“There needed to be a cycle map for London that made safety its focus”: Homemade cycle map racks up a million views; Fans plea for free-to-air coverage of the Grands Départs; Blogger calls out lack of segregated cycle lanes in city + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Pidcock targets Italian and Ardennes classics in spring schedule
After a surprising podium place at last year’s Vuelta a España, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Pidcock might be tempted to focus less on the classics. After all, the Pinarello Q36.5 rider has already skipped the cyclocross season for the second year running and a return to mountain biking looks quite remote. Plus, Pidcock’s team have invitations to all three Grand Tours this year, with Pidcock surely tempted to focus on leading his team at the Tour de France. Not so…
Pinarello have this morning announced that Pidcock will begin his season a fortnight before the traditional ‘Opening Weekend’, starting his season with a series of Spanish one day and short stage races before lining up at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on the 28th February.
Then comes the Italian bloc, comprising Strade Bianchi, which the Brit won in 2023 and was second to Tadej Pogacar last year, Milano-Torino and Milan-Sanremo where he’ll be aiming for a first victory in a Monument.
If that’s not enough, the Brit is then scheduled to race the week-long Volta a Catalunya two days after Sanremo in preparation for the Ardennes classics. Liège–Bastogne–Liège is the big objective on the 26th April, and puts to bed any notion of the Yorkshireman sacrificing the classics to become a pure GC rider, for now at least. We even have a quote from Pidcock on the lack of a change in focus:
“My schedule stays quite similar to previous years. But adding in some new races to keep things fresh. But also to give time to training blocks and periodisation to make sure I am ready for the races that matter most!”
Tom Pidcock’s full spring schedule:
- Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia (13–14 February)
- Clásica Jaén (16 February)
- Vuelta a Andalucía (18–22 February)
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28 February)
- Strade Bianche (7 March)
- Milano–Torino (18 March)
- Milano–Sanremo (21 March)
- Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (23–29 March)
- De Brabantse Pijl (17 April)
- Amstel Gold Race (19 April)
- La Flèche Wallonne (22 April)
- Liège–Bastogne–Liège (26 April)
The blogger holding drivers and the council to account...
Bike Worcester appearances in the road.cc live blog are like buses. You wait so long… blah blah blah.
After yesterday’s appearance in the live blog for unveiling a cycling flood app which advises riders when shared-use riverside paths are under water (a common issue in Worcestershire) they’re making an appearance today for their work in tracking road traffic collisions.
Having first caught the attention of the Malvern Gazette, Dan Brothwell has been uploading RTC data to Bike Worcester’s blog, in an effort “to increase awareness of antisocial, dangerous, and illegal driving in Worcester and its surroundings.” And, in his latest post, Brothwell has kept at it, highlighting the (approximate) 474.5 metres of segregated cycle lanes in the city, including one stretch that runs to just 9 metres in length! I suppose you have to start somewhere…
And any Worcester story is a perfect excuse to reshare this splendid photo of their former mayor.
2026/27 British Cyclocross calendar revealed
In the wake of last weekend’s national championships, won by Cam Mason and Anna Flynn respectively, we now have the schedule for next year’s National Trophy Series as well as the National Cyclocross Championships which will be held at Clanfield in the South Downs.
Here’s the full National Trophy Series calendar:
Round 1: Derby, East Midlands – 17/18 October 2026
Round 2: Pontypool, Wales – 7/8 November 2026
Round 3: Cyclopark, South East – 28/29 November 2026
Round 4: Shrewsbury, West Midlands – 19/20 December 2026.
Round 5 & 6: Peel Park, Bradford – 23/24 January 2027
National Cyclo-cross Championships: Clanfield, South – 9/10 January 2027
Amateur cyclist tests positive for steroids after Masters world championship win
Bold of you to presume we could go a week without a doping story of some sort…
"Chin up lads, you don't need Onley"
We’ve been short of silly stories, particularly unacceptable for a friday, so here’s something suitably odd and mildly amusing…
Passing time waiting on those lights to change… ??#TourDownUnder?? pic.twitter.com/FJ5D8fRv2h
— Team Picnic PostNL (@picnicpostnl) January 16, 2026
I’m reliably informed by someone older than me (whose modesty I’ll spare for now) that there is a reference to be drawn here to Joop Zoetemelk on Superstars. This person can count themself lucky that I even know what Superstars is…
"Pity the majority of Brits won't be able to watch it": Fans react to 2027 Tour de France Grand Depart route announcements with pleas for free-to-air coverage
I’ll be honest, yesterday was really rather exciting. The Tour de France Hommes and Femmes are coming to these shores, and now we can start planning our routes. It’s also a perfect excuse for civil architecture to pay tribute with a certain colour scheme.
My colleague Ryan attended yesterday’s press conference and has an excellently detailed write-up of the whole shebang. But with the dust settling a little bit, we can start to look at other details, beyond the banal but adorable trend of applying French names to Lancashire’s finest climbs…
Côte de Jubilee Tower, Côte de Waddington Fell… I cannot.. it is too precious #TDF2027
— Anna Mac ?? ?? (@annamacb.bsky.social) 15 January 2026 at 22:59
For example, we reported last month that the Scottish leg of the men’s Grand Depart had trebled its budget. With the route confirming, as suspected, that the route would immediately leave Edinburgh southwards, crossing the border before the opening stage is even done, is that a good return on investment for the Scottish Government?
> Scottish Tour de France Grand Départ budget trebles to over £10 million
Then there’s the elephant in the room, the matter of who can actually watch this? The Grand Depart organising committee were keen to emphasise in their materials that around 10 million people will come within an hour’s drive of both races, but for the other 60 odd million people in the country, what are their options?
With the (beloved) ITV Cycling production being put out of business by TNT from next year, there are no arrangements in place for free-to-air coverage to be broadcast of either the men’s or women’s event. The comments section of social media posts announcing the route (past all the bots) were very much of the same opinion:
Pity the majority of Brits won’t be able to watch as it’s no longer on free-to-air channel.
— Jo-Anne Burrow (@lalaburrow) January 15, 2026
“But where can you watch it live on TV without paying huge amounts?”
“Shame it’s another great British sporting event which will be behind a pay wall and many sports fans will not be able to watch”
“Pity the majority of Brits won’t be able to watch as it’s no longer on free-to-air channel.”
You get the idea. Thankfully Ryan had the foresight to ask about this at yesterday’s presser and was told “As you’ve probably seen, the contract sits with TNT,” but that there was “a commitment to work with Christian [Prudhomme] and the team at ASO to bring the six stages to free-to-air TV and work on that is ongoing.”
A commitment to work with people to achieve an outcome isn’t yet the sort of ironclad commitment to an outcome that you might be hoping for by the time of this sort of announcement. We’ll be watching closely over the next year to see what we can do about this, short of writing letters begging for an Imlach comeback…
Stage 1
Gary hit the race hard on the first day with this magnificent black number.
Just check out the details.
The collar is superb.
Everything about it screams class, style and impeccable judgement.
Surely a race winning performance on day one. pic.twitter.com/9HLhfrN665
— Gary Imlach’s Peloton of Joy (@ImlachHair) July 26, 2024
Dublin cycle lane “like Amsterdam” due to “amazing” number of cyclists, politician says
Heavy metal rockers to back USA Cycling for LA Olympics
Here’s a strange story that tests my talent for inserting relevant cultural references to the limit.
USA Cycling have announced that they will receive a portion of revenue raised from heavy metal outfit Five Finger Death Punch‘s latest tour.
The Vegas-based five-piece have a track record of supporting charitable causes, having previously donated ticket proceeds to veterans charities. How on earth they made the leap to cycling I’m not quite sure.
In the Instagram post announcing the generosity, rather than acting Paranoid, USA Cycling say “$1 from every ticket sold [will support] USA Judo and USA Cycling’s BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle teams.”
They add that the band, not wanting to appear on the Wrong Side of Heaven, are “expanding [their] mission with the launch of its campaign to support Team USA and align with the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games being held on American soil in Los Angeles in 2028.”
Maybe USA Cycling will be saying, to these masters of Hard Rock, “Hallelujah” after such an act of philanthropy.
Rapha unveil US Olympic kit
Something about USA Cycling blog stories being like buses…
Reminds me of the Gran Fondo world champions jersey, or the leaders jerseys of the Volta a Catalunya for that matter.
Remember this reveal comes exactly a week after Rapha shut half of its American clubhouses…
Pogacar motorpaced uphill
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I was (gently) critiqued a few weeks ago for calling Pascal Ackermann a B-tier sprinter. I happen to think it depends on how many riders you think can exist on a top tier at any one time.
Well regardless, hopefully my application of the same moniker to Niccolo Bonifazio won’t be as debatable. Since retiring at the end of 2024 you must have been wondering what the former Lampre and Bahrain fast-man has been up to. Turns out he can be found motorpacing Tadej Pogacar…
? Almost the only way Tadej Pogacar can train uphill riding with pacing for a longer period of time. Hire moto rider. Niccolo Bonifazio riding moto uphill as fast as he descended Cipressa in Milano-Sanremo some years ago.pic.twitter.com/xh8zglgVSP
— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) January 16, 2026
Latest road.cc podcast: Can bike brands finally breathe again in 2026? Why the industry is back on track and “wiser” after years of turmoil + Tour de France UK Grands Départs
Ryan chatted to Rory Hitchens about the state of the bicycle industry, and an array of other topics, some of which we even mentioned on this page today!
Listen (or read) below:
Homemade London cycling map racks up one million views
We’re not used to such a feel-good write up of bicycles from much of print media, though we should have probably known that Metro would be more public transport/active travel friendly than most…
They’ve got a nice story in today’s print edition about 34-year-old Aydin Crouch who, after realising he couldn’t find a good cycling map for his bike-averse flatmates, set about making his own.
3000 hours later, the map is finished, with colour coordination according to the type of infrastructure, low traffic neighbourhoods and planned future infrastructure. It’s a hell of an effort that we can only commend. And it’s been viewed one million times in the last year.
You can view Aydin’s map below, and see the full-write up here.
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Latest Comments
If anyone reading this article is looking for reasonable alternatives Decathlon sell a range of bum bags including one with a bottle holder that comes with the bottle all of which are less than £20. I've got a bum bag I bought a few years ago to replace a North Face bum bag that has lasted really well including commuting and cycle touring that was only £10 and that doesn't seem to have any of the drawbacks of the pack on review.
@Borisface The frameset is similarly priced to e.g. Condor aluminium framesets such as Italia RC Integrato so it doesn't look too far off the mark. Obviously if you dress any old frame up with Campag Record 13 wireless and some decent wheels the final price is going to be somewhere north of £5k.
@Freddy56 @hotspanners Hi, just for for starters I didn’t boycott the race, if you read to the end of the article you’d have seen that I decided I was going to attend and try and implement a positive change… Just for clarity, if it helps with the credibility of my words and something I didn’t include in the blog for brevity and fear of willy-waving here’s an incomprehensive list of cycle events I’ve helped organise over the years - all Brighton Big Dog MTB events (about 12 i think), three league CX races and one Singlespeed CX Euro Champs (niche, i know), a few SAMS MTB races - maybe three or four it was a while back now, a Morvelo City Cross, I’ve stood on a corner in a high-vis vest at quite a few MTB, CX and road races too, and just helped wind up tape at last weekend’s CX race. I’ve also had the privilege to design logos, draw images, and create one-off pieces of artwork and give away prints as prizes for enough races and events for me to forget how many, all for free as part of ‘doing my bit’… Also if you made it through to the second half of the article you’ll have read that I have every sympathy for event organisers because of the experience of all the above and also from having conversations with various organisers on a regular basis so I am acutely aware of all the challenges faced. I chatted today with the future local CX race organiser mentioned, face to face in a field, and he has a similar hatred of AI and is more than happy for me to create a hand-drawn image to promote that race and also help out on the ground where possible… Might even draw a duck in there somewhere for giggles…
@Borisface Not entirely sure why some alleged good times set in the last century validate the silliness and ignorance of your rejection on the grounds of materials and weight of a bike that the reviewer (who, if you look at his bio above, has rather a lot of experience himself, not only of riding bikes but of engineering too) describes as "absolute perfection in every aspect". Thanks for the unrequested permission but I'm not actually looking to spend 6k on a bike at the moment; if I was, on the basis of this review and the photographs I'd certainly be putting this on my shortlist and looking for a test ride. But then in this area at least I have an open mind, you see.
@Freddy56 as the article says, Jo boycotted our race because he thought we’d used AI to design our flyer. I’m with him 100% but he got the facts wrong. People don’t like AI slop. It’s lazy and generic. But you’re right - these grassroots events run off volunteering. I wave flags, design kit and artwork, ferry things to our lockup etc - perhaps Jo could be the change he wants to see. He could volunteer to the London and SE CX league that he races in to help them out with artwork - he created Mint Sauce!
Currently riding home powered by this for the last 6 months after someone stole my SeeSence beam, LOVE it. super durable and batter life gets me home on full beam for 55 minutes
Comments and an article by people who organise NOTHING! Promoting an event is mostly by volunteers and an AI poster done at midnight after sorting the British cycling insurance, the toilets, the Marshalls, the council and a landowner is so draining. The effort is massive for usually a small team. Grab a flag and help rather than moaning about a generated image...o look the image is eye catching so it must work .
I have Wizzard works bag from 2018 (bought for my 30th) and this is a complete rip off it!!
6 times division champion, 1st cat road man, semi-pro for 3 years. Sub 21 min 10 and sub 55 min 25 on a steel road bike. Forty five years riding. Forgotten more about riding bikes than most on here will ever know. If you want to pay £6k for an aluminium road by all means go ahead.
@Borisface Probably for the best, if you're as ignorant about bikes and materials as your comment suggests you wouldn't appreciate it anyway. Go and buy something on the UCI weight limit made out of the latest space age super carbon and wobble around on it looking daft and feeling uncomfortable and to hell with aesthetics, practicality and real-world use cases, at least you'll have the right numbers ("6.85 kg, awesome!") and words ("Yeah, it's UHM 12k carbon, actually") for the cafe. Enjoy!
12 thoughts on ““There needed to be a cycle map for London that made safety its focus”: Homemade cycle map racks up a million views; Fans plea for free-to-air coverage of the Grands Départs; Blogger calls out lack of segregated cycle lanes in city + more on the live blog”
Quote:
That’s alright – we’re all far too busy discussing the niceties (and nastities) of beverage making anyway.
Re. climb names: surely Côte de Trough of Bowland is the pick of the bunch?
mdavidford wrote:
Meeting the French halfway, we don’t want to concede too much. Reminds me of one of my favourite rugby referee moments: France versus New Zealand, England’s Wayne Barnes officiating. When Barnes awarded a penalty against the French there came a plaintive cry of, “Pourquoi?” from a Frenchman. Barnes explained, “Parce que…in front.”
Hopefully they’ll be avoiding
Hopefully they’ll be avoiding any cul-de-sacs.
Come on linguists! Is it
Come on linguists! Is it really culs-de-sac?
This is the non-English
This is the non-English language pedantry I stick around here for!
As a traffic engineer, that
As a traffic engineer, that map highlights how bad it is for non-motorised road users. Imagine if that was the network along which drivers could be confident of at least some level of safety.
Amazing Aydin’s cycling map
Amazing Aydin’s cycling map of London is a truly public-spirited and admirable work!
@glennyrodge.bsky.social
@glennyrodge.bsky.social
I wouldn’t like to be saddled
I wouldn’t like to be saddled with any of those dogs.
It’s not the chafing, it’s
It’s not the chafing, it’s the licking and the nipping.
Pretending that you’re
Pretending that you’re familiar enough with a band to work in ‘off-the-cuff’ references to their song titles doesn’t work quite so well when you get the name of the actual band wrong. ?
One can only be impressed by
One can only be impressed by Pidcock’s drive and ambition. With a stronger team, a fast bike and a slick kit, let’s see if this talented rider can deliver on expectations throughout 2026.