Steep descent + all the mud in Belgium = cyclocross crash chaos; Pro donates 75kg of team kit to Rwandan riders; Cyclists win right to photograph cars parked in bike lanes; Van Vleuten targets double hat-trick; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Weekend round-up: New Forest row; G opts for the Giro; Flash hoops; Eye-catching paint job; Ryan's coffee ride + more
Here’s what you might have missed on road.cc this weekend…
On Saturday, we reported a drink driver had been awarded €4,000 in compensation after winning his case for unfair dismissal. The electrician who was sacked by Irish Rail while serving a prison sentence for crashing into a group of cyclists while drunk and uninsured, leaving two of them with life-changing injuries, was awarded the sum following an employment tribunal. Read more here…
> Take a look at the limited edition Motoki Yoshio Colnago C68
Geraint Thomas looks set to race the Giro d’Italia in 2023 and described the Tour’s lack of time trialling as “disappointing”. “I’m not too sure why they’ve done that,” the 2018 winner said.
“When I did my first Tour in 2007 – okay, it was a long time ago – it had two TTs of 50km plus, so it’s quite extreme to go the other way like that. Those TT days are big iconic stages as well. This year there were only three big bunch sprints, which are iconic stages as well. Maybe they’re just trying to mix it up completely. I think it’s disappointing there’s not more [time trialling].”
Four stars, “real world speed boost on a sensible budget” — could these be your next set of hoops?
And finally…
> New Forest chiefs’ anti-cycling attitude akin to apartheid advocates, says local club
> Coffee & Ride with komoot: Ryan’s daunting yet delightful day in the Dromara Hills
> Win! Three Magicshine lights bundles must be won worth a total of £1,168!
Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert being the good guys
Rein Taaramäe is heading to Rwanda with 75 kilos of professional cycling gear for the local cyclists 🇷🇼
Thank you Rein 🙏 pic.twitter.com/FY3HdxrOMY
— Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert (@IntermarcheWG) November 6, 2022
Courts rules in favour of Bavarian cycling activists fined for breaching data protection regulation when photographing cars parked in their way
Two cyclists in Germany have won the right to photograph badly-parked vehicles blocking cycle paths and pavements. The administrative court in Ansbach, Bavaria, ruled in favour of the pair who had been fined €100 (£87) each for breaching data protection regulation by taking pictures of the vehicles and sending images to the police.
The Guardian reports the Office for Data Protection Surveillance argued a complaint could be made without a picture, just by handing over number plate information along with the date and time. However, one of the riders successfully argued that without photographic evidence the complaint would just be one person’s word against another’s.
Environmental Action Germany (DUH) said the ruling sets a precedent and urged more people to submit evidence of illegally-parked drivers.
"Sorry pal... that's your lot... enjoy the A-road..."
When your Salford cycle lane enters Trafford pic.twitter.com/Oo5LlYWEet
— Harry Gray (@HarryHamishGray) November 7, 2022
Best cycling gear 2022 | road.cc Recommends episode 20
20mph speed limit could save Wales £100m in first year
Setting a default 20mph on residential roads in Wales will save £100 million in the first year alone, research from Transport Research Institute (TRI) at Edinburgh Napier University in conjunction with Public Health Wales estimates.
The default limit will be rolled out in September 2023, with deaths and injuries expected to fall. The Institute’s research suggests as many as 100 lives could be saved over a decade.
> Wales set to reduce default speed limit to 20mph in residential areas
“Evidence suggests that the health benefits of 20mph are far, far greater than casualty savings alone. They include increased physical activity, and therefore less obesity, less stress and less anxiety, as well as other health benefits such as reduced noise and air pollution,” the report states.
“We know from previous studies that 20mph encourages more walking and cycling and in doing so improves cardiorespiratory health, as well as reducing stress and anxiety, thereby improving mental health. With more walking and cycling comes less car use, improving air quality and therefore improving health.”
Pack a towel
Cs7 more lake than cycle lane. @TfL pic.twitter.com/Svqaixfyvj
— Lee Christensen (@wreckeddeco) November 7, 2022
There's a Hummer e-bike and it's pretty much what you'd imagine
“A fat tyred behemoth with twin 750W hub motors,” is how e-bike tips’ Alex described this latest addition to the e-bike market. And although it isn’t actually made by General Motors, the Hummer licensing agreement means this not-so-slimline bike is on the market, carrying the monster vehicle’s name… at €3,999 a pop…
A double hat-trick? Annemiek van Vleuten eyes another Grand Tour clean sweep in final season of her career
[ 📷:Alex Broadway/SWpix.com]
World champion Annemiek van Vleuten has no plans to wind down before her retirement at the end of the 2023 season, confirming she will once again compete at the Giro d’Italia Donne, Tour de France Femmes and La Vuelta Femenina next year.
The rebranded women’s Vuelta will be a seven-day race next season and moves from September to May, something which hasn’t put Van Vleuten off going for a third GC win at the race in a row.
> From Coppi to Van Vleuten: Cycling’s greatest ever seasons
“I am clear I want to race both the Giro and Tour again,” she told Ciclismo El Pelotón. “It is something that I’ve already been talking about with my coach and with my team. I still love racing in Italy, and I want to ride one more Giro. It would be a first big block of competition from Flanders to the Vuelta, and a second block including Giro and Tour.
“Stage races reward consistency, which is something that suits me well. I’m very consistent in the Classics, too, but the level is so high on the day that it’s harder to win them. And the climbs that are in them are often too short for me. I still like them, though.
“I’m happy to see famous climbs in the [Tour de France] route for next year, with the Tourmalet finish. It’s made me excited already. It was important that we have an uphill finish with a climb that has a big name.
“I’m also happy to see a time trial in this Tour de France. I would say that last year we had an awesome start. This year they’ve fine tuned the parcours a little bit and I think they did a good job.”
"It was really, really awful. I hated cycling so much": Tom Dumoulin opens up about on-bike struggles during 2020 season
[ 📷: LaPresse/RCS Sport]
Tom Dumoulin has done an interview with Dutch media outlet NRC in which he says he is now able to “feel the love for” cycling again, but is happy to “stay away from a professional team” post-retirement.
“For the first time in my life I can fill in everything myself,” he said. “I start with a completely blank page and where I’m going, I have no idea. And I’d like to leave it that way because it feels good.”
Dumoulin also spoke of the pain which led to him taking a break from the sport in the first half of 2021 before returning to win Olympic silver and a national championship, stepping away for good in August.
“It was really, really awful. I hated cycling so much, and I hated being there so much,” Dumoulin explained. “Still I was able to help the team and I finished seventh. I really don’t understand how that is possible. And then you have to imagine that the world was able to watch during the most unfortunate period of my life.”
Sir Jim Ratcliffe strikes again?
Here’s the social media rumour going around this afternoon — fuelled by pure speculation… ‘Boyhood Man United fan’ Sir Jim Ratcliffe (who foots the bill for Ineos’ sporting empire) who was also previously interested in buying Chelsea… has now entered the race to buy Liverpool? It’s almost like it doesn’t matter who he buys…
Very early stages but expecting Sir Jim Ratcliffe to be at the front of the queue to purchase Liverpool Football Club.
It would align well with what the club requires too.
— The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) November 7, 2022
“Thank you for your warm welcome to Old Traff… sorry, I mean Anfield…”
Our kind of party
After the mud, crashes and mayhem, there’s this…
This is how cyclo-cross races end in Belgium 🇧🇪 🥳
🎥 @sangukaii#EuroCross22💫 #Namur
pic.twitter.com/rr2h7ZZUJk— Tormans Cyclo Cross Team (@tormanscross) November 7, 2022
Let’s hope anyone riding had a chance for a shower first…
Steep descent + all the mud in Belgium = cyclocross crash chaos
Mud, glorious mud…
THIS muddy and slippery (from the Masters champs this morning, Friday) pic.twitter.com/oKxKscvAPd
— Matt J Smith 🏴 (@_urban_spaceman) November 4, 2022
It was a big, ol’ weekend of Belgian cyclocross with the European Championships held at the infamously lumpy (and muddy) Namur. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) the organisers appeared to have straightened this turn out by Saturday so the big names wouldn’t have to plummet down a wall of sheer muddy steepness…straight into a 90-degree bend…
Anyway, on the course Fem van Empel and Michael Vanthourenhout took the jerseys in the elite races, but women’s U23 champ Puck Pieterse and men’s U23 silver medallist Thibau Nys were our heroes of the weekend for their skills…
PUCK IS THE COOLEST PERSON I LOVE HER SO MUCH 😍 #EuroCross22 pic.twitter.com/TGoP7Kmt2y
— Katy M (@writebikerepeat) November 6, 2022
Nys riding that climb 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/noiXdQ94pL
— Peter. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿🚴♂️ (@PBXscribes) November 5, 2022
Get that lad on a road bike smashing it up the Paterberg please…
It wasn’t just the pros though…closer to home poor James had one hell of a bike cleaning job yesterday afternoon…
Not sure why my cyclocross bike stopped working at the western league CX race today pic.twitter.com/QCggsfe2DS
— James Bovey (@cheeseworth3) November 6, 2022
7 November 2022, 09:09
7 November 2022, 09:09
7 November 2022, 09:09
7 November 2022, 09:09
Until tomorrow when Ryan will be back on live blog duty...
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Latest Comments
The main issue is the layout of the stages with the bigger climb first then a shallow finish climb. It means pogacar can get a gap at the top of the big climb and then stretch 10-15 seconds to a minute plus at the finish over smaller riders like Vingegaard. A summit finish on the hardest climb might not lead to the most exciting racing but equally would keep the gaps closer. I totally agree with the TT kms though, they should have 60+km tts in the grand tours.
@MaxiMinimalist I mean, that statement makes it sound like they had reason to think those two are doping. Either they didn't follow procedure and are making shit up to cover themselves up or something is going on.
Quite possibly. But the changeover time loss would be a bit more significant if it was done on the flat just after the downhill when the riders are travelling faster, the deceleration, changeover and acceleration loss could easily be around 30 seconds, which is quite a lot of a 34 minute effort.
So Skoda have taken a leaf out of Dung-Old Karen Taco Trump's book and are re-naming something when they have no authority to do so?
@Mr Blackbird Fair points, though I was wondering if doing the climb and descent on a standard bike and swapping to TT for the flat section would have been worth it? Certainly quite a few riders seemed to be having handling difficulties maintaining the best line on the descent with their TT machines.
No. The climb wasn't severely steep and allowed a reasonable speed to be maintained on a TT bike, his bike handling skills on road or TT bike are outstanding for the descent and on a road bike he would have lost a lot of time on the flat last 9k section. Terrific performance by him though!
Would he have performed better on his normal bike?
the National Bus and Rail Union told the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) the following month, saying the requirements (making the cyclist scum wear helmets and HiViz) would, “make the roads a safer place, as it would make potential hazards easier to spot.” Nothing to do with driver behaviour then? Stagecoach is even putting intimidating threats against cyclists on the side of the buses now! ttps://upride.cc/incident/px60beo_stagecoach41-closepass/
.......the government was focused on the “enormity of the e-scooter problem” Just wait until they find out how absolutely effing gigantic the car problem is. The whole thing is just motornormativity at government level, and while Ciarán Cannon talks sense, Seán Canney is fecking eejit.
40% of fatal road incidents (70 deaths p.a.) in Ireland involve excess alcohol. Pass a law mandating compulsory alcohol interlocks for all motor vehicles and see what that does for road safety first.
30 thoughts on “Steep descent + all the mud in Belgium = cyclocross crash chaos; Pro donates 75kg of team kit to Rwandan riders; Cyclists win right to photograph cars parked in bike lanes; Van Vleuten targets double hat-trick; Weekend round-up + more on the live blog”
Absurb car culture
Absurb car culture
Abetted by police. “They have to make a delivery”. Well walk then, carry it, use a trolley, use a cargo bike.
https://twitter.com/EclecticHams/status/1589281938530967552
Just bonkers americans.
The pilice officer, whilst
The police officer, whilst trying to be “reasonable” eventually ended up accidentally dumping the lady on crutches on the ground.
Interesting that a police officer believes that being reasonable means permitting people to break the law. I think there is an 80 year old cyclist wondering where this guy was when he got ticketed in a pedestrianised area.
I read that story on one of
I read that story on one of the tabloids and the ‘newspaper’ was saying that the road wasn’t actually closed to motor traffic at all and the woman was ‘being a fanatic’.
Except that five seconds on google shows that road IS closed to motor traffic, except it’s open for deliveries between 5pm and 10pm (and apparently the road closure was lifted completely earlier in the year because of maintenance works on a nearby road).
Seems to me that (1) the delivery driver was there too early, and (2) the police were indeed facilitating lawbreaking by just waving through a queue of traffic.
It’s apparently 4pm on now,
It’s apparently 4pm on now, but his video was shot outside of those. Times
just install either bollards or gates, and then there won’t be a choice given to the police of facilitating law breaking or just ticketing drivers instead. Simple and effective.
im really hoping the IPCc got a submission from those involved.
We have a similar situation
We have a similar situation in the centre of Spalding where there is a notionally pedestrian area but with no barriers or enforcement. I would have thought ANPR cameras at the entrance to it should be sufficient to resolve the problem…
Well if the police have no
Well if the police have no interest in it, it would be down to the council to apply to the DfT for moving traffic enforcement powers and find the ~25k needed for the camera.
obviously they could use the same reasoning that led to the restrictions being introduced in the first place to do it, but normally they like to balance it back with it improves bus journey times or lowers congestion, whereas this is just well makes it nicer for pedestrians to walk down.
but local traffic regulations
but local traffic regulations like this, will often include an exemption for Royal Mail deliveries, and its also technically a crime to delay the delivery of mail…so Id be interested to see if the postie there could actually have driven down that road to deliver post, even if no-one else is supposed to, and there is a priority post box on the corner there.
as for the rest well yes the police can order you to break a traffic rule, just like if they tell you to go through a red light.
Interesting post from mark
Interesting thread from mark hodson
https://mobile.twitter.com/markandcharlie/status/1589171860901883904
Could do with a road.cc article
Residential speed limit of
Residential speed limit of 20mph to save Wales £100m in first year – https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/07/residential-speed-limit-20mph-wales
PDF of the research – https://blogs.napier.ac.uk/tri/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2022/11/Technical-Paper-101.The-value-of-prevention.AD_.pdf
Impossible, everyone knows
Impossible, everyone knows that we have to move faster for business and to grow the economy! Why, you’ll be saying much of the premise of HS2 is spurious next…
chrisonatrike wrote:
Just like every independent analysis of the project. It didn’t have an economic case when it was only £30bn; it’s somewhere north of £100bn now.
chrisonatrike wrote:
Well that’s just it – saving the Government (or society) from spending money doesn’t actually help grow GDP – quite the opposite. Think of all the doctors, nurses, police officers, ambulance drivers, car repairers, insurance claims handlers, personal injury lawyers etc. that would be out of jobs if we didn’t have car crashes!
We wouldn’t have all these
A good point. That’s how much of the government sees “active travel”. It seems to be a cost. A “nice to have” but at best an indulgence. Anyone can see that motoring generates lots of money, right? Except of course that analyses are increasingly showing that because we ignore many of the costs motoring is actually a net cost. It is also rather “centralising” and not as great for “resilience” as walking and cycling. However in its favour it certainly generates large concentrations of money for some people / organisations – far more than e.g. cycling – and that can be converted into political capital (Big Bung theory).
Can we have a round of
Can we have a round of applause for the two Bavarian cyclists who took their case to court to allow them to photograph illegal drivers; if they had lost the repercussions would have been disastrous.
How would Cycling Mikey fill his day?
eburtthebike wrote:
?????
eburtthebike wrote:
I find it strange that GDPR was invoked at all as the UK version of it allows exceptions (or doesn’t apply to) processing for the purposes of crime detection/prevention. It also doesn’t tend to apply for non-commercial, personal use which I would consider should apply to citizens wishing to report unlawful parking/driving etc.
The Germans are really
The Germans are really sensitive about data protection, particularly when it comes to government held data. Don’t forget that it is within living memory that a significant proportion of the population lived under a police state, so the authorities try not to get involved with anything that could allow tracking of individual’s movements. Thankfully it appears the courts can demonstrate their indepedence and common sense in cases like this.
Two cyclists in Germany have
Two cyclists in Germany have won the right to photograph badly-parked vehicles blocking cycle paths and pavements
I find it strange that GDPR was invoked at all as the UK version of it allows exceptions (or doesn’t apply to) processing for the purposes of …
This doesn’t stop the Filth trying it on as a work and motorist-saving dodge. I have demonstrated several times the stupid dodging on OpSnapLancs which introduces this nonsense which they claim requires you to have a sign on your legs if you’re filming offenders going through red lights or using handheld mobile phones while driving:
I confirm that I understand that dashcam footage falls under the Category of CCTV and as the footage is taken in the public domain, the Domestic Purposes Exemption under the Data Protection Act/UKGDPR does not apply and therefore all users are Data Controllers in their own right. As such you should be informing the public that they are being filmed and should have some form of notification on your mode of transport as you have responsibilities under the Data Protection Act /UKGDPR
With apologies to ‘Catch 22’: it’s some dodge that Lancashire Constabulary dodge!
Of course you can happily
Of course you can happily tick that because of the sloppy language: “I [the submitter] confirm… you [the police] should be informing the public that they are being filmed” etc
My solution to the fact that
My solution to the fact that you have to lie to have the submission accepted by Lancashire Constabulary is to declare the opposite in the text. It doesn’t matter because they don’t respond to anything anyway
Get some sticky letter sheets
Get some sticky letter sheets with a font size of say 3mm and put on the side of your top bar “I am filming you” job done!
Re the CX bike, it seems
Re the CX bike, it seems fairly obvious to me, his chain has come off….
a rather unchained melody.
a rather unchained melody.
Cycle Roundabout
Cycle Roundabout
Soon to be a residents’ overflow car park
Yup – as the comment says,
Yup – as the comment says, this is the work of someone who can’t tell the difference between a bike and a car. Or rather just doesn’t understand bikes.
Bicycle Dutch has a couple of articles explaining this sort of misunderstanding:
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/07/24/a-bicycle-roundabout-in-boxtel/
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/a-bicycle-roundabout-that-shouldnt-have-been-built/
Now a real “cycle roundabout” would be if – and only if you need to get cyclists at-grade across a roundabout. Better ways might involve sending cars another way entirely or a grade-separated design – because roundabouts are motor vehicle infrastructure. If you need to though: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2019/04/09/riding-random-roundabouts/
Or some early (e.g. new) UK versions: https://www.camcycle.org.uk/blog/2020/07/cambridge-celebrates-arrival-of-uks-first-dutch-style-roundabout/
No wonder, it’s SRAM
No wonder the chain has been dropped on “James Bovey’s” bike, it’s SRAM drivetrain.
Their derailiuers have no clutch adjustment at all…
Re te cyclocross : Love how
Re te cyclocross : Love how the guy at the top at 0:02 actually sits himself in the mud to slide down the slope.
Drivers and speeding.
Drivers and speeding.
Comedy programme but confirms the idea that speeding isn’t important.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dwt9?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
I thought it was going that
I thought it was going that way to start with – grrr! – but tbf he did book her, and pursued when turned out to be disqualified. So on balance, feel the point was made.
I was thinking of the
I was thinking of the audience voting and comments rather than the presenter’s story.