‘Taxpayers to fund bikes for refugees and pensioners’, Telegraph says in rant against “bizarre” bid to tackle active travel inequality – week after claiming Cycle to Work is for “rich cyclists”; Van der Poel vs fans on their phones + more on the live blog

In case you missed it, here’s yesterday’s story on Van der Poel and the gobby ‘fan’…

> “Those people are better off not coming to the race”: Mathieu van der Poel slams ‘fan’ who spat at him during race, as police open investigation

While they may have cleaned up at last week’s stage races, thanks to British duo Matty Brennan and Ben Tulett, but Visma-Lease a Bike’s stuttering start to the classics season continued yesterday at Gent-Wevelgem, where the Dutch squad could only muster an anonymous 19th  place, courtesy of Tiesj Benoot.

However, things could have turned out very different had Olav Kooij not crashed just as the race was blowing to pieces on the gravel plugstreets with 70km to go. Dutch sprinter Kooij, along with Jasper Philipsen, were the only riders capable of following eventual winner Mads Pedersen as the powerful Dane burst clear on Hill 63.

But while Philipsen was forced to bow out early with a puncture, Kooij was soon spotted, muddied and battered, sat on the grass verge after an apparent crash missed by the TV cameras, as Pedersen surged clear for what in the end proved an emphatic solo win.

And with Kooij seen gingerly nursing his shoulder, last night Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed what we had all expected – that the 23-year-old had broken his collarbone in the crash, ruling out him of the rest of the classics.

“Olav Kooij has fractured his collarbone during today’s Gent-Wevelgem. Join us in wishing Olav a speedy recovery,” Visma said in a statement, confirming another blow to what has so far been a tricky spring classics campaign.

And with Wout van Aert failing to fire on all cylinders this season, and the Tour of Flanders looming on the horizon, for the Dutch squad, things – as D:Ream once prophesised – can surely only get better.

I bet I’m not the only one who read the UCI statement in Michael Palin voice

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— Jens Hagström (@jenscer.bsky.social) March 31, 2025 at 2:48 PM

Ah, now all the UCI’s press releases finally make sense.

‘Brother Lappartient, bring up the holy wildcard invitation of Aigle…’

With the scramble for grand tour wildcards ongoing, the UCI has this morning confirmed that the number of team participating in this year’s three-week races is set to rise from 22 to 23, giving organisers the opportunity to invite a third second-tier squad.

Last week, we reported that the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) had submitted a request to cycling’s governing body calling for the number of grand tour wildcard invites to be extended, a decision approved by the UCI’s management committee today.

Previously, the number of teams permitted to take part in the three men’s grand tours, the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España, was limited to 22 – the 18 WorldTour teams, the two highest ranked UCI ProTeams from the previous season, and two other UCI ProTeams picked by the organisers, who tend to favour local teams or squads featuring a home hero.

But now the new rules mean that, starting from May’s Giro, grand tour organisers will now be allowed to invite a third second-tier squad of their choosing, increasing the number of teams taking part to 23. So much for all the recent safety debates, eh?

(ASO/Billy Ceusters)

In a statement, the UCI said the “arguments put forward for accepting this proposal were mainly based on the need to support second division teams, while enabling organisers to strengthen the line-up for their race and giving riders from the additional teams the opportunity to compete in a grand tour”.

However, despite supporting the PCC’s proposal, the UCI has also stated today that it “reiterates its commitment to the preservation of sporting equity and the primacy of sporting merit”, announcing that it will call on the PCC to consider upping the number of compulsory invites based on ProTeam rankings to three for 2026.

That would mean, if the UCI succeeds, that the number of discretionary wildcard invites would revert to two next season.

Meanwhile, the UCI also approved changes concerning feed zones, following the decision earlier this year to reintroduce a limited number of feed zones in specific locations, following the more flexible approach of the Covid years.

“Based on these first months of experience and the recommendations of SafeR… it was deemed necessary to introduce more flexibility in order to allow organisers to better position these zones, and for riders and staff members (maximum three per zone) to approach them in the best possible conditions, particularly in terms of safety,” the UCI said.

“Pursuant to these changes, yellow cards aimed at preventing behaviour causing a risk within these feed zones may be issued.”

Brilliant, more yellow cards…

> Abuse and unsafe infrastructure preventing more women from cycling, Cycling UK report states

The Labour government will publish the UK’s third cycling and walking investment strategy later this spring, “setting out its long-term vision for active travel”, the parliamentary under-secretary for transport confirmed on Friday.

In 2017, the then-Conservative government pledged £1.2bn as part of its first cycling and walking strategy, which it said would help “make cycling and walking a natural choice for shorter journeys” and double the number of cycling journeys by 2025.

In 2022, the Department for Transport said it would invest £3.78bn in active travel schemes until 2025 as part of its refreshed strategy, an “ambitious” attempt to ensure that half of all journeys in towns and cities will be walked or cycled by the end of the decade – a bid that was severely undermined the following year by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision to slash the budget for active travel schemes.

And now it’s Labour’s turn to set out its stall when it comes to renewing the country’s active travel agenda.

> Government knew it wasn’t investing enough in cycling, according to new document

“On 12 February (2025) we announced almost £300 million of funding for walking, wheeling and cycling schemes in 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026,” transport under-secretary Simon Lightwood said in parliament on Friday.

“This will deliver 300 miles of brand-new pavements and cycle routes to enable 30 million more journeys by walking and cycling every year. It will lead to 43,000 less sick days a year to ease pressure on the NHS.

“The second phase of the Spending Review is now underway and the government will set out its spending plans for future years, including funding for walking, wheeling and cycling later in the spring.

“I am today informing Parliament of my intention to publish a third cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS3) following the conclusion of the Spending Review.

“This will allow us to say more on the long-term funding for active travel, as required by the 2015 Infrastructure Act. The government will consult on CWIS3, with relevant stakeholders, ahead of its publication.”

Fabio Jakobsen’s 2025 campaign is currently up in the air, after the sprinter’s Picnic PostNL team revealed this morning that he will step away from pro cycling for the “foreseeable future” due to flow limitation in the iliac artery in both of his legs, the same injury that brought an abrupt end to Marianne Vos’ 2023 season.

The 28-year-old Dutch rider, who was badly injured in a shocking high-speed crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland, joined Picnic PostNL last year, after six seasons with Soudal-Quick Step, where he won five stages of the Vuelta a España, as well as a stage at the 2022 Tour de France, two editions of Scheldeprijs, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, and the 2022 European road race championships.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

However, since joining the Dutch squad, Jakobsen has only managed one victory, the opening stage of last year’s Tour of Turkey. This season, his best results have been fifth and sixth on stages of the UAE Tour, as well as a ninth at Paris-Nice, while he failed to finish last week’s Brugge-De Panne and Bredene Koksijde Classic.

“Determined to hit the ground running in their second season together, Team Picnic PostNL put in strong work in the winter period, building Jakobsen’s shape and base form nicely; ready to tackle 2025 head on,” the team said in a statement today.

“However, in the high intensity moments in those early-season races, Jakobsen found himself unable to push on the pedals as hard as he previously could.

“Conducting further tests with the team’s medical staff, it was revealed that Jakobsen has flow limitation in the iliac artery in both of his legs.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Team Picnic PostNL (@teampicnicpostnl)

The former European champion is set to undergo surgery on Wednesday to deal with the issue, an increasingly common one in professional cycling, and will have a period off the bike before beginning his rehabilitation.

“Unfortunately after conducting recent tests, we have discovered that Fabio has flow limitation of the iliac arteries. As the diagnosis is very clear and currently limiting him on the bike, he will undergo surgery to attempt and fix the issue,” Picnic PostNL doctor Camiel Aldershof said in a statement issued by the team.

“Thankfully, he has a more favourable prognosis to return due to the type of limitation; however, this can take some time to come back from.

“The surgery means that Fabio will be off the bike for around six weeks initially, with no other strenuous physical activity allowed. In the meantime, we will monitor his progress and from there, when he is ready, we will gradually have him return to training and slowly build up intensity again.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Team Picnic PostNL (@teampicnicpostnl)

Meanwhile, Jakobsen added: “I trained well this winter and came into the season with some confidence. We picked up some top ten results at UAE Tour and Paris-Nice, but when it came to those key moments and high intensity sprint efforts I suffered; my legs simply weren’t working as they should.

“It’s mentally of course a setback, but now that we have found the cause of the issue, I am hopeful that the surgery can then solve it. Sometimes you need to take one step back to be able to make two forward, and I hope that’s what I’m going to do now.”

Picnic PostNL say that the sprinter’s programme for 2025 will now remain open and be dependent on how he recovers from surgery.

Last week, the internet rumour mill was sent into overdrive after pictures of Tadej Pogačar riding a mystery bike emerged, sparking suspicions that a new Colnago V5Rs may be coming soon.

The typically unclear images of the world champion, who was attending a road safety event in Monaco shortly before announcing he’s taking on Paris-Roubaix next month, prompted rumours that Colnago are set to launch an update to the V4Rs – which everyone assumed would be called the V5Rs.

And those assumptions, shockingly, have proved correct, after YouTuber Carlos Aizpún was able to get up close and personal with UAE Team Emirates’ bikes at the Volta a Catalunya, spotting a tell-tale logo along the top tube in the process:

Mystery solved.

Meanwhile, elsewhere at Gent-Wevelgem…

> Pro cyclist gets yellow card for “kamikaze” crash at Gent-Wevelgem

Teach a man to Cervélo… you get the picture.

While Gent-Wevelgem was pretty much plain sailing for Lorena Wiebes, who powered to her 100th career victory with another textbook sprint, things were a bit choppier behind for Visma-Lease a Bike.

The Dutch squad’s 21-year-old sprinter Nienke Veenhoven, who enjoyed a run of good placings at last week’s one-day races, crashed hard with around 100km to go, breaking her collarbone and forcing her to leave the race by ambulance.

Veenhoven’s bike, meanwhile, didn’t fare much better, plunging over the grass verge and into a ditch – forcing a Visma mechanic (with the help of a few fans and motorbike riders) to attempt to fish it out… using one of the team’s spare Cervélos.

En la cuneta de la carretera, Veenhoven es atendida por los servicios médicos. Mientras, abajo, personal recogiendo las bicis caídas al agua#GW25#UCIWWT pic.twitter.com/ok0uDXhAxv

— elsterrato (@elsterrato) March 30, 2025

Get me Mortimer and Whitehouse on the phone – there’s an episode of Gone Fishing I’d like to see.

Thankfully, all of the riders involved in the crash remained dry, though that will prove scant consolation for the injured Veenhoven. And she even missed her mechanic’s very expensive, high stakes game of hook-a-duck…

I see “nobody” is using the cycle path again along North Strand Road on the Clontarf Route:

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— IrishCycle.com (@irishcycle.com) March 31, 2025 at 8:56 AM

While most cyclists in the UK encounter their fair share of potholes accidentally, at the weekend one Cheshire-based cycling group decided to take on a club ride with a difference – they actually went out looking for them.

The Nantwich Cycle Group set off from the Crown Hotel in Tarporley on Saturday morning with the aim of finding as many examples of broken, dangerous roads as they could, in order to put pressure on Cheshire East Council to fix them.

Urging other locals to attend, the group said the ride could be key to creating the utopia of a “pothole-free cycle route” in the area.

“The more of us that can get involved in reporting the easier it will be to achieve this so please can you give up some of your time to get involved,” the group wrote on social media before the ride.

“I know it’s a pain and we all have better things to do with our time but think of it having our important and quite local cycling roads getting repaired.”

On Saturday night, the group thanked those who turned out to report the damage to their local roads.

“I got 15 reports done, how many did the rest of you get?  Made a start, so hopefully we can improve some of these popular local cycle roads,” the group’s Facebook page said.

I wonder if ‘Pothole Group Rides’ will catch on?

Don’t worry, we haven’t got our calendars mixed up – this, apparently, is an actual real anti-angle grinder lock… complete with “corpse-like” stench. Lovely.

> Bike theft? That stinks! Meet the lock that releases “an ultra-nauseating gas” if it’s cut to deter thieves

There’ll be no Belgian champ’s jersey at the Tour of Flanders this Sunday, as Lotto confirmed this afternoon that they have withdrawn Arnaud De Lie from both the Ronde and Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen after struggling throughout the spring classics campaign.

The 23-year-old burst on to the scene as a neo-pro in 2022, winning 19 races across his first two seasons with Lotto, along with finishing second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the age of 20, but missed last year’s classic due to a bout of Lyme disease.

He recovered to win the Belgian championships, as well as the Tro-Bro Léon and a host of other races, and started 2025 in fine form, winning a stage of the Etoile de Bessèges.

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

However, despite a ninth place at the GP Denain, De Lie has struggled over the past month, looking far from his best at Nokere Koerse and Brugge-De Panne (where he finished 69th and 126th respectively), while failing to complete yesterday’s Gent-Wevelgem, prompting Lotto to pull the plug early on his classics campaign.

“Arnaud De Lie unfortunately withdrew early from Gent-Wevelgem. He will take some time in the coming days for a reset and will therefore not participate in Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday and the Tour of Flanders on Sunday,” the team said on social media.

“We hope he returns with his old self soon, wish him lots of courage, and look forward to having him back with us soon.”

It’s fair to say that, over the years, Mathieu van der Poel has enjoyed a complicated relationship with a certain subsection of cycling spectators who come out to watch him from the side of the road, or in muddy fields, across Europe.

He’s experienced boos, repeated calls to ‘slow down’ as he storms to another big classics win, questionable liquids thrown in his direction, and caps lobbed at him by free hospitality wine enthusiasts.

And, as we reported yesterday, one horrible, beer-wielding ‘fan’ even spat at the classic star during his epic solo ride at E3 on Friday, prompting a police investigation and calls by both Van der Poel and his father Adri to spectators with similar intentions to “stay at home” ahead of this weekend’s Tour of Flanders.

“Those are people who are better off not coming to watch the race,” the 30-year-old former world champion said at the weekend after footage emerged of the gobby roadside warrior.

“I can’t change anything about it myself. Is it something that keeps repeating itself? Unfortunately, yes.”

Of course, another, less saliva-based aspect of cycling fandom that keeps repeating itself in recent years is the now ubiquitous presence of mobile phones, held aloft by fans as the riders pass, obstructing their own view, while giving them a terribly filmed, blink and you miss it memento of a race they didn’t even witness with their own eyes.

And it seems, with the Ronde, the bike race traditionally associated with the most fervent, rowdy atmosphere, fast approaching, Van der Poel is also fed up with being greeted – not by a parting sea of screaming fans – but by a black wall of mobile phone cameras.

“Put your phone away and shout louder,” Van der Poel, aiming for a record-breaking fourth Ronde on Sunday, posted on Instagram in the wake of his E3 win.

As someone who’ll be standing on the Oude Kwaremont this weekend, phone firmly planted in my pocket, amen to that.

It’s fair to say that Wout van Aert’s 2025 season hasn’t quite gone to plan so far.

After skipping Milan-Sanremo, following a few anonymous showings at Opening Weekend, the Belgian star missed the boat as Mathieu van der Poel, Mads Pedersen, and Filippo Ganna stormed up the road at the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday, forcing him to settle for 15th, almost three minutes down on perennial rival Van der Poel.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Such is the extremely high level of expectation surrounding Van Aert in Belgium – especially when it comes to his bid to finally win a cobbled monument – his every move throughout the build-up to the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this spring has been dissected, analysed, and picked apart by former pros, fans, and pundits.

Before Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem, which Van Aert again sat out (his final race before the Ronde, Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, will be only his ninth race day of 2025), retired classics stars Greg van Avermaet and Sep Vanmarcke questioned the 30-year-old’s barren racing schedule, and asked whether it would be enough to close the gap on Van der Poel and Pedersen before they line up in Bruges next Sunday.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

“Racing here certainly wouldn’t have been a disadvantage,” former Olympic champion Van Avermaet told Sporza before Gent-Wevelgem.

“Does he skip it to add an extra endurance training session? That depends on what his coach thinks and how Wout feels. But since he races so infrequently, I would have added this race to his schedule. But that’s just my personal feeling.”

“There are periods of training and racing. In today’s cycling world, riders often prioritise training over races like Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico. This should actually be a racing period where you take on major races like Gent-Wevelgem,” 2012 Omloop winner Vanmarcke added.

“This race suits him perfectly as a former winner. [E3] Harelbeke didn’t go as he had hoped. Here, he would want to sharpen things up, prove himself, and build confidence. It was a perfect opportunity.”

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

And while Van Aert is naturally subject to criticism from riders he raced against, he’s also (because it’s 2025) forced to endure some somewhat less warranted or hard-earned advice from random strangers on the internet, who – according to one reply under his recent Strava post – believe it’s fair game to link the Visma-Lease a Bike leader’s performances on the road with his family life.

“Your RPM needs to go up, be a bit harder on yourself,” randomer Jan Verwimp wrote under Van Aert’s Strava post from Sunday, which saw him take on a 140km training ride while Mads Pedersen soloed to victory at Gent-Wevelgem.

“Family comes second until 35. You are much too well-behaved and obedient, and in races too. You really need to be a killer, Wout.”

Five minutes after that bizarre piece of ‘advice’, Van Aert offered up a reply.

“OK Jan, nice connection found between my cadence in training and my family life,” the 30-year-old said.

The things you have to put up with when you’re Belgium’s great classics hope, eh?

Yes, that’s right – the Telegraph is at it again.

Just over a week ago, the newspaper was accused (once again) of promoting a “nasty, culture wars” agenda against cyclists, after its head of money claimed that “middle-aged men in Lycra earning six figures” were “shamelessly” exploiting the government’s Cycle to Work scheme to buy “fancy new toys”.

And now, the Telegraph’s senior money writer has responded to a campaign by a group of MPs – which seeks to rectify that apparent imbalance at the heart of Cycle to Work by opening it up to more people, tackling lack of access to active travel in the process – by branding it “bizarre” and warning that taxpayers will be made to fund “bikes for refugees and pensioners”.

Last week, we reported that the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) published a report assessing ‘social justice’ in active travel, including the obstacles, both literal and metaphorical, that prevent people from cycling, walking, and wheeling in the UK.

> MPs call for “urgent reform” of Cycle to Work scheme to tackle active travel inequality

As part of its recommendations to tackle active travel inequality, which also included clamping down on pavement parking and removing discriminatory access barriers on bike paths, the report also urged the government to reform the Cycle to Work scheme and reduce the financial barriers to cycling.

A rebranded ‘Cycle for Health’ initiative, the APPGCW said, would enable access for low-income workers, freelance workers, and pensioners, who are all ineligible for the current initiative.

Among the APPGCW’s other recommendations are the need to provide stable, long-term funding for grassroots organisations to increase participation, better data collection, ensuring UK-wide access to free cycle training, widening its current reach, communicating with diverse community voices when planning projects, and building social justice into performance management in local transport.

But, according to the Telegraph, these recommendations, designed to make cycling as accessible and inclusive as possible, mean just one thing: taxpayers forking out for refugees and pensioners, apparently.

“The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking has called on the government to ‘reduce the financial barrier’ which stop people getting on two wheels,” the paper’s senior money writer Joe Wright wrote.

“The bizarre campaign wants the taxpayer-funded Cycle to Work scheme to be revised so that it caters to ‘those who most need financial assistance’ including retired households, refugees, and those on low incomes.”

Yes, so “bizarre” that it’s the very thing your newspaper was calling for just a week before. Or maybe, just maybe, the Telegraph doesn’t actually care about reforming Cycle to Work, and instead just despises any initiative to increase the number of people riding bikes?

> Telegraph claims “rich, Lycra-clad cyclists tearing through red lights” are riding “hugely expensive” bikes paid for by taxpayer in “nasty” tirade against Cycle to Work scheme

In any case, the Telegraph’s tirades against bikes for rich people, pensioners, and refugees has certainly gone down well with its core audience.

“These MPs are totally insane! We are practically bankrupt and these idiots come up with even more ways to waste taxpayers’ money,” said Ann.

“Most pensioners are not able to ride a bike due to health and age,” noted a rather pessimistic Lynn. “It’s also not fair on taxpayers to fund the cost for refugees too.”

“MPs can fund it out of their own pockets,” suggested David, while Gary simply wrote: “No.”

Alright, who’s going to be next on the list of people the Telegraph don’t believe should benefit from Cycle to Work? Any takers?