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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

Today's live blog with Alex Bowden (daytime) and Simon MacMichael (evening)...
UPDATED Thu, Sep 17, 2020 13:59
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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 + moreRue de Rivoli (via Twitter video)
17 September 2020, 16:07
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.

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.

17 September 2020, 15:52
The photo finish
17 September 2020, 15:27
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.

So looks like everyone should be okay.

17 September 2020, 15:21
Incredible tension in the final kilometre...

Just two team-mates sauntering to the line having already decided which of them will win.

They then almost made a complete balls of it by riding across the line arm-in-arm.

17 September 2020, 15:13
Carapaz is into the polka dot jersey
17 September 2020, 14:44
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.

17 September 2020, 14:39
Mikel Landa is having a bit of a go

Update: Didn't last. Slightly regret posting this one.

17 September 2020, 14:16
Substandard cycling infrastructure

Trunk road.

17 September 2020, 13:51
A bit of love for a low traffic neighbourhood

Lovely stuff.

17 September 2020, 12:58
17 September 2020, 11:42
No word when next batch of Fix Your Bike vouchers will be released

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.

17 September 2020, 11:30
busby app.PNG
‘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.

17 September 2020, 11:17
How the intermediate sprint panned out

Bit weird to be caring about intermediate sprints, isn't it?

What a strange, strange year.

17 September 2020, 10:44
Sagan gets into the break in bid to hoover up green jersey points... but so does Sam Bennett
17 September 2020, 09:18
Edward Theuns is leading the Nutcase Classification

Not sure what colour jersey you'd get, but there's a joke there to be made about the bib shorts.

17 September 2020, 08:54
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.

17 September 2020, 08:50
Tour subplot of the day

There's also going to be a race at the back to make the time cut.

Green jersey wearer Sam Bennett was 30 minutes down yesterday and might be a little nervous about today.

17 September 2020, 08:44
Sigma Sports_Oakham
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.”

17 September 2020, 08:28
Today's stage of the Tour de France

Uppy-downy. Just about the last thing you'd want after yesterday's zany finish.

17 September 2020, 08:16
Niche tweet of the day

He means sublimation printing.

17 September 2020, 08:10
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:

And here's the segment that gave rise to all of this:

Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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15 comments

Avatar
Triblokerich | 3 years ago
0 likes

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.

Avatar
Luca Patrono replied to Triblokerich | 3 years ago
6 likes

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.

Avatar
brooksby | 3 years ago
0 likes

Tesla driver found asleep at wheel of self-driving car doing 150km/h

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/17/canada-tesla-driver-albert...

Quote:

Police in Canada have charged a man with speeding and dangerous driving after he was found asleep at the wheel of his self-driving car as it travelled at 150km/h down a highway in the province of Alberta.

Announcing the charges on Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said that on 9 July they received a complaint that a Model S Tesla vehicle was speeding on the highway near the town of Ponoka.

“The car appeared to be self-driving, traveling over 140km/h, with both front seats completely reclined and both occupants appearing to be asleep,” the RCMP said in a statement.

 

Avatar
Hirsute replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
2 likes

Not much of an advert for self driving cars if the tech can't work out the speed limit and stick to it.

Avatar
ktache replied to Hirsute | 3 years ago
0 likes

But why would you spend that much money on an overly powerful vehicle that stuck to the speed limit?

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eburtthebike | 3 years ago
5 likes

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.

Avatar
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
2 likes

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)

Avatar
EddyBerckx | 3 years ago
21 likes

Good on Boardman, speaking sense as usual.

More of this sort of thing!!

ps. Don't feed the trolls guys 3

Avatar
alchemilla replied to EddyBerckx | 3 years ago
9 likes
EddyBerckx wrote:

Good on Boardman, speaking sense as usual.

More of this sort of thing!!

ps. Don't feed the trolls guys 3

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.

Avatar
Simon E replied to alchemilla | 3 years ago
4 likes

alchemilla wrote:

Same old suspects trotting out the same old arguments bullshit, lies and utter bollocks

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).

Avatar
TheColster | 3 years ago
14 likes

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.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to TheColster | 3 years ago
3 likes

TheColster wrote:

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.

Couldn't agree more, CB is a wonderful advocate.  Thanks for not feeding the trolls, if only others were as sensible.

Avatar
caw35ride | 3 years ago
12 likes

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.

Avatar
John Smith replied to caw35ride | 3 years ago
8 likes

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?

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to John Smith | 3 years ago
3 likes

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.....

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