“Free, fun and legal”: Details announced for 2026 London Naked Bike ride following extra security measures; New Tour de France film to be streamed on Amazon; Giro stage for the breakaway + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
London Naked Bike Ride plans announced
It’s that time of year again, World Naked Bike Ride London have announced their plans for 2026’s ride through the capital!
All adults are invited to attend both the ride on Sunday 14th June, and the Steel Yard after-party. The dress code is typically scant: described only as “be bare as you dare”.
Participants have the option of starting at either Clapham Junction, Croydon, Deptford, Hackney Wick, Kew Bridge, Regents Park, Tower Hill and Wellington Arch, before all groups will converge on the city centre.
The London ride has previously announced it has hired more security for the event, and organisers hope that the Sunday scheduling means there will be less hassle caused this year than in recent editions.
“We’ve found leading over 1,000 cyclists through central London on a Saturday in June has become increasingly troublesome. There are public events, multiple protests, counter-protests, police lockdowns, road closures, crane operations, traffic jams, congestion and crowds of spectators,” a spokesperson said at the time.
The attention-grabbing event has been held in London since 2004, and similar protests have been held across the country and around the world.. Organisers will be hoping the event lays bare the global oil dependency and car culture that are the causes of the protest.
Police accuse young cyclists of damaging gardens by building bike ramp
“Is shaping a bit of soil really causing damage?”
“I’ve seen worse ‘damage’ left by maintenance. Really don’t see what you’re achieving here, maybe you’d prefer if the kids were playing on the streets and amongst the traffic on their bikes causing havoc.”
Not my words Carol, the words of former An Post rider, Mr. David Montgomery.
All hail tubeless sealant!
Alberto Bettiol might have not tasted victory this afternoon were it not for his gear today…
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Racing round-up: Day for the Sprinters
It may not have been a bunch sprint at the Giro, but there have been plenty of other such activities at other races on the continent.
Lorena Wiebes won again at the Vuelta a Burgos to make it two wins from two whilst her rival Charlotte Kool triumphed in the one-day Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic… Fingers crossed it means some competitive sprints at the Tour de France Femmes in two months time.
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Meanwhile, the men were in action at the Four Days of Dunkirk, a race you’ll be pleased to know lasts five days. Former Tour of Britain stage winner Rasmus Tiller triumphed today on stage 3, ahead of Laurence Pithie who retains the overall lead.
Evans Cycles back in profit after years of heavy losses
Things are looking up for Mike Ashley…
Giro: Bettiol wins!
An excellent descent by Alberto Bettiol, attacking into and out of every corner, he had a 20 second advantage as he was descending and never let up. Not even a cunningly-placed speed bump in the road could spook him.
It’s a first win for him since moving to XDS-Astana a couple of years ago, and a third stage win for the Kazakh team in this race, who also enjoyed a day in the race lead courtesy of Thomas Silva.
Leknessund holds on for his second second-place in the Giro d’Italia, whilst Jasper Stuyven wins the small group sprint for third.
The peloton aren’t even over the line yet and are an estimated 12 minutes down, but there’s nothing to report. A day of rest and recovery ahead of tomorrow’s hefty stage in the mountains.
Giro: Bettiol counters!
Bettiol is digging in! He’s closing the gap to Leknessund on the climb! That must be tough for the Norwegian champion to stomach. Not known for his sprint, Leknessund knows he’ll need to be solo if he’s to beat the former Tour of Flanders winner in a sprint. He rallies, and pads his margin to a few more bike lengths but he can’t quite shake the Italian.
Then over the top Bettiol catches and counters! A devastating acceleration, he’s got a 6-8 second advantage on the plateau before descending into the finish in Verbania. 13km to go and your money is surely on Bettiol now…
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Giro: Attacks!
The second climb to Ungiasca is longer and steeper, and this time Groupama set a much harder pace, Axel Huens working with Kench on his wheel. Bettiol amd Valgren are well-placed just behind.
On the steepest gradients, Bjerg and Warbasse are distanced, as is Markus Hoelgaard. With 2.5km of the climb left, Kench attacks! Leknessund, Bettiol and Valgren stick firmly on his wheel, albeit through gritted teeth. After 500m the Kiwi pauses, and the pace drops, letting Donovan nearly latch back across to the front.
But Kench goes again! Agony for the Brit.
Now Leknessund counters and opens up a small gap! Two bike lengths, three on Alberto Bettiol, then another few bike lengths to Kench and Valgren. Leknessund was second on a stage a few years ago and wore the maglia rosa for a few days. He’s got a gap but the climb is young…
Giro: cagey cagey
The first climb of the day to Bieno is short and the break initially take it cagily. Groupama-FDJ have three riders in the break though, and eventually take it up with Johan Jacobs on the front, presumably working for Josh Kench, the New Zealander best-placed on GC. No one is being dropped or distanced though, so the wait will go on. Mark Donovan is dangling at the back as the group come over the top, Alberto Bettiol and the Polti duo of Maestri and Sevilla taking over.
Giro: Same as it ever was
Not much happened for quite a while, so here’s some duck footage instead:
Inside the final 35k, and the front group of 15 have an 11 minute lead over a Bahrain-led peloton content to keep everything calm in the main bunch. We’re a little over 10km from the first of two categorised climbs though that could separate the wheat from the chaff…
🦆 idea 1: what the duck
🦆 idea 2: he’s having a quacking time #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/hftiBqecNh— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 22, 2026
The Intermediate Sprint comes and goes, with Polti taking maximum points.
The story that won't go away...
We’re trendsetters at road.cc. Well Ryan might be anyway.
On Tuesday we reported on the campaign to rip up a “failed” cycle lane in Greenock, on the grounds that it was “underutilised” by cyclists. What the campaigners neglected to mention was that the reason for the failure was the persistent illegal parking of cars in the cycle lane.
Well, it’s nice to know the people of BBC Scotland are readers, because they have since headed out on to the street to interview locals on the bike lane. And they made a ‘vertical video’ because this is 2026 after all…
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It’s a good piece, one outlining the harassment that cyclists have felt when trying to use the infrastructure, and also capturing the entitlement of drivers who continue to park in the lane like their original car parking spaces have never been moved.
The downside is that it went on social media, and thus the ‘content’ has been dragged through the mud of social media comment sections, full of the same tired, old arguments.
“When cyclists pay road tax then they will have the same rights as motorists”
“The two cyclists 
in video were put there to prove a point about parked cars. Maybe the two of them should do a survey of how many people are using it. 
“
Et cetera. As someone used to seeing quite a bit of comment sections, this is becoming a recurring joke/conspiracy, to allege that journalists and local authorities are paying for people to use the infrastructure so their use can be justified. Bizarre.
Anyway, mercifully the fightback is on!
“Why is that car parked on the bike lane?”
“Great to see the investment in active travel. It’s paid dividends all over Europe so why not Scotland?”
“This is a huge improvement just get the cars out of the cycle lane”
Maybe attitudes are slowly turning around after all…
I would ride 500 miles...
Wow, I hope I’m as active at 61 as Tony Newton is at 91. He’s riding west across the Yorkshire Dales and now into Cumbria, racking up 500 miles and raising money for a local youth centre.
Today is Day 12 of his challenge and he’s already raised nearly £8,000.
And if that wasn’t enough ITV have even put together a rather lovely package which has Tony detailing his ordeal, including having to sleep on a massage chair at a service station at one point.
Best of luck Tony, a fantastic achievement!
Giro: Steady going in the peloton, day for the break
Race leader Afonso Eulalio has punctured and changed his shoes but there’s no stress whatsoever, the peloton are taking it easy and content to let the breakaway build up a lead beyond 8 minutes. The only man within 50 minutes of the maglia rosa up the road is Groupama’s Josh Kench who started the day 20 minutes down on GC. He’ll need to double his advantage though to even trouble the top-10.
So, with just over 100km remaining, here’s the full list of riders we expect to contest the stage win:
Three Bikes on a bike
Excellent bicycle transportation there…
Giro: Big break?
Ah I miss John Virgo. Jim Davidson not so much but there we are.
A 15-rider group comprising several hitters has got away, including Michael Valgren, Mikkel Bjerg, Andreas Leknessund and Monument winners Alberto Bettiol and Jasper Stuyven. Honourable mentions go to Brit Mark Donovan, and Cycling Podcast favourite Larry Warbasse.
Meanwhile the gap to the peloton is out beyond 3’30” but NSN, having missed the move are still riding, somewhat in vain. Irishman Ryan Mullen is the one dishing out the punishment.
One man not in the breakaway despite his earlier joshing is Jonas Vingegaard…
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Ooh, now Mullen has sat up and the gap has just jumped up to five minutes, with no one else wanting to ride. None of the riders ahead are a threat on GC, the break will fancy their chances today…
Exclusive: Victoria Pendleton - "Someone had to go out there and do it first. I'll take the hit."
The Olympic and World Champion has been speaking to Ryan about how cycling “wasn’t her choice of sport”, how she loved training but struggled in Team GB’s set up as it was then, and her new personal development book.
New Tour de France film to be streamed on Amazon
There’s only so many times you can rewatch The Program and believe Chris O’Dowd is a convincing David Walsh. I’ll admit though that Jesse Plemons makes a good Floyd Landis. But watching an Armstrong film for the Landis characterisation is like watching the England team for Jarrod Bowen. I’m getting distracted…
Anyway, Natalie Portman is to star in a new film as a mysterious doctor who enters the world of aging pro cyclist Taylor Mace (Jonathan Bailey) as he prepares for the Tour de France. Production will start in the autumn and be directed by Mimi Cave, who was also behind the 2022 horror film Fresh. The film, provisionally titled Pumping Black, is described as a psychological thriller similar to Whiplash and Black Swan, according to Deadline.
Portman also starred in Black Swan, and whether the film takes the same approach to cycling as has been taken to drumming and ballet remains to be seen. I’m hoping for Bailey to play a Cobbled specialist, a gruff rouleur responsible for shepherding his talented GC teammates through the windy first week before resigning himself to bottle duty and time-keeping in the gruppetto.
In fact I think I would watch a two-hour film just capturing the inner workings of the gruppetto, the on-the-fly maths, the breakneck descending, the chaos of the spectators too drunk and disoriented to recognise you. I want Jonathan Bailey playing Bernie Eisel. And I reckon Jesse Plemons could be a half-decent Michael Mørkøv…
Giro stage 13 preview: Mini Milan-Sanremo?
It’s a very lazy stereotype of a race preview to describe a long, mostly flat stage with a small climb or two at the end as a mini-Monument, particularly when that race is in Italy. But it’s Friday, and frankly the way the race’s sprint stages have been going so far, this seems likely.
In the end, Jhonatan Narvaez could only finish 8th on yesterday’s stage (won with a flyer by Alec Segaert), but the points he accrued have moved him just 11 behind maglia ciclamino wearer Paul Magnier.
The Frenchman was very dogged on the longer climbs yesterday, only being dropped for good on the second climb. But when he exploded, he exploded.
Will Movistar once again commit on behalf of Orluis Aular (sixth yesterday?) will it be a tempo GC-managed affair ridden at tempo? Will Ciccone do something mad? The world is our oyster…
Gender parity parcourse in 2027
We’re waking up to some nice news from the Tour Down Under this morning, with news that the women’s race will use the same course as the men’s on each stage. The six-day men’s race will run from the 19th-24th January, with the three-day women’s race running from the Friday to Sunday, starting around 90 minutes later than the men.
The Tour Down Under has a track-record of promoting gender equality, having awarded equal prize money to the men’s and women’s races since 2019, and the race course equality echoes in part the changes made to the Tour de Suisse from this year, which sees both the men’s and women’s races becoming five-day events and based around circuits in the same start and finish towns.
We also have some quotes from the Race Director, a certain Stuart O’Grady:
“The challenge we were given by the UCI was to deliver a more condensed program of racing and optimise the time the women’s teams spent in Australia.
“We saw it as an opportunity to do something different and bring both men’s and women’s racing together and finish off with a bumper final weekend of racing.
“Since the women’s race was introduced to the Santos Tour Down Under in 2016, the level of racing has continually increased and this year was the first time all WorldTeams were on the start line, racing the longest and hardest stages we’ve ever seen.
Building an elite gravel bike for under £4,000
> We built an elite Chinese bike for Emily to race at the Welsh gravel champs… for under £4,000
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@Jakrayan God knows. On the country roads here (Kent) people are usually good at not close passing me but the consistently overtake me on blind corners etc. Oncoming cars on very narrow roads its 50:50 as to whether they will slow down at all despite passing me within 50cm. Once I get back into civilisation its a different story. Bad driving becomes the norm.
You could bé right. I live in a French Pyrenean départment with plenty of narrow, tight roads. About 80% of drivers either pull over to thé max or wait for a better space to overtake. Mind you, there's always thé odd one looking at their phone...
For a while I've thought this was an unfortunate brand name. Several times I've seen cyclists riding towards me wearing Le Col jerseys with their right arm covering the L so it looks like they are advertising e.Coli.
A driver in a BMW not looking properly at a junction? Who'd have thunk it?
@bennysnnock Which is why training for a driver's licence should include cycle training, of course.
As someone who previously worked in the custom cycle clothing industry, I have to admit this news did make me smile. I'm sure the brand will rise like a phoenix from the flames, but just the idea that they've gone pop has lifted my mood. Fair play to Yanto though, I'm sure the brand has set him up, one way or another, for life; he had a vision and he delivered on it. But, having been at the wrong end of a strategy that involved outspending the rest of the industry (on advertising) and out-discounting on retail kit, it's nice to know that their 'be the last man standing' strategy has - at least for now - failed. One trick (let's be fair and call it a strategy) that really frustrated me back in the day, was the way in which they used to give university cycle teams free kit. All very upstanding you say, however their motivation was more; 1. get people in your kit young and (hopefully) keep them for life - fair enough - but more acutely 2. remove decent revenue streams from your competitors. Uni teams were great because every year there was a new influx of members needing kit - so LeCol just took the market, not to make any money, just to kill it for the rest of us.
@Rendel Harris Absolutely. I was just making the point that Surrey has a lot of 'couldn't care less if I hit you' drivers whose attitude is get out of my way and if you don't that's your fault.
Their socks were all right.
@mctrials23 All those play out in Surrey pretty much every ride.
@Smoggysteve: Just buy the red version. It's faster—everyone knows that!
19 thoughts on ““Free, fun and legal”: Details announced for 2026 London Naked Bike ride following extra security measures; New Tour de France film to be streamed on Amazon; Giro stage for the breakaway + more on the live blog”
BBC Scotland video is clearly AI – it shows a non-existent cyclist using the cycle lane.
At least one of those was an obvious AI-generated “fake bicycle” as it and rider were moving along nicely without the latter pedalling!
Cycle lane looks fine except for the cars BTW. Though I didn’t ride down that street when I passed through earlier this year. But the infra I saw there was mostly well-made (for the UK) – though let down by the “gaps” as usual (junctions, needing to cross the road to get to the next bit). And an evident devotion to continue facilitating as many journeys being driven as possible.
Gender parity parcourse in 2027
I hope they mean Sex parity! Unless they’re letting men compete in the women’s race
@wtjs – I hope they mean Sex Party
@hawkinspeter isn’t that just “party” down in Brizzle?
@chrisonabike It’s not always about sex in Brizzle – a lot of the time it’s about drugs instead
Is there a rock and roll option?
@hawkinspeter Does it have to be either or?
@wtjs Either way, I’m not sure that parity in the fitness trails provided to riders is the most important issue at hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcourse
Got excited when a new Tour de France film on Amazon was mentioned in the headline – thought we were getting a new documentary. Ah well, there was always Netflix’s stab at it all.
I can watch anything with Natalie Portman in. However, today is not a flag to flag watch at the Giro
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/22/biggest-drop-petrol-purchases-hits-retail-sales-great-britain
Well this odd given, as we know, that one simply *must* drive everywhere
When you look at the detail, though, it’s only fall compared with the previous month, which itself had seen a big increase. So people aren’t necessarily using much less then normal – they just shoved as much as possible in their tanks in a panic, then went back to using something much more like normal.
Did this appear here earlier and I just missed it?
Red routes to appear in Peak District
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkpexx5kmmo
It’s either “we somehow need to keep people moving on *roads* not just dumping their vehicles in inappropriate places” or the nanny state coming for your harmless holiday fun.
I like the idea – although how it’s going to fix things when people were ignoring the double yellows before I’m not sure. And if you do happen to be ticketed it’s only a 35 quid fine (if you don’t just ignore it).
Having to splash paint and/or signs wherever motorists are NOT allowed to park seems the wrong way round to me, but that’s the UK’s motornormativity for you.
Since the red lines don’t seem to be working, I think they need to show they’re really serious by replacing them with black lines.
The yellow lines should have been red lines, and they crossed red lines without even crossing the yellow lines or the red lines, claiming they’re blurred lines.
@mdavidford Just send the traffic wardens out with a tin of red paint to redraw the lines over the top of the cars (perhaps a stepladder as well for SUVs).
Would Jack Regan and George Carter have allowed a cycling ramp to be built?
“Do what? You’re having a larf!”
“George, if you don’t get that cycling ramp level levelled and those kids nicked, Haskins is gonna have you out at Southall directing traffic and wearing a tall hat!”