Government publishes new Road Investment Strategy… including picture of driver illegally using mobile phone; Evenepoel turns sarcastic with Vingegaard in Catalunya; Council “infuriated” by three lopsided hire bikes on launch day + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Government publishes new Road Investment Strategy... including picture of driver illegally using mobile phone
Some reports are more of a slog to get through than others. Particularly when the Government’s latest Road Investment Strategy can feel rather outdated. In the foreword, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander writes that £3.8 billion will “increase crucial capacity
where it is most needed, tackling known bottlenecks and driving economic growth for the country.”
The most obvious rebuke to this is that road widening maybe isn’t the best approach to meeting economic and environmental goals when alternative modes of transportation are available.
The Transport Action Network say that many projects such as the A38 Derby Junction and the A66 Northern Trans Pennine are “poor value” and “more likely to increase congestion than solve it.” More broadly, director Chris Todd said that “in the 21st century we really should be doing something better than building bigger roads in urban areas.”
Motornormativity can be a tough bug to shake-off, not least it seems in the Department for Transport itself. As pointed out by cycling blogger Last not lost first pointed out, page 13 of the Government’s report has a photo of a driver with an illegally positioned mobile phone.
Unsurprisingly, rules on windscreen obstruction can be rather strict, with all material attached to the windscreen (i.e. phoneholders) “maintained in such condition that it does not obscure the vision of the driver while the vehicle is being driven on a road.” It’s why phone mounts typically sit in the corner of the windscreen and dash cams are often mounted on the rear view mirror. Fixed Penalty Notices can be issued for breaking this rule, which has been in place since 2010.
Talk about own goals, in the words of Last not Lost “does no one in DfT check this stuff before publication?”
It would appear not…
Racing round-up: Double delight for the Brits abroad
I think I can count on my thumbs the number of times Lorena Wiebes has lost a bunch sprint, but now I think I need to use the rest of my hand.
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After yesterday’s Tour of Bruges was overshadowed by the aforementioned protestor, the very wet and hail-affected women’s edition took place today. Despite various late attacks, the race was always likely to come down to a bunch sprint and so it proved. But Wiebes was out of position and instead 19-year-old Carys Lloyd came through to take her first professional victory, beating off former World Champion Elisa Balsamo!
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A three-time junior world champion on the track, Lloyd became the youngest pro in the peloton last year when she signed a three-year contract with Movistar, joining Cat Ferguson and Claire Steels to make a British cluster on the Spanish team.
There’s also something fantastic about an unprepared interview…
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Men’s racing is rather dull in comparison where a shortened stage of the Volta a Catalunya was won by Ethan Vernon in a reduced bunch sprint ahead of race leader Dorian Godon and Tom Pidcock.
With both Pidcock and Evenepoel hunting for bonus seconds earlier in the stage the pair have opened up a 10 second gap on Jonas Vingegaard in fourth place overall. It does look increasingly like the race will come down to an explosive Barcelona stage on Sunday…
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Make streets safer and give women “real freedom to travel” by focusing on cycling as well as walking, campaigners tell government
"Cooperation was amazing": Evenepoel turns sarcastic after Vingegaard refuses to pull in Catalunya
Ah Remco, honestly never change.
I really like that we have different personalities in cycling. If we want to build up rivalries and storylines to get behind then we can’t always have rivals being on perfectly civil terms. I like Jonas Vingegaard, I really do, but the man is simply far too private and reserved for him to sustain any sporting ‘beef’. Enter Evenepoel…
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In the Volta a Catalunya yesterday, Remco Evenepoel broke clear amid the echelons, and took Jonas Vingegaard with him. But Vingegaard, wary perhaps of his inferior sprint and not wanting to lose further bonus seconds, chose to limit his contributions to the two-up attack. A move which angered Evenepoel but can also be put down to simple tactics. It’s a sport after all…
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In many ways, Remco’s mid-ride rage wasn’t even the highlight of the day after he crashed at a roundabout in the finale, squandering any hope of surviving to the finish. At that point, Jonas Vingegaard also sat up, perhaps wary of the perception of freeloading on your rival’s work without even ultimately beating them in a sprint.
Let’s fill out the other details. Dorian Godon won his second stage of the race, extending his small lead in the GC, and today’s summit finish has been scrapped due to high winds, suggesting that the week-long race might become substantially more puncheur-friendly. Remco Evenepoel is also fine bar some bruising, both in terms of injuries and his position on GC after crashing in the final 3km. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t more to say about the cooperation polemica from earlier in the day…
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Now now, no need to get sarky Remco! Still, if any element of this story happened at the Tour de France, you suspect it would create its own black hole of news and gossip. Instead it’s here today, gone tomorrow, by which point we’ll have moved on to the E3 classic. Or the football. Or the war in the Middle East. The battle for eyeballs continues apace, but you’re briefly giving your attention to us… thanks!
Unexpected winner in Italy
We’ll have a full racing round-up shortly but for now there’s been a bit of an upset in Italy at the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. It’s a prestigious race which has been won overall by Jonas Vingegaard, Jhonatan Narvaez and Ben Tulett in the past. Today’s stage was due to be a bunch sprint, but Filippo D’Aiuto upset the odds.
Filippo D’Aiuto WINS stage 2 of Settimana Coppi e Bartali in Massalengo, his first pro victory and also the first in history of General Store – Essegibi – F.Lli Curia team. 👏🇮🇹 Always nice when this happens. He attacked in last kms and derailed the bunch sprint.#CoppieBartali pic.twitter.com/ylXUfa4b7N
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) March 26, 2026
Riding for an Italian continental team, the 24 year old held off a bunch including Matteo Moschetti and yesterday’s winner Axel Laurence of Ineos to take the win and the race lead.
I’d normally add a short video around here but sadly today’s stage was not broadcast live anywhere, which is a shame…
Tour of Bruges protestor tried to glue himself to cobbles
We have an update on yesterday’s protestor who caused a crash at the Tour of Bruges…
Triple Everesting?!
Everesting, the art of climbing 8,848m as fast as possible, is an insane thing to do. Doing it three times in succession is beyond watershed-friendly language. Now though if you have 10 minutes spare to watch bikepacking extraordinaire Max Riese do so on a new Cervélo R5, it just might be worth your time…
"Perfect job from both sides" but should the cyclists have used the middle of the lane?
This post was first uploaded a few weeks ago but has proven something of a sleeper hit, showing a lorry driver in New Zealand slowing down as he approaches a pair of cyclists on a narrow road before overtaking as they pull off the road.
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Though it’s responsible driving to wait patiently before overtaking, the driver’s late vision of the cyclists seems to come because they’re riding on the side of the road rather than in the middle of the lane. Their positioning, coupled with the sudden downhill deceleration of the lorry to sit behind them, probably contributes to them choosing to pull off the road as soon as they did.
The lorry driver seems to be getting a lot of praise in the comments, but for your own sake, don’t check for their thoughts on cyclists…
School to sanction ‘dangerous’ young cyclists jumping red lights and forcing drivers to “brake sharply” – as locals warn “disgruntled” motorists will “take matters into their own hands”
If only dangerous drivers could receive the same scrutiny…
*political will sold separately...
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This mild amusement has been re-upped on bluesky this morning, any excuse to re-up a couple of our own segregated infrastructure articles:
Canterbury caught in the crossfire
It would be foolish to ignore the big news coming out of Canterbury this week, where a new arrival has been stirring up resentment and concerns among residents amid a lot of misinformation.
Beryl Bikes have arrived in the ecclesiastical hub. Around 100 e-bikes are now in operation around the city with 20 “designated geofenced stations” also in place for bikes to be picked up and dropped off. The contract lasts for 5 years, and both the council and Beryl are counting on the city’s large student population buying into the scheme to make it worthwhile.
That’s the gist of the story as far as we’re concerned, but it seems as though certain publications don’t see it that way.
“It is infuriating that when we try to do something positive for the city, a small minority of idiots seem determined to spoil it for everyone else. This is not something our suppliers have experienced in other, much bigger cities, in the north of the country.
“It is day one of the scheme and we always expected there would be some teething troubles that we would need to overcome. We’ll work with Beryl Bikes to get on top of them as quickly as we can.”
GB News for their part initially describe the launch before, with a Chris Morris-esque sense of seriousness – describe how “by Monday evening, the situation had already begun to unravel.” Why?
“At least three of the bright green bikes were seen lying on their sides near St George’s roundabout, blocking part of a footpath. Another was found toppled over inside an official docking area.”
So 100 bikes rolled out, three found in the wrong place, with another parked correctly but thrown into the story for good measure? It’s a good thing there was nothing bigger happening in Canterbury this week that might’ve been subsumed by this breaking news.
However important you think this story is, just remember it’s bigger than that Chris, it’s large…
Mads' Mad recovery
When Mads Pedersen crashed on the first day of the season, breaking one collarbone and an opposite wrist, we thought that was curtains for his spring campaign, until he suddenly rocked up at Milan-Sanremo on Saturday and finished fourth, winning the sprint behind the podium.
We hadn’t heard much from Pedersen about his recovery apart from one unfortunate quote about his difficulties defecating, but now the former World Champion has posted on Instagram details of his breakneck recovery…
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Utterly insane…
Drunk driver who killed cyclist while driving 63mph in a 30mph zone jailed for 11 years
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@ChrisA the surface make up of a path bears zero relationship to it being a footpath/suitable. I once got lectured on why I shouldn't be riding a footpath by a driver of a Range Rover on a lovely tarmacked road. Another time I was lectured by someone blocking my way on a singletrack path that was built by cyclists, who said I should only be on large wide paths. The parallel wide path was a footpath. But these are very rare exceptions. I ride sensibly and most folk are usually entertained by my polite presence. Also most footpaths would have been paths used by horses in ye olde days, they often conveniently got mislabeled/demoted by rich landowners who failed to get path denied altogether when rights of way were being drawn up.
@SecretSam Hence the rise of gravel bikes, which are just less capable drop barred bikes.
You state for the audio for the baofeng that they use an in ear design however they don't ship with any headphones with a mic. What did you use for this?
@eburtthebike One of my best mates, a former rugby teammate of mine, is a Kiwi and a teacher (over here). I can imagine him making precisely that joke and he's a mad keen cyclist! Honestly, if this is the whole story it's a hell of an overreaction to a remark that deserved a mild reprimand about appropriate conduct if that (different if it was coming from a police officer or a driving instructor or similar, maybe). Having worked in a number of schools it's my experience that when senior management take agin someone they'll grab any excuse to get rid of them, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the situation here.
Hi I wasn't implying the ramps were equivalent to a pump track. I was saying many forestry trails are pretty hairy rather than a well designed pump track. The ramps are definitely not suitable and need replacing, but they are replacing with a new design. I suspect much more tame.
Oh dear! With my sense of humour, I should have been sacked a dozen times: every year. The Kiwis I've met all seemed to have a reasonable sense of humour, and one was excellent, but perhaps they weren't working for a school.
"neither student laughed..." Well, it elicited a wry smile from me...
@60somethingcyclist Unfortunately there are a couple of problems with that: firstly in order to try to manage some of the chaos in the Italian political system, for several decades when a mayor wins an election in large towns they are automatically given a guaranteed majority of 60% of the council seats, and also if a decree of the mayor's is overruled by the council that automatically triggers a no-confidence vote which then dissolves the council and forces a new election. So in order to vote down this decree not only would opponents need to persuade a considerable number of the mayor's own party to vote against him but also effectively to vote themselves out of office with no guarantee of return.
My first road bike was a Raleigh, too. A 1976 Raleigh Record. I dragged it out of the shed a few years ago and got it working again. 14kg it weighed! A 52/42 crank and a 14-28 five speed 'cluster' at the back made hills pretty hard work...
7 thoughts on “Government publishes new Road Investment Strategy… including picture of driver illegally using mobile phone; Evenepoel turns sarcastic with Vingegaard in Catalunya; Council “infuriated” by three lopsided hire bikes on launch day + more on the live blog”
In fairness to Remco, he didn’t just get snippy out of nowhere – it was in response to a silly question that was solely designed to provoke exactly that kind of response.
And to be fair to Jonus, he looked like he was only just keeping up with Remco, was the only one that did keep up, and of course ultimately its a race. Jonus was probably also thinking about the mountains that were due today, as that is more his playground.
Did a dozen get redefined and nobody told me?
[Also, since when is that ‘bright green’?]
“Cyclist, 16, dies after being hit by car” (there’s not much more than that at the moment, but here’s the BBC link anyway): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c208nj1dmzno
I don’t know about the rest of you, but on some roads there isn’t a popsicles chance in hell I am riding primary because if someone flies around a corner or simply hasn’t really been paying attention I have a far better chance of them missing me if am at the side vs the middle. On many of the roads I ride, primary would also put me in the exact same situation for oncoming traffic and we all know that cars own 90% of the road and cyclists the other 10% (if we’re lucky).
Had some lovely chap with his two kids fly towards me on a road that was a single lane at best without slowing down at all. Probably passed within about 30cm of my bars going 40mph+
I wanted to think that it was a cultural difference as I believe he was indian or pakistani and perhaps didn’t understand that its unacceptable here. I say this because he just looked like a normal family man with his kids in the back rather than the knuckle draggers you sometimes see coming towards you who you can just tell get a kick out of it.
Think yourself lucky you weren’t driving a car, because you wouldn’t have had the luxury of being “at the side” and you would have probably have become just another statistic ( along with the chap and his kids)
What this illustrates is that the problem is not so much the position that a cyclist adopts, but the continuing lack of responsibility shown by those operating dangerous machinery.
The truck driver slowed down and waited. When possible cyclists rode off-road and let the truck through. Road safety works both ways.