“Stop this”: Jeremy Vine appeals to motorists over manoeuvre “making it dangerous to use a bicycle”; Cross your fingers for no stomach issue DNFs — Tour of Britain pros cool off in the sea; How many watts to keep up with Van Aert? + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
road.cc is 15! Here are our top 15 articles of all time (plus plenty of honourable mentions)
> road.cc is 15! Here are our top 15 articles of all time (plus plenty of honourable mentions)
I see my hungover mid-Christmas week live blog whinging about losing a Strava KOM didn’t make the cut, but whatever… that’s fine… maybe I’ll set up a rival ‘my 15 worst live blogs’ feature over the weekend…
Cross your fingers for no 'stomach issue' DNFs... Tour of Britain riders cool off in the sea
Post-race cool down, the old-school way 🌊#TourOfBritain 🔴🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/uB2OqZnY5A
— The Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) September 7, 2023
Tanfield and Townsend take a dip…
Those riders jumping in the sea in Felixstowe after the stage. Who’s going to tell them? 💩
— Ian Cleverly (@iancleverly) September 7, 2023
As per The Rivers Trust…
That little clearing on the coast is Felixstowe, just along from Aldeburgh where, The River Trust notes, “in 2022, this sewer storm overflow spilled 65 times for a total of 200.75 hours, discharging into the North Sea.”
Stick to the black shorts today, lads…
Super serious tactical breakdown of the Tour of Britain
The #TourofBritain so far: pic.twitter.com/Vi2XkLl92z
— Tour de Tietema (@tourdetietema) September 8, 2023
How many watts to keep up with Van Aert?
Excuse me? For a minute? Well then, we might as well all pack up and go home…
A sensational attack from Wout van Aert 🤯💪
The Team Jumbo-Visma rider unleashed huge power to win Stage 5 of the Tour of Britain 😲⚡️
📸 @swpixtweets
___________________
🇬🇧 #TourOfBritain pic.twitter.com/g9XlVzx1sC— Velon CC (@VelonCC) September 7, 2023
BIKE NEWS: Ridley combines light weight and aerodynamics on new Falcn RS road bike + Trek lightens entry-level Domane AL road bikes
> Ridley combines light weight and aerodynamics on new Falcn RS road bike
We’ve already got a review of that one, if you’re interested…
> REVIEW: Ridley Falcn RS 2023
Oh, and over at Trek too…
> Trek lightens entry-level Domane AL road bikes
That after our report yesterday on its new plan to accept used bikes and sell second-hand as part of sustainability drive, even if it “means making and selling less”.
What if you swapped Vine for a car? Your reaction to the big story on the live blog this morning...
Reaction time as there are plenty of you getting stuck into the comments section with your thoughts on this one…
mitsky: “About the newest clip from Jeremy Vine… If anyone is questioning whether he (JV) was making too much of it or if the driver was in the wrong, maybe he can do a motor vehicle overlay like CycleGaz has done recently to some clips.
“Then ask if the same manoeuvre by the delivery driver would be acceptable if it was towards a motorist rather than a cyclist… I’m not holding my breath.”
Oldfatgit: “Amazing, innit? ‘You should have slowed down to let him turn in front’ … advice that only seems to exist where the traffic being impeded is a bike. If Jeremy had been driving, would the comments have been the same? Absolutely not.”
AidanR: “Also, nobody would say that a driver was going too fast when travelling at what I suspect is no more than 15mph.”
Live blog bingo... CyclingMikey and Mr Loophole are the guests on Good Morning Britain for camera cyclist discussion
‘[By looking at your phone at the wheel] effectively your topping up your brain to the level of a drink-driver at every traffic light.’
‘It isn’t reducing the number of people committing these offences.’@MikeyCycling films people using their phones at the wheel. Is this right? pic.twitter.com/EtdlzgVAKe
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 8, 2023
One mention of disc brakes or helmets and we’ll have a full house by lunchtime…
Shocking video shows multiple cyclists getting hit by "unaware" drivers on a contraflow cycle lane
> Shocking video shows multiple cyclists getting hit by “unaware” drivers on a contraflow cycle lane
Mass protest calls for Battersea Bridge to be made safer for cyclists
> Mass protest calls for Battersea Bridge to be made safer for cyclists
Remc-oh! Evenepoel DROPPED early on Vuelta's Tourmalet stage
⏪ 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐥 💥
🤍 Muchos problemas para @EvenepoelRemco que lucha por aguantar las ruedas del 2º grupo, rodeado de sus compañeros.
😱 Big problems for Remco as he struggles to hold the wheels of the 2nd group on the road, surrounded by his teammates.#LaVuelta23 pic.twitter.com/nVAMG7GHDf
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 8, 2023
Remco Evenpoel’s Vuelta defence has gone up in smoke and we’re not even at the penultimate climb of stage 13, the Belgian dropping out the front of the race on the Aubisque, along with João Almeida and is now well back.
Jumbo-Visma are unsurprisingly pushing on with their big three stars still in contact. Juan Ayuso, Marc Soler, Enric Mas, Aleksandr Vlasov and Mikel Landa are all up front too.
Two big climbs to go, ending with the Tourmalet summit finish. We’ll bring you the results from the Tour of Britain and the Simac Tour before then…
The Jeremy Vine archives
Take a Jeremy Vine-themed trip down memory lane…
> Jeremy Vine calls for drivers to be banned from overtaking cyclists in cities
> Van driver narrowly avoids hitting cyclist, yells “f*** off” at Jeremy Vine
> “I am still allowed to praise cycle lanes”: Jeremy Vine responds to BBC impartiality ruling
> Jeremy Vine breached BBC’s impartiality rules by publicly supporting LTNs
> Jeremy Vine offers to pay £75 fine of woman booked for cycling in Bedford town centre
Jumbo-Visma FINALLY beaten at Tour of Britain, Charlotte Kool wins at Simac Tour
It ‘only’ took until day number six for Jumbo-Visma to finally be beaten at this year’s Tour of Britain…
DANNY VAN POPPEL ENDS JUMBO – VISMA’S RUN IN HARLOW 🏆
The @BORAhansgrohe rider edges out Ethan Vernon by inches to win stage six. #TourOfBritain 🔴🔵⚪️ pic.twitter.com/57vm1yWPPu
— The Tour of Britain 🇬🇧 (@TourofBritain) September 8, 2023
The Dutch team was well beaten today, Olav Kooij fading in the final 100m, Ethan Vernon and Danny van Poppel contesting the bike throw. Stage win number five of the week for the Dutch…
There were a couple of crashes that overshadowed the run into Harlow, Fernando Gaviria abandoning after the first of the two before half the peloton was brought down in a high-speed pile-up near the finish. Fingers crossed everyone made it out of that one as fit and healthy as you can be.
No prizes for guessing who’s getting the combativity award again tonight. The only issue might be the tension within the team that overspilled into a police incident at today’s start…
👮♂️ That’s one way to overcome theft…
Thanks, @WYP_ceg! 🫂#TourofBritain pic.twitter.com/3ZK1cvdAGX
— Tour de Tietema (@tourdetietema) September 8, 2023
Over in the Netherlands, Charlotte Kool won the second sprint of the week at the Simac Tour, again compatriot Lorena Wiebes having to settle for second. The weekend promises to be an emotional farewell to Annemiek van Vleuten, with enough lumpiness on the route to tease the thought of a perfect farewell to one of the sport’s greats.
"A performance like no other": Jumbo-Visma playing PlayStation cycling on easy mode; Vingegaard, Kuss, Roglič 1-2-3 atop the Tourmalet
Domination. Utter domination…
With Evenpoel a distant memory, Jumbo-Visma completed one of the most memorable Grand Tour mountain stage performances in recent history, pulling off a quite ridiculous 1-2-3 on the Vuelta’s French adventure up the Tourmalet.
Fittingly, it was two-time Tour champ Jonas Vingegaard who took the stage win, taking off with seven kilometres to go and never looking like being caught as Sepp Kuss and Primož Roglič enjoyed a free ride behind (as free a ride as you can have up the Tourmalet).
With the stage win secured, Kuss set off after his teammate, crossing the line 30 seconds behind, Roglič then coming into shot three seconds behind.
🤪 Y entran… SEPP KUSS y PRIMOZ ROGLIC. ¡Exhibición!
😎 And here they come… SEPP KUSS and cousin ROGLIC. What an exhibition!#LaVuelta23 pic.twitter.com/9osAmQbLKA— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) September 8, 2023
"Almost like the plane ran over it!": UCI Worlds Gran Fondo rider's Cervélo wrecked in flight transit, but Air Canada denies any responsibility
"Stop this": Jeremy Vine appeals to motorists over manoeuvre "making it dangerous to use a bicycle"
Jeremy Vine’s editing game has reached quite incredible levels… (enticed by £3 tickets for National Cinema Day, this live blogger may or may not have enjoyed last Saturday’s sunshine by watching Jurassic Park indoors, I’m starting to wonder how long before we get trailers for Vine’s Nolanesque productions beforehand)… sorry, I got distracted, where were we?
Yes, in one minute we get: the original footage, an introductory message, a message on the side of the offending vehicle, mood-setting music, replays, CSI zooming in, analysis, and a plot twist that the driver actually waved a hand of apology that Vine concludes “means so much” and he has “accepted”. What a rollercoaster…
STOP THIS.
It’s making it dangerous to use a bicycle. pic.twitter.com/q5HQLPJdgd— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) September 8, 2023
Of course, it wouldn’t be one of the BBC and Channel 5 broadcaster’s cycling videos without it appearing on Twitter, almost certainly racking up the views throughout the day and causing something of a bin fire in the replies…
In fact, it’s only been up for an hour and a half and there are already comments to the tune of…
“I agree the lorry driver should have taken some more care. However, you’re going pretty fast on that bike in a very built up area Jeremy. Maybe you too should slow down a bit? Indication was well in advance to warn you!”
The driver began indacating at this point.
Instead of wagging your finger at him, you could have slowed down at a *checks notes* junction? pic.twitter.com/YzuI5UAYzh
— Jonathan Bergdahl (@JonBergdahl) September 8, 2023
“He shouldn’t have done it. But the smart, safe thing to do would have been to let him go, and not insisted on going in front then squeezing up the side.”
Thoughts?
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Latest Comments
I'm sure Scribe will be chuffed to bits referencing a pair of 3 year old wheels, another problem with hunts is you just never know what the prices are with the stupid sales it puts me off
Ards and North Down Cycling Campaign earlier this week held an event with local police encouraging drivers to leave a safe passing distance of 1.5m when overtaking cyclists This will achieve nothing whatsoever, because the drivers and the discouraged potential cyclists all know that the police postscript to the pretend encouragement is: 'but if you choose not to, don't worry because we have no intention of even thinking about enforcing the 1.5m distance, just like all the other UK police forces, and it doesn't matter if it's only 10% of that. Try not to hit them unless you have to get them out of the way, but if you do, scarper and you'll probably get away with it. If you've been drinking, just say you had a few drinks after you got home to calm your nerves after hitting what you thought was a fridge or a sack of potatoes, if they show up at your door.
Sadly, I feel that the reaction to this will be the same as the many multiple shootings that the US endures, every year - shock, tears and platitudes, swiftly returning to the status quo (untill the next time)
@Velo-drone I did not submit reports of either of the two heinous close passes I experienced with my daughter while on holiday there in half term But you could show them to us! I sent one to upRide today: it's the silver Kuga above, and will likely be viewable in a couple of days, and the long holdup on here can be sidestepped by simply omitting the 'h' from the https at the beginning of the link. It's all very easy to do. Other hosting sites are available.
@matthewn5 On which - I've not been there (and I've heard from a couple of cyclists online who say that they *are* good...) but I suspect the following blog post (from 2012 - As Easy As Riding A Bike) nails it: "They built it, and they didn’t come – the lesson of Milton Keynes" Verdict: the place was designed (1) for very convenient driving (not surprising - aspirational driving was the thing at the time, they had a blank canvas etc). (2) While the designer genuinely tried to provide for cyclists that comes across as "we need to get the cyclists off the roads because we fixed it for the cars to move fast". As is common (across the decades) in the UK it's nominal safety from motor vehicles but at major cost to convenience. Not to mention lack of social safety. FWIW there's also videos online by Alexei Sayle of him cycling around giant car parks there...
@mitsky Doesn't matter ..... Insurance / No insurance, License / No license These types will drive anyway!
@VIPcyclist Agree regarding cycle lanes, but the article is referring to cycle _tracks_ in Milton Keynes, which if I remember rightly are segregated but also don't run next to roads, so they're often quiet, dimly lit and secluded.
First, the actual change from issuing a bunch of "warning letters" to basically taking no action on anything is more or less no change to be honest. There is no evidence that sending a warning letter does anything. Not all forces even keep a record of warning letters. I'm aware of no actual empirical study of outcomes from sending a warning letter. Its main purpose therefore can only be to say that something has been done, rather than to actually improve road safety outcomes, because nobody cares enough to check if it achieves any outcome. It's the equivalent of finding a bike thief, and popping in a note through the door saying "please don't do that", and considering it an effective response. The apparent discrepancy between the NPCC position given early in the article, and the judgment later on that the Derbyshire policy "appears in line with the guidance" muddies the water considerably. There is a gaping lack of clarity over what police forces can and can't (or will and won't) do under the NPCC guidance. The suggestion for cyclists to provide speed measurements is silly - most cyclists don't have that capability, or won't be using it on e.g commuting rides. It's not clear why the speed of the cyclist is particularly relevant in any case? The Highway Code guidance relating to passing cyclists refers only to the speed of the motor vehicle. Saying you'll only take action in "exceptional circumstances" but not giving any indication what those circumstances might be is tantamount to saying "don't bother reporting, because it's 99% likely to be a complete waste of your and our time and we're not going to tell you how you might assess whether your case might be in the 1%" So, unsurprisingly the Derbyshire Police policy does seem to have at least one clear impact. I did not submit reports of either of the two heinous close passes I experienced with my daughter while on holiday there in half term. Why would I? Why would anyone? And why would it be a surprise that some drivers in Derbyshire choose to drive as if they have a free rein to endanger cyclists lives without fear of any consequence - because in fact they do. The notion that "forensic analysis" is needed to determine if a close pass is actionable or not is nonsensical. I would say laughable, but it's not really a laughing matter. It is not necessary to determine if the car is 140cm vs 151cm away. It is generally perfectly obvious whether the car is less than a car's width away, or more than a car's width away. That's sufficient to make a reasonable judgement on whether the driving could be considered careless or not - bearing in mind that the vast majority of actioned cases would be easily visually identifiable as substantially below that distance.
@Pub bike 10,000 men find out a year they’ve got prostate cancer too late. We need to get those numbers down. There’s no screening unfortunately in the UK There's no blanket overall prostate cancer screening because the experts in the UK National Screening Committee have decided that it would do more harm than good. It's not because of cost, it's because the PSA test is not that good. There are big trials in progress to improve testing. When it comes down to PSA testing of specific groups, such as those with a genuine family history, the risk-benefit balance may well be different. I suspect thar Sir Chris has had at least tacit approval of his "just google ‘prostate cancer UK risk checker’ and there’s three questions, it takes you 30 seconds and that will help you assess your individual risk. If you’re high risk, go to your GP and ask for a PSA, a blood test" advice so it's probably reasonable. I am 74 and have never taken a PSA test. I have no family history I know about. 'Better to be safe than sorry' is bad advice when it comes to prostate cancer screening.
46 thoughts on ““Stop this”: Jeremy Vine appeals to motorists over manoeuvre “making it dangerous to use a bicycle”; Cross your fingers for no stomach issue DNFs — Tour of Britain pros cool off in the sea; How many watts to keep up with Van Aert? + more on the live blog”
Amazing, init?
Amazing, init?
“You should have slowed down to let him turn in front” … advice that only seems to exist where the traffic being impeded is a bike.
If Jeremy had been driving, would the comments have been the same? Absolutely not.
Oldfatgit wrote:
Totally agree.
They’d never (rarely) come out and say it explicitly, but it’s the usual “You should stop and doff your cap to your Betters wot pay Road Tax” guff, isn’t it?
The onus is on the lorry driver to gauge how fast the oncoming traffic is approaching – motorised or not – and then to decide how best to make their manoeuvre in a way that doesn’t cause oncoming traffic to have to brake or take avoiding action.
(That said – I wish JV would calm his videos down a bit: I find the amount of “wacky” additional animation &c becoming increasingly annoying… YMMV)
The driver was definitely in
The driver was definitely in the wrong and should not have attempted that move, so I am in no way defending his actions.
Was anyone else surprised JV went round the front of the vehicle when it stopped where it did? Given that the driver saw him, waved and carried on – I would have been extremely wary of moving in front of them (never mind not being able to see what was behind it)
Also, nobody would say that a
Also, nobody would say that a driver was going too fast when travelling at what I suspect is no more than 15mph.
AidanR wrote:
Yeah, but “cyclist”, innit? 😉
Until a driver is *behind* a
Until a driver is *behind* a cyclist, and then of course they’re going too slowly and holding them up, creating pollution etc etc
Unfortunately the wide-angle
Unfortunately the wide-angle lens makes it look much faster!
Let’s suppose the van was maybe 20m away but looked like it was 40m away, his 15mph therefore appears to be 30mph as he covers the real 20m in the same time that he appears to cover 40m.
All of the comments that he get’s about speed or distance obviously are fooled by this as I don’t believe for a minute that he’s either going too quickly or accelerates into situations.
Maybe it’s time for JV to get a camera as well with a “normal” lens (sorry, don’t know the correct optical description!) so he can also show selected incidents in the same way our eyes see them
mikewood wrote:
He’s got an Insta360. The software can easily produce a more “normal” lens crop when editing.
andystow]
He’s got an Insta360. The software can easily produce a more “normal” lens crop when editing.
That would be perfect for the car overlay someone mentioned earlier
I just watched, on x/twitter,
I just watched, on x/twitter, a short clip of the GMB piece with Mike and Freeman. Even by his own standards, I thought Freeman was awful. He pretty much said mobile phone use wasn’t dangerous.
“I see that point of view,
“I see that point of view, and I dismiss it out of hand”
Nice moment there where the
Nice moment there where the presenter tries to say Mikey is engaged in vigilantism and has to have four goes at it, demonstrating that he has as much idea about the word’s pronunciation as he does about its meaning.
The bit where Freeman
The bit where Freeman basically says, “Yes I know mobile phone use is against the law” but then seems to just wave it away as “but everyone does it”…
brooksby wrote:
I’m just about old enough to remember when evidential breath testing became law in the UK and exactly the same attitudes/arguments were used, “Who doesn’t have a few pints and drive occasionally, for goodness sake, where’s the harm?”
You’re in the right part of
You’re in the right part of the world ish – South of Birmingham!
Know anyone in the 1967 “is it OK to drink and drive” video.
(I followed up recently on the ‘lost SUV after it careered off the road, and it took the police 2 days to find it’ Cardiff collision that killed 3, and all 5 in the car were tanked up on drink and drugs.)
Absolutely pathetic.
Absolutely pathetic.
It’s basically “I refuse to accept the extensive research on phone use.”
Rendel Harris wrote:
GMB presenters are not noted for their education, intelligence or objectivity.
“is there an element where
“is there an element where you are victimising them ?”
< Redacted comment due to excessive swearing >
About the newest clip from
About the newest clip from Jeremy Vine.
If anyone is questioning whether he (JV) was making too much of it or if the driver was in the wrong, maybe he can do a motor vehicle overlay like CycleGaz has done recently to some clips.
Then ask if the same manouver by the delivery driver would be acceptable if it was towards a motorist rather than a cyclist…
(I’m not holding my breath.)
I’ve made the mistake of
I’ve made the mistake of getting involved in that twitter thread. Apparently, every driver would have stopped to let the van go and even if they didn’t, none of them would have got upset if the van had turned in front of them anyway.
Steve K wrote:
FTFY
mark1a wrote:
GPWM
.
WTFDYA’sM?
.
.
WTFDYA’sM?
.
Delivery driver was in the
Delivery driver was in the wrong to be sure. I see similar poor quality unaware driving every day on Byres road in Glasgow.
My response would be the same whether I am driving or cycling. I would slow down and defuse the situation.
Mr Vine took a minor drama of bad driving and turned it into a crisis. He’d probably benefit from watching Ashley Neil’s YouTube channel on how to handle such situations.
@Bradshi
@Bradshi
So we can’t complain about an example of bad driving that would earn the driver at least a minor fault if not straight fail on a driving test?
If we tolerate this, what next?
Further examples of even worse driving?
When would it end? Where do we draw the line?
Why bother with a driving test at all?
What if the bike was replaced
What if the bike was replaced by a car, and the van by a bicycle?
eburtthebike wrote:
Good point. I think the cyclist would be
1. not seen and hit
2. seen and hit anyway
3. seen and missed by inches as punishment
3. seen and not hit but physically or verbally abused
4. seen and not hit but become a story of dangerous cycling that the driver tells all their friends for months
5. seen and not hit but featured on a youtube video about how dangerous cyclists are.
The car driver would be . . . . not injured or endangered in any way of course (until the next junction when a phone using wankpanzer driver does the same thing and puts them in hospital, where they will regail the nurses with stories of the dangerous cyclist they met earlier that day).
I’ve seen some batshit
I’ve seen some batshit driving and riding in my time but a BMX on the M6 between J14-J15 riding up along the central reservation (concrete barriers), just outside Lane 4!!
The gap between the barrier and traffic is about 1m.
All I can say is I don’t know how the hell he got onto lane 4 or how the hell he wasn’t already dead.
Hopped off a bridge in the
Hopped off a bridge in the style of Danny Macaskill
Some skills not to be dead
Some skills not to be dead that’s f’sure.
That GMB Xcrement’s misuse of
That GMB Xcrement’s misuse of “your/you’re” makes me cringe every time I read it.
It doesn’t surprise me from GMB, it just makes me cringe.
HoldingOn wrote:
I wonder if it’s a tactic to ensure that their audience consists of the poorly educated? Spammers often do a similar trick and deliberately put lots of mistakes into their emails as they don’t want to be dealing with people that can spot the errors and instead they just want the uncritical and gullible people.
Never thought about that. I
Never thought about that. I assumed it was just that those running such schemes were
lazy crookskeen businesspeople and wanted to keep their staffing costs down by hiring monkeys.I used to know someone that
I used to know someone that would purposefully put speeling mistakes into instructions he would write, because he found that people paid more attention to them, as they were trying to spot more.
HoldingOn wrote:
Sounds related to Van Halen’s brown M&M clause in their contracts. They demanded a bowl of M&Ms with the brown ones removed and no brown M&Ms in the backstage area. Then, when they turn up, they can immediately tell if their contracts were being read in detail and if they found any brown M&Ms, then they’d assume that not all the stage safety requirements (they had very heavy kit) were being adhered to and they’d just cancel the gig.
.
.
I had to beat him to death
I had to beat him to death with his own shoes…
Park Row, Bristol.
View of the Park Row, Bristol, “protected” cycle lane (on the far side of the road, along outside the shops).
The painted ‘cycle lane’ predates the wands, and isn’t a cycle lane any more.
Yeah, plastic wands work just fine, don’t they…?
Love this one
Love this one
https://twitter.com/BikeBusShaw/status/1700120853344612615
opposite angle
opposite angle
Excellent, but … can we
Excellent, but … can we dream of aiming higher yet?
Or (at the lights):
Or (at the lights):
One to keep
One to keep
“Below are academic findings demonstrating the danger of being distracted by your phone whilst in stationary traffic (there have been fatal consequences). Road crime reporting is not victimising the driver… instead it challenges the law-breaking driver and enables safer travel.”
Andy Cox
https://twitter.com/AndyCoxDCS/status/1700114642398281751
SA -situation awareness ??
Thank you: I’m keeping it.
Thank you: I’m keeping it.
Why I don’t use the cycle
Why I don’t use the cycle lane
bloody cyclists, escaping
bloody cyclists, escaping from jail. Always one rule for them and another for every one else…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66763054