Business group’s attempt to ban “dangerous cycling” from town centre set to fail due to lack of “sustained evidence” or “verified incidents”; Tadej Pogačar thankful to answer “real questions” not posed by journalists + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Grumbling Spaldonians defeated
It was almost a month ago to the day that we brought you the latest chapter in the Spalding Business Improvement District’s attempts to ban “dangerous cycling”, despite a lack of evidence.
In response to that shortfall the BID put forward a call for evidence, inviting locals to submit complaints about the menace of two-wheeled travel. Their findings, which they say consisted of many “personal stories of fear”, were submitted to Lincolnshire Police, council authorities and secondary schools in the town.
We were worried at the time that the Conservative-led South Holland District Council might sympathise with these pleas but, pleasingly, we were wrong!
LincsOnline report that the council do not think a cycling ban is the “most proportionate or effective standalone response”, adding that “a stronger case would require sustained, location-specific evidence, such as verified incidents, collisions or near misses, officer observations and evidence that less restrictive measures are inadequate.” It appears as though the BID were unable to do that.
Instead the council’s Policy Development Panel (us neither) are set to recommend additional town centre signage encouraging cyclists to dismount, more police patrols at school finishing times and even the promotion of “safe cycling routes”. There’s hope after all!
Incidentally, I know last week when covering 20mph speed limits in Poole we touched upon the relatively few number of people who actually offered their opinion to the council. Well, the BID say they submitted 146 complaints of “dangerous cycling” to the council. Meanwhile, Police have also received 15 complaints of anti-social cycling in the town centre this year, three of which were children.
There are 30,000 people in Spalding itself, and 100,000 in the South Holland district, suggesting a fairly high level of engagement by local government standards in this matter, even if it’s still a paltry 0.5 percent.
Unfortunately for cyclists, the wider county’s roads have problems of their own…
Life sentence and a lifetime driving ban
Nostalgia
The Giro d’Italia is hyping up tomorrow’s route presentations of the men’s and women’s races by sharing some old photos and I’m falling for it hook, line and sinker.
Every great story is shaped by what it leaves behind and the chapters yet to come 🫂
In 2027, the Giro d’Italia opens a new chapter in its history: the 110th edition of the most beautiful race in the world, in the most beautiful country in the world. 🩷
.
Ogni grande storia vive di ciò che lascia e di ciò che ha ancora da raccontare 🫂Nel 2027 il Giro d’Italia scrive un nuovo capitolo della sua storia: la 110ª edizione della corsa più bella del mondo, nel Paese più bello del mondo. 🩷
#GirodItalia #GirodItaliaWomen #TheRoute
— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) November 2, 2026
Admittedly, we have photos much like this every year. Here’s Christian Prudhomme a couple of weeks ago for example. But it just doesn’t hit the same
Some Italian dress sense is required I reckon…
End of an era as Charly Wegelius leaves EF
After 15 years with the team known variously as Garmin, Cannondale and now EF, Charly Wegelius will leave the team.
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The British Finn’s departure was announced the day after Matt White was announced to be joining the American team. Presumably Jonathan Vaughters decided the team only needed one native English speaking DS who also rode for an Italian team at the turn of the century.
After a distinguished career as a domestique, most notably for Mapei and Liquigas, Wegelius joined Garmin immediately after retiring from racing in 2011. He’s since directed the team at Grand Tours and monuments, including at the Tour de France where in recent years he’s supported the yellow jersey and stage hunting exploits of Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy.
If Dan Benson’s reporting is right, Wegelius looks set to join Tudor Pro Cycling in a similar role…
EF Education-EasyPost announced over the weekend that Charly Wegelius is leaving.
From what I gather, he’ll be heading to Tudor Pro Cycling for next season.
— Dnlbenson (@dnlbenson) November 2, 2026
Pro cyclist art up for auction
Hope you like brown shorts depicted in acrylic…
Ag2r La Mondiale is selling off some of its corporate art collection, includes plenty of pieces commissioned around its time as a cycling team sponsor
— the Inner Ring blog (@inrng.com) 2 November 2026 at 10:25
There’s a host of work available with some paintings currently available for around £30. My current favourite cycling-related work of the lot is No. 39…
Critical Mass move on Oxford Street
“It would have been easy to create a bike lane on this part of the street, with metal fences and calming measures to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists were properly demarcated for safety. It’s a positive development but also a huge missed opportunity.”
Tadej Pogačar's opinions
The all conquering Slovenian joined a virtual MyWhoosh ride over the weekend joining fans and taking questions. There were also some journalists able to pitch questions although it seems as though Pogačar didn’t care too much for them.
Asked about race safety in light of his crash at the Vuelta a Espana, he said his crash “was not connected to race safety”, he said “there is a chance” he supports his teammate and new world champion Brandon McNulty at points in the season, and that he’ll definitively decide his race calendar at the team’s December training camp.
That’s despite him telling a charity audience in Slovenia he would likely target the Tour de France, World Championships and Vuelta in 2027.
Organisers of next year’s Tour de France might want to look away from the next section when asked for his opinion on the 2027 race route:
“I was not there for the announcement. Because, obviously, the tour is always three weeks long. And there is always big mountains, flat stages, tricky stages, some crosswinds, time trials.
“So, you always have sorts of everything. And I’ve done now seven tours. So, it doesn’t really matter which cities host the start or finish. It’s always more or less the same.” He added he needs to be “ready for everything” which I suppose is true.
Once the pre-arranged media questions were done, Pogačar seemed to lighten up, telling fans on MyWhoosh “some journalists always ask the same questions over and over”. I suppose that’s true, although I somehow doubt the burning questions on the minds of fans are particularly more noteworthy. I’ll let you decide:
He said he “really admires” Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, as well as “some sprinters that take risks in the finale.” Djamolidine Abdoujaporov would be delighted.
His favourite places to train are near his Monaco home, near his fiancée Urska Žigart’s home in Slovenia and on Tenerife, whilst he finds pre-Tour training camps in Sierra Nevada “a bit boring”. He wishes he could ride with the likes of Alberto Contador, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara but doesn’t want to pick riders from “too far in the past”. Probably for the best…
He likes pineapple, kiwi, mangos and blueberries, has porridge and yoghurt for breakfast, and isn’t really a morning person. At some point he wants to race gravel but doesn’t know when, esports are off the table. He dreams about winning races, advises aspiring pros to keep having fun, and warns people in colder climates against training too much indoors.
Ending his ride, which it should be noted raised £10,000 for his foundation, he signed off by telling viewers “I cannot wait for the next one that can answer some real questions, not like questions that [a] journalist asks. No offence to any journalist in the room, but it’s just more fun talking with the community.”
On behalf of journalists everywhere I am sure we will do what we can to come up with some *proper* questions…
London-Brighton Veteran BIKE ride
Yes we wouldn’t normally give a second thought to the London-Brighton Veteran car run, but we’ll make an exception for the exceptionally dressed riders on the Veteran bike ride!
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Running cyclists are pretty Swift...
I think it’s a David Millar story that the veteran directeur sportif Cyrille Guimard used to insist to his riders that the most important thing his athletes did once they stopped was racing was to keep riding their bike. Now though, it seems like running is filling that void.
We covered Alexys Brunel’s 2hr26m50s Paris marathon time last week, beating Tom Dumoulin’s PB. Now, the Giro d’Italia winner has gone and run the current pro close, completing the New York marathon in 2hr27m12s. 22 seconds is the time it took me to type this sentence, adding a few words at the end for good measure to hammer home my point. Ridiculously fast…
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Who knows, if he hadn’t tried to find his family and wave to them, he could have gone two, maybe three seconds quicker. Closer to home, Ben Swift has adjusted to formal retirement by knocking out a 1:15 half marathon. As you do…
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Ineos overlords will be pleased to see him still repping the team with his bib shorts for his warm-up.
Incidentally, whilst we’re talking about David Millar, the long-retired Scot has just finished the Gravel Burn stage race in South Africa. The bike never leaves you…
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An AI-sore...
Our Jo has some opinions I have a lot of sympathy towards, and I can’t even draw for toffee!
Para-cycling World Champs round-up: Kadeena delight!
The Para-cycling World Championships in the Netherlands concluded yesterday, and Kadeena Cox once again stole the show. Gold in Friday’s C4 kilo, gold and a world record in Saturday’s sprint, then silver with Fin Graham and Jody Cundy in Sunday’s team sprint.
There were also three gold medals for James Ball and pilot Aaron Pope in the tandem kilo, sprint and the mixed tandem team sprint with Lizzi Jordan and Anna Whitworth-Hay. That’s 10 world titles now for Welshman Ball.
There was also gold for Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl in the tandem sprint, and after bronzes and silvers, Fin Graham finally got his gold of the games in the men’s C3 scratch race.
With all that silverware (goldware?) it also meant GB yet again topped the medal table at the championships. Lovely stuff…
Abused for riding to the bike parking?
> Cyclists allegedly abused for riding through park… to get to bike parking at swimming pool
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From https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/26690352.driver-sentenced-murder-michael-mullins/ “Richardson has a significant history of driving offences, the court has heard. In April 2011, he was arrested for careless driving and failing to stop or report an accident. He lost control of a vehicle and fled the scene. In July 2012, driving with excess alcohol and driving while disqualified, he once again fled the scene on foot. May 2013: driving while disqualified and without insurance. He gave officers a false name and date of birth; he was suspected of driving with excess alcohol. November 2014: driving with excess alcohol, dangerous driving, failing to stop and no insurance. He tried to drive away from police and fled at speed before crashing into a vehicle and fleeing on foot. He was found to be over the limit. In February 2023, he was convicted of driving without a licence and no insurance. He was stopped, checked, and gave false details to the officer. He remains on bail for affray, ABH, and possession of cocaine in December 2024, and that case is currently listed for trial.” Will there be a review of why he was allowed to remain outside of prison, thus him believing his behaviours were not serious enough to stop now ending up with him killing someone? At what point in a case like this where someone has a list of previous driving offences does the law say “enough is enough, licence revoked, full stop, do anything again end up behind bars for a long time”…? Each instance of his previous dangerous driving would have been a straight fail on a driving test. Yet he was allowed to continue without any significant punishment or deterrent to future offending. If the law had done something more then this murder could have been avoided. But cyclists.
Condolences to Mr Mullins' family. Reading through this article it is beginning to sound like there were opportunities to take Mr Richardson off the road sooner; so many lenient sentences for repeated instances of substandard driving and lawbreaking. The sentences were likely within the rules; perhaps the rules need to change.
@M20MAMIL Thanks. "Richardson has a significant history of driving offences, the court has heard. In April 2011, he was arrested for careless driving and failing to stop or report an accident. He lost control of a vehicle and fled the scene. In July 2012, driving with excess alcohol and driving while disqualified, he once again fled the scene on foot. May 2013: driving while disqualified and without insurance. He gave officers a false name and date of birth; he was suspected of driving with excess alcohol. November 2014: driving with excess alcohol, dangerous driving, failing to stop and no insurance. He tried to drive away from police and fled at speed before crashing into a vehicle and fleeing on foot. He was found to be over the limit. In February 2023, he was convicted of driving without a licence and no insurance. He was stopped, checked, and gave false details to the officer. He remains on bail for affray, ABH, and possession of cocaine in December 2024, and that case is currently listed for trial." Will there be a review of why he was allowed to remain outside of prison, thus him believing his behaviours were not serious enough to stop now ending up with him killing someone? At what point in a case like this where someone has a list of previous driving offences does the law say "enough is enough, licence revoked, full stop, do anything again end up behind bars for a long time"...? Each instance of his previous dangerous driving would have been a straight fail on a driving test. Yet he was allowed to continue without any significant punishment or deterrent to future offending. If the law had done something more then this murder could have been avoided. But cyclists.
@OldTom Good. Nothing much to add to that except to say well done that judge, glad that she acknowledged just how serious the offence was. I hope it might be some tiny crumb of comfort to the Mullins family to know that justice has been properly served. One thing that the case does highlight is that the drink-driving laws are far too soft, this guy had four drink-driving offences on his record including one of drink-driving when disqualified, and given his behaviour and driving at the time of the offence one wouldn't be surprised if he was over the limit then as well, no way of knowing of course. Personally I'd be happy to see drink-driving incur a lifetime ban for a first offence, but I suppose that would be "war on the motorist". At a minimum it should be a five year ban for a first offence and lifetime for a second, if someone has such a problem with alcohol that they are incapable of stopping themselves driving drunk, even when they've previously been banned for it, they clearly are not a fit person to hold a licence to drive on the public highway. Quite possibly it wouldn't have deterred this individual anyway but it might deter some at least.
@M20MAMIL Minimum 25 years. Up from an offence minimum of 15 years due to aggravating factors.
I appreciate Road.cc covering this, thanks, but claiming Critical Mass (in London or anywhere else) has organisers is a misunderstanding of what CM is. There are no organisers. Some people may take what you might call a "leading role", but that can easily be ignored if the majority on the ride decide they do not agree. Clearly in this instance there was a strong enough feeling amongst the riders that this was worthwhile doing. There are no organisers, just people on the ride.
Live updates from the court for sentencing in the Michael Mullins case, by the local newspaper . Lots of previous motoring convictions. https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/26690352.driver-sentenced-murder-michael-mullins/
Parser error. Not necessarily. It's entirely possible that all those instances were made up... er, I mean, reported, by the same three people.
In fairness, @Borisface says in their other comment that they've ridden steel a lot. It's just aluminium that they have an inexplicable problem with.
I love Exposure lights, but that price is nuts
6 thoughts on “Business group’s attempt to ban “dangerous cycling” from town centre set to fail due to lack of “sustained evidence” or “verified incidents”; Tadej Pogačar thankful to answer “real questions” not posed by journalists + more on the live blog”
It looks like the anti-cyclists in Spalding are making up the evidence.
Parser error.
Not necessarily. It’s entirely possible that all those instances were made up… er, I mean, reported, by the same three people.
Live updates from the court for sentencing in the Michael Mullins case, by the local newspaper .
Lots of previous motoring convictions.
https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/26690352.driver-sentenced-murder-michael-mullins/
@M20MAMIL Minimum 25 years. Up from an offence minimum of 15 years due to aggravating factors.
@OldTom Good. Nothing much to add to that except to say well done that judge, glad that she acknowledged just how serious the offence was. I hope it might be some tiny crumb of comfort to the Mullins family to know that justice has been properly served.
One thing that the case does highlight is that the drink-driving laws are far too soft, this guy had four drink-driving offences on his record including one of drink-driving when disqualified, and given his behaviour and driving at the time of the offence one wouldn’t be surprised if he was over the limit then as well, no way of knowing of course. Personally I’d be happy to see drink-driving incur a lifetime ban for a first offence, but I suppose that would be “war on the motorist”. At a minimum it should be a five year ban for a first offence and lifetime for a second, if someone has such a problem with alcohol that they are incapable of stopping themselves driving drunk, even when they’ve previously been banned for it, they clearly are not a fit person to hold a licence to drive on the public highway. Quite possibly it wouldn’t have deterred this individual anyway but it might deter some at least.
@M20MAMIL
Thanks.
“Richardson has a significant history of driving offences, the court has heard.
In April 2011, he was arrested for careless driving and failing to stop or report an accident.
He lost control of a vehicle and fled the scene.
In July 2012, driving with excess alcohol and driving while disqualified, he once again fled the scene on foot.
May 2013: driving while disqualified and without insurance.
He gave officers a false name and date of birth; he was suspected of driving with excess alcohol.
November 2014: driving with excess alcohol, dangerous driving, failing to stop and no insurance.
He tried to drive away from police and fled at speed before crashing into a vehicle and fleeing on foot.
He was found to be over the limit.
In February 2023, he was convicted of driving without a licence and no insurance.
He was stopped, checked, and gave false details to the officer.
He remains on bail for affray, ABH, and possession of cocaine in December 2024, and that case is currently listed for trial.”
Will there be a review of why he was allowed to remain outside of prison, thus him believing his behaviours were not serious enough to stop now ending up with him killing someone?
At what point in a case like this where someone has a list of previous driving offences does the law say “enough is enough, licence revoked, full stop, do anything again end up behind bars for a long time”…?
Each instance of his previous dangerous driving would have been a straight fail on a driving test.
Yet he was allowed to continue without any significant punishment or deterrent to future offending.
If the law had done something more then this murder could have been avoided.
But cyclists.