“1.5 mile detour? Oh poor you”: Builder criticised for moaning about Tour of Britain’s “Bloody Lycra Brigade” causing minor extension to his commute; Skeggy seaside sprint awaits Merlier & Kooij; High mountains return at Vuelta + more on the live blog
Bloody lycra brigade
You may have heard by now I was at the Lloyds Tour of Britain yesterday. I’m afraid this might not even be the last you hear of it, given that I still have some interviews to go through and write-up. But I will be deliberate and smart as to when I insert myself into this story. Anyway, here’s me and Geraint Thomas…
Enough! I was tipped off yesterday that ASO, the owners of the Tour de France, are planning on visiting the race later this week and will be part of the race convoy. Also attending will be a senior gendarmes. They’ll be visiting to see how the race, with its rolling road closures, is policed and how the public receive the race more broadly.
Yesterday’s stage finish would have been a safe bet if British Cycling wanted to show the best of the British public. Thanks to the the Lincoln Grand Prix the city is well-placed and adapted to bike racing by this point, and there was a great turnout all through the closing kilometres of the circuit.
Several villages also came out to show the best of themselves, with bunting and giant tractors on display, along with hordes of newly re-enrolled school children in hi-vis vests and freshly-bought uniforms.
Yet still, we found one complainant, enter Lincolnshire builder Graham Winter…
Bloody Lycra brigade. Put media vans and such like in car parks instead of blocking off complete roads 1.5mile detour just to get to my yard so I can load the van for work pic.twitter.com/RudVLGmgpO
— Graham Winter (@broadway1510) September 2, 2026
1.5 miles! The implication seems to be that Winter works very close to the start-finish line and thus was unable to use the barriered road for much of the day. An inconvenience? Perhaps. But he can’t say he didn’t know this would happen, with the route confirmed many months ago and signs adorning most roads about the road closures on the day.
Thankfully, some Twitter users came to address his concerns…
“Boo hoo. You’ll have had weeks of advance notice. You should have prepared better. This was from the Tour a few years ago.”
“1.5 mile detour? Oh poor you. Thoughts and prayers for your tremendous loss.”
“Oh for Pete’s sake, it was for one single day. I’m sure somehow life will go on. Geez.”
Some things never change…
— Yellowbelly Wheelman (@Lincs_Wheelman) September 2, 2026
Tour of Britain live stream!
They’re up and running and have rolled out of Boston…
Today’s stage might produce some crosswinds as well in the latter stages…
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Per my comment on yesterday's blog about Sadiq Khan's prosecution... "London mayor's untaxed car conviction withdrawn ... The DVLA will also investigate the false registration..." I wonder if they will also apply the same investigations to all the other fraudulent vehicle registrations... And given: "After the mayor expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to cover the whole of London he faced a wave of protests, including from motorists who said they planned to register their car in his name - supposedly to make him liable for the £12.50 daily charge." Would all of those drivers have been prosecuted (or at least got a formal warning) for openly admitting to planning to commit fraud? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7708vn2yp7o
@wtjs Couldn't agree more, there are an estimated 498,000 vehicles being used on UK roads for which VED has not been paid, that's a whisker under £100 million lost to the Exchequer every single year. Imagine if the wet dreams of the haters came true and cyclists had to pay some form of "road tax" (as they would call it) and it was found that £100 million of it was uncollected despite the fact that it would be an easy matter to enforce. The sound of exploding gammon would be deafening!
Thanks Liam. Good to know. I do get over to FOD at times and plan to give Sam or Katy a call. Appreciate it. Neil
Yes. Such is the case with most sports. Cyclists can develop their riding skills and racing experience, footballers have yoga sessions and improve their conditioning in order to minimise the chances of injury, but it still happens. Most athletes have to learn to deal with setbacks if they are to have long successful careers.
@Psi Squared I'm lucky enough to have had 2 sets of the 'modern' series of Roval wheels, the first generation CLX and the second generation CL II. They have 21mm internal rim width and the wide (35mm-ish) front wheel. I haven't tried this third gen CLX wheelset (and cannot afford to!), but none of my 28mm tyres measured anything close to what the reviewer has stated: - Conti S TR 28mm >> 30+mm - Tufo Comturo Prima 28mm >> 32-ish mm (they come up large on all my rims) - Spesh Turbo Cotton 28mm (tube-type) >> 30+mm once "stretched in" I think the reviewer has made a mistake or has a dangerously stretchy set of tyres and should stop riding them immediately!
They did the towns pretty quietly too. It's only [certain elements in] that there Oxford that's really kicked up a fuss about this stuff. Mind you, most of the time, you'd be doing well to get over 20 going through town anyway.
You're conflating the throttle and the pedal assist. The throttle should only get it up to walking speed; about 6kph. Once it takes it past that, whether or not it's capable of 15mph or 58mph is entirely irrelevant.
@ktache Isn't it "LTNs BAD, cul-de-sacs and a quiet village green good*"? * As long as we can drive into town, of course...
@Robert Hardy As Rendel suggests, I'm not certain that any wheeled mode of transport - even at speeds well below the limit - would have avoided tragedy here. Although the road around the *outside* of the park where IIRC this occurred (Outer Circle) isn't "the main drag" (that would be e.g. Park Road / Marylebone Road) it is wide enough to put a question mark over "casual crossing". And indeed there are signalised crossings... Leaving aside "but racing cyclists!!" for now, looking at how safety might be improved here let's see how others do this. For example: West End of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam is on a "main road" (Amstelveenseweg). (The rest are very much "streets"). What happens there where pedestrians are crossing to and from the park? As it's a main road (and with tramlines) there are cycle paths (in this case unidirectional). That means that everyone knows where everyone else is and what to expect. The cycle path is really obvious, and it's only a couple of paces wide. People expect cyclists in that section, but being narrow compared to the road lanes it's simple to cross - so much so that no lights are used. cross. (Although unusually - presumably due to very high flows of pedestrians and cyclists - there is a *marked* crossing point). Once you've negotiated the cycle lane you can then wait (again in "pedestrian space") and concentrate on "watching for the cars" at a signalised crossing if needed (because it takes longer to cross the road part). I think there is space in the Regents Park case for cycle paths of some kind...
Oxfordshire very quietly made all it's villages 20mph a couple of years back.
1 thought on ““1.5 mile detour? Oh poor you”: Builder criticised for moaning about Tour of Britain’s “Bloody Lycra Brigade” causing minor extension to his commute; Skeggy seaside sprint awaits Merlier & Kooij; High mountains return at Vuelta + more on the live blog”
Per my comment on yesterday’s blog about Sadiq Khan’s prosecution…
“London mayor’s untaxed car conviction withdrawn
…
The DVLA will also investigate the false registration…”
I wonder if they will also apply the same investigations to all the other fraudulent vehicle registrations…
And given:
“After the mayor expanded the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to cover the whole of London he faced a wave of protests, including from motorists who said they planned to register their car in his name – supposedly to make him liable for the £12.50 daily charge.”
Would all of those drivers have been prosecuted (or at least got a formal warning) for openly admitting to planning to commit fraud?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7708vn2yp7o