“Sad” – Boardman verdict on KFC drive-thru queue; UCI reveals revised calendar … again; Another candidate for best cycling lockdown vid; April new car sales down 97%, Halfords report 1,500% rise in turbo sales; + more on the live blog

London’s road to recovery cannot be clogged with cars. It has to be one Londoners can walk & cycle down as part of a greener, cleaner, healthier future.

Walking & Cycling Commissioner @willnorman sets out our plans for #StreetspaceLDN @BikeBizOnlinehttps://t.co/JaCEUd0ddL

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 4, 2020

Will Norman – the Mayor of London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner – launched the Streetspace Plan last week, outlining in BikeBiz how up to eight million journeys a day will need to be made by alternative means when the lockdown begins to lift with public transport running at a much lower capacity. 

Promises to ensure as many of those journeys are made by bike as possible include building more emergency infrastructure as already seen in Lambeth, such as wider pavements, temporary cycle lanes and new routes to reduce crowding. Traffic lights will also be altered to reduce the time Londoners must wait to cross, and some roads may also be restricted to bus lanes and bikes only at certain times of the day. Norman says early modelling by TfL has revealed there could be a “more than ten-fold increase” in distance cycled in the capital compared to pre-pandemic levels if the public resist clogging the roads with cars. 

“We will work with boroughs to reduce through traffic on residential streets, creating low-traffic neighbourhoods right across London to further enable more people to walk and cycle as part of their daily routine, as we have seen happen during lockdown”, says Norman. 

The Italian bike brand have been in lockdown for two months, and say they have been shipping bikes from Denmark and turned to making valves for breathing equipment during the worst of the pandemic. To celebrate heading back to Bergamo to resume operations, they’re giving away one special edition Exploro in the colours of Harlequin (Arlecchino in Italian), the famous chequered costume-wearing servant. Why Harlequin? Because a statue of him on a roundabout is the first thing you see when you enter Bergamo…

3T say the Exploro Arlecchino is worth a cool 8,500 euros, and features the 3T DiscusPlus i28 LTD carbon wheels, SRAM Force electronic groupset and their new handbuilt Torno carbon crank arms, said to be the world’s thinnest… not to mention the very unique paint job. 

To enter you just need to sign up to 3T’s newsletter here, with entries open until 18th May – 3T say they chose this date to show ‘support for bike stores’ – as bike stores are allowed to re-open in Italy on the 18th – and then the winner will be picked on the 19th. 

The legendary Italian brand have just announced this morning that UAE investment fund giant Chimera Holdings have acquired majority shares in Colnago. 

Ernesto Conago – who founded the company that bears his name in 1954 – commented: “Chimera Investments will give Colnago the ability to grow and increase its presence in all markets, while maintaining and improving the quality of Colnago products. We have a unique opportunity with the support of Chimera to ensure that we continue to build the world’s best bikes well into the future.” 

Chimera promise that Ernesto “will always be the Godfather and the guiding force of the new developments.” The reaction on social media has been rather mixed…

The horror…https://t.co/sEpLfXsxYr

— Herbie Sykes (@herbiesykes) May 5, 2020

Interesting news. Was Colnago struggling and need saving or do they just want a big cash investment? https://t.co/3DonuU6jXd

— david arthur (@davearthur) May 5, 2020

He can do with it as he sees fit, (and obviously he’s just lost his brother), but it’s natural for people to feel mournful. Colnago is the story of and a standard bearer for Italian cycling. It’s Nencini, Motta, Tre Cime, Goodwood etc.

Everything of its time and all that.

— Herbie Sykes (@herbiesykes) May 5, 2020

Comparison firm Uswitch have taken six modern tech inventions and re-imagined what the adverts would have looked like if the gadgets were invented 60 years ago… one of which is the e-bike. Full story over on eBikeTips. 

We’ve already reported that sales of indoor trainers have rocketed during the lockdown, and the bike industry in general is seeing strong sales while many workshops are snowed under with repair jobs – and now retail giant Halfords have confirmed that they’ve seen a 500% increase in turbo trainer sales. For the first week of lockdown that started on the 23rd March, they sold 15 times more trainers than over the same week in 2019. 

Halfords have also now partnered with gym and fitness company Les Mills to offer 25% discounts on virtual spin classes via their Les Mills On Demand Platform – this is to help you avoid the so-called “Instagram Live fitness frenzy” according to Halfords, not something we’d likely be tempted by in any case… ​

While there’s been a huge increase in bike sales, new car registrations have almost been wiped out by the lockdown. 

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed that the April 2020 total was down to just 4,321 for the whole of the UK, compared to over 160,000 in April 2019. They say with a 97% fall in sales this is the steepest decline in modern times, and the last time this few cars were sold in the UK was in 1946. For the whole year SMMT say they expect 1.68 million new car registrations, the lowest number since 1992. Here is that decline represented in graph form with car registration numbers from 2004-2020… 

Incredibly the best-selling car in April was Tesla’s Model 3 with 658 UK registrations, with Jaguar’s electric I Pace in 2nd place with 367. The Nissan Leaf EV also made the top 10 with 72 sales. Most of the 4,321 registered were actually company car fleets, and with all motor showrooms shut throughout April the number of private cars sold numbered just 871; figures not seen since the early days of motoring.  

Wonder how long it took one of the large UK bike shops to sell 4,000 bikes in April? We’ve asked a couple of them to see if we can make a bonus intriguing comparison stat… 

After the whole original 2020 UCI calendar was completely decimated by coronavirus lockdown rules worldwide, new dates for all World Tour events have now been officially confirmed.

The new dates for the Tour de France are still listed as 29th August – 20th September, even though the French Prime Minister announced last week that no mass participation sporting events in the country can resume until September. Meanwhile, the Giro d’Italia is set to start on 3rd October, a shortened Vuelta will start on 20th October (overlapping with the Giro) and Paris-Roubaix is set for 25th October.

President David Lappartient said: “We have drawn up a solid, attractive and varied new calendar that is as realistic and coherent as possible. This has been achieved as early as was practicable and in line with information available today concerning the evolution of the pandemic. Riders, teams and organisers now have the dates they need to anticipate the resumption of racing on 1st August. This is a very important step that the entire cycling community, financially impacted by the pandemic, has been waiting for to move forward. I would like to acknowledge the spirit of solidarity and responsibility shown by all players – in this respect I thank Unipublic which accepted to reduce the length of the Vuelta Ciclista a España – and the courage that the families of professional cycling have demonstrated in these difficult times.”

Here are all the dates in full for the men’s calendar: 

1st August: Strade Bianche (Italy)
5-9 August: Tour de Pologne (Poland)
8 August: Milano-Sanremo (Italy)
12-16 August: Critérium du Dauphiné (France)
16 August: Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic (Great Britain)
25 August: Bretagne Classic – Ouest-France (France)
29 August -20 September : Tour de France (France)
7-14 September: Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy)
11 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (Canada)
13 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (Canada)
29 September -3 October: BinckBank Tour
30 September: La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
3-25 October: Giro d’Italia (Italy)
4 October: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium)
10 October: Amstel Gold Race (the Netherlands)
11 October: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
14 October: A Travers la Flandre (Belgium)
15-20 October: Gree – Tour of Guangxi (China)
18 October: Tour des Flandres (Belgium)
20 October – 8 November: Vuelta Ciclista a España (Spain)
21 October: Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne (Belgium)
25 October: Paris-Roubaix (France)
31 October: Il Lombardia (Italy)

And the women’s: 

1st August: Strade Bianche (Italy)
8 August: Postnord UCI WWT Vårgårda West Sweden TTT (Sweden)
9 August: Postnord UCI WWT Vårgårda West Sweden RR (Sweden)
13-16 August:  Ladies Tour of Norway (Norway)
26 August: GP de Plouay – Lorient Agglomération Trophée WNT (France)
29 August: La Course by Le Tour de France (France)
1-6 September: Boels Ladies Tour (the Netherlands)
11-19 September: Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile (Italy)
30 September: La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (Belgium)
4 October: Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (Belgium)
10 October: Amstel Gold Race Ladies (the Netherlands)
11 October: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
18 October : Ronde van Vlaanderen (Belgium)
20 October: Tour of Guangxi Women’s WorldTour (China)
20 October: Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne (Belgium)
23-25 October: Tour of Chongming Island (China)
25 October: Paris-Roubaix (France)
6-8 November: Ceratizit Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta (Spain)

The Austrian stunt specialist trashes a mansion in the most glorious way one can imagine in his latest completely epic lockdown-themed vid, called ‘Home Office’ . He even manages to satisfy his sponsors by riding over a line of Red Bull cans and pushing his Canyon BMX to the absolute max while tailwhipping on a washing machine, jumping in and out of a swimming pool, backflipping off the roof onto a mattress and shooting a basket amongst other things. 

Although we’re big fans of this stop motion animation masterpiece, Wibmer’s vid has to be the best bike-related thing we’ve seen on the internet during the lockdown… what’s your favourite scene? And more importantly, who does that house belong to and are they footing the repair bill?? 

*It goes without saying don’t try any of this at home, unless you’re Fabio Wibmer.

Zipps for under a grand? You betcha, and they’re not half bad either. Check out the launch article here, and our full review here. 

Twitter asks ‘what’s happening’ before writing anything. Well I am shit out of ideas here, except maybe to alienate someone from cycling for life! Thanks to @PeterBrazier for this. #shitplanning #shitcycling #nomodeshift pic.twitter.com/gVOn6616i5

— Shit Planning (@PlanningShit) May 5, 2020

The latest headscratcher from Shit Planning is a particularly ‘good’ one. 

That’s pretty….sad https://t.co/lWxxZ2TPAm

— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) May 5, 2020

As you’d have probably guessed, Manchester’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner isn’t amused by the sight of a ginormous queue of cars waiting for the drive-thru service at KFC’s Colindale branch. 

If your car journey wasn’t necessary 3 weeks ago, why is it suddenly necessary now? #lockdown https://t.co/NjxuiFMPHY

— Simon Munk (@psimonk) May 5, 2020

As a small number of businesses reopened this week, some cyclists have noticed that traffic levels seem to have increased quite significantly considering only key works and those picking up essentials should really be driving anywhere – have you made similar observations?

The Olympic champ, Boardman Bikes boss and current Walking and Cycling Commissioner for Manchester faced some criticism for describing a queue of cars for the recently reopened KFC in Colindale, north west London as ‘sad’ on Twitter earlier this afternoon; similar scenes were described outside KFC branches in other parts of the country.  

I get all the hate but for some it’s been a tedious, awful month or more. Same meals, no getting out etc.. Maybe a little treat will pick up their spirits a bit.

— The Tone (@Tony1979) May 5, 2020

I think we should be a little more understanding. Some people will struggle to embrace change. I miss fast food 🥘

— Caroline 🚲🎧🐈🎬🔭🇪🇺🐝 (@caroline_MCR_) May 5, 2020

Boardman has clarified the comments, claiming it was not aimed at individuals but the predicament we find ourselves in that people are prepared to queue so long for fast food…

It wasn’t really a judgment of individuals, I said ‘it’s sad’ not what I was sad about.

I’m sad that this now our society, and sitting in an hour long traffic jam to eat fried chicken is now ‘a little treat’

I want more for my society, more for people to aspire to. https://t.co/FfdJgFb3pC

— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) May 5, 2020

Do you think the huge queue a depressing sign of a return to a car-fuelled normality when the lockdown fully lifts, or is it understandable that people are prepared to wait for a treat in the form of KFCc to lift their spirits?