Paris pop-up bike lanes will be made permanent; When will next batch of Fix Your Bike vouchers be released?; Boardman says people riding bikes without helmets is “quite wonderful”; A56 pop-up bike lane being eaten away; Time cut tension at the Tour + more
SUMMARY
Boardman says people riding bikes without helmets is “quite wonderful”
If you missed the predictable furore when ITV ran a segment on cycling during lockdown in which Chris Boardman was seen riding a bike without a helmet, don’t worry, we’re probably in for a reprise today.
Responding to the criticism earlier in the week, Boardman directed people towards Cycling UK’s position.
The charity is opposed to both cycle helmet laws and to helmet promotion campaigns because it says they are almost certainly detrimental to public health.
Tweeting last night, Boardman added:
I’m so sad that riding a bike looking like this is so upsetting to people.
It’s happening just a few hundred miles from us, and I think it’s quite wonderful. pic.twitter.com/Kd3zGKK6ST
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) September 16, 2020
And here’s the segment that gave rise to all of this:
Due to the covid-19 pandemic the planet effectively shutdown, meaning our public spaces and roads became quieter almost overnight 🛣@Chris_Boardman looks at the effects of cycling during and after the lockdown 🚴♂️ pic.twitter.com/bsRcyoIldh
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) September 15, 2020
Niche tweet of the day
He means sublimation printing.
More than 10 years ago I was Sublimation my race numbers on my jerseys and got fined for it by the UCI. Now its legal…..🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/tdSfn0Os7W
— Adam #Vegan Hansen (@HansenAdam) September 15, 2020
Today's stage of the Tour de France
Uppy-downy. Just about the last thing you’d want after yesterday’s zany finish.
🚩 @Meribel3vallees – La Roche-sur-Foron 🏁
📏 175 km🎬 Check out the 3D route of stage 18.
🎬 Découvrez le parcours 3D de cette étape 18.#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/K2zSY2LSoU— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
Rutland increasingly well served for high-end bike dealerships
Rutland only has a population of about 39,000, yet as well as being home to Rutland Cycling, it also has a Giant shop and, as of today, a Sigma Sports store in Oakham.
The store will be offering full professional bike fitting services, including video analysis, saddle pressure mapping and custom insole fitting. There’s also a large workshop for servicing, custom bike builds and wheel building.
Sigma Sports’ co-founder and Director, Jason Turner said: “After 28 years of successfully operating our store in South West London, we are excited to take all of our experience and expertise to another part of the UK.
“With its friendly culture, beautiful surroundings and fantastic roads, we believe Oakham is the perfect place for us to open our second store. Our Hampton Wick store is a hub of activity and we cannot wait to bring the same energy and passion to the local area.”
Tour subplot of the day
There’s also going to be a race at the back to make the time cut.
The suffering continues today with a very hard stage 18🥵keep me in your thoughts!😅 pic.twitter.com/vPsAEdoSz5
— Caleb Ewan (@CalebEwan) September 17, 2020
Green jersey wearer Sam Bennett was 30 minutes down yesterday and might be a little nervous about today.
Super job from all the @deceuninck_qst again today in the mountains. Thank you for getting me through🤜🏻#TheWolfpack #tourdefrance #tourdefrance2020
📸 @GettyImages pic.twitter.com/6RtsRsKVgb— Sam Bennett (@Sammmy_Be) September 16, 2020
Latest on Manchester's A56 pop-up bike lane
The pop-up bike lane on the A56 briefly ran from Manchester to Altrincham, but it’s being gradually eaten away.
Went home along one of the remaining sections of the A56 pop-up bike lane. We’ve gained some green cones. But then when you reach White City Circle, you’re just dumped into the general traffic with no clue where you should go. This really isn’t good enough. pic.twitter.com/yJz8Y5Q3ks
— Just Step Sideways Onto Talbot Road (@juststepsways) September 16, 2020
Edward Theuns is leading the Nutcase Classification
Almost 100km/h!
Stage 17 of #TDF2020 offered some spectacular climbing but also some very fast descending. @EdwardTheuns now holds the highest recorded speed in this edition of @LeTour!#TDFdata | @GlobalNTT pic.twitter.com/BNAQXXAosI
— letourdata (@letourdata) September 17, 2020
Not sure what colour jersey you’d get, but there’s a joke there to be made about the bib shorts.
Sagan gets into the break in bid to hoover up green jersey points... but so does Sam Bennett
💚 As might have been predicted, 🇸🇮 @petosagan and 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be head into a large breakaway leading to the day’s Intermediate Sprint at Aime.
Il fallait s’en douter avec le Sprint Intermédiaire, 🇸🇮 @petosagan et 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be sont présents dans la grande échappée.#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/en55vCM76p
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
How the intermediate sprint panned out
Bit weird to be caring about intermediate sprints, isn’t it?
What a strange, strange year.
💚 Intermediate sprint 💚
💚 🇮🇪 @Sammmy_Be: 20 points
🇮🇹 @MATTEOTRENTIN: 17 points
🇸🇰 @petosagan: 15 points#TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/wDfY0pE1Ab— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
‘Cycling app saved my life’ says cyclist after close pass left her unconscious in a ditch
Business Cloud reports that thanks to the Busby app, cyclist Alexandra Callaghan was found by her husband 15 minutes after veering down an embankment following a close pass.
“I was riding down a usually quiet country lane, when a car almost hit me,” she said. “I had to swerve to avoid being hit and ended up down a steep embankment. I was unconscious for some time, bike completely snapped and a few broken bones.”
Launched in October 2019, Busby monitors a smartphone’s movements to detect when a cyclist may have fallen from their bike. If it detects an incident, it gives them 30 seconds to move or respond and if nothing happens, it sends the exact location to an emergency contact via What3Words.
Callaghan’s husband was duly notified that there was a problem and he quickly came and found her.
She said: “My injuries where pretty bad and help was able to get to me, even though I was unconscious in a hard–to–find location. Every cyclist should download this app.”
You can download the Busby app for free on iOS or Android here.
No word when next batch of Fix Your Bike vouchers will be released
No further news on when the next batch of Fix Your Bike Vouchers will be released, says the Energy Saving Trust pic.twitter.com/HiXiY3VO9R
— APPGCW (@allpartycycling) September 17, 2020
We reported a couple of weeks ago how the government’s Fix Your Bike voucher scheme – which allows people to claim £50 to get a neglected old bike back on the road – continues to suffer a number of problems likely to hamper its fundamental goal of encouraging more people to cycle.
A bit of love for a low traffic neighbourhood
Lovely stuff.
The first resident’s dad put chicken wire on the soil at the weekend to stop foxes digging it up. Very much a community effort maintaining it. All say streets much quieter since the filters, inc. at night, and more kids seen playing out @Labourstone @rectripp @BetterStsNewham
— Laura Laker (@laura_laker) September 17, 2020
Substandard cycling infrastructure
Trunk road.
Not all cycle lanes in Bucharest are user-friendly. pic.twitter.com/TWkkPWtKyO
— Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) September 16, 2020
Mikel Landa is having a bit of a go
🇪🇸 @MikelLandaMeana continues his charge and leads the Yellow Jersey group by 27″!
🇪🇸 @MikelLandaMeana continue son effort et il a 27″ d’avance sur le groupe Maillot Jaune !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/T5goxu6633
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
Update: Didn’t last. Slightly regret posting this one.
The mountains classification is close
Weirdly and confusingly, the King of the Mountains could be decided in the final time trial, which finishes with a first category climb.
.@RichardCarapazM takes more points over the top of the Col des Glières. He’s the virtual polka dot jersey right now but there are still points up for grabs in this race. 30km to go #TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/gKLxyYFewU
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) September 17, 2020
Carapaz is into the polka dot jersey
Fitting that the guy born at 3000m will be the Tour’s King of the Mountains. https://t.co/DcWIfKh9Gd
— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) September 17, 2020
Incredible tension in the final kilometre...
Just two team-mates sauntering to the line having already decided which of them will win.
🔻 Flamme Rouge !#TDF2020 pic.twitter.com/nt7hmwr6Y1
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 17, 2020
They then almost made a complete balls of it by riding across the line arm-in-arm.
The wait is over for @kwiato 🇵🇱
Wonderful scenes as Michal Kwiatkowski claims his first Tour de France stage win in front of his @INEOSGrenadiers teammate Richard Carapaz 🙌#TdF2020 pic.twitter.com/lqFvwe5Jfe
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) September 17, 2020
Time Cut Watch
By our reckoning, the time cut today is the winner’s finishing time plus 14% – which would amount to about 40 minutes.
The gruppetto around @Sammmy_Be has summited the Montée du Plateau des Glières with a gap of 30’36” and an average speed of 11.7km/h on the climb#TDF2020 #TDFdata https://t.co/rvAtN08wuD
— letourdata (@letourdata) September 17, 2020
So looks like everyone should be okay.
The photo finish
Today’s photofinish pic.twitter.com/IOzpORa59H
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) September 17, 2020
Paris pop-up bike lanes will be made permanent says mayor
An additional 50 kilometres of Parisian roads were reallocated to cyclists at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
AFP reports that Mayor Anne Hidalgo says they will now be made permanent.
Measures included the one below on the Rue de Rivoli, a huge thoroughfare between the Bastille and the Place de la Concorde.
Rue de Rivoli, Paris, 7 juillet 2020 à 8h45. pic.twitter.com/mCxWm8t1JX
— Brice Perrin (@briceperrin) July 7, 2020
Hidalgo had already promised a bike lane on every street in the French capital before she was re-elected in June.
She says that she wants the city to be “100 per cent” bike-friendly by 2024.
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Latest Comments
Same author writes an article on the costs of safety and one complaining about ticket prices for part of the event.
@mdavidford it is now!
@ChrisA Absolutely, that is definitely the case. However the person of whom I'm thinking, and many others I see online, more or less blatantly say we should have more sympathy for the driver than the deceased cyclist, the attitude being almost how dare the cyclist by riding on an A road or at night or in fog or whatever have taken such risks that have now saddled the poor driver with a lifetime's trauma.
@mdavidford should be 'seeds being sowed', I think
@mdavidford sequins, surely? 😉
Yikes - don't think I'd want to go anywhere near anything where 'joy givers' are in operation - all sounds a bit Black Mirror.
Report from the front: it's already here - just check out any of many 'articles' on the Oxford Mail site, or some of the comments on the Abingdon Blog any time cycling is mentioned.
Is that a mixed media metaphor?
Has anyone else ever looked so self righteous and arrogant on a police mugshot?
It's slightly weird, the more expensive the bikes they dump on us, the more the industry looks in peril. Being someone who rides motorbikes as well as bikes, to say the cycle industry is taking the p155 is an understatement. 10 grand of motorbike buys you so much more than another average 10 grand bike that scores 3.5 in the reviews. Wake up guys and smell something, the golden goose is well and truly migrating.
15 thoughts on “Paris pop-up bike lanes will be made permanent; When will next batch of Fix Your Bike vouchers be released?; Boardman says people riding bikes without helmets is “quite wonderful”; A56 pop-up bike lane being eaten away; Time cut tension at the Tour + more”
Boardman is right, of course.
Boardman is right, of course. There was a row about helmetless riders on Zwift’s Instagram feed a few days ago. Haters gonna hate, etc ad infinitum.
Helmetless riders on Zwift?
Helmetless riders on Zwift? Too right! And what about all of those Grand Turismo players without nomex suits, helmets or HANS? don’t these people think about the message they are sending?
Whataboutery, tut tut. If you
Whataboutery, tut tut. If you ask me Zwift and PD should clearly take a leaf out of EA’s book. If you look carefully the players in Fifa 20 can clearly be seen to be wearing shin guards. That’s the kind of example that digital publishers should be setting. If it saves just one life…..
It’s brilliant that cycling
It’s brilliant that cycling has such a sane and rational person to champion its cause.
Someone that can clearly articulate cycling’s many benefits to all people, and does so without resorting to any negative framing. It’s impossible to see images of places like those in the video and not want that for our children.
I couldn’t bring myself to reply to the comment below, with just negativity and without any constructive argument so just posting my own views independently.
TheColster wrote:
Couldn’t agree more, CB is a wonderful advocate. Thanks for not feeding the trolls, if only others were as sensible.
Good on Boardman, speaking
Good on Boardman, speaking sense as usual.
More of this sort of thing!!
ps. Don’t feed the trolls guys 😉
EddyBerckx wrote:
Looks like your request has fallen on deaf ears. Same old suspects trotting out the same old arguments.
Move on, there’s nothing new being said here.
alchemilla wrote:
FTFY.
It’s no coincidence that road.cc’s regular and vociferous pro-motoring / anti-cycling / victim-blaming lobby are naturally pro-helmet (though only for cyclists).
I think I need hug as I feel
I think I need hug as I feel like crying. Just comparing the attitude and commitment of the mayor of Paris with that of anywhere in the UK.
I live in Paris and London.
I live in Paris and London. Central London is doing some great things with cycle infrastructure and some of it is equal to Paris. The difference I notice is that Paris has more older people, children, women cycling so it feels more ‘normal’. But in central London it’s also very common now to see cargo bikes, kids in cargo bikes and women cyclists. (Still don’t see children cycling) eBikes are popular in Paris. There is a lot of commitment in central London to making the streets safer. The infrastructure in Paris is more contiguous and it’s possible to cycle a long way on a cycle lane. London still has the problem of cycle lanes just disappearing as soon as you leave the central zones. (Zone 1, 2 and 3)
Tesla driver found asleep at
Tesla driver found asleep at wheel of self-driving car doing 150km/h
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/17/canada-tesla-driver-alberta-highway-speeding
Not much of an advert for
Not much of an advert for self driving cars if the tech can’t work out the speed limit and stick to it.
But why would you spend that
But why would you spend that much money on an overly powerful vehicle that stuck to the speed limit?
Boardman spends a lot of his
Boardman spends a lot of his time trying to improve safety for cyclists so I’m particularly disappointed with his position on helmets
Helmets not only offers a measure of safety to the wearer but as importantly it demonstrates the rider taking responsibility for his own safety. For an anti cycling road user (of which they’re are many) their argument can so easily be “why should I make an extra effort for his safety when he shows no interest in doing anything for himself?”.
I also think it is disrespectful to all those people who give up their time to promote helmets as a key safety feature for cyclists to have their efforts rubbished by Boardman.
His position on helmets is
His position on helmets is absolutely correct. They don’t make the top list of things that would make cycling safe, they are not required in countries which have completed the top list of things that make cycling safe, laws which mandate them have a chilling effect on cycling, making cycling less safe by reducing the “safety in numbers” effect, and they are constantly brought up in order to derail discussion from the measures that would make cycling more safe and to deflect blame for the deaths and injuries caused by motor vehicles onto people who ride bikes.
By making this comment, all you’ve done is fall into the trap. Stop talking about helmets. Stop policing other people over whether they wear a helmet or not. Start talking about issues such as infrastructure, presumed liability/hierarchy of road users, lack of legal consequences for motor vehicle users killing cyclists, motor vehicle design, new developments STILL being built with massive numbers of parking spaces, and the various other things that will affect everyone and will actually matter.
Also, that sub-heading about Boardman is absolute and utter clickbait. Shame.