Geraint Thomas or Liz Hurley – who wore the safety pins better? Giro highlights as Ganna doubles up; Boardman calls BBC report on LTNs "irresponsible"; Going Underground with Milltag; Feature film on Phil Liggett coming soon + more

Agree. Although the one of him holding the small hand he found out on the circuit is more amusing.

As an organization which partially operates as the propaganda wing of Government, their purpose is the same as that of the Government-allied press - to ensure that any positive noises that politicians may have to make towards cycling are immediately negated by constant negative press. "Democracy" will do the rest - can't do it, see, the people don't want it!

Luca Patrono wrote:

As an organization which partially operates as the propaganda wing of Government, their purpose is the same as that of the Government-allied press - to ensure that any positive noises that politicians may have to make towards cycling are immediately negated by constant negative press. "Democracy" will do the rest - can't do it, see, the people don't want it!

If that is the case, why is the Govt so keen to kill it?

They make threats towards it in order to ensure it toes the line. I don't think it's homogenous, which is why I said "partially".

brooksby wrote:

If that is the case, why is the Govt so keen to kill it?

They don't want to kill it, they want to sell it off, like they did with all the other community owned assets.  To do that, they are deliberately running it into the ground and making it less popular so that very few people will oppose it when it is sold off cheap to Murdoch.

eburtthebike wrote:

brooksby wrote:

If that is the case, why is the Govt so keen to kill it?

They don't want to kill it, they want to sell it off, like they did with all the other community owned assets.  To do that, they are deliberately running it into the ground and making it less popular so that very few people will oppose it when it is sold off cheap to Murdoch.

And selling it off means it's easier to control. This current Govt have cowed the BBC with early threats, so management has bent to bullying in the hope that the tiger eats them last.

The MO of the Tories has been laid bare over decades.

1. Take something you are responsible for.
2. Run it into the ground through designed incompetence.
3. Make up some 5h1t that it is somehow impossible for govt to run things well ( so what the suck are they doing in charge of a country??).
4. Sell it off contrary to the national interest, for well under its value to their rich friends, in exchange for the promise of a directorship 
5. Look for the next utility/service (paid for by the taxpayer over decades) to pillage.

EddyBerckx wrote:

Don't respond to the trolls on here regarding the LTN's guys - JUST DON'T.

If a road.cc subscription would allow me to block trolls I would subscribe today.

uBlock Origin and a custom filter will do that for free.

The trouble is then you miss them "discussing" between themselves. It is almost like when online games send all the cheaters to the same server.

I've  had enough trouble with trolls on other forums, including being stalked around the forum when they returned under a new username. I simply don't need that sort of thing where I get wound up and annoyed.

A million thanks for this.  Been working through killfile extensions trying to find one that works on road.cc

That boy can do anything!

Apart from beat VdP or WvA.

I do wonder on the the tactics in this racing as you obviously have a power assist but cannot change the bike and the battery. So the amount of assist to enable the battery last the course must be a variable for the rider to decide. Do you use it early on to save your self for the push at the end or do you save it and use it more when tiring? I'm asuming the battery won't last the whole race on full assist for example. (Obvioulsy there will be times when it won't help anyway)

The disappointing thing about Tom Pidcock is that he used to plant trees to offset the carbon emissions from his travels, and now he's signed for one of the world's biggest polluters, and is taking their dirty money.

There's no doubting his talent, but unfortunately he has sold out his principles.

HarrogateSpa wrote:

There's no doubting his talent, but unfortunately he has sold out his principles.

Did he really have principles? Planting a few trees so supposedly offset your carbon use smacks of tokenism to me. And would it really make much difference if he signed for a different (but still polluting) team?

Most pro and serious amateur racing cyclists willingly sacrifice any environmental concerns (do they have any?) for their sport. Amateurs think nothing of travelling the length of the country to ride a muddy CX or race a 3 minute hill climb, flying to the Canaries or Balearics for training trips or other overseas events. And we know pro riders travel all year round, living in hotels and being followed by cars. Teams have 35-70 staff at the Tour, a massive bus, any number of cars all chasing around France and they won't even stop to consider the environmental impact of their food bill.

Listening to a recent podcast about the TdF and the environment, virtually every pro cyclist talked only about discarded gel wrappers and bidons, as if unsightly litter on the roadside was the main cause of climate change. Puppets.

You realise posting the same thing over and over and over again actually has a carbon footprint?

If you really want to do something about climate change I have a suggestion for you...

Rich_cb wrote:

You realise posting the same thing over and over and over again actually has a carbon footprint? If you really want to do something about climate change I have a suggestion for you...

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

Another badly written phrase in the BBC article. 

Quote:

And that is the theory behind them - they want to drive down car ownership and get people to switch to cycling and walking.

Usage mate, car usage. If they decide they don't want to own a car because they realise they can do without, then it is a bonus. 
 

Actually in London it is very much a stated aim of TfL and the GLA to reduce car ownership and to encourage those who want to use cars to use car clubs etc. This is to reduce the number of streets made unsafe by having wall-to-wall car parking and to remove the "temptation" of car ownership to use it when walking or cycling is a viable alternative. So the phrase is perfectly accurate.

And long term they need to do that simply because there is no space for everyone to have one.

 However for the LTN's, as they are 6 month trials, they are not expecting car ownership to be changed during it. 

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

A 10 minute car journey? So about 2 miles?
Sounds like you could save yourself time & money by getting a bike.

[/quote]Could walk it in half an hour.

Yep. but the bike would also do it in 10 minutes as well in most cases. 15 if taking your time.