“The hardest days of our lives”: Tarling family reflect on death of Fin as GoFundMe for Welsh cycling legacy fund exceeds £27,000 + more on the live blog
"Our broken hearts will never be fixed"
There is, sadly, only one place to start today, as reaction continues to come in following the tragic death of Fin Tarling at the Volta a Portugal.
> Teenage British cyclist Finlay Tarling killed in crash involving driver at Volta a Portugal
The crash occurred when a driver on the course was travelling in the oncoming direction and struck the 19-year-old who was riding behind the peloton. CNN Portugal captured footage showing the aftermath of the crash, including the broken windscreen and the broken bicycle frame strewn on the ground.
Tarling’s death prompted his NSN Development Team to withdraw from the race, whilst the Volta a Portugal continued and was marked by both stage winners over the weekend dedicating their stage victories to the Tarling family. The decision to continue the race was reportedly taken after consulting with the family, although the question of whether it was appropriate to continue racing in light of such safety deficiencies should be addressed at some point.
In the meantime Tarling’s parents, Michael and Dawn, released a statement on Instagram yesterday morning:
“This has been the hardest couple of days of our lives and it’s taken us a bit of time to be able to post this.
“One of the things that has helped carry us through is the wave of posts, messages, emails, articles and calls from across our family, friends, team, local and sporting communities. Hearing how lovingly and fondly Fin was thought of has been a huge help to us.
View this post on Instagram
“We simply can’t thank you all enough for the support we’ve had.
“I don’t know how we carry on from here but we’ll figure out with the support of all of our family, friends and community.
“Whilst our broken hearts will never be fixed, he was not only our son and brother but our best mate. Gentle, loving with the driest sense of humour we will miss him terribly.
“Whilst he was only 19 his short life was packed full of wonderful experiences and achievements and we couldn’t be prouder of him.
“If you’re heading out on your bike in the next few days give him a thought as you clip in.
“We will of course share funeral details as soon as we know.”
In the meantime, a GoFundMe page has been set up with the support of the family, “In Loving Memory of Finlay Tarling.”
Supporters are invited to donate to create, “a legacy project providing an opportunity to help future generations of young Welsh riders discover the freedom and confidence that a bike can give a child.
“We hope it can also bring some small measure of comfort and peace to Dawn, Michael and Josh, as well as to his extended family and loved ones.”
In the time since we started writing this blog entry, the total donation total has exceeded £27,000 from around 750 donors.
Everyone at road.cc would like to send their condolences to the Tarling family…
Department for Transport admits illegal electric motorbikes “cannot be identified” in UK road collision statistics
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This review is now over two weeks old and still has photos for a completely different bag. Anyone reading this who is in the market for a high-end transport solution that requires minimal disassembly (admittedly not me, I have a Buxumbox Ventoux) and makes a cursory glance at this review will immediately rule it out based on the images. A real shame as it looks like a decent bag otherwise, the review gives it a 9/10, but nobody prepared to pay this price will look twice based on the photos.
"confusion rife amongst the public and even the police about the differences between compliant e-bikes (EAPCs) and pedal assist bikes" And indeed this journalist. An EAPC is, surely a 'pedal assist bike'. A 'bike' can be a bicycle or motor bike. So an e-bike can, equally, be either. A Surron is an electric motorbike. But an illegally modified EAPC could be classed as either as an illegal EAPC (eg. with higher cut-off - such as an american import or an aftermarket kit) or an illegal motor bike (eg. with throttle control). And a modified EAPC isn't necessarily illegal (eg. a bigger battery).
In Berlin in the 1980's there was an investigation into the high death rate on the cities cycle paths. The deaths occured at junctions and the most dangerous cycle paths were those seperated from the road, with death rates of 4 to 12 times worse than having no cycle path at all (the principle cause was visibility). This study cause a major redesign of cycle paths. Looking at the video of the cycle path it appears that the people who designed it have never heard of the Berlin study. The councillor is correct, the cycle path is dangerous and needs to be changed before a cyclist is killed.
It’s a shame the reviewer didn’t offer a deeper analysis about why it felt sluggish and slow to turn into high speed corners. The geo could be to blame—with the sky high stack height and long chainstays—although it appears to be in line with accepted endurance geometry these days.
@ChrisA serious...
There I was, trying to be serious! I was trying to differentiate between soft footpaths & gravel or surfaced tracks. And no, I have never ridden wearing headphones/buds. I did try ear buds once when walking the dog & didn't like the loss of awareness. For the pedants; I don't have a moral problem with riding on isolated 'surfaced' footpaths nor have I ever encountered any problems with other users when riding on said footpaths.
Is that riding with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Grateful Dead on the headphones?
" ... noticeably easier to pedal." Really? How noticeable? I've seen a thing at point of sale in a major bike shop near Kingston which had two identical chainsets connected to two different bottom brackets, inviting the customer to try spinning each one and go "ooh, this one spins much longer when there's no grease in it or load on it, it must be better", but from what I've read, the real-world difference between tuned ceramic and out-of-the box decent steel is about one watt, at best?
@imajez Most people would have walked, but we take your point. I've never had a problem with riding on stoned tracks, designated as footpaths, but I'm not ripping up the surface on downhill footpaths. 0:-)