Cycling account criticised for sexist meme posted on International Women's Day; Mathieu van der Poel's stupendous 1,000 watt attack; Before and after cycle lane photos; Brompton mobility hubs; New bike for theft victim, Paris-Nice + more on the live blog

In all Dutch interviews I was referred to the “female cycling commentator” or “first female cycling commentator.”

In the hundreds of 🇺🇸🇳🇿🇬🇧🇨🇦🇦🇺reactions after my @gcntweet debut only a handful were about me being a woman.

That is progress to me 👏🏻#InternationalWomensDay

— José Been (@TourDeJose) March 8, 2021

Here are some of the best International Women's Day posts from the cycling world we've seen today to make up for the last blog post...Elisa Longo Borghini and her Trek-Segafredo teammates have decided to put their prize money for her second place at Strade Bianche back in to the sport to help women's cycling grow. Fans raised more than €25,000 in extra prize money for the women's race...

On this special day we - my @TrekSegafredo teammates and I- have decided to make a new step in the long road for women's empowerment in sport.

Happy international women's day to all of us! pic.twitter.com/euTxSVq1wH

— Elisa Longo Borghini (@ElisaLongoB) March 8, 2021

Clearly there isn't any time that sharing this would be acceptable, but posting this meme that has been criticised as creepy and sexist to your 9,000 Twitter followers on International Women's Day seems tone deaf at best. Awesome Cycling posted a video asking 'Which one are you?' showing the supposed different types of cyclists you pass on a ride. The ones who give you a nod, the ones who wave coolly, the ones who wave enthusiastically and apparently the ones who ogle female riders and take photos of them...  

One reply from Chris Gerhard summed up the mood in the comments Awesome Cycling got for their post: "The creepy sexism here is really not acceptable. It’s not funny, it’s disturbing. Take it down."

David T.Isaac added: "Don't be the pervert. And @AwesomeCycling it's really weird that you included "sexual harasser" as like a fun little type of cyclist that we can all joke about. It's not funny. Be better."

You take a lighthearted look at cyclists greeting each other then add in a ‘creepy as F’ behaviour that is totally unacceptable.

I hope you take this down and educate yourself 🤬

This is NOT cool 🤨

— Kris Wright (@climb8b) March 7, 2021

Holy crap. Let's celebrate the kind of male creepiness that limits women's freedom to do stuff outdoors that men take for granted.

— Jon (@ormondroyd) March 7, 2021

Not all things that come in 3 are bad luck.

Our third announcement of the week is a trial mobility hub for Imperial College London staff is, set to launch in April 2021 as the result of a research partnership between Imperial, Enterprise & ourselves.https://t.co/JyqUCTJV7P

— Brompton Bike Hire (@BromptonHire) March 2, 2021

Imperial College staff will be offered exclusive use of a Brompton bike for a two-month trial of a mobility hub based at the London university. The trial will allow researchers to assess the uptake and barriers to shared transport use and inform future mobility schemes at other workplaces and cities. Staff will be asked to leave their cars at home for the two-month period and use only their Brompton or two shared alternative fuel vehicles provided by Enterprise.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Alpecin-Fenix (@alpecinfenix)

On Tuesday, after Mathieu van der Poel had led out his teammate Tim Merlier to victory on the tops having snapped off and chucked away his drop, I asked on this live blog — is there anything he can't do? Just when his brilliance seems to have reached an unbeatable level he raises the bar again. Some mind-boggling numbers at the end of close to five hours of hard racing have been released by his team this morning. The things we'd do to have his legs for a day...

Van der Poel has also uploaded his full ride to Strava, which saw him claim KOMs for the segments covering the final 25km of the race, the final gravel section where he put in his first crazy attack at Le Tolfe and from part way up the final ramp to the finish line.

A slight surprise was to see his time, strictly on the uphill section of the final climb to the finish up Santa Caterina, was only eighth fastest and nine seconds off the time his now teammate Petr Vakoc set in 2016. Although this can probably be explained by Van der Poel's more conservative start to the climb before that incredible 20 second explosion near the top where he averaged 1,000w... 

British Cycling and the Great Britain Cycling Team are marking International Women's Day by celebrating a step towards gender parity in track cycling this season. Most notably, the women's team sprint, which used to be a two-woman event over two laps, has been extended to match the male event and will now involve three female riders racing over three laps. 

The changed event will make its Olympic debut in Paris in 2024 with senior academy sprinters Blaine Ridge-Davis, Lusia Steele and Milly Tanner already eyeing up the opportunity to make history with Great Britain's first ever Olympic medal in the team sprint.

Here’s another view of this street. It’s a huge improvement over how it was before. As you can see motor traffic levels are tiny compared to before. And the street is one way now with the cycle lane being a contra flow. pic.twitter.com/PqwOu3orOt

— filter more streets (@iambrianjones) March 7, 2021

 Chris Boardman loved this before and after video of Old Bethnal Green Road, calling it an "incredibly powerful before and after look at a street," and saying that it would be "interesting to count the number of people using it in both. My guess is there's more in the after version."

Another angle of the new cycleway shows kids free to walk around the neighbourhood without the streams of motor traffic in the before video...

Old Bethnal Green Road:
where traffic is virtually nil and kids can muck about like this with out risking their lives. pic.twitter.com/xJTINMI6Zu

— filter more streets (@iambrianjones) March 6, 2021