions such as the Paris-Roubaix and TdF Femmes are great news, the fact that other women’s calendar stalwarts are struggling is very sad indeed.
I’m not sure it’s an
I’m not sure it’s an indictment of the whole sport, just the sport in general in the UK, those London Olympics were over a decade ago now, I suspect the Tour of Britain’s finances are equally perilous, given the piecemeal fashion the event is being announced,and has the same lack of sponsors and potentially lack of vehicle provision.
That to me was the most shocking part that Skoda didn’t want to be involved in the women’s tour at all.
You could tell just last year the women’s tour was struggling, and struggling to engage people too, so I’m not the least surprised it’s come to this.
Flying over roundabouts isn’t
Flying over roundabouts isn’t uncommon….
Nice response from CERATIZIT.
Nice response from CERATIZIT WNT
Here’s the video of the
Here’s the video of the footballer.
Driving 3x quicker than anybody else and taking off like a low flying aircraft.
https://twitter.com/FutbolMarroqui/status/1641567007379267584
I hope he either gets a long term in hospital or jail, or is injured badly enough that he can never drive again. For the sake of the other members of society.
Was the gym closed? if it was
Was the gym closed? if it was open surely someone would have been killed. How he escaped that one is beyond me. If it wasn’t for the Emergency Services photos I would have thought the video was edited.
Combing the media, a girls
Combing the media, a girl’s team had cleared the court 11 seconds before impact. Could have been a tragedy.
Someone else says Google Maps shows his Merc was airborne for 45m.
Media say he ‘lost control of the car’ and ‘thankfully no-one was injured’ – let’s brush that one under the carpet then cos he’s famous …
Leaving aside that he should be in jail without a licence, tell me again why it is legal for companies to sell such fast and powerful cars?
The word “accident” is really
The word “accident” is really doing a lot of heavy lifting in some of the reporting.
The poor footballer, that
The poor footballer, that roundabout just coming out of nowhere, hitting his car and throwing it through the air like that. Who designs such maniacal roundabouts?
HAHAHA.. I love how we won’t
HAHAHA.. I love how we won’t let CW forget about their ‘token attractive woman’ weekly club feature.. which to be fair did, every week, have to include a ‘token attractive woman’ just to prove that we’re not all white middle aged men… hiarious cock up to all us white middle aged men..
However in context there was a heavy focus on trying to encourage diversity within cycling at the time, Womens pro-cycling was on the up (not sure it is today.. ) and generally Britain was buoyant with Cycling growth.. so maybe we should forgive their Oz behind the curtain mechanisms from us joe public types.
It wasn’t the feature so much
It wasn’t the feature so much that was the issue, it was the text attached to the photo in the magazine, literally said token attractive woman.
“a member of the sub-editing
“a member of the sub-editing tea”? That really takes the biscuit.
I noticed that too. Ironic
I noticed that too. Ironic that when commenting on a ‘sub editing tea’ (sic) the sub editor didn’t notice his / her own spelling error / typo.
Maybe its just me but I dont
Maybe its just me but I dont think we should be giving a anti-cyclist unfunny “parody” account free publicity. “Sandford Police” frequently post anti-cylists clickbait to drive enagement.
Unlike their sister (afaik) Account RAF Luton there’s a nasty more personal edge to it imo.
Mmm.. I always read their
Mmm.. I always read their ‘anti-cyclist’ posts as being deliberately ridiculous and in doing so highlighting the absurdity of actual anti-cycling posts. But maybe I’ve misread them.
Probably being a bit
Probably being a bit sensitive, they’ve done bike/car interactions from both sides, taking the obviously wrong conclusions.
However, there are two problems:
– cyclists tend to get hurt, drivers get car damage.
– the brain dead posters who think that they are real, and bemoan the driver being incorrectly blamed or the cyclist not being blamed. There is an almost Pavlovian response on Twitter to post negative cycling comments, even if cycling is only tangentially involved. So in that context the joke falls flat.
Just looking at BCs twitter
Just looking at BCs twitter feed it timely sums up the situation facing womens road racing in the UK
“Fancy yourself as the next @_katiearchibald or @LauraKenny31? Born in 2008 or 2009? We have an exciting opportunity for you
We’re looking for the next crop of talented female riders to continue our proud track record! Find out more ”
So what happens if you fancy being the next Beryl Burton, Nicole Cooke, Emma Pooley, Lizzie Deignan, Pfeiffer Georgi or Zoe Backstedt instead ?
I’d just logged in to put a
I’d just logged in to put a link to the BBC article about Rishi and potholes, and you’ve beaten me to it!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65137351
My caption entry: “Oh – so that’s a pothole, is it?“
brooksby wrote:
round here that’s a pothole foetus
Council Official: “This is
Council Official: “This is all that is left of the mining industry round here”
Rishi: “And is this what they called an open cast pit?”
Mum-of-four who died in Yate
Mum-of-four who died in Yate crash was ‘centre of fun’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-65138356
edit: “a blue Ford being driven in the area”, surely?
I discovered the first bit of
I discovered the first bit of cycling infra I’ve ever liked today.
Decided my 4 mile trip home from the dentist was a bit boring so thought i’d go the long way. I got lost just as it started to pour down and ended up doing 20 miles.
This bit of the A452 Chester road in Chelmsley Wood has the entire left lane of the dual carriageway as a cycle lane. Apart from a couple of short sections it’s not properly segregated so nothing is stopping cars going into it but there were no pedestrians and it was on both sides. It gave me a few minutes of no close pass joy before going back to dealing with the usual drivers unwilling to share ‘their’ space with anyone else.
Segregation would really
Segregation would really improve it.
I agree. If there were shops
I agree. If there were shops or houses right by the road it would be full of parked vehicles. My guess is that this way is much cheaper and emergency vehicles can use it in a pinch. If they did this to every inner city dual carriageway and enforced no parking properly I’d be very happy.
Has the site improved inthe
Has the site improved in the last month ?
Have any PBUS/Trolls been removed?
I think it’s been a bit
I think it’s been a bit quieter the last week or so, but that could be coincidence
At least two.
At least two.
Full banhammer for one of them. Might have calmed the others down a bit, for a while, maybe…