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“Red-light flouters”: Telegraph columnist accuses cyclists of “terrorising children and the elderly” in strange rant; Cyclist has scary near miss despite double white lines; Giro coverage + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
"Red light flouting" cyclists accused of "terrorising children and the elderly"
There’s a temptation to sometimes ignore an anti-cycling column found somewhere within the internet, but we feel a national newspaper at least deserves an ounce of accountability.
After Benedict Cucumberpatch Cumberbatch was spotted arguing with a fellow cyclist near King’s Cross, in an exchange likened to “upperclass Wrestlemania”, the Telegraph’s Celia Walden has used the story to launch a broadside on cyclists and a perceived lack of accountability.
Walden’s case study is 81-year-old Hilda Griffiths who died after being hit by a cyclist exceeding 25mph in Regent’s Park. As Walden writes, “No specific speed limits existed for cyclists at the time, you see, so [the cyclist] “escaped” because in the eyes of the law, he had done nothing wrong. “The idea that speeding cyclists can remain lawless”, I concluded, “is inconceivable.”
Walden then proceeds to claim the “inconceivable has happened”, as well as attempting to list “all the laws cyclists flout”.
“After all, they’re not allowed to mount the pavements, but they do, terrorising children and the elderly without incurring any penalties. (Have you ever seen a cyclist apprehended for doing this? I haven’t.)
“They’re obviously not allowed to go through red lights either. Although in my experience 70-80 per cent of them do – again, without facing any consequences. But why do you think that is? There’s a sense of entitlement behind it, definitely, because cyclists have the moral high ground, because they’re saving the planet, one at a time.”
Ignoring Walden’s fag packet estimations, she seems to have forgotten the imposition of a new “dangerous cycling law”, which became statute in February. The law was supported by both the Conservatives and Labour and was motivated in large part by Griffiths’ death. Ryan did a thorough write-up on the law when it was introduced:
Of course, Walden could have referenced this and identified a failure to allocate or appropriately fund police resources, or made a wider point on road safety, looking at statistics from all road users to identify where danger on the roads comes from (hint: it’s not cyclists) and what can be done to reduce road danger more broadly. But maybe that’s not quite as emotionally stirring.
Instead we have a misrepresented case study. One that ignores the marquee legislation specifically introduced in response to a tragic death in order to enable a pile-on of more needless anti-cycling rhetoric. It’s frustrating to say the least…
"Don’t be like this guy”
The dramatic finish to today’s Giro stage wasn’t even the most shocking thing today…
Pog bike sells for €70,000
Our tech man Mat wondered aloud in one of our many groups if this was the second most expensive bike ridden by an ex-professional. The first being something ridden by a man whose name exists in *asterisks, strikethroughs and those yellow wristbands. It was also painted by Damien Hirst and (apparently) has its own Wikipedia page.
Anyway, that’s a tangent from the reason for even writing, which is that Tadej Pogačar’s bike which he rode during the Ardennes Classics last year, has sold at auction for €70,000. The Colnago V5R was used by the Slovenian Cannibal to finish third in Amstel Gold Race before crushing the field in La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
That’s really quite a lot of money, more expensive than most cars. I guess the Slovenian’s in demand!
Giro: Ballerini wins after crash on final corner!
Wow! Unibet Rose Rockets had played that perfectly, on the front from 3km remaining and not letting anyone come around. Elmar Reinders and Dylan Groenewegen were at the front but slid out and so did everyone else behind them. And I mean (almost) EVERYONE.
Crash on the cobbled U-turn corner every said there would be a crash
— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 14 May 2026 at 16:36
The only riders who escaped at the front were Davide Ballerini and Jasper Stuyven, lead-out men who took a slower line on the inside to stay upright. Despite the Belgian’s best efforts to come round, the Italian held on for a second stage win for his team. And it’s a first GT stage for the 31-year-old classics specialist. Blimey…
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Giro: 10km to go
The teams are lining up for a hotly contested bunch sprint on uneven, possibly damp cobbles. The roads are wide enough for teams to move around… for now!
Giro & Tour!
They’re inside the final 25km and the early break have been caught. Meanwhile Alec Segaert, the Belgian who’s had a great spring, has launched a flier that was quickly snaffled out.
Meanwhile, whilst Jonas Vingegaard is racing in Italy, there’s bad news for his bid to reclaim the Tour de France title, with the news that Christophe Laporte has withdrawn from the lineup due to injury after falling and tearing his quadricep. Ouch!
Christophe Laporte est forfait pour le Tour de France. La Visma-Lease a Bike indique que le Français (33 ans) a été victime d’une chute à l’entraînement, souffrant d’une déchirure du quadriceps.
Laporte avait déjà loupé le Tour en 2025 en raison de son virus. #TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/wri5SQf81V
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) May 14, 2026
Laporte was a key man on the flat for both of the Dane’s tour victories and even won a stage in 2022. After missing the Tour, and most of last year with cytomegalovirus, he seemed back to his best this spring with a host of top-10 results. After the retirement of Simon Yates, the loss of his coach to Red Bull and teammates dropping everywhere, Visma are increasingly looking likely to second-best to UAE in July.
Insurers claim seriously injured cyclist doored by driver should have been cycling “further away”
In response, Cycle Law Scotland told the insurers that the crash “only happened because the driver failed in their duty to make sure that their door did not hit anyone.”
Oh deer: Close call in Hungary
Oh deer… pic.twitter.com/8DHiuNvhMK
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) May 14, 2026
Giro: raining again!
We’ve been short of coverage of today’s Giro stage, partly because I’ve been busy scrolling through history to find evidence from the past to support a possible Eulalio GC bid, Rest assured though, you’re not missing much.
4 riders are up the road, two from Bardiani, one from Polti, and Luca Vergallito from Alpecin who presumably fancied getting on the telly. Edward Plackaert was also there before pulling the plug on his effort. Their lead is under a minute though, and it’s just started raining. With both Soudal and Unibet working to keep the escapees on a tight leash, we look like we’re heading for a bunch sprint in 75km.
Fake police officers scamming cyclists in Japan with ‘fines’ for jumping red lights and failing to signal
Japan’s crackdown on rule-breaking cyclists has seemingly inspired the country’s opportunistic fraudsters…
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Giro stage 6 preview: Surely a sprint?
It’s the Naples stage, which means it’s worth acknowledging the anniversary of Thomas De Gendt’s last professional win. The big man already has on Instagram. Anyway, after yesterday’s rather manic stage, today is looking far more likely to be a bunch sprint, at least assuming it stays dry.
The closing kilometres however are technical and include some cobbled sectors that could cause a bit more havoc. As if there haven’t been enough crashes in this race already.
Anything other than a Paul Magnier win would be welcome to spice up the competition in the points classification which the young Frenchman currently leads handsomely. And whilst Lidl-Trek had the consolation of Giulio Ciccone’s day in the maglia rosa yesterday, the team have come to this race built around Jonathan Milan who so far has fallen short. I’m not too sure how well the Neapolitans would take to the prospect of Milan winning in their backyard. That said, the alternative of Dylan Groenewegen winning for the Unibet Rose Rockets, and almost surely celebrating by putting pineapple on the city’s famous pizza surely constitutes a visit to The Hague.
Pascal Ackermann, Tobias Lund and Ethan Vernon are surely more neutral contenders in that regard. I could list several more but instead I’ll give a mention De Gendt’s old team Lotto-Intermarche who are surely having the worst Giro of any team so far.
Both of their fast men, Arnaud de Lie and Milan Menten, are out of the race after battling through illness obtained at the Famenne Ardennes Classic shortly before the race began.
> Cow dung blamed as diarrhoea, fever, and vomiting hit the peloton ahead of the Giro d’Italia
Why the team would choose to send their riders battling bacterial infection to a Grand Tour isn’t quite clear bust smacks of desperation from a team needing results. Speaking to Het Nieuwsbald before his withdrawal, Menten said “the body just isn’t absorbing food. The result is that the fatigue only keeps building.” Fingers crossed both men can now rest and recover without having to cycle hundreds of kilometres a day.
Meanwhile Lotto withdrew Liam Slock from the race just before the Grande Partenza due to said illness, and replaced him with young Brit Josh Giddings. Sadly though, the 6’4″ 22-year-old has had to withdraw due to a back injury.
Unfortunately, Joshua Giddings has to leave the Giro d’Italia. Josh jumped on a plane to Bulgaria at very short notice last week to replace Liam Slock, who had to withdraw from the selection due to illness.
Sadly, lower back pain following his crash in stage 2 forced him to… pic.twitter.com/oTIKaSVZyR
— Lotto-Intermarché (@LottoIntermarch) May 13, 2026
That leaves 8 British riders in the race, after Adam Yates withdrew before Stage 3.
Everything you need to know about time trialling...
> What is road bike time trialling? The rules, bikes and setups explained
Ah yes, a legitimate cycling sponsor...
The Slovenian Cycling Federation has announced a new sponsor, and sadly it’s neither a fruity, sugary drink or two middle-aged men from England’s third city (a Brummie-adjacent man writes)
Slovenian Cycling Federation Oasis sponsorship (Image Credit: Farrelly Atkinson)
Instead “Oasis is an information-technology company building the infrastructure that makes privacy and verifiability possible at scale, powering a new generation of applications across fintech, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.” But perhaps my favourite quote is the line justifying why the cycling federation-fintech privacy partnership makes sense:
“At the highest level of sport and technology alike, there is no room for compromise. Trust has to be built in from the ground up, and that is precisely what Oasis does.”
In the interest of bias, it should be said that I think I applied a similar level of cynicism on the live blog when Ineos unveiled Netcompany as their new sponsor.
The Slovenian Cycling Federation does have a track record of sponsors from this new online realm, most notably with NiceHash, a crypto-mining company that shares a leading shareholder with NextHash, the rather dubious former sponsor of the now defunct Qhubeka team. And then there’s also KuCoin, the latest sponsor of Tadej Pogačar
You think the illegal overtake across the double white lines is the problem, and then...
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Yesterday's racing recap: Giro chaos & Merlier dominant
Trying to summarise yesterday’s Giro stage is a bit like trying to remember a dream after a very heavy night of wine and cheese. A friend of mine once had 24 Babybel shortly before bed and seemed to wake in a trance…
Anyway, in truly biblical conditions, 13 riders got away to never return! Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe decimated the peloton on the day’s longest climb only to then run out of resources. With few remaining domestiques to ride, and an unwillingness to take any risks on the uber wet descent, the gap to the front of the race stretched out beyond 7 minutes – an age in the modern racing era.
At the front Igor Arrieta and Afonso Eulalio were the strongest escapees, but then the farce began. Arrieta slid out on a hairpin, then Eulalio, by this point riding solo, did the same a few minutes later. The pair then stayed together on the final climb into Potenza, before Arrieta misread a corner on the descent, losing 10-15 seconds as he rode into tape marking a closed road. Surely that was that? No…
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Arrieta, like his father Jose Luis, is now a Grand Tour stage winner, and Eulalio – a very talented young climber who was set to be Damiano Caruso’s last man in the mountains, and finished in the top-10 on that insanely difficult World Championships course in Rwanda – now has a lead exceeding six minutes over all of the race favourites.
That’s…dangerous. We’ll see how he copes on tomorrow’s summit finish to Blockhaus, and then Tuesday’s 42km flat time trial. The GC favourites will be hoping it’s something of a weak point for the young Portuguese rider, otherwise we could be in for a rather dramatic race…
Elsewhere Tim Merlier continued his impressive comeback from injury with victory at the opening stage of the Tour of Hungary.
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Meanwhile Britain’s Cat Ferguson continued her deeply impressive rise with victory in the Navarra Classic, a race we sadly don’t have coverage of….
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“Let’s leave the road to drivers,” says council’s climate and transport chief – as “white elephant” cycle lane shortened to introduce “expanded capacity for vehicles”
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Latest Comments
@chrisonabike True, things went back to normal once the pandemic was over. In this case, however the problems are still ongoing, and aren't likely to be resolved in the near future. If anything, they're going to get worse. Food shortages are predicted because of the effect that the heatwave has had on crops. This is bound to push prices up. The Straits of Hormuz aren't likely to reopen anytime soon and the strategic oil reserves are running low. Russia is having to import petrol because its own refineries have been badly hit, so that's even more competition for an even more scarce resource. I think that more and more people are going to see cycling as a way of cutting household bills.
I think if "grown up" cyclists * are quibbling about ASLs we've very much missed the road safety point anyway. (Not to mention the wider "better transport choices" picture). ASLs are poor-to-useless "cycling infra", even for their design intent. If the idea is "for less confident cyclists" then a design that requires that you re-position in front of the motor traffic - waiting to accelerate - seems unhelpful. Of course they're only designed to help when traffic is stopped, and you can reach the front in time and if vehicles aren't already occupying them. As we're noting here drivers frequently ignore them - whether that be deliberate, a lack of road craft, because they were concentrating on following the vehicle in front, or because the paint has rubbed off. * Aside: shouldn't cycling also be safe and accessible for kids? Or should they only be allowed to do this when accompanied by sufficient qualified adults? Or be limited to parks and otherwise being driven around by their carers? Perhaps there is another way...?
Hi Bungle, I saw you follow-up comment. I can't imaging there's a tolerance of 4 seconds on camera enforced lights, seems an odd decision - an offence is committed if a vehicle starts crossing on a red, any tolerance is discretionary. There does seem to be some odd thinking about 'advanced stop lines' where the rules relating to them are identical to a regular stop line, as explained correctly elsewhere in the Highway Code. It does seem a regular offence. Where I live it doesn't help that some of them are very faint and disappear in rain.
@ktache Not sure he's totally ruled out of the worlds yet (though I think it would be best if he doesn't), normal recovery time is about eight weeks but surgery can halve that...depending on the nature of the break he could be just about fit to ride by the time of the elite men's race, but he'll have missed a lot of training. Hopefully his managers and team will persuade him to wait until Lombardia, if not just to knock it off for the rest of the year.
@Bungle_52 The Met told me a couple of years ago when rejecting a submission that they needed a clear three seconds of red visible before they would consider it for an RLJ prosecution. I pointed out to them that this meant that at 30 mph a driver could see a light change to red from 40 metres away and still get through without sanction, or 55 m if they accelerated to 40 as most do. They just replied "them's our rules..."
@Ben Graham I have just checked the footage from my report. The driver crosses the 1st stop line 4 seconds after the light turns red. All on camera from behind the vehicle. No further action. So I assume the margin is at least 4 seconds.
Oh, and active travel funding per head (in England at least) is laughable compared to other places. Plus it is delivered intermittently. It's more like a Blue Peter contest...
Yup, I see those opportunities being missed all the time in Edinburgh. When it gets really bad, dig it all up and put it back down again how it was. Contrast with what seems to happen in NL - when things are dug up the whole thing seems to get a "let's redo this according to the current standards" treatment. They even coordinate with the utilities, so that after a refurb the street isn't immediately dug up again because of leaking pipes / we suddenly realised the new estate being planned for round the corner will want broadband etc. Pros and cons of course - you may wait longer there for changes as smaller changes may be deferred until a major redo is due. (Though in the UK case you likely wouldn't get them at all...) It seems we "can't have nice things" in the UK in part because a) we have greater motor traffic speeds/volumes spead across "streets" / within urban areas b) the funding and organisational responsibility differs. Are we in the "Sam Vimes boots" territory (being too poor to afford better products which not only save money over time but actually work)? There is long term money pressure on LAs and it seems that due to poor construction and maintenance we have to regularly pour money into (pot-)holes in the road. And it seems there's no budget to check up on or enforce adequate standards from utilities work or even private building.
Shame about the world champs defence. Speedy recovery. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/30/tadej-pogacar-vuelta-a-espana-cycling-crash-hospital-stage-nine
I believe the accepted form for this kind of argument is "I know you are, you said you were, but what am I?".
24 thoughts on ““Red-light flouters”: Telegraph columnist accuses cyclists of “terrorising children and the elderly” in strange rant; Cyclist has scary near miss despite double white lines; Giro coverage + more on the live blog”
Let’s introduce some statistics to the discussion, shall we. Have fun here: https://department-for-transport.shinyapps.io/collision_analysis_tool_2024/
IN 2024:
-11 pedestrians were killed on Zebra Crossings
-20 pedestrians were killed when crossing on a green man
-9 were killed on other traffic lighted systems (which I think is temporary traffic lights, etc)
Can’t be bothered to do the seriously injured and slightly injured. But stick those stats up your posterior, Daily Telegraph.
You can prove anything with statistics, even the truth.
@the little onion Quite so.
And in the illustrative aerial shot of a junction, we see a bike box full of cyclists and a driver waiting behind the first stop line.
Well, that’s a joke!
Her words, of course, apply with equal statistical validity (ie spurious MUS* that tells some truth but has no statistical validity at all) to motorists. I count it a fair day when I come to lights with a bike box and no car has encroached the box.
Many will dispute that it happens, or that the encroachment is de minimis, or say that they couldn’t stop earlier because the lights changed, or that it doesn’t do any harm, or that it’s not an offence.
It does happen – frequently (some might say in 70-80% of red lights);
Even partial encroachment is a denial of safety factors for cyclists in favour of a casual attitude to motoring – not de minimis;
They could stop earlier in almost all cases, if they were prepared and paying more attention;
It does do harm – it removes the safety factor supposedly given to cyclists; it makes cycling more intimidating, even if the driver then gives time and space for cyclists to set off; it deters cycling;
It is an offence – it is the same offence of failing to comply with traffic signals of which Celia, bless her, accuses cyclists.
(* Made Up Statistics)
I’ve had to stop at lights that have just turned green to give way to a car that must have run through a red light. There’s always a second between one set turning red and the opposite set turning green, so there’s no chance that the light wasn’t fully red when the car went through it.
This happens often enough for it to be a real risk to anybody going through a recently changed green light. But also, I’ve seen cars that are fully stopped when the light has turned amber, only to accelerate through the light, and all of the other drivers who see an amber light as a three second deadline to ‘squeeze through’.
I would bet that none of these drivers think they are doing anything wrong. After all, everybody else does it, and it happens to some degree on every single phase of every single light. It’s almost as if they think the rules don’t apply to them.
Yes but we all have to realise that the problem is the pedestrian behaviour not drivers…staring at phones. Stepping out without looking. Being drunk. Not remembering or ducked out of learning the green cross code…etc On the stats issue it always gets me that keyboard drivers always blame cyclists for collisions when the stats say nearer 80% of collisions are driver fault. Now living down under I particularly like to a Monash Uni study that looked at regular commuter riders in Canberra not only did drivers cause 100% of near misses it was also found that it was always the cyclist that took evasive action
@antigee ultimately it’s humans ‘cos humans are doing it.
What are the driving forces which leave us with such poor driving and hostile places though?
Mass motoring (and the infra providing it and expectations around it) and some basic psychology. A car isn’t simply a transport tool: it’s a marker of being an independent adult, and also your social status. Pretty directly replacing what riding and horses were, although the richer had carriages also!
Then: humans have very limited attention and strong pressure to limit that to important things. Certainly not quotidien tasks which become boring chores.
Put them together and what have we got?
This is just naked HarrogateSpa-bait, isn’t it?
Yesterday’s Giro stage was wild, but no way the GC will stay anything like that for long. It means there’s got to be fireworks on the climb to the Blockhaus.
@captain_slog Eulalio’s no mug though, pure climber who was 9th in the WC road race last year, 6th in the Tour of Britain, 5th in the Aiula Tour this year, he’ll doubtless get caught eventually but it could take some work; the main GC contenders might come to regret being quite so generous with the amount of rope they gave him yesterday.
https://www.gov.uk/penalty-points-endorsements/endorsement-codes-and-penalty-points
Traffic direction and signs
These codes must stay on a driving record for 4 years from the date of the offence.
Code Offence Penalty points
TS20 Failing to comply with double white lines 3
Is the Torygraph still a thing then? Who knew.
@Clem Fandango Is the Torygraph still a thing then?
Yes, it has joined the race to the bottom with determination, and won.
@wtjs Not a fair race: it had a head start!
Is the Reformgraph? suggesting that when cyclists ride on pavements, they need to take a fairer, more balanced approach and terrorise people aged 18-55, as well as children and the elderly?
@Mr Blackbird Oi, 59 is not elderly!!!
Just wait until Walden’s single brain cell comprehends what drivers do – she’ll need a special edition of that rag to cover it.
Another anti-cycling article in the Telegraph. What a shocker. Honestly, it’s worse than the Daily Mail these days.
Seems like you might have buried the lead there…
@wtjs
By losing 1,496 seats, Labour won the race to the bottom hands down. Tories finished a distant second by losing 563 seats. That gives a telling ratio of 2.65 : 1.
Surely losing seats is a race away from the bottom?
@MaxiMinimalist The Tories only had 1134 seats up for election, Labour had 2196. They both got exactly the same share of the vote at 17% each.
With van Aert back to winning form, Laporte is now Visma I LAB sole bearer of the team’s mala suerte. Wishing him a prompt recovery.
For contaxt on RLJ, a study in Delft and another by TfL in London showed motorists run red lights 4-6 times the rate of cyclists. Where there are traffic light cameras in the UK, 21% of motorists have received penalty points for RLJ. https://tinyurl.com/29c2fmxn .
@billymansell “context”