“Is this all part of the propaganda to dump on cyclists?” Anger after The Sun reshares footage of cyclist hit by van driver from 2023; Footballer banned from driving after cyclist filmed him using phone; Vuelta sprint expected + more on the live blo
SUMMARY
Post-news
In the same way that Limmy argues we’re in the age of post-music – “all the music’s been done, now go back and do it again, this time with a different voice or whatever” – maybe for our tabloids we’re in the age of post-news.
All the possible anti-cycling stories have been done, you’re a bored desk editor working a bank holiday weekend. Go back and find an anti-cycling story, and do it again, only this time with a new social media post.
So we have this clip, showing a cyclist undertaking a van driver approaching a T-junction and colliding when the van turns left at the junction…
Cyclist’s collision with van sparks debate online pic.twitter.com/Cs6APLrplM
— The Sun (@TheSun) August 30, 2026
I didn’t see this clip the first time around, and might have been tempted to run something based on the ‘paper attempting to stir up something about cycists anyway. This is after all not their first rodeo…
And then we stumbled upon this excellent tweet:
I wondered why a reply, which I posted to the original clip of this, back in 2023, had been liked… I now have my answer.
It’s odd that the @TheSun hasn’t linked to original, or even mentioned that this happened in 2023.
Is this all part of the propaganda to dump on cyclists? https://t.co/eCBZ2UbjQE
— Your Average Joe (@FrankleyMan) August 31, 2026
Pretty bleak stuff. Even more disappointingly, the re-shared footage from Sunday has already amassed nearly 2 million views on Twitter alone, making it almost certainly a monetising post for the ‘paper.
What a time to be alive, watching cyclists be constantly stigmatised for past actions. We can’t wait for The Sun to start sharing years-old footage of dangerous driving for attention, captioned with things like “Who’s in the wrong?”
Bastien Tronchon wins in frantic sprint.
The attacks kept coming with several riders bridging to last-man standing Dversnes, including Sepp Kuss. They were caught before a counter-attack by Pinarello’s Walter Calzoni featured lots of gritted teeth and head-bobbing before he was reeled in by a Brennan-led peloton with 2km remaining.
Yevgeniy Fedorov launched a flier with 1km to go and gets Xabier Azparren for company, quickly they have a gap but Azparren doesn’t co-operate. By the time he launches his sprint the gap to the peloton is too small and he’s caught in the final moments.
Unexpectedly, Bastien Tronchon comes to the line first and raises an arm in disbelief before collapsing in tears over his bike. He was first to launch his sprint and was rewarded with victory ahead of Magnus Cort, and Wout van Aert.
What an unexpected result, and a win for Groupama-FDJ at the Vuelta! Here’s the finale with some rather excitable French commentary…
LE GROS COUP DE BASTIEN TRONCHON ! Le Français remporte la 10e étape de #LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/8uP88LI2cK
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) September 1, 2026
10km
Michael Gogl and Fredrik Dversnes are the last survivors from the breakaway and still have around 20 seconds on the peloton, they might survive the long descent but I reckon the final 5km with an uphill drag to the line might prove a few pedal strokes too far. A reduced bunch finish is incoming…
Attacks!
On the final categorised climb and the break have dug in, resisting Visma’s efforts to reel them in, with the gap staying rigidly around a minute. Enric Mas can breathe a sigh a relief as Fernandez has been dropped up ahead. Dversnes, Michael Gogl, Enzo Paleni and Ivan Cobo are the remaining four.
Meanwhile, attacks have started behind from teams that don’t have a sprinter for the finale. The pace is up enough to distance Mads Pedersen from the peloton. Valentin Paret-Peintre launched first and was personally marked by Matty Brennan, whilst Eddie Dunbar did manage to go solo and get approximately a 15-20 second gap but it looks as though he might be reeled in soon-ish.
Before that time though, here come some more attacks from the peloton. UAE’s Kevin Vermaerke is the one to draw out the moves and pass Dunbar, whilst the GC riders decided to start get involved. Sepp Kuss, Richard Carapaz and even red jersey Enric Mas is there covering moves. There’s briefly a split in the peloton but they come back together, albeit very stretched out.
UAE attack again, and again Brennan himself covers the move before they come back together.
Whilst all this is happening, the break cross the top of the climb, their gap down to 30 seconds. 21km remain!
Footballer handed driving ban for phone use
We’ll have our August sentencing round-up out later this week, but in the meantime, how’s this for your quota of justice?
Swansea City captain Ben Cabango has been banned from driving from six months after a cyclist spotted him using his phone whilst at a red light. He’s also been fined £1,000.
Wales Online also report that Cabango told the magistrate he was “profoundly affected” by the charges and would have to move house as a result of his driving ban.
You can see the footage captured by the cyclist below:
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“A car is also a weapon”
Vuelta sprint looking likely
A seven-rider breakaway has a small advantage over the peloton. Among the seven is Fredrik Dversnes, who won a stage at the Giro d’Italia in Milan earlier this year when he denied a bunch sprint from the break.
Also there is Burgos’ Sinuhe Fernandez. Last time he went up the road the maillot rojo crashed out of the race, so Enric Mas might be crossing his fingers.
The septet’s advantage is below two minutes, thanks to a peloton led by Visma’s retiring Steven Kruijswijk and the entire Cofidis team, galvanised by Coquard’s stage win on Saturday. Good for them.
72km to go, 1’55” the gap. An intermediate sprint is due shortly, with the points likely to be swallowed up by the break…
Four different e-bike providers Jeremy? FOUR? That's insane.
People of the West Country! Get your fingers ready to hover over the app store!
It’s common, as is the case in many London boroughs, for multiple e-bike hire providers to operate in one place. When you only have one provider, if you’re new to the area then you could be bogged down in setting up and registering a new account after all.
It can also be a pain when you live in an area which changes its sole e-bike provider – as was the case for me recently when the West Midlands Combined Authority ditched Beryl Bikes for Lime. In which case, spare a thought for the good people of Bristol, Bath and the surroundings edges of Somerset and Gloucestershire.
The West of England combined authority have swapped Voi for Tier, then Tier for Dott in recent years and last week the Bristol Post reported that the region’s mayor Helen Godwin has chosen not to renew Dott’s contract and has instead begun a new “competitive procurement process”.
Relevantly, the authority is also part of an ongoing trial in the roll-out of e-scooters, also provided by the contract, and the ‘paper reports that parking issues with bikes and scooters are behind the mayor’s decision, having made curbing pavement parking a key issue since being elected last year.
Whatever the end result of the tendering process, more faff will surely ensue…
Collarbone surgery success for Pogacar
Watch where you're going!
This is from the 1.2-rated (semi-professional) Ronde van de Achterhoek in the Netherlands. Why the guy in front decides to switch road sides in order to stop isn’t clear. But the cyclist behind seems to knowingly ride into his back wheel. Bizarre…
Vuelta stage 10: A race upturned....
Ah the perils of the bank holiday weekend. We left the Vuelta a Espana just as the race seemed to be settling into a rhythm. Andreas Leknessund had taken the race’s first stage win from a break, as UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogacar appeared to be settling into a comfortable march towards the Slovenian’s maiden victory at the Spanish Grand Tour. Then the following day, he stumbled on a rock…
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My favourite piece of journalism from the day was the Spanish reporter who headed out to find the offending item…
📺 Geolocation verified. Matches.
________________
🇪🇸 #LaVuelta26pic.twitter.com/R7WzQd0o8F— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) August 29, 2026
Depressingly, a conspiracy that Pogacar hit a live GoPro camera, bolstered by some AI-generated imagery, even made it into the pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport, but that seems pretty on brand for 2026. Still, do better Gazzetta!
Though it’s not uncommon for a race leader to crash, as we saw in this year’s Tour de France courtesy of Torstein Traeen, for the dominant race leader who appeared to have the race sewn up forced to abandon roadside, we surely have to go back to the 1971 Tour de France.
Luis Ocana led Eddy Merckx by more than seven minutes when he crashed twice on the descent of the Col de Mente. In tribute to his rival, Merckx refused to wear the leader’s jersey the following day. On Saturday, Enric Mas made a similar gesture by not wearing the jersey during the presentation following the stage…
But on Sunday, wearing red, the Spaniard set about making the race his own. After much work by Decathlon to set up an underwhelming Felix Gall attack, Enric Mas pushed on in the final 4km of of the Alto de Aitana.
Only Oscar Onley could follow him whilst Primoz Roglic dangled off the wheel. Mas then held on with a kick in the winding final 200m to take only his second stage win in the race, and a first in eight years, a remarkable stat considering his consistency in this race.
There hasn’t been a Spanish Grand Tour winner since Alberto Contador, but Mas is now the man to beat, with 1’18” on Roglic, 1’39” on Gall and 2’20” on Onley in fourth place. We have a race on our hands, though today might not see the same fireworks as Sunday…
Three category-3 climbs and an uphill drag to the line might mean Visma prioritise Wout van Aert over Matty Brennan, whilst Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen has seemed a little off the boil so far. Could the Dane come good in the second week? A final mention goes to Bryan Coquard, the veteran French fast-man finally broke his Grand Tour duck with a win ahead of Pedersen and Jordi Meeus on Saturday. Can the 34-year-old make it two wins in three stages?
By the way, Ryan will have a full update on Pogacar’s condition after his crash shortly…
A Duracell derailleur?!
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Youth charged with assault after knocking cyclist off bike
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I don't know what others think but I thought it was a mistake to cancel the event. I live in one of the areas they cycle though and it didn't seem to bad. Even the few accounts I have watched didn't show cancelling weather, waiting under a tree maybe.
@chrisonabike exactly, words are cheap. They can safely bang the drum knowing that little will or can be done. OK, some things could be done, but the chance of nobody cocking something up . . ? Realist or pessimist, take your pick; but still optimistic enough to hope that things will work out :-)
@ChrisA isn't this story more along the lines of "tobacco company is demanding government crackdown on nasty rolling papers and dangerous pipes?" Silly of me! How could there be any conflict between and "improving things for their ... definitely not employees ... and the public at large" and these companies' entire business model...?
"Deliveroo has announced a crackdown on modified and ‘dangerous’ e-bikes . . . . . company is calling on the Government to prohibit the sale of unsafe e-bike conversion kits." Really? Do they not know how difficult it is to legislate for such things, the politicians inability to understand details, the competence of the DoJ in drafting such legislation and what seems to be a widespread disregard of those rules; not to mention the total lack of enforcement. Just saying.
@Nigel Garage The Mercedes driver drove through the light three seconds after it turned amber. Official government text: "AMBER means STOP. You may go on only if the amber appears after you have crossed the stop line or are so close to it that to pull up might cause an accident." Three seconds is more than enough time to stop safely at the speed the Mercedes was going so the driver was breaking the law and therefore committing a prosecutable offence. Deliberately putting others at risk and breaking the law is not "acceptable" and if you saw a cyclist running a red in those circumstances you would rightly condemn it. Is there anything you can't be completely wrong about?
I see quite a few MAAP items out in the Surrey Hills. The new shop has a cafe and they're from Melbourne so the coffee should be good: I'm looking forward to visiting.
@chrisonabike Mercedes was acceptable, but the second one (old Toyota people carrier/ex-taxi) was a prosecutable offence.
I wasn't saying that nor talking about people who say that. I said it was silly to claim that wearing a helmet indicates acceptance of dangerous driving and poor infrastructure. I choose to wear a helmet; I also regularly report dangerous driving to the police and correspond with councils and road authorities about ways infrastructure could be improved for cyclists. I rather doubt I'm the only helmet wearer who does so.
26 thoughts on ““Is this all part of the propaganda to dump on cyclists?” Anger after The Sun reshares footage of cyclist hit by van driver from 2023; Footballer banned from driving after cyclist filmed him using phone; Vuelta sprint expected + more on the live blo”
The sun article using outdated stories just shows how desperate and, more worryingly, determined the gutter press are to perpetuate the bad feeling against cyclists.
If it were new and newsworthy, sure that’s their job to report on. But in digging up old stuff just to rage bait shows quite clearly this is an orchestrated and deliberate act on their part to find anything to fill the pages of their shitty rag to keep it simmering in the minds of the gammons who buy into their nonsense.
@Smoggysteve
Based on the clip being old, having been reported on previously with no apparent new information making it worth re-reporting now, and the “reporters” knowing what the resulting online commentary would be…
Could they be sued/tried for incitement to violence?
We’re living in the kind of world that might have been in one of Orson Welles’ novels. 😉
@mdavidford – I think you may have confused Orson Welles for someone else (possibly H G Wells?). Orson Welles was a film-maker and actor.
However, Philip K Dick was truly the prophet of the modern age.
“Today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”
― Philip K. Dick
@hawkinspeter I was thinking more George Orwell’s dystopian settings for many of his novels myself. But HG Wells would kind of work too.
@Smoggysteve – yeah, I don’t really think H G Wells would be a great choice as he was more interested in utopias. He did write a lot though, so there will be some relevant bits.
George Orwell’s 1984 is certainly relevant, but PKD covers so many modern themes in his works
“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me’.”
― Philip K. Dick
I refer the Honourable Squirrel to the discussion of August 31st in Another Place.
@mdavidford Or even A Clockwork Orange, another dystopian classic by Tim Burgess.
Will the Sun be re-running their pictures of 16 year-old female children topless, from Page 3 in the 1970s, or do they just like digging up other people’s past mistakes?
In saying that the perverts who authorised that probably don’t consider those actions a mistake…..
The cyclist was wrong to carry on thru with that turn, he asked for that
Highway code rule 182 specifically says to look out for vehicles coming up from behind when turning left. The van also did not indicate. The arrow on the road doesn’t remove those requirements from the van driver, just because he has to turn left doesn’t mean it isn’t a left turn.
Also rule 170 says:
Take extra care at junctions. You should watch out for cyclists etc.
Still, I would have expected the van driver to completely ignore the rules of the road and held back until after the junction.
It also tells you NOT to overtake on the approach to a junction or a bend, and specifically and repeatedly admonishes cyclists to take great care passing vehicles near junctions. The driver may well have seen the cyclist on the approach and reasonably assumed that they wouldn’t make a suicide dive up the inside of the turn.
They should have indicated, but I’m not convinced it would have made any difference to the situation.
I ought to point out that mdavidford was well aware when he wrote ‘Orson Welles’- he was referring to the other topic:
ttps://road.cc/offroad/feature/the-revolution-and-evolution-of-xc-how-cross-country-racing-has-changed-in-the-uk-and-beyond#comments
Was it that famous cricketer, Washington Irving, who wrote about those dystopian conflicts on the world pitch, or the spinner of tales Irving Washington?
On the footballer being ‘banned’ after being caught on the phone – as I understand it, a straightforward phone offense is just 6 points* on the license, insufficient for a ban. In other words, the man has previous, so it can’t be blamed solely on so-called ‘vigilante’ cyclists (i.e. upstanding members of the public).
*cue football joke about the easiest 6 points that Swansea FC will get this season.
@the little onion Should have gone to Lancashire!
@the little onion It is quite galling to read that Cabango is the Swansea Captain. He is hardly setting a good example to his team mates and fans etc.
“Ben Cabango has been hit with a six-month driving ban and over £1,000 in fines”
Good. Every infringement of traffic law while driving a lethal weapon should be treated that seriously. Drivers routinely do things that they know are illegal, reinforcing the habit until it becomes natural, and aren’t punished until they kill or injure someone. While punishment is part of the solution, as another thread on here says, we should make such behaviour socially unacceptable. As well as banning and fining criminals, we should also require them to be retrained and to pass a more stringent test.
But, as ever, society loves their cars, and not much changes. Reminds me of the closing scene in ‘How to get ahead in advertising’ when he’s riding a horse and listing the things that they can sell the gullible, especially cars. Great movie.
‘This experience has been a significant wake-up call for me and I can assure the court that I have reflected seriously on my actions and taken steps to ensure this will never happen again’
Perhaps the six points you already had on your licence should have been the wake up call. Also, if I’m a judge, I’m thinking not bothering to show up in court doesn’t scream remorseful.
You are NOT a victim here Mr Cabango.
The clip states that Ben Cabango pled for mercy as the ban would require him to move his family.
This is an “exceptional hardship” plea.
Which was ignored.
That is the most serious one I’ve heard of (having to move family), alongside others such as “losing job” etc.
So if that sort of plea can be disregarded, why can’t other lesser pleas?
@mitsky the ban would require him to move his family
He was just telling a tale- it would be easier and cheaper to just pay for a driver/ chauffeur! Bet he doesn’t move.
@wtjs
Entirely possible that it was a lie.
Given the ban is in place, if he doesn’t move his family could he be charged with lying in court?
@wtjs Apparently he lives a one-hour drive from Swansea in the village of Penmark, a trip for which Uber quotes an average of £70. His basic salary, without bonuses or any kit sponsorship, international fees etc, is £12,500 a week. Should have been fined for wasting court time with such a stupid fake “hardship” claim.
@mitsky he will be interested to know there’s quite a good rail service in to Swansea. It’s only six months which is pretty light imo.
I really enjoyed Bastie Tronchon’s victory.
“Crashed on a GoPro” isn’t even close to the stupidest theory going around: saw in multiple places yesterday that it’s “an open secret in the peleton” that TP accidentally took too much dope the evening before and knew he would fail the end-of-stage controls so deliberately “as can clearly be seen on the footage” caused the crash. Why he chose to smash up his head, shoulder and spine instead of just saying he had a bad tum or something and stepping off remains a mystery…