“Residents deserve better than panic headlines and half-understood claims ricocheting around Facebook”: Councillors launch defence of “Quiet Lanes”; Chris Froome’s retirement shenanigans suggest TdF return; Pogačar dominant + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
The Quiet Lane fight has begun in earnest
Oxfordshire County Council’s planned introduction of ‘quiet lanes’, various traffic calming measures intended to encourage people to cycle and to prevent rural rat-running, has not been popular among certain motorists. One opposition councillor even accused the council of manipulating Department for Transport guidance to “push” drivers off the road.
Consequently, local councillors are having to be rather more forthright and robust in their defence of their proposals. Firstly Lib Dem Councillor Nathan Ley wrote a Substack essay detailing both the reasons for the proposals, an explanation of how and why the pilot roads were chosen. My favourite paragraph was this:
“Oxfordshire residents deserve better than panic headlines and half-understood claims ricocheting around Facebook. They deserve the facts. They don’t deserve wannabe-celebrity councillors standing and frowning at the side of a road, knowing full well nothing is coming to their area.”
Well, it doesn’t mean that’ll stop them, but it’s nice for some local government vanity to be called out.
Then this afternoon, Green Cllr Emily Kerr has shared details of parts of the county where quiet lanes are already in-place, albeit not with the same level of traffic calming infrastructure that the council are currently proposing.
Just incase anyone’s interested, here are some existing filtered Quiet Lanes we already have in Oxfordshire. Including one requested by Tory Councillor Ian Corkin in 2024.
— Cllr Emily Kerr 💚 (@emilykerr36.bsky.social) 17 June 2026 at 15:42
Kerr’s also shared details of one ‘rat-run’ that was closed, she says, on the request of a local Conservative councillor. The Oxford Mail reported that “Traffic measures were introduced as a result of adjacent industrial development including reducing the speed limits around the hamlet.” But the road was eventually closed to prevent through access and blocked with concrete bollards.
They’re baby steps, but hopefully the vision of safer cycling in rural areas can be made a reality.
New York police officer drives into bike lane and hits cyclist… before claiming rider “came out of nowhere”
TDS: Utter Pog domination
It was never in doubt was it? So much talk about a revitalised Jonas Vingegaard, a stronger than ever Isaac Del Toro, and yet nothing changes. Tadej Pogacar is the man to beat in July after an utterly bonkers 70km solo. Here’s the moment he launched his attack…
Tadej Pogacar is not waiting around! ⏰
He uses the intermediate sprint to launch an early solo breakaway with over 70km to go 😅 pic.twitter.com/mvvpe5zP7h
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 17, 2026
His two minute advantage over Richard Carapaz actually stayed pretty static in the final 20km which suggests to me there was something left in the tank. Bagioli had got to witin 20 seconds of the Ecuadorian before Carapaz rallied on the final short, steep climb. He took second, Bagioli third. Everyone else came in more than four minutes behind the winner. Complete domination!
In the other races today (a reminder we covered the women’s Tour de Suisse this morning), Laurence Pithie won the opening stage of the Tour of Slovenia, ahead of his own Red Bull teammate Arne Marit. It could be a very illustrious race for the team with Florian Lipowitz the favourite for the overall there as well.
Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe destroy the competition at the Tour of Slovenia to take a 1-2, with Laurence Pithie claiming first 🥇🥈💪 pic.twitter.com/Lj0VGamxTq
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 17, 2026
Meanwhile Biniam Girmay took his first win since February in the Baloise Belgium Tour. The timing there also couldn’t come any better for the Eritrean.
A perfect start in Belgium 👏
Biniam Girmay takes Stage 1 of the Tour of Belgium in style 🇧🇪🥇 pic.twitter.com/I53KBm7DwH
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 17, 2026
Talented 16-year-old cyclist Shane O’Brien killed in collision with parked lorry
O’Brien was training ahead of next week’s Irish road championships.
TDS: Carapaz breaks free
Shortly after my last update, Richard Carapaz attacked and has been solo ever since. He’s actually opened up nearly two minutes’ advantage on his chasers, which bodes very well for the Ecuadorian next month. But it’s nothing compared to the man up front. Tadej Pogacar has a lead exceeding two minutes on Carapaz, and four minutes on the main group. I don’t have the superlatives just yet, maybe when the Slovenian crosses the line in 20km I might have a better idea. Meanwhile Andrea Bagioli of Lidl-Trek has attacked on home roads (he lives in Switzerland) and has 40 seconds on the mini peloton. But make no mistake, the GC of this race is done and dusted before it could ever begin. Utterly extraordinary
"Real problem is the truth"
On Friday, we led our live blog with reaction to The Telegraph’s latest article opposing active travel infrastructure, specifically the C9 in Hammersmith, a junction that was seemingly newsworthy due to Jeremy Vine once comparing the old roundabout to a scene from Ben-Hur.
The catalyst for the ‘paper’s article was a petition started by David Tarsh opposing the segregated cycle lane. To recap, as noted by decarbonisation specialist Leo Murray on Bluesky, “The 0.8m stretch of Cycleway 9 on King St selected by Tarsh includes a notoriously dangerous junction where a side road gives access to the A4: Weltje Rd. Weltje also lies between two large secondary schools, and schoolchildren crossing it as well as cyclists in C9 are routinely hit by cars here.”
“This junction has been an obvious fail since day one of C9 opening. As the casualties racked up, the council carried out some minor tinkering to the junction design. It didn’t help.
“We (local Evil Cycling Lobby) have written to [Hammersmith and Fulham Council] & discussed the problems here with cabinet members & officers constantly for the last 5 years. But they are too afraid of the motorist backlash that Tarsh et al will whip up if they do the obvious thing to fix it: close Weltje Rd to the A4.”
Murray’s comments prompted Tarsh to write in, asking for a right of reply. He said he can’t believe that the council would “be afraid” of him, and that he insists is firmly “pro-active travel” but opposed to TfL’s “flawed, dogma-based policy” that they “deliberately conceal and manipulate.” Anyway, in the spirit of open discussion, here’s his response in full:
“While it’s flattering of Mr Murray to suggest that [London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council] fears me, its real problem is the truth.
“C9 is MORE DANGEROUS than not having it. That’s not opinion; it’s fact, which LBHF knows. And LBHF won’t change things by duplicitously calling it a “safer” cycle pathway.
“Across C9 in LBHF, cycle accidents are 136% up, and serious accidents 480% up. Accidents per cycle journey are 47% up and serious accidents/ cycle journey are +287%.
“Why? Cyclists get a false sense of security; and vision at junctions is reduced. That’s all junctions, not just Weltje Road; and a permanent design doesn’t improve things.
“C9 is bad because:
- It reduces road space for all, so increases congestion
- It is unfair, as it gives lots of space exclusively to a small group of users
- It is inefficient, as it is virtually empty most of the time
- It’s damaging to the local economy – local retailers say they have lost business
- It’s unpopular; repeated polls showed a majority of residents being opposed to C9
“TfL and LBHF have manipulated, buried and ignored the negative feedback, which is a disgrace, and LBHF’s promise of “not doing things to residents” has been broken repeatedly.”
It should be said that both ‘parties’ are in agreement about the junction’s flaws and are trying to urge the council to fix it. Only where Murray wants the Cycleway upgraded, Tarsh is opposed to it altogether. Make of all that what you will!
TDS: Bloody hell
Tadej Pogacar has pushed on and now has a lead of 1’14” over the chase group that has now coagulated. 11-strong, it includes Roglic, Carapaz and Riccitello along with Wilco Kelderman and Winchester’s finest Paul Double. But with two UAE teammates in the group, I doubt they’ll be co-operating particularly well and it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re caught by the peloton that’s only 30 odd seconds behind. Just extraordinary…
57km, and a lot of false flat before the final punchy climbs, remain.
Excellent paintwork...
TDS: Pog attacking accidentally?
Wow, more than 70km still to go and at the bottom of the day’s hardest climb UAE drilled it. Brandon McNulty was motoring with Tadej Pogacar on his wheel. The American managed to rip the peloton down to around 10 before Pogacar went clear.
He kept looking behind him though and his effort doesn’t even seem full-throttle. But what a statement of intent! Behind the group are split into ones and twos. Carapaz in the first chase group. Roglic in the second. Pogacar has meanwhile caught and quickly dropped Fredrik Dversnes from the early break. It’s like he’s playing a computer game on easy mode!… And now he’s solo. Utterly bonkers.
Incidentally, we just heard an interview where Pogacar said he was disappointed the race is no longer nine stages long. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to cram his training load into half the time!
A Perineum's problem
The prospect of bare backsides on hire bike seats wasn’t the only hygiene-related concern at this year’s Naked Bike Ride in London.
Chris Froome eyeing Tour de France return?
View this post on Instagram
That’s the only logical conclusion I can take from today’s announcement that Skoda, the major Tour de France partner and sponsor of the green jersey, have signed the four-time Tour winner as a brand ambassador.
The 40-year-old, who never confirmed his retirement – forcing us to come up with pieces like this – could be seen in the race convoy, mooching around hospitality, or posting videos to his instagram sharing his love for the electric Kodaq. Or that strange bike bell that they never actually put on sale…
> Car brand Škoda unveils bike bell “designed to cut through noise-cancelling headphones”… but says it is not for sale (yet)
Hero KV DuoBell-Header-2 (Image Credit: Škoda UK)
BREAKING NEWS: Channel 5 to show daily highlights and live 2027 Grand Depart coverage
Wow, very big news. And of great relief to all cycling fans, surely. It’s news so big we’re deploying the rarely seen more to follow line, a thing I think I last used when Simon Yates retired…
Sometimes optics matter more than being in the right
The latest viral bit of cycling internet, concerning Michael Gove of all people has stirred Jack to write something about the whole thing…
TdS Women: Femke de Vries wins!
Ah so close from Lauren Dickson! The Scot broke away with Femke De Vries on the earlier climb and held off a chase group comprising all the overall favourites including Elisa Long Borghini, Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma and Kim LeCourt-Pienaar. But De Vries just came through to take the win after forcing Dickson to lead out for the two-up sprint. It’s a first ever pro win for the Dutch woman, whilst for Dickson the wait goes on. Cedrine Kerbaol won the sprint behind for third…
Femke de Vries grabs her first professional victory and takes the overall lead of the Tour de Suisse! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/UGFRVHIcpD
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 17, 2026
A 'proper' bike
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Backstedt, Georgi, Hayter and Watson lead packed National Champs startlist
British Cycling has unveiled the provisional startlist for the national championships, which get underway in and around Aberystwyth.
On the women’s side, defending champion Millie Couzens will face some very stiff competition from the likes of Cat Ferguson, Anna Henderson, Pfeiffer Georgi and Flora Perkins. For Zoe Backstedt meanwhile, she’s excited to race in her native Wales…
“I’m super excited to come back to Wales to race the National Championships this year, I don’t get to race in the UK a lot, let alone in Wales, so that makes it even more exciting to be there. We’ve got such a strong roster of riders in the UK, so it’s never going to be easy, but I hope I’ll come into this in good shape and fighting for the win.”
Ferguson will also line up for the time trial and will face stiff competition from Imogen Wolff, Erin Boothman and her Movistar teammate Carys Lloyd.
On the men’s side, defending road race champion Sam Watson will return and see some familiar faces in Ethan Hayter and Matty Brennan trying to deny him the double. One man who knows a thing about defending national titles is Netcompany-Ineos veteran Ben Swift. The 38-year old is widely expected to retire at the end of the year so this may well be his final national champs before moving into team management. Other honourable mentions on the startlist go to Welshman Owain Doull and cyclocross supremo Cam Mason.
Meanwhile in the time trial, Josh Tarling is provisionally listed but may miss out after crashing out of the Dauphine last week. Instead defending champion Hayter’s strongest opposition may come from Watson and NSN’s Ethan Vernon
Care-free cornering at sportive
One corner, many crashes. when the photographer chooses the right spot…
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BREAKING: Wout van Aert out of the Tour de France
Ack, news no-one likes to read.
Visma Lease-a-Bike say their star man has not sufficiently recovered from the elbow injury that forced his withdrawal from the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné. In some ways, the writing was on the wall. The Belgian was off the boil in the opening stages before winning a bunch sprint, but he won’t be going to the Tour just to compete with the fast men. It was then reported that Van Aert would be late to join the team at altitude camp after having his elbow examined in hospital in Belgium.
“This is of course a big disappointment. The Tour de France is one of my main goals every year. Unfortunately, a crash during training has put a spanner in the works, and the injury to my elbow has worsened and has still not healed sufficiently. Together with the team, we have concluded that starting the Tour in top form is not feasible at this point. My full focus is now on my recovery so I can return to my best level later this season,”
The team will announce their Tour de France line-up behind Jonas Vingegaard next week, though it’s widely rumoured that Norwegian Per Strand Hagenes, a young Norwegian classics specialist, could get the nod. Big shoes to fill though, and sadly it’s not the first time injury has derailed Van Aert’s season…
Tour de Suisse!
It’s a brave new world at the Tour de Suisse. Once considered the fourth Grand Tour, the men’s race has been cut to five days, bringing parity with the women’s race. Now, both races will take place on the same day in the same start/finish towns, presumably to save on resources. Here’s hoping the gender equality means both races can stabilise and grow from this point, and is not a desperate money-saving move for racing in a country that recently had to cancel the women’s Tour de Romandie for precisely that reason.
The consequence of all these changes is that we’re already inside the final hour of racing for the women’s race, and it’s a punchy stage. 11 riders have escaped on the hardest climb of the day including Lianne Lippert, Karilijn Swinkels and Urska Zigart. They’re just inside 30km to go.
Zigart’s fiancee, his name I think is Tadej Pogacar, rather overshadows the men’s startlist, even though Mathieu van der Poel is also lining up. At the Tour de Romandie several weeks ago, the Slovenian swept the overall and won four stages along the way. Since then he’s been training at altitude in Sierra Nevada, fueling speculation he could target the Vuelta a Espana later this season, although I – for one – am sceptical.
In truth, anything but a comfortable victory would be a cause for concern inside the UAE camp, although today’s categorised climbs are short and punchy enough that Van der Poel may be able to hang on.
Other riders on the startlist include my personal favourite Primoz Roglic (who is bidding to become the first rider in history to have won all 7 major one-week stage races, but is also now 36) Richard Carapaz, Antonio Tiberi, Matthew Riccitello and Mikel Landa. I’ll give an honourable mention to Mauro Schmid, the national champion in his home race who has also been having the season of his life, including a second place behind a certain prodigy at La Fleche Wallonne!
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Happy birthday Eddy Merckx!
The Cannibal turns 81 today, and what better way to celebrate than by reading about the new bike in his name…
The 525R (so numbered, I presume, after his number of race victories) has all sorts of new things relating to rider geometry that I don’t know about. Thankfully, Mat does…
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Latest Comments
@SecretSam That's not really fair, in fact not fair at all. It wasn't his fault that the last two mountain stages were shortened and on the first one he had dropped everyone and was a minute clear as he summitted the Iseran when the stage was neutralised, and on the second he stayed with or dropped all the other GC contenders. You seem to have forgotten his Giro win as well as Paris Nice and the Tour de Suisse. Only the fourth rider to have won the Tour and Giro before the age of twenty-five. Yes he probably couldn't have stayed with Pogacar even if he hadn't had the awful crash, and probably nor could any other rider in history except perhaps Merckx.
@lesterama Bernal has had two whammys. His crash, which he has probably never fully recovered from and Ineos taking a nosedive. They have no focus and no identity.
@Zermattjohn Read the comment I posted about my experience
I bought some Challenge Strada tyres. After a while the sidewalls began to detach from the tyre and the tread became rippled making them unsafe to use. The shop I bought them from asked me to drop them in and he would show the Challenge rep as he was due in the following week. The rep bizarrely firstly claimed that the tyres had failed because they may have been punctured (they hadn’t), then immediately claimed that they had failed because the rear tyre was more worn than the front! I emailed pictures to Challenge and was told they had failed because they had been fitted incorrectly. The black strip they had introduced to stop the issue I had was supposed to be above the rim. Which it clearly was shown to be correct on the pictures I sent to them which proved that the tyres were correctly fitted. This seems to be the norm now in the cycle industry, if there is an issue with a product, the company automatically blames the end user rather than look to address the issue, thereby pissing the customer off. A pissed off customer rarely returns.
@kingleo And there are hundreds, if not thousands of people holding up a shattered helmet saying it saved their life, the doctor/policeman told me.
I spend a month most years in China because of family, and a cargo bike there with an electric motorbike style front end and either LFP or advanced lead acid batteries, costs under £100 and is the backbone of every trade. There are a hundred different kinds but what they share in common is functionality and cheapness. Even the ancient pedal pulled wooden wagons with literally welded spokes from the sixties have been electrified with e-motors attached to the underside - and they cost sod all. In China cheap transport for business is a public good like drinking water. Because to get people to work you have to make work affordable. That's a secret of capitalism we in the UK could do better to learn.
@Zermattjohn handmade genuinely means handmade with Challenge. You cannot compare ride quality of a mass produced, vulcanized Panaracer tyre with these. The ride quality is incredibly supple, and can transform a riding experience. More expensive yes, but worth every penny!
@SecretSam 2019 Tour (don't see anyone else putting their hand up to say they won it), 2021 Giro, 2019 Paris-Nice, 2019 Tour de Suisse, 2018 Tour of California. So I'd say Lesterama is about right with his burned bright comment.
"Over 1,000 dockless bikes seized in Westminster The authority said the bikes would continue to be removed where they caused an obstruction, with operators charged for their return." Would love to know how many motor vehicles were removed (and their "operators" charged for their return) for the same reason. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84g1x0g0d42o
@OnYerBike Thanks for the interesting article link (table below for any interested), as you say it does show that the top 10% of pros manage 4.63 w/kg over four hours, but that only extrapolates to 325W if the rider is 70kg, and of course a lot of them are well below that, e.g. Vinegaard 60kg so his power over four hours would be more like 279W at that w/kg. Note also that the average for the bottom 90% is "only" 3.83 w/kg, so the average 68kg (World Tour average weight) rider in that cohort would be putting out 260W over four hours. So I'd still argue that across the average of the peleton, with 10% capable of about 325W over four hours and the other 90% about 260W, a figure for the whole peleton of around 280-290W would be more realistic.
10 thoughts on ““Residents deserve better than panic headlines and half-understood claims ricocheting around Facebook”: Councillors launch defence of “Quiet Lanes”; Chris Froome’s retirement shenanigans suggest TdF return; Pogačar dominant + more on the live blog”
What a truly terrible graph. It’s almost as if it was intentionally designed to make it really hard to understand what it’s showing. No indication of what periods the ‘before’ and ‘after’ are covering (have they been cherry-picked?; are they even the same length?; are they long enough to give meaningful numbers free of statistical noise?). That woeful 3D-ified scale that makes it impossible to read off what the actual values are (presumably the bars are set forward of the background scale, otherwise there would appear to have been a negative number of serious accidents before the cycleway, but by how much isn’t clear). And then combine that with the description using percentages to give big scary numbers, instead of more easily interpretable multiples (‘a little over twice as many’).
D-
See me!
@mdavidford Oh you cynic! Didn’t you see that they used CAPITAL LETTERS to really exaggerate their point. Thats how you know they are being totally honest and transparent.
@mdavidford Hey, when I was at school, I was happy with a D- for the limited amount of effort I put in!
“TfL and LBHF have manipulated, buried and ignored the negative feedback, …” Of course, they did. Officials know better what’s good for the plebe, be they on two feet or two wheels. Authorities support pre-packed projects (who cares about proofs of concept and feasibility studies?), beg for public money (this means taxes and public debt, which means more taxes for the next 2 or 3 centuries) and spend it till the last dime. Return on investment sounds like an lethal insult, wastage of public ressources appears to be the common practice. The UK isn’t an exception. This is happening all over Western Europe where roads are becoming increasingly dangerous for non-motorised users. Remember that a motorist who kills a cyclist may not be sentenced to prison. End of rant.
Much as I agree with the thrust of Nathan Ley’s comments
is more than a little rich. Local MP Layla Moran, accompanied by a rotating cast of councillors including Mr Ley himself, standing around frowning at things (principally the A34 and its lack of south-facing slip roads at Lodge Hill) is a standing joke in our house. There’s at least one on every leaflet through the door.
Here’s some frowning at a railway bridge.
7f6a1410-fc35-11f0-becd-a11785da9989
And for balance, here they are looking more cheerful as they get started building the A34 junction themselves.
(Going to be slow progress, as they have to take it in turns with the one hard hat and hi viz jacket, while the others sit and have a cup of tea.)
@mdavidford though they’ll get a lot done with that comically large shovel!
Well if it’s “Weltje Road” then surely it must “go Dutch”? (Although the internet says it’s actually named for a German chef)
I do like the “fairness” argument the motoring-friendly (sorry, “pro-active travel” he claims) make.
It’s a bit of a “we decided that the fences between zoo visitors and tigers reduce space for all, and give space exclusively to (deliciously munchable) humans at the expense of all zoo users…”
Of course, roads (taking immense amounts of space in urban areas and usually a large majority of the space between buildings) in no way privilege a single kind of road user… and I’m sure no motorists would object to people strolling down the middle of lanes or just pausing in the road. Actually, can’t think of why I rarely see that happen…
Perhaps he’s got some detailed studies (although the figures he’s shown already look like they’re presented to support a particular argument rather than just “data”) … but I think we can call “bingo” here.