Children dodge cars parked where Kensington cycle lane used to be… but apparently it’s their fault; AG2R Citroën unveil new BMC/Campag 2021 bikes; Does mileage matter?; Crown Prince vs ostrich; Unexpected item in the bike lane + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Children cycling down Kensington High Street dodge cars parked where the cycle lane used to be...but apparently it's their fault
Small children cycling in Kensington this morning — now in greater danger since the protected cycle lane was ripped out. The space is now blocked by parked cars. pic.twitter.com/uHQU2i49ts
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) January 3, 2021
The message Jeremy Vine wanted people to take from this video was probably that cycling for vulnerable road users has been made more dangerous since the Kensington High Street cycle lane was ripped out. Kids have to ride past parked cars, avoiding any doors that may suddenly open, and worry about traffic overtaking from behind…
However, that’s not how everyone saw it…The replies to Vine’s tweet are full of people accusing the children of poor riding. Seriously…
John Marshall said: “Also in danger because they failed to look, signal, look manoeuvre. The one at the back did glance a couple of times, but no indication. The adults who taught them need to give them another lesson. I’m actually on the side of cyclists being safe. I’m not trying to abdicate drivers responsibility, but we still have drunk and drug drivers. For the sake of a tiny bit of inconvenience, why not take precautions?”
Parked cars! It’s a road. Why not go to the safety of a park with children?
— bestm8te (@bestm8te) January 3, 2021
Irresponsible parent putting children’s lives at risk. Cars must have priority on our roads and if there isn’t a safe space for — young — cyclists they shouldn’t be on the road!
— Steve Nilsen (@stevenilsen3) January 3, 2021
They should be arrested
Get to a park or walk— Teddy Bass (@teddyboybass) January 3, 2021
Dubai Crown Prince vs ostriches
These cyclist vs ostrich videos are becoming a regular feature on the blog. Before Christmas we shared this video of an ostrich in South Africa getting involved in a group ride. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum went one better, ‘racing’ two of the flightless birds.
As well as learning that ostriches have a top speed of 43mph (70km/h), this morning has taught me that the Crown Prince of Dubai is a keen cyclist. It’s a nice life for some.
Why didn't they go for a bike ride in the park?
Should have took them to the park .. much safer https://t.co/htjiEZvi27
— Mr Vanderlay (@vanderlay) January 3, 2021
Great spot by ‘Sriracha’ in the comments this morning. One of the other replies to Jeremy Vine’s tweet offers a neat answer to all those saying they should be cycling in a park and not on the road…
Mathieu van der Poel sets out route to the classics starting with UAE Tour in February
Mathieu van der Poel impressed again, winning the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup event in Hulst yesterday. The Dutch sensation also set out his plans for the 2021 road season in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad. Van Der Poel will return to the road at the first WorldTour event of the year, racing the UAE Tour at the end of February. Significantly, this means the 25-year-old will skip the opening weekend of the cobbled classics before using either Tirreno-Adriatico or Paris-Nice as preparation for the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Van Der Poel told the Flemish newspaper that he will take a break following yesterday’s victory in Hulst to train ahead of the final few weeks of his cyclo-cross season, culminating with the World Championships on January 31.
Stars and stripes shoes
2021 is looking 🚀 #northwaveshoes pic.twitter.com/Cqzza9woac
— Alex Howes (@alex_howes) January 3, 2021
Late Christmas present for Alex Dowsett
Juliette ❤️ pic.twitter.com/0tVcjnykjw
— Alex Dowsett (@alexdowsett) January 4, 2021
Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos show off new team kit
The start of a new year means Annemiek van Vleuten and Marriane Vos have been able to sport their new team kits for the first time. Van Vleuten shared the photo above of her first training ride wearing the Movistar blue with her new Canyon. While Vos showed off the Jumbo-Visma Women kit at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup race in Hulst, finishing 11th. 2021 is the first year of Jumbo-Visma’s women’s team with Vos their star signing for the debut campaign.
🇳🇱 #Hulst
Only the first of many 😃 pic.twitter.com/xXIvFHXGKT
— Team Jumbo-Visma Women (@JumboVismaWomen) January 3, 2021
'Time to get rid of that car lane no one is using', said no council ever
No motor vehicles using Westminster Bridge. Maybe it’s time to rip up the road and convert it to a pedestrian only bridge. pic.twitter.com/4SYhUJS6H9
— 4 Chords No Net (@4ChordsNoNet) January 3, 2021
Part of the reasoning for removing the Kensington High Street cycle lane was that it wasn’t being used by cyclists so it should be ripped out for to make room for another lane of cars. 4 Chords No Net has posted these tongue in cheek updates of traffic on Westminster Bridge, suggesting maybe it’s time to rip out the road to make room for more pedestrian access…
Two hours later and it’s still only buses, pedestrians and a single bicycle using the bridge. Time to restrict access. pic.twitter.com/pVMxKQ8eZf
— 4 Chords No Net (@4ChordsNoNet) January 4, 2021
Bill Hulley went even further and said: “Learn from Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, rip out the entire bridge, those people could swim if they want to.”
Will Norman toasts record year for London 'Boris Bikes', with over 10 million hires in 2020
Congratulations to @tfl‘s Santander Cycles team for a record breaking year.🚲🚲 There were 10,434,167 hires in 2020.🚲🚲 Many thanks to everyone who hired one. pic.twitter.com/hOw7xk4axj
— Will Norman (@willnorman) January 4, 2021
In what was a stinker of a year for many of us, a sharp increase in all types of bike riding was one silver lining – you can check out our more in-depth review of 2020 in cycling here.
Things you don't expect to see in the bike lane
Skleroza straszna choroba 🤷♂️😱niedobry sen kierowcy pic.twitter.com/ZKrtbEs3JV
— PiotrMakowiec (@piotr_makowiec) January 4, 2021
Nothing to see here. Just a new bridge over the cycle lane for you to ride under…
Behind the scenes at the Tour de France with Jumbo-Visma and Astana
These behind the scenes documentaries following cycling teams at big races are becoming more common. Deceuninck-Quickstep, EF Pro Cycling and Team Sunweb released their own videos covering the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España last year. Now, it’s the turn of Jumbo-Visma and Astana.
Dutch broadcaster, NOS, follow Jumbo-Visma at the Tour de France and capture the shock and disbelief following the stage 20 time trial as Tadej Pogačar snatches victory from Primož Roglič. The hour-long film also covers Wout van Aert’s two stage wins, Roglič claiming the race lead on stage nine and offers an interesting insight into life in the peloton as one of the world’s best teams at the biggest race of the year. The link for the Jumbo-Visma documentary is here. Astana’s shorter video can be watched at the top of this post.
You'll never guess what car they drive
@ManCityCouncil Well done for the filters this morning in #Levenshulme can you make sure signs to tell drivers that the roads are dead ends are installed swiftly so drivers know what to do
5 minutes on Manor Road saw 3 vehicles mounting pavement @basat_m @Dzidra78 @bernardstone pic.twitter.com/EX3jUWRDJq— Andy (@Lets_getcycling) January 4, 2021
Fabio Aru is back
HE IS BACK
(video by @DoCiclismo)pic.twitter.com/34abkr5ItK https://t.co/GIGf3f7dgp
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) January 4, 2021
Fabio Aru has a cult following on Twitter, mainly for his extraordinary portfolio of facial expressions that can only be explained by the pain of being a professional bike rider. The Italian completed his first race for his new team, Qhubeka Assos, this weekend in Italy and looks as miserable as you’d expect someone carrying their bike through freezing mud to be…Here’s some more Fabio for your amusement…
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) December 3, 2020
Happy 2021
How 2021 is going so far: pic.twitter.com/PsROVm6Oqf
— Katy Moon (@Oog) January 4, 2021
We’ve a feeling this gif is going to come in handy quite a lot this year.
Your thoughts on mileage goals
FYI i rode 10,000km in 2020.
— Alex (@alexdoesporn) January 4, 2021
Our opinion piece on mileage goals has caused a fair bit of debate this afternoon. Do you care about how far you, or someone else, rides in a year? Or is it simply how much you enjoy your cycling that matters?
‘hawkinspeter’ commented: “Excellent piece! The thing with modern cycling (or at least for me) is that we’ve got loads of different metrics we can obsess over and they’re all useful in different ways, but it’s so easy to let performance anxiety to get in the way of just getting on your bike and enjoying a simple ride.”
‘dassie’ commented: “If people want to set distance/frequency targets, and then let others know how they did – it really doesn’t bother me at all. Each to their own, sometimes it can inspire others to ride more – wherever they choose. Similarly, I acknowledge most cyclists I see out on the roads, but don’t expect any reciprocation. Just do what you’ve gotta do, be considerate, and ride.”
I heartily endorse this message from @VecchioJo re this whole ‘Ride A Bajillion Miles At X time of year / for Y reason’ schtick. He’s right. No-one cares. But good on you if it’s what you need. https://t.co/TqmOTPAtBP
— Mike Stead (@tweetymike) January 4, 2021
AG2R Citroën unveil new BMC bikes, dressed with Campagnolo components
…and so far, it would appear the internet thinks the team’s new bikes are dressed quite a bit better than the riders themselves, after the new large-worded jersey proved pretty divisive when it was unveiled before Christmas.
Of the new partnership between Campagnolo and BMC – one we haven’t seen before in the pro peloton – Campagnolo commented: “BMC is a brand that shares a great deal with Campagnolo – a pursuit of innovation, a desire to produce distinctive and premium products, but most importantly, a passion and commitment to cycle racing.”
AG2R Citroën’s MD Vincent Lavenu said: “We are very happy to have Campagnolo with us for 2021. Campagnolo is renowned in the cycling world for its performance products, its racing heritage and love for the sport. Combining such an excellent brand with our new bike partner BMC gives me great confidence as we head into a new chapter for the AG2R Citroën team.”
You can see the new team bike in all its glory in this fancy unveiling video below…
4 January 2021, 09:09
4 January 2021, 09:09
4 January 2021, 09:09
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Latest Comments
@mdavidford Too bad the Police themselves, whose job it is to discriminate between legal and illegal and promote public understanding of the same, don't know the difference: "doing wheelies on what the force described as a Sur-Ron "e-bike"
@wtjs Yes - surely better to filter out bugs than to eat dead ones or live mostly sterile ones that can't reproduce.
@Rendel Harris You know damn well what I mean, Rendel. The bikes here are just a nice angle to make their point about how tech has changed over the years. They could have easily used two other bikes for exactly the same purpose. They chose these because they already had an article that looked at the old bike in depth, and because Seixas' bike is new. You keep cherry-picking, to try to win this silly argument on semantics, but the intro actually says it quite clearly: "We compare Jaan Kirsipuu’s early-2000s AG2R race bike with Paul Seixas’ latest machine TO CHART A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF TECH PROGRESS". The article is not ABOUT these bikes, it USES these bikes to illustrate that tech progress, hence, the article is about that tech progress.
@Sreedlums That's hilarious, the article is literally about two Decathlon Tour de France bikes and comparing them. It says that everywhere, in the headline, in the subhead, in the body text. It says it's "a good excuse to look back at how Decathlon’s top-level race bikes have changed over the last 25 years", how on earth can you get from that to "this article was *not* about these two bikes"? Go on swearing black is white all you want, but you are totally wrong.
@Sriracha They have got what makes bicycles be recognized by the public as bicycles, and what motorbikes haven't got - pedals, that's why.
@Rendel Harris Oh wait, so now the article is only about Decathlon's TdF bikes? Because that's in the headline? That's funny, because in your previous comment you said "I think if you look really hard you can see this is an article about how Tour de France bikes have changed",. So, which is it? You can keep cherry-picking snippets of text, but it doesn't change the fact that this article was *not* about these two bikes, nor was it about TdF bikes. This article took these two bikes as examples of top road bikes of their time, to take a broader look at how road bike tech has changed in 30 years. And my original comment was about exactly that; road bikes then and now.
@Sredlums Did you miss this bit? See the words "Tour de France bikes" there? Easy to miss, only being in the headline and all...
@Rendel Harris Except of course, Rendel, it is not. This sentence is in the intro of this article: "We compare Jaan Kirsipuu’s early-2000s AG2R race bike with Paul Seixas’ latest machine to chart a quarter of a century of tech progress", and this is the sentence with which they end the article: "Would you like to have a soft spot for bike tech of the past? Or is it best left to history?". Nowhere does it say they are looking only at bikes from the TdF. They honed in on these two specific Decathlon bikes to compare bike tech then with bike tech now.
@Sredlums Well, Sredlums, I think if you look really hard you can see this is an article about how Tour de France bikes have changed, so if you were talking about road bikes in general (which you did not make clear) it was your comment, not my reply, that was not pertinent.
Looking at Google shopping results for 'road bike', and then at a variety of retailer sites (Halfords, Decathlon, Sigma Sports, Ribble, Winstanleys, etc. etc., plus a couple of our local shops with ecommerce presence), on none of them are more than about one in eight black or dark grey, and often that's just one of a number of colour choices. So if there are a preponderance of such bikes around, it seems like it's less because bikes have become more 'boring' than it is because the people buying them have.
32 thoughts on “Children dodge cars parked where Kensington cycle lane used to be… but apparently it’s their fault; AG2R Citroën unveil new BMC/Campag 2021 bikes; Does mileage matter?; Crown Prince vs ostrich; Unexpected item in the bike lane + more on the live blog”
Socrati has lots of Twitter
Socrati has lots of Twitter Bots about.
Oh won’t somebody please
Oh won’t somebody please think of the children?
Some awesome ripostes in the
Some awesome ripostes in the twitter thread. I love Vanderlay’s answer to those saying the children should be taken to the safety of the park to cycle:
Use the parks
Use the parks
Clicked thorugh on the twitter link to get to this abortion https://twitter.com/vanderlay/status/1345690337243705344
Can an admin put
Can an admin put SocratiCyclist out of our misery already?
jacknorell wrote:
We should be careful, there are 2 very similar accounts, and it is nigh on impossible to tell the difference…..
Captain Badger wrote:
Easy: One is a ludicrous driver centric parody account and the other is a parody of a ludicrous driver centric parody account.
Mungecrundle wrote:
?
But which one’s which??
How dare you!
How dare you!
There We Are Then.
There We Are Then.
Re: New Baby Dowsett, one of
Re: New Baby Dowsett, one of the first of Generation Pandemic?
I’m hoping those comments
I’m hoping those comments on the kids riding in the road were sarcastic, but such is the entitlement felt by drivers to intimidate and threaten the lives of others, reality says my hopes will be dashed.
eburtthebike wrote:
I fear you hope in vain….
Take your pick:
Take your pick:
Etcetera etcetera…
Does anyone like me yet?
SocrapiCyclist wrote:
You lovable rogue!
SocrapiCyclist wrote:
Dammit Socrapi, I have to keep double-checking which is which, there’s only a fag paper between you!
You missed ‘I’m a cyclist
You missed ‘I’m a cyclist myself’!
More lockdown regulations,
More lockdown regulations, England, back to “exercise with your household (or support bubble) or one other person, this should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.”
That the guidelines though.
That’s the guidelines though. The actual regs will be out tomorrow or Wednesday which previously have not been the same.
They seem more contradictory than ever.
Garden centres open and you can buy chocolates but you can’t play golf but you can go to church.
Bike shops open still !
hirsute wrote:
I don’t understand why they seem so keen to keep open the churches… (?)
Unless its all worse than they’re admitting and they’re giving everyone an opportunity to make their peace.
(I’ll get my tinfoil hat)
Churches are supposed to be
Churches are supposed to be covid safe in that they have detailed guidelines to follow and many risk assessements to complete beforehand together with venue marshalls.
I think the government came under some pressure from denominations too but there is also the mental health side so being with other people and doing something corporately has a benefit regardless of anyone’s view on religion.
Hmm…
Hmm…
I’ll complete Brooksby’s
I’ll complete Brooksby’s comment that “the mental health side so being with other people and doing something corporately has a benefit” can be applied to lots of things that can’t be done at the moment orunder new rules even if Covid compliant.
Personally I’m not fussed if people want to go to a religious house or not but attending a religious service is easily done at home in a similar way as most other things.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
There are some religious rituals that require specific individuals or places. e.g. how could someone perform a Catholic Mass at home? Without consecration, the bread and wine won’t literally become the body and blood of Christ.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Then the Govt should allow people to go to bowling alleys and have a hotdog so as to worship Eris, or to an Italian restaurant to eat pasta and praise the Great Spaghetti Monster, etc etc…
Any guidelines or regs are
Any guidelines or regs are going to be a bit arbitary but a bowling alley is a no no due to the enclosed nature, cross contamination and the level of noise.
The guidelines for churches include masks, sd, no singing, perspex barriers for preachers, cleaning, track and trace. There is also guidance on queues and hostile vehicles 😮
They should, but they won’t.
They should, but they won’t.
As an ordained Discordian Pope and also an enthusiastic Pastafarian, I’m more than happy to keep away from the great unwashed masses. In terms of controlling infectious diseases, I think they should close down places of worship as older religions don’t necessarily take into account scientific models of diseases.
However, maybe Covid is a plague sent by a god (pick one) to punish us and who are we to try to help ourselves and not get infected?
hirsute wrote:
I don’t think it’s worthwhile to produce a list of essential foods and non essential foods.
When they ban sales of alcohol and tobaco then they can consider whether chocolate is ‘essential’
In the first lockdown there were reports of shops getting a hard time for selling easter eggs, I don’t recall any similar reactions to bottles of spirits or cans of lager.
I didn’t phrase that very
I didn’t phrase that very well.
I was a reference to food shops being open and I noticed that the chocolate shops in town were open when we had the November restrictions as they come under food shops. Just struck me as odd that a shop that purely sells chocolate falls under essential shopping but I suppose it is hard to have the right wording to allow a bakers or butchers to open so you couldn’t word it as ‘supermarkets’.
I do think it is stupid that you can walk in botanical and historic gardens but you can’t walk around a golf course. Seems exactly the same risk ie negligible.
Barnard Castle anyone?
Barnard Castle anyone?
Why does anyone engage with
Why does anyone engage with ancient Greek drivers? It’s clearly a spoof account created by the editorial team to drive traffic on the site; no real person is as inane as this account-holder.
22 pages of regulations
22 pages of regulations published
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/national-lockdown-stay-at-home