Mr Loophole says new Highway Code “poses a serious risk to road safety” – and that reading it should be “legal requirement”; Tom Piss Stop; Bol beats Stewart at Tour of Britain; Pidcock and Valverde out of Worlds; Wheels versus car + more on the live blog

Nick ‘Mr Loophole’ Freeman’s quip that reading the Highway Code should be a “legal requirement” has flabbergasted some of our readers familiar with the lawyer’s work.

“Is the world going completely crazy?” road.cc reader hutchdaddy asked. “The other week Jim Davidson said something sensible about roads... and now Nick "Loopy" Freeman does too.

“I think I need a lie down. I know, one swallow does not a summer make...”

Of course, poor Jim (who, televisually, is streets ahead of Forsyth – now there’s an outdated reference for you) was only complaining about motorists parking on his street and outside his home.

I wasn’t even sure redundant dinosaurs needed parking spaces, but I digress…

Back to Freeman, with Clem Fandango writing:

He was doing so well, I almost fell off my chair. Had to agree with him about re-testing HC knowledge when licences are renewed (and yes I am a driver).

But... ‘Pedestrians and cyclists have this sense of entitlement, and they’re now going to have the force of the Highway Code behind it, which will only increase this sense of entitlement. It seems to lack common sense. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to say to those who are most vulnerable ‘you have to share this responsibility as well?’

... I sort of see where he's coming from. I think. Maybe. (you can't just absolve yourself of any responsibility for your own safety). But he does seem to be spectacularly missing the point that driving is a privilege, poses significant danger to vulnerable road users and so when driving you do have a greater responsibility.

Does he really think that (with the HC behind us ) we're all going to throw caution to the wind and stride/cycle about like we're invincible and cars can't do us any damage? Seems also to have fallen into the trap of thinking that you are either a driver OR a vulnerable road user & never the twain shall meet - you can't possibly be both and therefore able to see it from both angles.

Oh well. Better than his usual registered tabard nonsense I suppose.

Picking up on Freeman’s point that cyclists and pedestrians have a ‘sense of entitlement’, AlsoSomniloquism said:

Sense of entitlement to stay alive?

Sense of entitlement to be able to travel to where they are going without having to divert massively or wait several minutes for a light to change for 30 seconds because other vehicles HAVE got to have right to not be interrupted too much in their journey?

Sense of entitlement to not have to leave the house dressed up like a Christmas tree because other road users just can see anyone if they are not?

Whilst I applaud what he has stated, he never went far enough as full practical test should be carried out when licenses are renewed etc. However, I also remember him blaming a pedestrian for daring to be crossing the road without wearing hi-viz when his client was driving at 50 in a 30.

Finally, cyclingpaul blamed the government who, despite road.cc’s excellent work, haven’t quite played their part when it comes to publicising the Highway Code changes:

“I keep wondering why I know these new HC rules, and then I realise I read Road.cc and other sites, whereas most motorists don't. I think the government information about the changes was absolutely woeful.”

Don’t worry, Paul, I’m sure Liz will absolutely smash it…

Now, this is how you reply to a Twitter troll arguing that cyclists riding slowly on pavements – for the ones at the back who might’ve missed yesterday’s story, it was a clearly marked shared use path – “should be subject to custodial sentences”:

It’s a shared path you plank. https://t.co/NZr3rnCGnE

— HullCycling (@CyclingHull) September 5, 2022

For anyone in need of some context on this Monday afternoon, here’s the full story:

> Coach driver tells cyclist with child he "shouldn't be on the path"... right under a shared use path sign

While this morning we reported that Tom Pidcock had returned his plane tickets to Australia for this month’s UCI road world championships, citing mental and physical fatigue, another potential winner – and former world champion – Alejandro Valverde has been barred by his Movistar team from racing in Wollongong.

Movistar are one of several World Tour teams in danger of losing their place at pro cycling’s elite level, thanks to the UCI’s rather controversial introduction of a promotion and relegation system for 2023.

As anyone who pays attention to the various threads and debates that have engulfed Cycling Twitter in recent weeks, the soccer-isation of professional cycling by the UCI hasn’t been without its critics.

The recent spate of Covid positives at the Vuelta a España led to the withdrawal of top-ten contender Simon Yates, the leader of the relegation-threatened BikeExchange-Jayco squad, who were banking on the British rider’s points in Spain to keep them up.

Meanwhile, other teams have been accused of ‘gaming the system’ throughout the 2022 season by sending their riders to smaller, less prestigious one-day races that – critically – carry more valuable UCI points than single stages or minor GC placings in traditionally more important stage races.

The looming threat of relegation has prompted various squads, including Movistar, to ban their riders from travelling to Australia, where the prospect of jetlag could scupper the team’s hopes of picking up points during the closing stages of the season.

SWPix.com, ECI

“They pay me to put together the best team, with the riders they deem appropriate, but this time it won’t be possible,” Spanish national coach Pascual Momparler told AS, when asked about the availability of 42-year-old Valverde, who is currently racing the Vuelta, the last grand tour of his long, successful and controversial career.

“We had a meeting on Friday to decide whether we would go to the World Championships or not and we finally decided that we will. Juan Ayuso and Marc Soler will be the leaders and we will try to form a team around them.

“It’d be nice if Valverde could take part in the World Championships alongside young riders like Ayuso and Rodriguez so they can learn from him.

“He would love to come, he has said so, but he does not have permission. The team is immersed in the fight for points. It’s the same with [Movistar’s] Alex Aranburu.

“Many teams are refusing to release their riders and this could be a catastrophe for many teams, including ours.

“The UCI has put everyone between a rock and a hard place. It’s going to be an unusual World Championships.”

Reading the Highway Code should be a legal requirement. And there should be an online test for motorists every time a licence is renewed and every time a new Highway Code is published. https://t.co/0EHTtHG2Ak

— Nick Freeman (@TheMrLoophole) September 5, 2022

Back in January, motoring lawyer Nick Freeman – known by his nickname Mr Loophole for his ability to clear celebrities of driving charges through technicalities (as well as his long-standing campaign to introduce IDs for cyclists) – predicted that the then-upcoming Highway Code revisions would cause “carnage” and warned that “our roads are going to be much more angry and much more dangerous.”

Speaking on the always well-informed Mike Graham’s talkRadio show (that was sarcasm, just to be clear, but don’t tell Laura Kuenssberg), Freeman argued that the changes – particularly the new hierarchy of vulnerable road users – were “well-intentioned but ill-conceived”.

“The whole point of this is to increase safety,” he said. “We’re all in favour of trying to make our roads safer. Safety doesn’t equal priority. I fear it is going to be carnage. Particularly for the most vulnerable people.

“Pedestrians and cyclists have this sense of entitlement, and they’re now going to have the force of the Highway Code behind it, which will only increase this sense of entitlement. It seems to lack common sense. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to say to those who are most vulnerable ‘you have to share this responsibility as well?’”

> Expect carnage and more danger...Mr Loophole rants about Highway Code changes to talkRadio's Mike Graham

Fast forward seven months and it seems that Mr Loophole has changed his tune (kind of).

Tweeting this morning in response to the AA’s poll suggesting that over three-fifths of the group’s members hadn’t read the new changes, Freeman said that perusing the Highway Code “should be a legal requirement” and that “there should be an online test for motorists every time a licence is renewed and every time a new Highway Code is published.”

While there were fears circulating around the cycling community (probably) that Mr Loophole’s Twitter account had been hacked; alas, the lawyer let us all know that it was indeed him behind the phone by also tweeting: “The new Highway Code poses a serious risk to road safety – and that threat is compounded by the majority of motorists who have not yet read it. Many of the provisions of the Highway Code are advisory and they should be mandatory.” 

Ah, we were so close...

We’re approaching the last 40km of today’s second stage of the Tour of Britain to Duns, in what must be much-welcome sunny conditions after yesterday’s grim slog through the Cairngorms.

The peloton – led by race leader Corbin Strong’s Israel-Premier Tech squad alongside Trinity Racing – has upped the pace considerably in the last hour and reduced the six-man breakaway’s advantage to less than a minute as we enter the final hour of racing.

Today’s break is an unusual one as it contains two brothers, Ribble Weldtite’s Charlie and Harry Tanfield, who, as we reported in May, were the victims of an intentional hit and run while training in Essex.

It’s also been a productive day for the sprints competition leader Matt Teggart who, despite some issues with his bike, has been hoovering up the intermediate sprints in a bid to increase his grip on the white sprints jersey.

Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

Teggart’s presence at the front of the race during these opening two stages is somewhat historically pertinent.

In two days’ time it will be fifty years since Matthew’s grandfather, the legendary Northern Irish rider Noel Teggart, represented Ireland in the highly controversial Olympic road race in Munich, where he was ambushed by a group of Irish republican cyclists (banned from international competition due to their refusal to accept the political border in Ireland) and forced to abandon the race in tears.

The WiV SunGod rider will be hoping for a happier outcome and that the break can hold off the peloton – which has been impeded slightly by a crash at a pinch point – as they near a series of climbs which present an opportunity for Teggart to add another Tour of Britain jersey to his growing collection.

It may be almost seven years old, but this remarkable footage of a cyclist saving a drowning wild boar from a canal is doing the rounds again on the internet, so we thought we’d share it to brighten up your Monday:

To be fair, I’d never seen it before…

⏪ 😱😱😱

🙏🏻 ¡Por muy poco @AntonioTiberi4 - @TrekSegafredo!

🤏🏻 That was a close one!#LaVuelta22 pic.twitter.com/i2V9TLlXO1

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 4, 2022

Top-notch bike handling here from Trek-Segafredo’s 21-year-old former junior world TT champion Antonio Tiberi, who seems as if he’d be just as at home on the muddy fields of Flanders as he is on the roads of Italy and Spain... 

A yellow weather warning, a wrong turn off course, a delay in live TV coverage, a super-late nature break from the pre-race favourite, and a surprise stage winner…

Yesterday’s opening stage of the Tour of Britain through Aberdeenshire, won by Israel-Premier Tech’s 22-year-old neo pro Corbin Strong, was eventful to say the least.

Will Palmer/SWpix.com

Before the young Kiwi lived up to his name by outsprinting the Ineos Grenadiers’ Omar Fraile on the uphill drag to Glenshee Ski Centre to take his maiden pro victory, the peloton was forced to endure a stereotypically British day of racing, slogging through the wind and rain on their way west from Aberdeen.

The grim, blustery conditions and early downpour not only resulted in a plethora of black raincapes throughout the peloton, but a loss of live TV pictures, which were delayed for 90 minutes thanks to the wind at the finish line.

Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

The lack of live coverage meant we missed Bora-Hansgrohe’s Marco Haller’s collision with a race motorbike (forcing the Austrian to abandon just 15 minutes into the eight-day race, as well as the bizarre moment the bunch strayed off course on the outskirts of Inverurie, 25 kilometres into the 180-kilometre stage.

“The organisers sent us the wrong way,” Ineos Grenadiers rider Magnus Sheffield told CyclingNews at the finish. “Fortunately, I was able to catch on as I’d just flatted on my front wheel. I was actually a bit happy I got to come back a bit easier.

“It was only three or four hundred metres, but it was really funny. I was coming through the cars and it seemed like everyone looked super confused.”

Back on the predesignated route, soon-to-be-retiring Alex Dowsett put in a sterling turn on the front in the thankfully improving conditions to reel in the day’s breakaway of Stephen Bassett, Matt Gibson, Martin Urianstad, Matthew Teggart and Jacob Scott, on the wind-ravaged slog to Glenshee.

In the final five kilometres, one of the pre-race favourites Tom Pidcock – that’s world cyclo-cross champion, Olympic mountain bike gold medallist and Tour de France stage winner on Alpe d’Huez Tom Pidcock to you – appeared to be struggling towards the back of the peloton, seemingly suffering after a day of foul weather and gritty Scottish roads.

While Strong proved the strongest (sorry), and took the race’s first leader’s jersey, Pidcock (who says he won't be travelling to Australia for this month's road worlds - more on that later) appeared out of nowhere to place fifth on the day, with his presence at the back of the bunch later attributed, not to sore legs, but to an untimely call of nature:

The reason Tom Pidcock was off the back with 6km to go at @TourofBritain? He stopped for a pee

— Andy McGrath (@Andymcgra) September 4, 2022

Pidcock confirmed after the stage that it was a number one rather than the full Tom Dumoulin that prompted his late chase back on to the bunch.

“I needed a pee,” he explained at the finish.

“I was supposed to be on Omar’s wheel, that would have been ideal, then maybe I would have won. A bit too relaxed, really.

“It was a big headwind, I just made a mistake and didn’t go to the front early enough. The Tour was my last race, the depth meant there’d be a lot of trains going up this massive road, here it just strung out.”

The riders will be glad to hear that there is no weather warning in place for today's stage in the Scottish Borders from Hawick to Duns. I'm not sure if the blue skies will last all week, however...