“Anyone who thinks cyclists ‘come out of nowhere’ should not be in control of a vehicle”: Author slams ‘be safe, be seen’ hi-vis cycling campaigns, calls for ‘Look, don’t kill’ slogan; TT tinkering; Vine broken wrist; Tulip wars + more on the live blog

> “He got angry with me for staying on his wheel”: Jonas Vingegaard crashes on descent while being followed by amateur, as team urges fans to “give riders space and peace”

Yet another example of why busting a gut to follow a pro during a training ride isn’t the best idea. And could potentially leave a Tour de France contender lying on the road, bloodied and fuming with you.

Just wave, let them pass, and leave them alone, alright? Unless you’re paying good money to take part in some sort of charity ride, then it’s fine, I suppose.

Why is Conservative Felicity Buchan pretending to still be a Member of Parliament? She lost her seat in 2024. She’s been pretty quiet on social media lately but has lately sprung into action to oppose… Another cycle lane! 1/

[image or embed]

— Max Sullivan (@maxsullivan.bsky.social) January 24, 2026 at 5:36 PM

Good to know that losing an election doesn’t prevent you from doing your best to stop cyclists being protected on the roads. Heartening, really.

It looked at first glance like Jay Vine had emerged relatively unscathed from his viral run-in with two rogue kangaroos during Sunday’s final stage of the Tour Down Under.

But despite the Australian easing to what was a comfortable second overall victory at his home race, over a minute clear of second-place Mauro Schmid, UAE Team Emirates have confirmed this morning that Vine did, in fact, battle to the finish in Stirling with a broken wrist.

Only in the Tour Down Under: Race leader Jay Vine and a few other of the world’s best cyclists have been taken down by a kangaroo after it hopped into the peloton. pic.twitter.com/IbwAdtclhg

— 7NEWS Adelaide (@7NewsAdelaide) January 25, 2026

“After the race Jay reported pain in his wrist from his crash during the final stage,” UAE medical director Adrian Rotunno said in a statement this morning.

“After medical review, it was found that he sustained a significant left wrist scaphoid fracture, and underwent successful surgery on Tuesday morning. He will be withdrawn from competition for post-op recovery and rehabilitation.”

Vine’s surgery means the 30-year-old will miss this week’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, though it is unlikely to affect the rest of his season, as he builds towards the Giro d’Italia.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

So, a bit of a mixed bag for UAE down under, then. After decimating the Corkscrew stage and going one-two on the GC courtesy of Vine and Jhonatan Narváez, defending champion Narváez was forced to pull out on stage four after suffering a fractured vertebrae in a crash.

Vegard Stake Langen also DNFed with a rib injury, while Mikkel Bjerg and Juan Sebastián Molano withdrew on the final stage, meaning the team finished the race with just three riders, despite securing their second overall Tour Down Under triumph. Anyone in Victoria fancy guesting for UAE this weekend?

Time trialists love tinkering with stuff, don’t they?

Well, that was certainly the case at Cycling Time Trials’ AGM, held at the weekend, where a spate of new rules were introduced, including one that will allow riders to use their old TT frames in the governing body’s road bike events.

Back in 2023, CTT, the national governing body for time trials in England, Wales, and Scotland, introduced a separate category for standard road bikes for all of its events, in a bid to open the sport up to more participants and make it more accessible, especially for those who don’t own a fancy, high-end aero machine.

According to the regulations, anyone competing in the road bike category would not be permitted to use a frame that was specifically marketed for time trialling.

> Road bike category introduced by British time trial governing body to “get more people time trialling”

However, as first reported by Cycling Weekly, that rule has now been considerably relaxed, thanks to a proposal put forward by CTT’s Regulations Advisory Group.

According to the RAG, some riders may want to repurpose their old time trial frames to create a drop-bar bike for the road category and that not allowing them to do would make TTing less accessible (for people with spare TT frames knocking about their shed, I suppose).

RAG also argued that the differences in aerodynamics and “perceived aesthetics” between a time trial frame and a new aero road bike was “negligible”.

Meanwhile, a separate proposal to reduce the maximum rim depth from 90mm to 65mm for road bike TTs did not pass.

> Why the 20mph zone time trial ban could be the “tip of the iceberg” for British racing 

The AGM also saw rules concerning the design of time trial courses – a pertinent subject in a UK with more street furniture and 20mph speed limits, rendering some traditional courses unsafe to race on – overhauled, thanks to the creation of a two-tier ‘competition’ and ‘racing’ course system.

Under this system, organisers will be given more freedom when it comes to designing ‘racing’ courses. In ‘competition’ events, the finish line must be between 1.5 to 2.5 miles from the start on any course up to 50 miles, but the ‘racing’ category will allow organisers to place the finish up to 50 per cent of the total distance from the start.

“I’m pleased that we’ve been able to formalise a way to relax the rules around course creation, in addition to the existing ability to request a dispensation,” CTT’s Mark Bradley told Cycling Weekly.

“Hopefully it will encourage more innovative course creation around the country, and enable an uptick in the number of possible events.”

The folding bike brand insists it is committed to the “exciting and inspiring prospect” of its long-awaited new factory in Kent, but a local politician has branded the delay “disappointing” and questioned if “other firms may be interested” in the site:

> Brompton’s new £100m car-free bike factory remains on hold until “meaningful recovery in market conditions”

It’s fair to say it’s baking hot right now in Australia.

Last week saw the Tour Down Under’s pivotal fourth stage rearranged and Willunga Hill excised from the route thanks to an extreme fire danger warning and temperatures of 43°C in South Australia.

And this morning, the organisers of the Surf Coast Classics have been forced to cancel the men’s and women’s ProSeries races, scheduled to take place in Torquay on Wednesday and Thursday, as temperatures are forecast to hit a sweltering 45°C. A fire ban is also currently in place across Victoria.

“The safety of our riders, teams, staff, volunteers and spectators remains our highest priority,” race director Scott Sunderland said in a statement.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Mapei Cadel Road Race (@cadelroadrace)

“Given the bushfire situation across the region and the advice from Victoria Police and emergency services, the safest and most responsible decision in the conditions is to cancel the races scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

“While it’s unfortunate to cancel these two fantastic events, I’d like to acknowledge the CFA (Country Fire Authority), Victoria Police, local authorities and our event partners for their strong collaboration and timely guidance throughout this process.

“We’ll continue to work closely with emergency services and local authorities on whether it is safe and appropriate to hold an alternative event.”

The races, which boast Sam Bennett, Biniam Girmay, Brodie Chapman, and Ally Wollaston among their list of winners, were first established in 2020 and have acted as warm-up events for the WorldTour Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Races, scheduled to take place this weekend. As it stands, the Great Ocean races are set to go ahead, with temperatures due to drop in the coming days.

In a homage to Storm Chandra (possibly), the opening stage of the AlUla Tour this afternoon was dominated by the wind, as Jonathan Milan showcased his echelon ability before powering to victory on his first race day of 2026.

Milan was among a number of big-name sprinters, including Fabio Jakobsen, who made it into an 18-rider front group which formed as crosswinds swept across the wide, open roads that dominated today’s 158km route, starting and finishing at the AlUla Camel Cup track.

As the race entered the final 10km, it looked like the peloton – containing UAE’s GC prospect Jan Christen, who was forced to chase back on after a late crash – was about to make contact with the lead group.

Textbook stuff from Jonathan Milan ?

The Italian makes it look easy in the first stage of the AlUla Tour ? pic.twitter.com/s9oNt7r32c

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) January 27, 2026

However, a late surge by Picnic’s Timo De Jong (which put paid, ironically, to the chances of his sprinter Jakobsen) and a perfectly timed lead-out by Cofidis, teeing up Milan Fretin, ensured the escapees stayed away to the line.

But to be honest, when it came to the sprint, the rather unexpected race scenario hardly mattered. Milan, the green jersey winner at last year’s Tour de France, profited off the Cofidis train to launch in the final 150m and secure a comfortable win, the big Italian kicking off his season in style.

Fretin, meanwhile, was simply outgunned and forced to settle for second, as Pinarello Q36.5’s Matteo Moschetti, a winner of AlUla’s Camel Cup track last year, took third.

The bunch crossed the line 11 seconds later, ensuring that – despite a day of windy drama on AlUla’s barren roads – the GC battle hasn’t quite kicked off. But let today be a warning to any spindly climbers happy to hide in the wheels this week.

We may have reached peak ‘anti-cycling rant in local paper’, here.

Because, according to the Eastern Daily Press, residents and business owners are up in arms about bike lane roadworks taking place in Gorleston right now – which they claim is turning that little part of Norfolk into the Netherlands.

Perish the thought.

Norfolk County Council has just started a nine-week project to build protected cycle lanes, upgrade crossings, and raise junction tables on Middleton Road in Gorleston. The council says the new bike lane scheme, funded by Active Travel England, will “provide safe cycle access between South and North Gorleston, serving the local college and town amenities and see a number of improved safe crossings introduced for those on foot.”

But according to the EDP, the works “have been met with anger and frustration from those both living and working on the road who say the cycle lanes are not needed at all and they do not want to end up looking like the Netherlands, famous for its bikes and tulips.”

And who did the paper turn to for this hot anti-bike and tulip take? A flower shop owner, of course. You couldn’t make it up.

“We have not got any customers. It is horrendous,” Dawn Howell, the owner of the Rose Garden florist shop on Middleton Road told the Eastern Daily Press.

“People will just avoid the area now. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are my busiest times of the year. It is going to hit hard.

“They are trying to make our country into the Netherlands. Our country is England, not the Netherlands. They are trying to make it into something it is not. It is a waste of money.”

Just wondering Dawn, I reckon you might get more customers in if you stocked some tulips. What, too soon?

> “If you build it, they will come… or maybe not,” says local news site after spotting cyclists not using new cycle lane

Anyway, Dawn wasn’t the only Gorleston resident fuming about the prospect of a cycle lane popping up on the road.

“Deliveries are a problem. They are spending all this unnecessary money,” said chemist Obaidullah Zaman

“It is difficult for us to move around. We had to make our delivery ourselves on foot. It is a headache for our customers when they can’t come in.”

And Middleton Road resident Clive Hirst told the paper: “It is absolute chaos and there are still businesses down here so when the deliveries come the traffic gets backed up.

“I can only go left. I have to go out, come back and around again because there is not really enough room. I think it will make it more dangerous. With cycle lanes you are going to bring people close together.”

> “How will we be able to take the coffin out?” Vicar slams “underhanded” cycle lane plans that could ‘block access’ to church for hearses

Sue Bowman chipped in: “I don’t see why it needs to be done. The road was wide enough as it was.

“It is not really affecting this side of the road yet but when it flips and we are trying to get out of our driveway that might be different. It doesn’t warrant having a cycle lane.”

This is England.

More industry woes…

> “An extremely sad day”: Sonder Bikes’ owner Alpkit enters administration but “in advanced talks” with potential new owner

Northern Ireland has become the first part of the UK to introduce restrictions, including a minimum learning period, for new drivers, a move Cycling UK says will usher in a “new generation of more considerate road users” and save lives.

Described as the “most significant reform to driver licensing and testing in almost 70 years”, which aims to tackle the disproportionate involvement of young drivers in serious crashes, ‘graduated driving licences’ (GDLs) will be introduced from 1 October 2026, and feature a revised training, testing, and post-testing system.

Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure says the GDL will include a mandatory minimum learning period of six months before a learner driver can take their practical test (with that period to be documented in a logbook), an increase in the restriction period from 12 to 24 months, six months of night-time driving restrictions for new drivers under the age of 24, and age-related night-time passenger restrictions for new drivers.

> Government announces Road Safety Strategy, including consultations on lowering drink drive limit and introducing mandatory eyesight tests for drivers over 70

 “I am announcing the most significant reform to driver licensing and testing in almost 70 years,” infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins said. “These changes are aimed at young drivers who are sadly most likely to be killed or seriously injured on our roads.

“In 2024, there were 164 casualties (killed or seriously injured) from collisions where a car driver aged 17-23 was responsible. This age group of drivers accounts for 24 per cent of fatal or serious collisions despite holding just 8 per cent of licenses.

“The introduction of GDL plans to achieve this through a structured approach to learning to drive, including the completion of a programme of training and logbook.

“This will better prepare drivers for both the driving test and initial post-test driving period by helping learners understand how human factors such as their attitude, personality, behaviour and feelings affect their driving style.

“Road safety is a priority, and GDL will be a valuable tool to help me ensure everyone who uses our roads does so safely.”

> Driving instructors less likely to believe collisions “are usually the cyclist’s fault” and that cyclists are “nuisances” after cycle awareness course, new government pilot study finds

Responding to the introduction of the GDL, Cycling UK’s  Northern Ireland Advocacy Lead, Andrew McClean, said in a statement this afternoon: “Graduated driver licenses are a new and important step towards making Northern Ireland’s roads safer for everyone, especially for people who cycle.

“While the legal framework for this was set up ten years ago, it’s a welcome move from the Department for Infrastructure to see it finally implemented.

“We know that young drivers are involved in a higher number of fatal collisions. By introducing the rules of the road more gradually to younger drivers, and by providing more educational opportunities we can transform our roads and improve road safety for all. Not only will this create a new generation of more considerate road users, but it will go onto save lives long-term.

“With the government also consulting on a wider rollout of 20mph speed limits, which we’ve seen reduce collisions and their severity in Wales, these are positive steps to stop needless deaths and serious injuries on our roads.”

While Northern Ireland is leading the way when it comes to new driver restrictions in the UK, change could be coming elsewhere, too.

Earlier this month, as part of its new Road Safety Strategy, the UK government announced that it will consult on introducing a mandatory three or six month minimum learning period for new drivers, in a bid to tackle the inexperience Labour says is costing lives.

Another day, another rider you’ve never heard of popping a doping positive.

This time it’s the turn of Germán Darío Gómez, a 24-year-old Colombian who’s spent the last two years with Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador’s second-tier team Polti VisitMalta.

In a statement released by the UCI this afternoon, the governing body announced that Gómez has been provisionally suspended after submitting an adverse analytical finding for Boldenone, an androgen and anabolic steroid used in veterinary medicine, mainly on horses.

A number of baseball players have tested positive for the drug in the past, while Wimbledon doubles champion Robert Farah also submitted an AAF for Boldenone in 2019.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Gómez was set to start his fourth season in the peloton, after turning pro with GW Shimano-Sidermec in 2023 before joining Polti the following year. He’s mostly taken part in smaller races (though he has recorded DNF’s at Strade Bianche and Il Lombardia twice), his best result coming at last year’s Tour of Turkey, where he finished sixth on GC.

He has the right to request a B sample, as per the UCI’s anti-doping rules.

Today’s news that Alpkit, the owner of Sonder Bikes, has entered administration is further evidence that the cycling and outdoor industry, both nationally and globally, is still feeling the long-term effects of the post-Covid downturn.

And on a local level, things aren’t looking much rosier.

At the weekend, one Bristol bike shop warned that it could be facing extinction due to a lack of sales, leaving them struggling to cough up the rent, despite only moving into a new building at the end of 2025.

Sully’s Workshop opened on Bristol Road in Whitchurch village in November, after moving from its previous base on Wells Road in Knowle. However, a prolonged quiet spell – not helped by a lack of communication concerning the shop’s move – has left things looking rather bleak.

“Well, we tried! Unfortunately, since opening our doors in Whitchurch, we have been beyond quiet,” Matt, the shop’s owner, posted on Facebook.

“So I think it may be time to close our doors, as we need to pay rent and we haven’t even made that this month! So, unless we have a very busy spell start of this week, we may be forced to close our doors.”

Hearteningly, the post provoked an outpouring of support for the business online, as well as some offers to even help out with transporting elderly customers to and from the shop, to get their bikes fixed. Let’s just hope that translates into some sales…

The 2026 road season may only be a week or so old, but I already sense a trend emerging.

At the Tour Down Under, we saw Luke Plapp take advantage of the stickiest of sticky bottles… which the Jayco AlUla rider didn’t even hold onto, prompting the question: Is a sticky bottle really sticky if you can let go of it at the last minute? Or is it a glorified hand-sling?

And this afternoon at the AlUla Tour, UAE Team Emirates’ leader Jan Christen – the big favourite for the GC – had a tortuous day out in the desert, crashing twice in the last hour, the second spill coming with just 15km to go, his ambitions for the overall seemingly up in smoke on stage one.

? A crash in the peloton involves several riders, including Jan Christen. All riders are back up and racing. ?‍♂️#AlUlaTour pic.twitter.com/tShuL8aO68

— طواف العلا | ALULATOUR (@thealulatour) January 27, 2026

Somehow, however, the fuming Swiss rider, flanked by his UAE teammates, managed to regain contact with the peloton in the final 10km, saving his race in the process.

But the speed with which Christen made his way back to the bunch – closing a one-minute gap in just 10km – certainly raised a few eyebrows on social media.

“Jan Christen about to upload his Strava file with a conspicuously missing segment,” Tim wrote, suggesting that the 21-year-old was benefitting from more than his teammates’ back wheels on the lonely road towards the Camel Cup track.

“Jan Christen closing a minute in 10kms, come on guys this is gonna massively impact GC, that sort of car drafting should be punished,” another surprised fan wrote on BlueSky.

And so it proved, as the organisers docked Christen 20 seconds on GC for his cheeky tow, dropping him from 24th down to 72nd – a small price to pay, you may argue, for keeping his overall challenge intact on a day he could have feasibly lost minutes.

“Sometimes it pays to break the rules,” wrote Johan after the news was announced. Indeed it does, Johan, especially in bike racing…

A real-world representation of Sarah Moss’s argument here, courtesy of BlueSky user Citizen Wolf, who almost got wiped out by a driver – allegedly too busy checking his phone – while riding in a ‘protected’ cycle lane last week:

Yet again we have more BS calls for people on bikes to have manditory HiViz & plastic hats. Meanwhile in the real world the actual threat comes from drivers. This guy was looking at his phone as he blindly followed the car in front of him across a segregated cycle-lane.

[image or embed]

— Citizen Wolf (@citizenw0lf.bsky.social) January 26, 2026 at 6:10 PM

“Yet again we have more BS calls for people on bikes to have mandatory hi-vis and plastic hats,” he wrote.

“Meanwhile in the real world the actual threat comes from drivers. This guy was looking at his phone as he blindly followed the car in front of him across a segregated cycle lane.

“And to ward off any trolls; yes I have two bright front lights. It doesn’t matter if drivers aren’t looking.”

When it comes to road safety campaign slogans, it doesn’t come much better than that.

Yes, that’s right. Helmets and hi-vis are back on the agenda.

This week, we’ve heard a few rumblings emanating from Dublin concerning the possibility of a mandatory helmet and reflective clothing law for cyclists in Ireland. The prospect of new legislation controlling what people on bikes wear stems from a recently established government safety review into e-scooters, following a steep rise in collisions involving that particular vehicle.

As we reported yesterday, however, the Irish road safety minister Seán Canney has appeared, for some reason, to lump bikes and e-bikes into the mix (under the umbrella of ‘micromobility’), declaring in parliament that a compulsory cycling helmet and hi-vis law could soon be on the way.

> ‘Over-reaction based on vibes’: Are mandatory helmet and hi-vis laws for cyclists set to be introduced in Ireland?

Unsurprisingly, that suggestion has been given short shrift by Irish cycling campaigners, such as Cycling Ireland president Ciaran Cannon, who described any potential protective equipment legislation as “performative policymaking” which “shifts responsibility away from those operating the most dangerous vehicles and implies that injury results from a failure of visibility rather than from road design, driver behaviour, or enforcement”.

Meanwhile, Kevin Jennings, a spokesperson for the Irish Cycling Campaign, branded the move an “over-reaction for very little gain”, and equated it to “telling a person who is struggling with their heating bill to put on an extra jumper”.

And while that response from the cycling community is to be expected, opposition to the proposals has also come from a more unlikely source: a column in the Irish Times.

In fact, English academic and writer Sarah Moss, the author of 2018’s acclaimed Ghost Wall, summed the whole debate up by describing helmets and hi-vis as “symptoms of the Irish problem, not the solution”.

In her column, Moss, a regular cyclist herself, admits that helmets and hi-vis are a must-have in her house. “I am in favour of cyclists being visible, because I am in favour of cyclists being alive,” she writes.

> “I wear bright colours, lights, and reflective bags – but drivers still close pass me every day”: Cyclists respond to hi-vis calls by claiming drivers “choose not to see” them, but others ask “What’s the problem with close passes?”

However, Moss draws the line at victim-blaming road safety campaigns which, she says, shift the onus of safety onto the most vulnerable – and away from people in cars.

“I prickle at the RSA’s injunctions to cyclists to ‘Light up’ and especially the vests that say ‘Be safe, be seen’. Whether I am seen or not is not in my control,” she points out.

“The slogan makes no sense anyway; worn on the cyclist’s back, it seems directed towards drivers, who are by definition already safe and seen because they are in cars. It has a tendency to reassure drivers that it is the cyclists’ responsibility to be seen rather than the drivers’ responsibility to see.

“Anyone who thinks cyclists ‘come out of nowhere’ should not be in control of a vehicle. If the bicycle brought teleportation, we’d be using it for something more exciting than commuting. We come from where we were before, usually farther down the bike lane, usually at about the speed we’re going now. Some drivers don’t look, but the more bikes there are, the more aware drivers become.”

Pointing to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark, the author then highlights that very road.cc concept that helmets and hi-vis are rare sights in those nations – despite the popularity of cycling there – because the infrastructure is there to make them redundant, “because it is not cycling that is dangerous, but driving”.

“Where the built environment separates human skin and bone from lorries, cars and buses, there is no need for our frantic striving to make fragile bodies hyper-visible,” she writes (though she does note that Ireland has improved in this regard, with more children than ever cycling to school and urban cycling no longer being the “preserve of skinny men in Lycra” – the “torchbearers”, as she calls them).

> “Hi-vis and lights make chuff-all difference if drivers don’t look”: Cyclist “glad I wore my most visible protection” after motorist pulls out – but rider accused of “steaming on”

Moss also says that she’s experienced fewer near misses while cycling in Dublin in recent years, thanks to the dual developments of better protected infrastructure and “safety in numbers”.

“Still, every time I have come close to death under some driver’s wheels and had a conversation about it – I will catch up with you if at all possible and I will knock on your window and express my feelings because I am shaky and hammering with adrenaline and disinhibited by mortality – the driver says they ‘didn’t see me’.

“In some ways I suppose this is reassuring, the alternative being that they did see me and decided in cold blood to try to kill me, but it is no excuse.

“I was there when you did not see me because you did not look. I am small but not invisible. I do everything in my power to ‘be safe, be seen’, but in fact I have very little power in this situation. A slogan like ‘Look, don’t kill’ would be more to the point.”

Now there’s an idea for a road safety campaign…