‘You can’t drive there mate!’ Amusement as driver ploughs through busy cycle lane; Lavreysen to race Richardson in London; One pound forest bikes get a song; Reaction to Gent-Wevelgem + more on the live blog

People often moan about cycle lanes, but clearly there must be something appealing about them, otherwise how else would you explain this mildly amusing video of a Mini driver who found the smooth, segregated path irresistible…
Kudos to the original poster who humorously suggested that the driver thought Vehicle Excise Duty, the charge often erroneously described as ‘road tax’, gave the Mini the right to use any and every bit of the road. That’s excellent comedy, the sort of knowing joke ripe for a road.cc audience, I think…

My favourite bit is the extended ‘Oi!’ on the part of the cyclist forced to stop pedalling momentarily.

We know a lot of these pro cyclist back stories by now. Primoz Roglic was a ski jumper, Jonas Vingegaard worked in a fish factory. But one story slightly still slightly under the radar is that Florian Lipowitz, third in last year’s Tour de France and third in the Volta a Catalunya yesterday, is a former biathlete.

 

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That may seem unusual but the German was also young, and only converted full-time to cycling in 2020. What is unusual is an Olympic Gold medallist choosing to become a cyclist just weeks after his greatest sporting triumph. Enter, Émilien Jacquelin.

Decathlon-CMA CGM have announced that Jacquelin will join their development team in May, a move that the Frenchman says is his “childhood dream”.

The 30-year-old will be the oldest rider on the development team by some distance and Jacquelin says he is “eager to share [his] experience with the younger riders.

 

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We actually had an inclination the Frenchman was something of a cycling fan after Escape Collective did a great story on Jacquelin and Marco Pantani during the Winter Olympics. Jacquelin approached Pantani’s family asking for permission to wear il pirata’s iconic gold earring during the games in Milan-Cortina. The family approved, and the rest is history!

The wonders of FOI requests strike gold once again…

> Camera issues £600k in fines for illegal turning on one of the “most dangerous spots for cycling in UK”

Uploaded by bike camera manufacturers Cycliq, the footage shows a truck driver dangerously close-passing a cyclist with inches to spare on a narrow country lane. The experts on social media had other ideas:

“Do what we used to do and pull over to let the wagon pass”, says one.

“How long was the truck stuck behind you for him to go past you dangerously”, says another.

Unfortunately, these are some of the more sensible comments under the post.

When at a bike race, lean back, don’t stretch your arm over the barrier.

Admittedly, this footage, which I think comes from the China Road Cycling Open, shows a distinct lack of infrastructure designed to protect spectators and riders alike. And the crash is caused in part by a rider clipping a traffic cone shortly before colliding with an oustretched arm

But this footage, uploaded by former Ukrainian Time Trial champion Vitalii Novakovskyi, does a good job of re-iterating the importance of respecting the riders, and their space!

 

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Whilst we have your attention, if you want to find out more about physical, IN-PERSON events we’re doing, and events we can do, you can read about them here:

> BikeLive is back for 2026, including the revival of the big road.cc Rideout!

I remember the glory years of the Tour de Yorkshire, when the Tour of Britain was practically allergic to visiting God’s country. Since then however, amends have been made, with Redcar in particular becoming a favourite destination of various British Cycling events.

And, after a 2025 Tour of Britain that went from East England west to Wales, for a certain someone’s homecoming, the race looks set to head back ‘up’. York and North Yorkshire’s Local Democracy Reporter says the North Yorkshire Combined Authority has signed off on a deal to bring the UK’s flagship race to the region both this autumn and in 2027.

It’s not clear if the proposals would be for the men’s or women’s races (which are each five stages long and scheduled a week apart in late August and early September). Still, organisers are optimistic that the hosting, which would cost various local authorities around £750,000 in total, could generate between £2 and £12 million for the local authority.

The unstoppable force is meeting the immovable object. The titan takes on the giant, making them both seem normal-sized.

Anyway, Harrie Lavreysen and Matthew Richardson will go head-to-head at the London 3 day track meet on Friday 13th November.

Lavreysen, who has 41 Olympic, World and European track cycling titles will take on the Aussie turned Brit who bested the Flying Dutchman in last month’s European Championships, Lavreysen’s first defeat in major competition seven years.

A special race programme has been compiled for the pair, comprising a 200m flying time trial, a 500m time trial and a best of three match sprint. As you might expect, the London 3 day organisers are quite excited:

“This is a rare opportunity for British fans,” Tony Gibb said.

“Lavreysen has dominated the sport for years, while Matthew Richardson has emerged as the fastest rider in the world. Seeing them race head-to-head in London will be something special.”

And if that’s not enough to get you excited, here’s a clip of Lavreysen breaking a watermelon with his legs.

 

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I’m reliably informed that a pop culture reference from before my time about crushing a grape could be made here. I’ll leave that to you…

 

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I’m going to do that rare thing of defending a luggage handler here, I don’t think they could have been *that* much more careful without a colleague’s help, and I don’t think there were any fragile labels on the case.

Anyway, hard bike cases for the win!

Good news for those of you who like cycling…

> £108m active travel boost to “change how people move every day” and bring “healthier lives and lower costs” says Chris Boardman

I could have put In Flanders Fields in the headline of the blog but no one would know what I meant. So Gent-Wevelgem it remains, and frankly I’m tempted to continue to use the term here.

But anyway, Mads Pedersen was unable to defend his Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields – from Middelkerke to Wevelgem title, meaning when Wout van Aert pushed the pedals on the second ascent of the Kemmelberg, only Mathieu van der Poel (fresh but possibly tired from his nail-biting E3 victory on Friday) and Florian Vermeersch could follow. The trio caught the day’s early breakaway before the Van Aert/Van der Poel battle rolled the clock back by going free as a duo.

Their advantage over the peloton exceeded a minute with 30km remaining, but Van der Poel chose not to fully commit, and the gap steadily decreased. Down to 30 seconds with 14km to go, 10 seconds with 6km. A late flyer from Alec Segaert saw him bridge to the duo and inject a little more life into the chase but it was in vain as they were caught under the flamme rouge.

Despite having a respectable sprint himself, Filippo Ganna was the rider who almost single-handedly brought the peloton to the finale, hoping to set up teammate Sam Watson. But the British national champion was unable to come around Tobias Lund when the Dane launched his sprint, and eventually finished outside the top-10.

Ultimately, Van der Poel’s teammate Jasper Philipsen launched his sprint on the left-hand side of the road, coming past the Dane and Christophe Laporte to take his second classics win of the campaign after Nokere Koerse. And, if my description wasn’t vivid and colourful enough, you can watch short highlights below:

An honourable mention goes to Bob Donaldson, the young Brit and former runner-up in the under-23 Paris-Roubaix. In his second season at Jayco-AlUla, the Manc sprinted to fifth place, a fantastic result he’s “pretty chuffed with” and rightly so.

 

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I don’t know how else to describe it, but around a decade ago, One Pound Fish was inescapable on certain corners of the internet. You probably don’t know how much you want to hear a Pakistani fishmonger attempt to attract women to his market stall with cheap produce and a siren-like voice. The answer is more than you think. I’ll show my age by saying this song was EVERYWHERE in my junior (primary) school playground.

And, it seems the marketing people at Forest Bikes know that nothing attracts clientele like nostalgia, so we have this fantastic little ditty to get stuck in your head for the rest of the week…

 

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The day may have peaked, and it’s only 11am. Also, we need to normalise content creators standing still before walking off camera. It gives closure to what would otherwise be a constant stream of algorithm-crunching content.

We all have riders we have somewhat inexplicable attachments towards. One of the first riders who caught my affection was Domenico Pozzovivo. Maybe it was the surrealness of his ambition, a barely 5’5″ climber weighing barely over 50kg who year after year would aim for the general classification despite some of the weakest time trialling in the peloton, and a distinct lack of punch. But still, he would achieve it.

Eight Grand Tour top-10s including a 5th place behind Chris Froome in the 2018 Giro and an 8th in 2022 at the age of 39. Pozzovivo rode for four different teams in the final four years of his career, and was often a late signing, picked up by teams in February or March when they realised they needed someone to climb for them in the Giro d’Italia. I watched his last Giro participation in 2024 closely, desperately hoping the 41-year old could recapture his best form before bronchitis and 71km of time-trialling derailed his ambitions. Why the hell am I talking about him now? Because, if the rumours are true, he’s back!

Ciro Scognamiglio has broken the story in Gazzetta dello Sport, that the 43-year old is planning a comeback with the Italian second-tier Solution Tech team, and is targeting the Tour of the Alps. However, the ever-reliable Inner Ring blog points out that Pozzovivo must square the circle of registering with anti-doping authorities first. Sadly, Solution Tech are without an invite to the Giro d’Italia so there won’t be a record-breaking 19th appearance there. But keep your eyes on Il Lombardia later this autumn, where the Italian could rival fellow veteran Bauke Mollema for more records…

Ryan was holding the fort this weekend at road.cc towers, and his output was rather prolific.

We have confirmation of Tom Pidcock’s injuries after he fell (unseen!) down a ravine at the Volta a Catalunya. GPS tracking can’t come soon enough.

> “The most annoying thing is it wasn’t on video”: Tom Pidcock admits he “lost a life” after “ninja” 60kph crash “off a mountain road” into ravine forces him to quit Volta a Catalunya

We also had the bizarre scenes at the weekend of intoxicated fans trying to steal bikes from the Visma-Lease a bike car rack. Mid-race…

> ‘Drunk’ spectators jump on team car roof, try to steal bike, and punch window during race, as Visma-Lease a Bike say left staff “shaken” by “aggressive” incident

It wouldn’t be a road.cc weekend without highlighting a moment of madness or prejudice on our roads, only this time it came from a driving instructor!

> “This cyclist got triggered”: Driving instructor questions “entitled cyclists” after close pass towards oncoming riders – but standards agency says overtake would be “no issue” during test

The latest road.cc podcast is also out, and features an interview with one of my favourite riders, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig. Funny, sweary, but also reflective on the crashes and setbacks in her career. It’s a great listen, that you can also read:

> Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig: “I’m a bit silly, I’m a bit weird but, you know, it’s what you get”

And finally, our top story on the website this morning is Ryan’s deep dive into all the precious aesthetics of our sport that have gone good and bad over the past century of societal advancement. Alas my humble suggestion, that podium baseball caps should be banned and replaced by casquettes, doesn’t appear to have made the cut.

> Bizarre race names, silly calendar tweaks, and tech overhauls: Pro cycling changes that worked (and those that didn’t)

 Sort it out Visma.