- News
.jpg)
“Was one of them bad driving?” Newspaper criticised for publishing “8 dangerous cycling mistakes that put people in hospital”; Punchy finale without fans at wildfire-affected Tour de France + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
.jpg)
1. cars. 2. cars. 3. cars. 4. cars. 5. cars. 6. cars. 7. cars. 8. cars.
You can guess what the reaction might be when The i paper ran a headline listing “the eight most dangerous cycling mistakes” according to an A&E doctor.
We’re sure the doctor meant well and has advice worth sharing. It also seems a little harsh of The i to use a photo of the doctor to surely only encourage animosity towards her.
But the whole thing screams of motonormativity, for The i to frame cyclist injuries as being the fault of cyclists themselves rather than the overwhelming cause of injuries being collisions with a driver, often caused by the person operating the heavy machine rather than the light one…
As you can tell from the number of comments relative to the reactions though, it’s certainly stoked opinion…
Here are the most popular comments:
“The main reason for A and E visits for cyclists is being hit by cars”
“Was one of them bad driving?”
> Road safety organisation accused of “victim-blaming” over cycling helmet campaign
“1. Range Rover 2. Audi saloon or SUV 3. BMW saloon or SUV 4. Other SUV 5. Nissan Juke 6. Mini (new) 7. VW ID buzz 8. MG (new) 9. Pedestrian absorbed in phone 10. Fiat 500 (new)”
“1. cars. 2. cars. 3. cars. 4. cars. 5. cars. 6. cars. 7. cars. 8. cars.”
“I hope the doc will do an article on people in A&E with conditions caused by not having enough exercise.”
Among the suggestions proposed are wearing a properly fitted helmet, despite numerous studies and not using noise-cancelling headphones.
> Road safety group runs mandatory cycling helmets poll… 85% reject proposal
Hopefully The i can broaden their understanding of road safety in articles to come…
The other coolest racer in the world...
And I don’t just mean ice cool as in Finnish…
Stage and GC results: Pogacar takes yellow!

A 22nd Tour de France stage win for Tadej Pogacar, drawing him level with Andre Darrigade, the second greatest sprinter in history…

Pogacar takes the race lead from Vingegaard by milliseconds based on their performances in the team time trial. Everyone below Paul Seixas moves up on GC at the expense of Romain Gregoire. A slightly odd immediate post-stage interview from Pogacar, asked if he likes the glory he looked nervous and said he would rather “go on the rollers now.” Is he starting to feel uncomfortable with his own dominance?
Pogacar wins!
Sepp Kuss on the front, checked on the radio then launches but Del Toro takes over under the flamme rouge and seta a ferocious pace for Pogacar on his wheel. Vingegaard and Seixas behind…
500m, Del Toro accelerates out of the saddle, he starts to grimace, contorting his shoulders, but still they wait.
Finally with 200m Pogacar launches and immediately he has a gap. He twice looks behind but there’s no one close! He crosses the line and bows over the line to celebrate. Vingegaard second but have we got a time gap and a leader change? Carapaz with a very impressive third!
🏆🌈 @TamauPogi dominates the competition at Les Angles!
🏆🌈 @TamauPogi domine la concurrence aux Angles ! #TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/VeeU7VP9mx
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2026
Big crowds
Winding through the town of Les Angles it’s becoming an arms race between UAE and Visma, but Visma lead onto the lower slopes. Decathlon have a little bit of work to do to position Paul Seixas. Vacek arrives to take over from Jorgenson on the front. Red Bull are now moving up as well, Jai Hindley preparing to launch Evenepoel and Lipowitz. They sweep right-handed onto the official climb. 1.7 km remaining
3.5km
There’s a strong cross-wind in the closing kilometres as the road slowly starts to wind up. The day’s breakaway start to drift away as Lidl-Trek start to impose themselves, working for Juan Ayuso. Derek Gee-West was dropped earlier in the day but Quinn Simmons is working hard on the front. Now come Visma with Matteo Jorgenson leading with Vingegaard on his wheel. Soudal Quick-Step are also there, presumably working for Valentin Paret-Peintre.
UAE lead
UAE are all lined-out at the front of the peloton, Grossschartner, McNulty, Adam Yates, yesterday’s stage winner Isaac Del Toro (wearing the green jersey) then Tadej Pogacar in the rainbow jersey. No one looks likely to come around them anytime soon. 6km remaining. Race leader Jonas Vingegaard is two wheels behind the world champion…
All together
A valiant ride by Alex Baudin, forcing the peloton to seize the race lead from his hot, sweaty hands. He just about makes it over the final uncategorised climb before being passed by Felix Grossschartner and the peloton with 11.5km remaining.
The peloton are together heading into what should be a very explosive finale. The final climb to Les Angles is technically only 1.8km at 6.5 percent, although the ascent will begin much before that, it wouldn’t surprise me to even see some lead-out trains… 10km remaining
Baudin takes KOM, gap down to 40 seconds.
23 undulating kilometres remain, the end feels nigh for Baudin and Prodhomme. In fact, Prodhomme has just grabbed some bottles and is dropping back to the peloton, you could place a pretty sure bet on Baudin winning the combativity prize now. Meanwhile, Arnaud de Lie is around 35 minutes behind the front of the race, the time limit should be around 45 minutes. He should still survive but this is becoming a deeply uncomfortable performance for a rider clearly suffering and under the weather. At what point does it become a welfare issue?
Grossschartner charge!
With Politt and Wellens done, Felix Grossschartner is next up for UAE and has knocked the time gap down enough to prompt Alex Baudin to attack from the break in a vain attempt to keep his virtual race lead. Nicolas Prodhomme eventually joined him and those two look likely to be the last riders standing from the break . We’ve 28km remaining and we’re around halfway up the penultimate climb of the day, the category-3 Col du Calvaire. If Baudin can best Prodhomme over the top he’ll secure the mountains jersey for the following day…
Do bears defecate in the woods?
Almost certainly when a peloton is approaching, like at the Sibiu Tour in Romania…
Pendant ce temps en Roumanie, un ours passe devant Lorenzo Finn et Byron Munton, dans la montée finale de la 3e étape du #SibiuTour. pic.twitter.com/iP69TQwh0c
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) July 6, 2026
New prototype crash protection system could soon be used on the WorldTour
Some interesting safety developments here…

Bienvenue!

One of the wonders of riding on the open roads, as opposed to exercising in a fixed gym, stadium or sporting arena is getting to appreciate the surrounding landscape, understanding why the borders are where they are, what separates and unites cultures of the world. In this way, cycling can be really rather powerful…
I mention it because we have just crossed the border into France, the Pyrenees loom and the Grand Depart is officially over. But Tim Wellens’ job isn’t. He’s been told by his team car not to go too deep but he’s chosen to ignore one of those words. He’s single-handedly keeping the six-rider break (Baudin, Vercher, Bennett, Garcia Pierna, Van Mechelen, Prodhomme) 1’30” ahead, keeping his team’s mountain firepower fresh for the day’s final climbs. It’s all brewing nicely, 37km remaining.
We’re also now in the part of the race where the organisers have urged all tourists to stay away from the race, though locals are ostensibly able to come and watch. That’s in response to the nearby wildfires that require the emergency services maximal attention…
> Tour de France fans told not to attend stage finish due to “frightening” Pyrenean wildfires
And, finally, Tim Wellens pulls off. Job done for him, whilst Nils Politt returns for a final stint, magnificent white teeth grimacing on the front of the peloton for the first time in this year’s race…
"Almost an abject lesson in how not to design a bike"
Still, yours for $500… (plus quite a lot of shipping)
Listed on Craigslist for $500
by
u/barkingcel in
Justridingalong
O'Connor, Healy dropped, Baudin KOM
If you wanted early evidence of who is riding for the overall classification and who will have to settle for stage-hunting, then the camera at the back of the peloton is as good an indicator as you can find. Both Ben’s, stage winners and GC hunters during last year’s race, have lost contact due to Tim Wellens’ pace.
Romain Gregoire and Kevin Vauquelin have also been spotted going backwards but could rejoin on the long descent. The gap is down to 1’30”. Meanwhile Abel Balderstone, the former Spanish national champion riding for Caja Rural has attacked from the peloton, for reasons as yet unknown.
65km remaining
Splinters!
Today is not the breakaway’s day, Florian Vermeersch has seen to that. One of two Belgian classics specialists for UAE, he has cut the gap to under two minutes, forcing the break to consider its options. On the lower slopes of the category-1 Col de Toses, Movistar’s Raul Garcia Pierna attacked and was eventually joined by TotalEnergies’ Matteo Vercher and Bahrain’s Vlad Van Mechelen.
The trio have expanded their advantage up to two minutes, whilst most of the break look set to be swallowed up by the peloton. Alex Baudin is just about virtual race leader but is fighting a losing battle. Saying that, he’s just fought his way back to the front of the race, alongside George Bennett and Nicolas Prodhomme. There’s life yet, and the break still has a mountains jersey to fight for.
Meanwhile UAE’s whole team has moved to the front of the peloton, with the exception of Nils Politt who just suffered a mechanical and narrowly avoided causing a crash in the bunch. Inside the final 70km…
Floating bus stops under fire once again

Floating bus stops are, admittedly, slightly odd things. A solution to maintaining the flow of cyclists and scooter users whilst allowing pedestrians to reach the bus. Earlier this year, we reported on the criticism of a single zebra stripe that appeared to be connecting a pavement to a bus stop, although that criticism came from a group of motorists who appeared irritated at the thought of any cycle infrastructure at all…
In 2024, the then Conservative Transport Secretary Mark Harper was reportedly considering a ban on them altogether, a proposal which drew a swift backlash from cycling campaigners and active travel commissioners alike.

> Warning government considering ban on floating bus stops “could stop new protected cycle lanes”
Now, the Daily Mail have got in on the ‘debate’ and are accusing the government of ‘ignoring’ its own advice. It should be said the Mail’s take on floating bus stops should be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly when the angle taken is that Labour are “pandering to the cycling lobby.”
The substance of their story is a report by the Government’s disabled persons transport advisory committee (DPTAC), which the ‘paper has seen following a freedom of information request. It accuses the government of ‘underplaying’ concerns raised by disabled and vulnerable people about floating bus stops.
The report called for the installation of floating bus stops to be “paused until further research is complete” with more emphasis recommended on the “suitable calming measures to alert cyclists of the need for a change in behaviour, to slow down and give way to pedestrians.”
The key element of the story is the conflation of two different types of infrastructure, a “shared use bus stop boarder” which sees pedestrians boarding and disembarking the bus from the cycle lane itself, and a “bus stop bypass” which sees the bus stop ‘float’ on an island accessible across a cycle lane by a small zebra crossing.

The pavement, cycle lane, and island are typically segregated by a combination of kerbs, different paint colours, and surfaces. The former was banned last year, whilst the latter remains a standard design in active travel policy.
But that’s not enough for some campaigners.
Sarah Gayton, from the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, speculates that the ministerial code might have been broken by the government knowingly misleading Parliament. She added, “This is supposed to be the Labour Party but they treat disabled people with contempt.”
The Mail also quoted the Guide Dogs charity which found their dogs are “predisposed” to avoiding the floating bus stops as they didn’t perceive them as safe.
In response, the Department for Transport said “further research” was being carried out, and that they wanted accessibility “at the heart of these designs” and would make funding available to local authorities to modify their floating bus stops where necessary.
It unfortunately seems like this debate won’t be resolved easily…
95km to go!
Just after the last update, Egan Bernal pulled the plug. The Tour is long and better opportunities await. Meanwhile, Visma have started working on the front to keep the gap to the break something catchable. They’re assisted by UAE, with Red Bull sitting all in line behind. The gap is hovering around 3 minutes. That gives Baudin just over a minute in the virtual lead, but you would expect that gap to come down quite dramatically when the climbing gets tough. If I had to pick, I’d say we could be looking at a punchy GC battle rather than a breakaway surviving today.
Mads Pedersen has just led the break through the intermediate sprint to take 25 points and open his account in that competition. Thankfully for the Dane, it was uncontested.
Final couple of bits of housekeeping before we look at other things for a bit. Alex Molenaar, the current King of the Mountains, is in the gruppetto some eight minutes behind the break so that jersey will change hands today. Meanwhile Arnaud De Lie’s torrid start to the race continues. After his start to the Giro was scuppered by cow pats, he missed the Tour de France team presentation with a stomach bug that has shown no signs of improving. he’s currently more than four minutes behind the gruppetto. Survival would be an impressive achievement today, but he’s only got one teammate for company.

Finally a break!
After an hour and a half, we finally have an escape! After the likes of Carapaz, Van der Poel, Bernal and even Matteo Jorgenson were trying to get away, a quartet of Louis Vervaeke, Magnus Cort, Nelson Oliveira and Matteo Vercher were given a gap, from which several other riders have bridged across. The last chasers have now bridged across to form an 18-strong break with a lead currently increasing beyond 2 minutes.
Best on GC are Alex Baudin, who is in the virtual race lead and won a stage and wore the yellow jersey in the Dauphine last month, Abel Balderstone – a Spaniard with a Lancashire grandfather, and Harold Tejada. Other names there include George Bennett, Luke Plapp, Mauro Schmid and Michael Storer.
There are also a couple of fast men tempted to stake a claim in the green jersey competition, chief among them is Mads Pedersen, my sentimental tip to wear that jersey in Paris. His rivals up the road will probably be the retiring Cort and Alex Aranburu.
Meanwhile, Egan Bernal is trapped in no man’s land, 40 seconds behind the front, and a minute up on the peloton. Poor guy… 119km remaining, intermediate sprint coming up shortly…
road.cc rideout
Thanks to everyone who joined us in Bath, our Liam made a snazzy video of the whole shebang, including a cameo from yours truly right at the end…
We’ll try and organise a similar event sometime in the autumn!
The streets of Mansfield could never...
No reason to pick on the Nottinghamshire town, just the first place that hosts the Tour of Britain more often that you think that came to mind…
They're as cold as ice...
Whilst we wait for the break to stick, one thing that excited the internet at the weekend was the sight of Netcompany-Ineos dunking their arms in ice during their Team Time Trial warm-up.
The aim was to ‘warm up’ the muscles whilst keeping the body’s core body temperature down, and whilst people were excited by the novelty, veteran journalist and author extraordinaire was on hand to point out the technique wasn’t new…
Keep seeing people describe Ineos’ use of pre cooling ice baths for the arms as “new”. It’s not. GB used it at the Athens Olympic Games… in 2004
— willfoth.bsky.social (@willfoth.bsky.social) 5 July 2026 at 09:48
Channel 5 out of 5?
With the Tour de France getting underway on Saturday, so too did Channel 5’s nightly highlights coverage. Fronted by our old colleague Rebecca Charlton, I didn’t mind the lack of pundits, but I felt the opening TTT needed a lot more context, both as to the format and even a view of the course would’ve helped. The editing was also a little clunky, notably when there was a 30-40 second section without any commentary, including a crucial moment when Mattias Skjelmose punctured.

Hopefully as the race settles down so does the coverage, but it was difficult to meaningfully separate the programme from Warner Bros. Discovery’s own in-house offerings on Quest or DMAX. It was produced by TNT Sports after all. We’d be interested to hear your thoughts however. How have you been consuming the race so far? Have you even dabbled in some of S4C’s live coverage? Let us know in the comments…
Crash!
We’ve seen all sorts of attacks, including a sustained move from Richard Carapaz, who supposedly isn’t riding GC, but there’s a crash right at the front of the peloton. Visma’s Bruno Armirail was among the first to go down, Del Toro also went down but remounted quickly. The French rouleur is back up and on his bike but pedalling very gingerly. His knee doesn’t seem right, a trip to the doctor’s car might be imminent.
In the meantime a large group has slipped away, I reckon it’s around 20 strong, and just lurking at the back of it is Tadej Pogacar! Very very interesting, 1km remaining of the first climb of the day…
Saying that, the group are caught except for Javier Romo and Valentin Paret-Peintre who lead over the top and try to push on. Maybe UAE realised it wasn’t a good look to push on in the aftermath of a crash. Meanwhile we already have a grupetto forming a couple of minutes behind the front of the race. What a chaotic day, and not one Jonas Vingegaard would have wanted…

It's the Tour de France today!

The neutralised roll-out has just ended, and stage three is underway! The breakaway formation is ongoing, and could continue for a while. Today’s stage features a category-1 climb and a punchy uphill finish. Later in the race, a stage like this would be a slam dunk for the break but is it too tempting for the big hitters?
After Jonas Vingegaard won the Team Time Trial for Visma Lease a bike, taking his first maillot jaune since he won the whole thing in 2023, yesterday’s stage was, dare I say, a little anti-climactic.
Brandon McNulty deterred any attacks on the first two laps of Montjuïc, before Adam Yates took over on the final lap. Only on the descent did Isaac del Toro get away, whilst the ease with which Tadej Pogacar bridged to him and kept looking behind as they approached the line sent an ominous warning to all the others.

Thanks to time bonuses, Pogacar moved to within six seconds of Vingegaard, whilst Del Toro also moved up to fourth overall.
Here’s some of Ryan’s observations from his stage-by-stage guide…
“Featuring 3,850m of elevation (a heady proposition so early in the race), it boasts a proper first-cat climb in the Col de Toses (9.3km at 6.5 per cent), while the combination of the Col du Calvaire and the finishing kick to Les Angles could draw out some GC contenders. A plucky opportunist could also take advantage of any conservatism in the bunch to nab a few days in the yellow jersey. Sofa score: 7/10″
ICYMI
Our Ryan has been in and around the Grand Depart all weekend, here’s what he’s been filing in dispatches:
> Did the Tour de France’s team time trial experiment work? Despite the popularity of the new format, I might become a bit of a gadfly on this one. But it’s nice to see a couple of pros agreeing with me at least…

Amid searing heatwaves, EF’s CEO Jonathan Vaughters has some considered opinions on cycling during the climate crisis, even if he makes the mistake of explaining something to a group of scribes with physical gestures. You’ll have to read to find out what he was talking/gesticulating about though…

The latest modification to adapt to the dangerous conditions is the closure to spectators of the final 40km of today’s stage. Or at least a request by race organisers to stay away…
> Tour de France fans told not to attend stage finish due to “frightening” Pyrenean wildfires

Elsewhere, we’ve got our first bit of fruit-based nonsense…
A good tech-y feature (and video):
And, we’ve also got an impressive feature on Paul Seixas who, despite a tense mechanical and near-miss yesterday, has emerged from the opening weekend unscathed…
> Inspired choice or insanity? The risks and rewards of Paul Seixas riding the Tour de France
Riders including Paul Seixas are almost taken out on a narrow section as the Tour de France reaches Barcelona! 😳 pic.twitter.com/UvaxAE0Kgq
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 5, 2026
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £2.49. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
42 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
The 15.5mph (25kph) limit is stupid? What's stupid is charging down mixed use paths on an untested, illegal e-moto at 40 mph. Which is what these wastes of organs do.
@kyzyl2 I'm extremely sceptical that this app could measure power with any accuracy, but as far as I understand it is not the case that it completely ignores windspeed; as the inventor says, it uses weather as one of the variables. Presumably it takes real-time wind speed and direction from nearby weather stations and factors that into its calculations. Of course this may be wildly inaccurate if you're climbing up a bare hillside and the nearest weather station is in a sheltered valley half a mile away, but it does make some attempt to account for wind speed and direction.
@Rendel Harris we used to rent an allotment in a village near Basel and there was an annual autumn party/festival organised by the gardeners. One year as we were about to leave we went to ride our (unlocked - never a need here) bikes and my wife’s was missing. Our allotment neighbours were outraged and were getting ready to get the police in when… up the road rides a gentleman on my wife’s bike, weaving around in a drunken manner.. He gets back and receives the wrath of our neighbour (not us we were in giggles) and he explains that he had to go home to feed his cat and just needed to borrow a bike!
The physics principle exploited is that opposing forces equal applied forces. Conventional power meters measure applied forces--very well but admittedly not cheaply. This app appears to measure acceleration and slope to determine two of four important opposing forces. Notice something missing? Wind...the dominant opposing force when riding on the flats or in a pack. This app assumes that wind speed equals bike speed in order to "guess" the critical opposing wind force it does not measure. If you always ride solo and never ride when the wind blows maybe this app will work OK for you. Otherwise you are wasting your money. There is no such thing as free power.
Not gonna lie, when I saw the name LAP I thought 'Here we go again, yet another pretentious brand like MAAP, PNS, ASOS and Rapha that wants to grab a piece of the 'bragging rights' cycling category. But, to my surprise, what they bring to the table seems pretty well considered. Let's see if this idea gets some traction.
The difference in the UK is that the police don't try to hide their pride in paying no attention to bicycle theft, in order to maintain credibility with their motorhead mates. When the British Transport Police actually declared they weren't interested (OK, there were some provisos to that, but what they really meant was: cyclists can get stuffed) in cycle theft, they were forced to retract that officially but continued in practice to teach cyclists a lesson by making no effort to catch the thieves (I assume - no personal experience of this particular police-encouraged crime wave)
Might have been usefull to describe the bike / brand etc..?
Operation "Sorry Not Attempting Prosecution"? Certainly some forces see it as a success!
I have some Assos gear and generally like it but at 295 GBP, trouser legs that slip upwards while riding are most definitely unacceptable. That's a kill right there in my book. Hell, I own several bib shorts that cost me 1/4 th of that amount and while they are not so supremely comfy as Assos where the pad is concerned, no slippage.
42 thoughts on ““Was one of them bad driving?” Newspaper criticised for publishing “8 dangerous cycling mistakes that put people in hospital”; Punchy finale without fans at wildfire-affected Tour de France + more on the live blog”
When ice is liquid, don’t we usually call it ‘water’?
@mdavidford Ice cold water, maybe
@mdavidford it was ice moments before the photo was taken. Those guys make a lot of watts.
@mdavidford
No, you’re confusing it with liquified steam.
RE: bus stop bypasses again.
Daily Mail? That well-known accessibility-campaigning paper, which regularly demands streets have motor diets to better protect those with disabilities, children and the old?
That Daily Mail?
In a sense you can’t really fault the campaign of the “National Federation of the Blind of the UK” – they’re a tiny group eg. compared to the RNIB and yet they’ve managed to get massive prominence for their rather odd take…
Anyway – councils and other groups working with RNIB hopefully can move things forward positively for all.
@chrisonabike I’m sure I’d agree with your comment, but I can’t work out what ‘motor diets’ means!
@sheridan Does “road diet” work better?
I considered replying to the 8 things that cause cyclist injuries post, but then decided if I did that I’d be feeding Meta/Facebook. In my experience facebook is just as happy to push hatred towards cyclists as the Mail/Telegraph etc. Replying to such posts just feeds the beast that pushes more hatred on to us.
I could only think of six things.
1. being rear-ended by a car
2. being t-boned by a car pulling out of a junction as you pass
3. being t-boned by a car turning into a side road across your path
4. head on collision in a narrow section you were already in because the car did not yield
5. being close passed/side-swiped by a car
6. Being knocked off by a passenger throwing an object at you
Were the other two made up?
@Pub bike Ah – forget being knocked off by a pedestrian wandering into the road without looking.
That’s still only 7.
@Pub bike 8. Being brake-checked by a car
@quiff Sorry, for Mitsky’s benefit, obvs I meant ‘driver’
@quiff Thanks.
@Pub bike That is a whole lot of self-driving cars…
Being knocked-off by a driver who makes a beeline to exit a roundabout without signal lighting
@Pub bike falling down a pot hole, perhaps?
7. Being the lead rider in a TTT and riding over a highlighted-with-red-paint manhole cover, leading to your team mates crashing out as they hit the hazard with no warning.
@Pub bike being doored.
@Pub bike
Being reversed into by a driver who’d gone over give way/stop line/into yellow box
Being reversed into by driver exiting parking space
Driven into by driver cutting the corner turning into a side road
@Pub bike
2a. Being driven into by someone exiting a side road through queueing traffic.
n+1. Being driven into by someone cutting the corner turning into a side road you’re waiting to exit.
@mdavidford Being driven into by someone cutting the corner turning into a side road you’re waiting to exit
Yes! That’s what happened to me December 2018 waiting to leave Sainsbury’s. That’s when I came across Lancashire Constabulary’s Big Book of Dodging when they deployed ‘NFA- it was only a momentary loss of concentration’.
@Pub bike 7. Reading UK media. 8. Believing UK media.
I was pleasantly surprised with the Channel 5 coverage. I also noticed the awkward gap in commentary, and agree that they needed to introduce the format (I had to go Googling to confirm the old “time of the 4th rider” format had changed). So not up to the honed-over-many-years standards of ITV, but it does seem to have been a fairly last minute production, and I’m still just perhaps pathetically) grateful that we still have anything free to air.
@quiff There is also the live S4C coverage which is on iPlayer and freesat channel 120. Great for brushing up on your Welsh language skills.
@Pub bike Gave this a go last night, but no subtitles available on iplayer, so it is a full immersion experience. However, I think I did learn the Welsh for Pogacar.
It’s ‘bara’, isn’t it?
[Yes – I know it would really be more like ‘pobydd’, but ‘bara’ is more amusing – to me, anyway. Although in English his full name of Thaddeus Baker is rather brilliant.]
@mdavidford Thanks, as a result of this diversion I have now learnt some Slovenian too.
@quiff Iechyd da!
I liked it. I will watch it.
It’s essentially the TNT coverage, highlighted.
So the same coverage that would have been on Quest or DMAX, but with the singular presenter, maybe less chat and maybe more racing.
Hopefully less chance of the weird no coverage and no explanation days.
Unfortunately no rest day recap, one of those lovely itv things. And no Chris.
And there will be a +1 option, which the highlights on ITV4 never had, meaning that if there are problems on the train or I have to stay a bit at work I won’t be as bothered.
Quest had it, but not DMAX. But both suffered from the aforementioned unexplained no-show.
@ktache ITV4+1 was/is available on freesat. I appreciate that this fact isn’t much use to you now but it is perhaps worth noting that in general Freesat SD channels have better resolution than Freeview which really helps with the +1 channels (e.g. 5+1) which seem pretty degraded on Freeview.
Seemingly Freesat SD is 704 × 576 pixels whilst Freeview often shrinks these same channels to 544 × 576.
So the driver who left 1.5cm distance between my bar ends and his car on Saturday afternoon instead of 1.5m wasn’t driving dangerously?
@OldRidgeback As the good doctor makes clear, it was your mistake.
8 dangerous mistakes that put riders in A&E – was one going on a ride with former(?) poster wheelywheely… and being run over on the pavement by a mob of cyclists riding furiously through a red light on the wrong side of the road … and then having wheely’s wheelchair fall on you?
…And another one turning up on a bicycle to another former poster’s soirée and then being hurt by his reaction?
As I think that poster liked to remind us, explosion in the hi-viz aisle of Decathlon is also a big risk for cyclists.
“the eight most dangerous cycling mistakes” according to an A&E doctor.’
Motonormativity, observation bias, and just not thinking. The problem with A&E doctors is that they only see the patients in A&E, not the wards stuffed with obese people suffering from too little exercise. The benefits of cycling vastly outweigh the disbenefits, but if you’re looking down the wrong end of a telescope, you ain’t gonna see them.
The article is paywalled, so I have seen it, but I assume it’s helmets, hi-viz and giving way to our mechanical overlords.
1 Forgetting to do your helmet strap up (yes, really!)
2 Ditching hi-vis clothing
3 Going too fast (whatever that means)
4 Not checking your bike (this one actually seems fair enough)
5 Using noise-cancelling earbuds
6 Cycling on pavements
7 Getting ahead of yourself (i.e. don’t ride on the road before you’ve practiced riding. But also, don’t ride not on the road, because you’re not allowed – see above)
8 Going for a ride in heavy rain (really scraping the barrel now)
[Bah – stupid comment system – stripping my line breaks :o( ]
Re ‘Going too fast’ – “Some cyclists are not aware of how fast they’re going and need to really keep an eye on their speed, which they may not do on their bike as much as when driving a car.”
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
Wait – this wasn’t meant to be a joke??
“the eight most dangerous cycling mistakes” according to an A&E doctor.’
Motonormativity, observation bias, and just not thinking. The problem with A&E doctors is that they only see the patients in A&E, not the wards stuffed with obese people suffering from too little exercise. The benefits of cycling vastly outweigh the disbenefits, but if you’re looking down the wrong end of a telescope, you ain’t gonna see them.
The article is paywalled, so I haven’t seen it, but I assume it’s helmets, hi-viz and giving way to our mechanical overlords.
@eburtthebike I edited it, but it got posted twice. Please bring back editing.