“I don’t understand what the problem is” says pavement-blocking driver; Sprinters vs breakaway battle at Giro + more on the live blog

What good is non-motorist infrastructure if the motorist will just make it unusable for the non-motorist? Quite often here we end up talking about blocked cycle lanes, on school runs, outside businesses, you name it.

But you would hope a motorist would be considerate enough to spare a pavement, when a person is without the wretched excuse of a bicycle to justify trying to bump them off the roads entirely.

> Teenage cyclist killed in collision with bus driver after parked cars blocked cycle lane – but coroner blames 16-year-old for cycling on pavement, not wearing a helmet or bright clothing, and being “distracted” by earphones

Well road.cc reader Jack has alerted us to one motorist so tired of being told to stop blocking the pavement, and covering her neighbour’s drive, that she’s gone to the press!

BBC Bristol’s headline ‘Why I should be able to park across my neighbour’s drive’ also seems to make relative light of the issue of blocking almost the entire pavement, seemingly preventing anyone on a mobility scooter, or pushing a pram or bicycle, from passing through without ramming into a hedge – see the link for the image.

Astrid Cooper’s reasoning for her parking behaviour is rooted in a lack of available parking. Where her neighbour has converted their garden into a driveway (seemingly illegally and without a dropped kerb), Cooper has retained her front garden. She also insists that she leaves enough room when she parks over the non-dropped kerb for wheelchairs and prams to pass, but that she has continued to receive taped notes on her car asking her to stop blocking her neighbour’s drive.

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

Cooper lives in the suburb of Brislington, where streets are narrow and sometimes not wide enough to enable on-street parking on both sides of the road, as this randomly selected street from the neighbourhood shows…

She also argued that parking several streets away when she had her two children with her was “impractical,” though why she claims she would have to park several streets away rather than one or maybe two streets isn’t clear.

Between the driveway aesthetics of the neighbour, the kerb-surfing of our case study, or just the framing of the whole story by the journalist, this altogether makes for a classic case of car-brained thinking. One that presents more parking spaces as the ultimate, ideal solution. Heaven forbid there was a more economical, space-conscious mode of transportation…

I think the technical term for this report’s findings is “a mixed bag”…

> Percentage of children cycling to school in Scotland surges – but driving also reaches record high as cyclists warn: “Being driven to school cannot become the norm”

Kulset and Eulalio were caught with a kilometre to go.

Soudal Quick-Step were absent for most of the day but were perfectly placed into the penultimate corner. Jasper Stuyven led out Paul Magnier perfectly into the final corner and despite Milan sitting in third, the big Italian couldn’t launch on the wet roads to come round Edoardo Zambanini in time to contest for the win.

MAGNIER GIRO HAT-TRICK! 🔥

Paul Magnier and Soudal Quick-Step navigate the finish perfectly to take Stage 18 — and send the Sprint Classification battle all the way to Rome! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Hv5GipnajB

— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) May 28, 2026

An astonishing result, I should stop making predictions! And Paul Magnier has retaken the lead in the points jersey by some margin!

Jonathan Milan is swamped by reporters at the finish, he looks very gutted, very apologetic and very very out of breath!

Uno-X’s Johannes Kulset launches a flyer and Eulalio goes with him. The Portuguese is indefatigable!

The gap opens up and Derek Gee-West is next to accelerate but pulls the peloton with him. It seems like most of the fast men have rejoined the front peloton, but they still have 2 to chase!

2km to go

The lead-out trains were furious into the sweeping bend into the climb, Geens didn’t stand a chance!

Jonathan Milan was second wheel at the bottom but is soon passed by Jonas Vingegaard, who comes to the front at a patrolling pace before Afonso Eulalio attacks!

The adrenaline must be pumping for the climber after his crash earlier as he quickly gains a gap as Sepp Kuss comes to the front of the peloton. What a ride!

Then over the top, Vingegaard pushes on and leads over the summit, there’s a small split of around 20 riders at the front of the peloton. Thomas Silva then moves to gain a gap but is quickly brought back. WA’s duo of Ben O’Connor and Michael Storer aren’t there but it looks like Venezuelan sprinter Orluis Aular has made the cut! Will the Movistar man finally get his chance!

6km to go, and a 15 second advantage on the sprinters’ group

Well, rumours of the breakaway’s death are greatly exaggerated. By me, at least.

Jonas Geens ploughed on and re-established a 20 second lead for himself. He took the Red Bull Kilometre prize of a couple of thousand euros, whilst Oliver Naesen and Conor Swift ensured neither Thymen Arensman or Felix Gall gained bonus seconds on one another.

We’re 4km from the Muro, and the peloton is all stretched out!

Bad news for Lidl-Trek, the peloton stretched out on a small descent and a split has been made, with Giulio Ciccone, Ben O’Connor and Afonso Eulalio caught on the wrong side!

The front of the peloton start riding furiously and bring the gap to the break down rapidly before the gap is eventually closed. A nervy moment though.

We still have a Red Bull Kilometre and some bonus seconds to fight for. Meanwhile, Jhonatan Narvaez dashed out from the peloton to nab a solitary point in the ciclamino competition. Just in case you were keeping tabs…

22km to go and the break, including EF’s James Shaw are caught. Hopefully he enjoyed his day out. Just over 10km from the final ‘Muro’ climb

Everything you need to know… excluding the legal difficulties of former Dutch pros…

Unbound Gravel demystified: Everything you need to know about the 2026 edition of gravel cycling’s biggest race

Disaster for the maglia blanca!

💥 🤍 Afonso Eulalio has crashed in the feed zone! The white jersey is losing time on the peloton, sitting nearly 2′ behind.

He had a 2’17” lead over Davide Piganzoli this morning #Giroditalia pic.twitter.com/6bKkIBAaHs

— Giro d’Italia (@giroditalia) May 28, 2026

The former race leader Afonso Eulalio has crashed after he appeared to brush an outswinging musette. The Portuguese climber initially grimaced whilst gripping his left arm before remounting but he’s more than a minute and half behind with only one teammate, Robert Stannard, for company. He’s also rubbing and swinging his arm whilst riding, it looks like an Adam Peaty warm-up! He started today in 5th place overall, with a 2’17” margin over Davide Piganzoli in the young rider competition. Thankfully with some drafting from the team car he gets back soon enough and gets himself some magic spray from the race doctor.

Meanwhile the peloton are only a few kilometres from the intermediate sprint but with the break still a minute ahead, that should neutralise the competition for now.

Andrea Mifsud is enjoying his birthday, the Maltese-Frenchman having just smiled and shouted something unintelligible to the camera in the breakaway.

The break’s lead has steadily dropped and is currently 1’20”, whilst the mood in the peloton seems relaxed. Jonas Vingegaard has just changed his bike, telling Adam Blythe on the motorbike he’s switched from a single chain-ring to a double-chain ring. What does that say about the finale the Dane and Visma-Lease a bike are expecting? Surely if one GC rider makes a move, they’ll all try and follow?

Meanwhile it’s looking less likely that Jonathan Milan expects to sprint today, with the Italian spending his lead-out train of Max Walscheid and Simone Consonni to keep the break in check. Despite 50 points being up for grabs, it looks like another on-paper ‘sprint’ stage might be disappearing, and we could be in for a stalemate in the ciclamino contest. It’s looking good for Narvaez in that competition.

Some nice news from the capital where the City of London corporation, the authority running Central London has unveiled plans to ‘transform’ Fleet Street, by “creating a more welcoming and sustainable” environment for people walking and cycling on the road.

The initiative is backed by Fleet Street’s Business Improvement District (so much for businesses not liking new active travel-y infrastructure) and proposals include “wider pavements to provide more space for people walking and wheeling, improvements for people cycling alongside seating and planting to create a high-quality environment.”

A consultation on the various proposals opened yesterday, and will be open for the next couple of months. You can find the details of the various proposals here.

Lovely stuff…

The peloton approached the climb and backed off very quickly. Perhaps the GC teams decided the best way to prevent counter-attacks was to let the break get a bigger lead. The gap to the front four has expanded out past two minutes, setting us up for an intriguing race dynamic.

The final climb of the day summits with 11km to go, and is only 1km long but it’s called a ‘Muro’ (wall) for a reason. So whoever decides to ride needs to be pretty confident their sprinter can hang on when the attacks start on the climb.

At the moment, Lidl-Trek, UAE, and NSN are sharing the work, whether Lidl-Trek are working for Jonathan Milan or Giulio Ciccone we’ll have to wait and see. The next two stages, for what it’s worth, are big mountain days before the final day in Rome so if an escapee is going to succeed, today is probably the day!

Inside the final 75km.

There’s been a very extended break formation today, with Jhonatan Narvaez among several riders launching attacks. But after more than an hour of chasing, pursuing and so on and so forth, the Polti-VisitMalta duo of Mattia Bais and Andrea Mifsud broke away and they were allowed to get a gap! Nottingham’s finest, James Shaw eventually embarked on a solo pursuit and made it to within 15 seconds of the front pair before they sat up and allowed him to join. Then Alpecin’s Jonas Geens bridged across to complete the quarter.

They’ve only got an advantage of around a minute for now though and you sense that other riders might use the short leash to launch counter-attacks on the forthcoming category-3 climb. 95km to go…

Toucan crossings for the win! Or toucans for the win at least… I like toucans

> “Shared provision does not work for pedestrians or cyclists”: Plans for 126-metre bike path could lead to conflict, campaigners warn – but council admits “this is as good as we can do”

We’re taking a surprisingly 00s reminisci-package today, with our next little segue looking at Thomas Dekker. You might remember him as the pro who wrote a (very good) doping confessional called Descent.

Or you might remember him as the man accused of “gay behaviour” in a car park with Laurens Ten Dam. The whole story is quite extraordinary, but the short version is that it was a misunderstanding after both men washed and changed after a gravel ride whilst training for Unbound. They were released after paying bail and the charges were dropped.

Still, the issue has caused some difficulties for both men, with Ten Dam revealing he’s been pulled aside by security at airports due to the arrest, with both men returning to the race this year.

“Apparently, somewhere in the system, a note actually says: ‘These are two sex offenders,’” said Ten Dam on his podcast.

“In hindsight, everything clears up quickly: You explain what happened, they do a quick Google search, and then everything is fine again.”

Dekker has not been so lucky however.

German-language Radsport-News reports that Dekker was held up in Chicago for three hours whilst airport security scrambled to ascertain the criminal record of the Dutchman. And in that time, he missed his connecting flight to Kansas City, Missouri.

Now seems like as good a time as any to remember that the World Cup starts in exactly a fortnight…

🇪🇸 Markel Beloki and EF Education – EasyPost DS 🇺🇸 Tejay Van Garderen fined 👇

📰 https://t.co/nwoHKiu4Ldpic.twitter.com/R3uDAdgzBq

— Domestique (@Domestique___) May 27, 2026

Both Markel Beloki (yep, son of that Beloki) and DS Tejay Van Garderen (yep, that former best young rider) were fined for their behaviour.

We’re getting old…

Like that one brand of wood varnish, this headline does it exactly what it says on the tin.

Nastiest Jockey Cookies this year
by
u/HerbanFarmacyst in
BikeMechanics

Might need something more nuclear to clean that though…

This wasn’t Decathlon CMA-CGM’s plan. This morning the transfer rumour mills are going big on Felix Gall, and the suggestion that the second-placed rider in this Giro d’Italia could leave the team at the end of the year.

The Austrian climber has finished second to Jonas Vingegaard on every summit finish in this race, and his French team would be very keen to see the 28-year-old stay with them, both for his own results, and as vital climbing support for Paul Seixas in the years to come.

Info @Gazzetta_it – Sources told us at @giroditalia that @LidlTrek is interested to sign Felix Gall – current 2° in the overall at @giroditalia – for next season @cycling_podcast

— Ciro Scognamiglio (@cirogazzetta) May 28, 2026

The esteemed Ciro Scognamiglio was first to jump on the story, linking Gall to Lidl-Trek, whilst in the last few minutes Daniel Benson has confirmed that the long-rumoured contract extension with Decathlon has not been signed.

This could shake up the men’s peloton, though with Juan Ayuso, Derek Gee-West, Mattias Skjelmose and Giulio Ciccone already on the team, you have to wonder how many more second-tier climbers Lidl-Trek want?

The issue of blocked cycle lanes isn’t constrained to this sceptred isle, how about this for a Parisian commute…

Un parking, un salon : ça peut servir à plein de choses une piste cyclable !#GCUM #vélo #vélotaf #cyclisteurbain #dailyobs pic.twitter.com/EwT0uk31gh

— 🚲VélotafR_93🚲 (@VelotafR_93) May 27, 2026

All this from somewhere that should be a ‘100 percent cycling city’ by now…

Might see if I can convince one of our tech heads to write an essay about e-bike gear ratios based solely on this person’s construction of their Razor Rambler.

I am however, in awe of this storage solution…

sketchmaster 5000
by
u/uhhh_internet in
ebikes

Speaking of cool-looking e-bikes with nice storage solutions:

> Cinelli and Omnium launch limited-edition Supercargo bike ahead of Cycle Messenger World Championships

It’s difficult to say how today’s stage will go. In the first week, you would nail on today’s stage for a bunch sprint, despite the late 4th category climb. But it’s the third week of a Grand Tour, more than a dozen teams are still without a stage win in this race, and you’d have thought most of them would rather hedge their bets by throwing riders up the road than trying to best the star names in a fast finish.

What will be key is the new maglia ciclamino Jhonatan Narvaez. If he tries to get in the break, expect Paul Magnier’s Soudal Quick-Step team to try and chase him down. UAE may be depleted but they’re likely to fully support the Ecuadorian’s unlikely pursuit of the sprinter’s jersey, and it’s looking more likely the jersey will come down to Sunday’s final stage in Rome.

Meanwhile in the third week, most of the strongest, likeliest breakaway contenders were probably in the move yesterday so expect to see some familiar faces along with one or two general classification outsiders tempted to try and parachute into the top-10. Yesterday, Damiano Caruso, David de la Cruz, and Jan Hirt all made the key move, but only the veteran Italian, riding his final Giro, jumped into the top-10 at the expense of Egan Bernal.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Vice President of Cycling also argued free-to-air broadcasting “was never complete. It was a very limited story.”

> Viewing figures for women’s cycling “explode” after men’s races, says TNT Sports – as exec reveals channel lobbies “heavily” to change calendar