Driver with 44 driving convictions given 3 month disqualification for “deliberate punishment pass”… after cyclist uses bike box on the road; Albert Einstein’s saddle up for auction; Giro TT coverage + more on the live blog

Today’s blog kicks off with some rather strong language and a terrible near miss. road.cc reader John has tagged us in this shocking video from his commute between Carrigaline and Cork.

The white BMW driver stops at a red light right on the edge of the bike box before John gets going again.

But it doesn’t take long for the driver, on a rather narrow road through the village to attempt to overtake before reaching the parked cars on the opposite side of the road. The result is a very close pass, captured on John’s 360 degree camera.

> While Ireland debates mandatory hi-vis for cyclists, new figures show bike trips up 50% in two years in Dublin

John subsequently pulls over when he sees the BMW parked, and waits for the owner to return. We then see an edited version of their exchange:

“Do you want to see a video of it?”

“I drive every day of the week.”

“It’s a 360 degree camera that shows you going from behind and forward.”

“No problem.”

“You came within a foot of my right-hand side.”

“That’s right, and you came over the barriers.”

“I did at the start [the junction] because I’m supposed to.”

“You came out into the lane at the lights.”

“I did what I’m supposed to, that’s what that bike box is for.”

For someone who drives every day of the week, a worrying level of ignorance becomes apparent as the exchange progresses. The video ends with John telling him he would report the close pass to the Gardai (Irish Police).

> Near Miss of the Day 946: £1,000 fine after impatient driver close passes cyclist

Thankfully, we have a resolution to this story in the YouTube video description:

“This driver received a careless driving conviction, €500 fine, 5 points and disqualified for 3 months for deliberate punishment pass on the cyclist. He admitted on camera his actions were deliberate due to the cyclists use of the bike box. You’d think with 44 previous road traffic convictions he’d have tried to keep his head down.”

You have to wonder how other drivers, let alone cyclists would feel if they knew they were sharing the road with someone carrying 44 road traffic convictions, someone continuing to drive every day of the week. Anyway, how someone doesn’t know what a bike box is (a box for cyclists, as indicated by the painted bicycle) is slightly beyond me…

2026 Giro d’Italia GC after stage 10 ITT (Image Credit: FirstCycling)

My prediction that Afonso Eulalio could win this Giro d’Italia are looking rather good to me. As I said, he probably won’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that the teams were playing with fire in letting him get up the road.

Meanwhile, Gall will be pleased Red Bull underperformed and optimistic, based on his recent climbing form, that he could reclaim a podium place in the second half of the race. Netcompany-Ineos and Tudor’s team leadership has been clarified, whilst Red Bull’s has become more confused. The riders 15th to 19th will be prime targets for getting in breakaways, either for stage glory, or a GC parachute mission.

One for the motornormativity hive-mind. If you said, ‘rip it up and start again (as a car park)’, I would complain you’ve put an 80s earworm in my head. But I’d also, unfortunately, have to award you top marks…

> Calls for “failed” bike lane to be scrapped and replaced with car parking – because it’s always blocked by drivers

Wow wow wow, Afonso Eulalio has held on to the pink jersey!

Jonas Vingegaard would have hoped for a better performance today, he’s finished , slower than Arensman, Gee-West, O’Connor and even David de la Cruz. He’s lost a minute to Arensman, but gained 30 seconds on Hindley and 1’22” a sweaty, disgruntled Felix Gall. The Austrian struggled today, his lack of visor giving us an intimate picture of his suffering. He is not a happy man.

But Eulalio! The man who had never finished inside the top-50 of a TT outside Portugal, comes in in 39th, and keeps pink by more than 20 seconds by my calculations! What a performance, a fantastic ride for the diminuitive climber.

What a ride by Thymen Arensman! His shoulders rocking and rolling over the bike, he comes across the finish line five seconds faster than Remi Cavagna in second place. It looks like a Netcompany-Ineos 1-2 on the stage!

Both he and Ben O’Connor are the big winners today, at the expense of Felix Gall and Jai Hindley. Could they be the strongest rivals to Vingegaard for the overall? Hindley comes to the line and finishes 21st, 13 seconds slower than his ill teammate Pellizzari.

Jonas Vingegaard is faltering. This is all relative of course, but it would have been the day he expected to take the pink jersey. But through the second time check he’s 30 seconds behind Arensman and 8 seconds behind Gee-West and O’Connor.

He’s put a minute into Gall, and making the most of the sub-par Red Bull duo, but Afonso Eulalio has only lost 1’30 on the Dane over the first two thirds of the course. Could the Portuguese rider hold on? Remember he had 2’24” over Vingegaard at the start of the day.

Wow, I’ll eat my words, Storer has put in a great second-half of that TT, to finish 13th provisionally, matching several TT specialists. Young Beloki might have to wait a while to crack the first page of GC.

Here comes Pellizzari to the finish and it’s not looking great, slower than Storer and Beloki, he’ll be losing a lot of time to Arensman and O’Connor. If he’s under the weather, then I think it’s goodbye to his chances of the podium in Rome. Hindley is almost matching his teammate at the second intermediate point.

Fellow Perth boy O’Connor might have mis-paced his effort, having led Gee-West at earlier splits, he comes in in 10th place, some 25 seconds behind the Canadian. Still an impressive ride however.

Derek Gee-West has just crossed the finish line in a provisional 4th place, 2’16” slower than Ganna. That’s a fast time and feels like a very good benchmark for deciding if a rider is going well or now.

Thymen Arensman is going very well indeed, beating Remi Cavagna into second at the first intermediate split. Him and Ben O’Connor are both faster than Gee-West. Things are not looking so good for Red Bull or Tudor though. Hindley and Pellizzari are losing time and could be seeing their podium times go up in smoke. Meanwhile Mathys Rondel and Michael Storer are at risk of dropping out of the top-10, with Markel Beloki (yep, son of that Beloki) riding very well is giving them a run for their money.

Vingegaard meanwhile comes through the timesplit and is slower than both Arensman and O’Connor! He’s still put 30 seconds into Gall though.

A reminder: At 42km this is the longest TT in a Grand Tour we’ve seen for 11 seasons, some riders have never done an effort like this in a pro race before!

Rob Hatch has just said there is an ‘hour of power’ remaining, done a promotion for something superman-related on HBO, and then wondered aloud if time trialling is Christian Scaroni’s kryptonite. This is commentary as you’ve never heard it before.

The final riders are on the start ramp, both Red Bull riders have started, and will be keen to show the rumoured stomach bug going round is not damaging their podium hopes. Hindley will be hoping to gain on Gall, but both men will be worried by Thymen Arensman who you would expect to gain time on each of them.

Gall’s chances are not helped aesthetically by a wide helmet and a lack of visor. Time to call the fashion police. Saying that, Vingegaard has opted for his own wide, red helmet which clashes badly with his blue skinsuit of the mountains jersey leader.

Finally there’s race leader Eulalio. Smiling and waving on the ramp he seems relaxed, but it will have to be one hell of a performance if he’s to hang on to pink. He’s such a small rider he can get aero but can he put out enough power?

In terms of time checks so far, Derek Gee-West is riding very well, and has the sixth fastest time at the second intermediate point. that would have put him in the hotseat a few hours ago. Ben O’Connor has also started very fast and at the first time check is faster than any other GC rider so far.

The same can’t be said for Giulio Pellizzari, at the first split he’s level with an out-of-sorts Egan Bernal in 20th place.

 

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It’s a second fastest time for Remi Cavagna, just inside two minutes slower than Filippo Ganna. No one on course looks close to touching the TGV’s time, let alone the race leader.

But we’re now getting towards the lower end of GC contenders. Derek Gee-West, 14th overall after his crash in Bulgaria, is setting off in a few minutes. The top-15 are all setting off at three minute intervals rather than one in an effort to reduce drafting among the race favourites. You might think that works to Filippo Ganna’s advantage, but it can have its drawbacks as Jonathan Milan discovered earlier today…

🟦 Blue flag?????

📺 Follow the #Giroditalia on TV, and on socials, wherever you are 🌐 pic.twitter.com/Y4VcZ7mTNi

— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 19, 2026

Was it ever in doubt? Filippo Ganna has smashed the provisional fastest time by more than two minutes to take over in the hotseat, finishing his 42km effort in 45’53”. Poor Sjoerd Bax.

Remi Cavagna looks like he’ll go provisionally second fastest based on his times through the checkpoints so far. But it’s going to take a hell of a lot for someone (i.e. Vingegaard) to beat the Italian. And I think my hopes of Eulalio hanging on to pink could be hanging by a thread based on some of these time gaps we’re seeing between rouleurs!

The race organisers have somehow wrangled the rights to make today’s Giro stage free to the world! Ned Boulting and Jacopo Guarnieri are the commentators…

For the first two hours at least, then just as Filippo Ganna approached the line it went offline. Maybe someone in the sweaty commentary box pressed the wrong button and forgot to geo-restrict the stage. In any event, all the preview and polemica you could possibly want is here for posterity

Non-compliant cycle infrastructure? There’s one for the Bingo card…

> New “safe” road scheme will push cyclists and pedestrians into conflict and fail to slow drivers, campaigners warn in city with “weirdest and worst” cycle lanes in UK

Filippo Ganna is resplendent in the colours of Italian National Champion, and absolutely flying. It took him only eight minutes to catch his minute man Cyril Barthe, and 12 minutes to catch his two minute man, points classification leader Paul Magnier.

The first man to finish this course, Lidl-Trek’s Max Walscheid is currently in the hotseat, but live tracking already has Ganna more than 30 seconds up on the Big German’s time. Meanwhile Mikkel Bjerg and Remi Cavagna are both out on the course.

Albert Einstein’s saddle is up for sale. The Ludwig Nelson Fahrradbau seat, dated to 1929, is expected to fetch between £7000 and £10,000 and will be auctioned in Gloucestershire tomorrow.

The lot is complete with the order form signed by the German physicist, containing Einstein’s signature and home address.

Shortly before fleeing Germany in 1932, Einstein gave the saddle – along with a bike and other papers – to fellow Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max von Laue.

Von Laue discarded the bike, but the saddle was preserved because it was “so comfortable”. He later gifted the saddle away before a family descendent of the recipient chose to put it up for sale.

Chris Albury, Senior Auctioneer & Valuer at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, said: “We are delighted to present a deeply personal object that belonged to Albert Einstein, one of the world’s greatest minds. It is something he actively used in his daily life and therefore offers a tangible link to one of the most important figures in scientific history.”

We even have a quote from Albert himself on the merits of the bicycle, writing to his son Eduard in 1930: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Medium-length content is taking off! First came a two and a half minute video from a slightly mad person talking about Afonso Eulalio, then came a five minute effort from former Vuelta third place Jack Haig, expanding his ‘content creation’ with a rest day vlog. Whatever could be next?

 

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We want your thoughts, you want a new bike. This seems ideal…

> Ride away on a Boardman SLR 8.9 road bike worth £1,400 just by completing this survey! Tell us what you think about road.cc for your chance to win

When you have a half marathon to run, you might as well warm up on two wheels.

 

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Wonder if anyone brought some swimming goggles?

One of my favourite subsets of race scenarios is a time trial where the race leader unexpectedly hangs on to their jersey, the power of being the last rider out propelling them them to career best performances.

I’m not talking about Pog or Ving winning in yellow, that doesn’t cut the mustard. I’m talking about Sepp Kuss holding on in the 2023 Vuelta a Espana despite Vingegaard and Roglic biting at his heels. I’m talking Lukas Pöstlberger collapsing over the finish line after delivering the TT of his life to hang on to the yellow jersey at the Criterium du Dauphine by a single second. Inject it into my veins!

Rest Day Notes from the Giro.

Something about Hope.https://t.co/79beC8X8cS pic.twitter.com/dMvmNKe3cX

— Never Strays Far (@neverstraysfar) May 18, 2026

Today, Afonso Eulalio has the opportunity to join that rather illustrious club that definitely just exists in my head. He was spotted by ex-ITV commentator (and my Road Book editor) Ned Boulting on a recon yesterday. Over today’s 42km course, the diminutive Portuguese climber is all but assured to lose two minutes, but if Vingegaard is on a good day it could be more than three. Will he hang on to pink with a 2’26” advantage on the start ramp? Will the maglia rosa on his shoulders be enough to propel him into a podium contender?

> Blog: GC favourites bet on youthful inexperience at the Giro

Today’s pan-flat course is one for the ‘bigger riders’ and, as the only TT in this year’s Giro, it represents Filippo Ganna’s best hope of an eighth Giro stage win and a seventh against the clock. The Italian has been rather anonymous so far in the race so will be hoping his fresher legs pay off against the race-weary GC favourites.

The other TT/rouleur specialists worthy of mention include Remi Cavagna, Matteo Sobrero, Mikkel Bjerg, Niklas Larsen and veteran Nelson Oliveira.

Of the GC riders, Vingegaard is well-placed to cement his GC lead over Felix Gall, with the Austrian having historically struggled in the discipline. Vingegaard will have to complete his effort in the race-provided mountains jersey though – shock horror! Red Bull have invested a lot in aerodynamics and will be hoping Jai Hindley can close in on the podium whilst Giulio Pellizzari can bounce back from his ‘stomach problems’ of Sunday that saw him lose a minute on his rivals. Thymen Arensman, Ben O’Connor and Derek Gee-West will be hoping to go G-whizz and move up overall.

The riders will head out on the course in reverse order, with maglia nero Frank van den Broek rolling down the start ramp in the next hour and a bit. I’ll keep track of the times as they come in!

When Bob Ross brought wet-on-wet painting to the masses, I doubt he envisioned his technique being taken on quite like this…

 

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If this doesn’t quench your thirst for two-wheel painting, there’s more to admire on the instagram account. Although, admire might be too strong a word.

Rapha’s new Brevet collection offers a performance edge without compromising comfort, apparently. Oh and did we mention there are nine pockets across the jersey and bib shorts? Emily has the full write-up:

> Want pockets on your kit? Have nine! Rapha updates its Brevet long-distance collection