In another episode of 'how has it not been cancelled yet?', the organisers of the L'Etape du Tour de France sportive have finally called it a day and released what can only be described as a quite convoluted statement that confirms the cancellation of the 2020 event. A full story will follow shortly in which we shall try to make sense of it...
Noooo pls us parking space not bike lane
Hahaha car go vroom vroom pic.twitter.com/t5AbBueckk
— maidstoneonbike (@maidstoneonbike) June 5, 2020
Hopefully a fine and/or police caution will be winging its way to the drivers of these vehicles blatantly left on a London cycle route.
Another day, another Everesting record falls... this time it's the women's mark that has been smashed, after Hannah Rhodes ascended Kirkstone Pass enough times to complete the 8,848m of elevation required in 9:08:31. She rode just over 100 miles (163km) in the process, and the record has already been made official by Hells 500. You can check out the evidence and details on Rhodes' Strava.
The men's everesting record fell twice in a week last month, with pro mountain biker Keegan Swenson taking seven hours and 40 minutes to complete the feat on Friday 15th May... this was less than five days after former pro road racer Phil Gaimon lowered the record to 7 hours 50 minutes.
My brilliant neighbour Joey is a mental health nurse.
Last night her bike was stolen.
It turned up on Gumtree - but when she gave police the name and address of the thief, they said they couldn't help because her investigative work would make it entrapment.
This is NUTS. pic.twitter.com/AmyxsWGzWi— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) June 3, 2020
@theJeremyVine I am keen we resolve this for Joey and provide an appropriate level of service. Please can you send me the relevant details including reference numbers and I’ll make sure the matter is looked into. Thank you.
— Andy Cox (@SuptAndyCox) June 3, 2020
We reported yesterday that a mental health nurse named Joey had her bike stolen after a 12-hour shift on Wednesday. The theft was caught on CCTV and she found it for sale on Gumtree, which appears to be more than enough for police to trace the offender... but bizarrely, officers told her it would be 'entrapment' if they intervened because of her prior investigative work into the crime (which is completely false, just in case anyone wasn't aware). Gumtree also refused to take the ad down.
As you'll see above Joey's neighbour Jeremy Vine intervened, and then eventually Superintendent Andy Cox intervened...
Further update......
A male suspect has been charged with theft and has been remanded in custody awaiting a first court hearing today.
I will look into initial response and consider any potential learning needed. https://t.co/NhqwX35qxJ
— Andy Cox (@SuptAndyCox) June 5, 2020
And this morning, Superintendent Cox said that a male suspect has been charged with theft and has been remanded in custody. He also suggests that police colleagues who might need to do some brushing up on the law may be getting a talking to...
The latest example of mind-boggling stupidity in the form of traps that appear to have been set up to harm cyclists is this one from a trail on Cannock Chase in the West Midlands.
Originally shared on a local Facebook group yesterday, the person responsible for setting the trap near the village of Brocton appears to have taken considerable time and effort, with spikes carefully embedded into a large tree root. One person wrote: "Someone took hours to do all that. What a spiteful potential danger to walkers, children and animals, not to mention bikers!"
It's not the first example we've seen, and unfortunately probably won't be the last, of cyclists spotting and sometimes falling victim to traps; late last month a cyclist was injured when he rode into a wire trap on a trail in South Wales, and three weeks previously two pensioners admitted on camera to laying branches across a trail in North Yorkshire in a warped attempt to stop cyclists from using it.
On a scale of 1 to 10, How much do you rate that skills🥰 pic.twitter.com/MY0KA59aCy
— Awesome Cycling 🚵♀️🚵♂️ (@AwesomeCycling) June 4, 2020
And now fixed, with extra planters, all fixed to the ground! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/JcQEp1mBPU
— HammersmithBridge.org.uk (@HammersmithBri1) June 5, 2020
The road under this bridge in London has been closed to motor traffic, but it appears some didn't want to play ball and decided to move the planters intended to stop cars from getting through... so the council added a couple more, including a great big massive one with a tree on it in the middle. Chapeau to those responsible!
Police say they are looking for a cyclist seen on video assaulting and cursing at activists who were posting flyers along a trail in Bethesda, Maryland.
No one was seriously injured. https://t.co/MnAg4Yirnlpic.twitter.com/0pseuh04qH
— ABC News (@ABC) June 5, 2020
The shocking scenes were captured on 1st June in the Maryland-National Capital Park, with police now searching for the cyclist who became aggressive when he spotted the group putting up flyers in support of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Despite being told to leave the young girl alone as he approached, the man then forcefully tears what looks to be a flyer from the young girl's hands. He then runs at a man filming the incident while pushing his bike, and can be heard saying "take these signs off" towards the end of the clip.
No one was seriously injured, but local police are appealing for anyone with potential information on the suspect.
When will bus stops learn to use hi viz? pic.twitter.com/jIDPaSeyle
— London 🚲 Rider (not a scourge hoodlum in lycra) (@LondonBicyler) June 4, 2020
Has it never heard of 'be safe, be seen'? And while we're here...
PAY ROAD TAX pic.twitter.com/NTWC1HkHOQ
— 🏴 Martin Porter 🏴 (@TheCyclingScot) May 27, 2020
Thanks, was a pretty mad day - was my fault, I gave the incorrect info. Won't make that mistake again ^Adam
— Costa Coffee (@CostaCoffee) June 5, 2020
The coffee chain's Twitter account manager received a fair bit of backlash yesterday for claiming that the reason cyclists weren't allowed to use their drive-thru service was because they aren't "taxed and insured to be on the road"... however Costa Adam later admitted he got it wrong, assuming this was the reason why, and later said he believed it was because of "strict health and safety guidelines".
It's still not clear what those health and safety guidelines are and why it's safer to use a car over a bike to use a drive-thru coffee service; although Adam does claim that the drive-thru lanes are "designed for motor vehicles", and that the speaker to place an order is somehow triggered by a motor vehicle when it pulls up.
I was wrong, you are correct - apologies. I thought it was a requirement of a vehicle being roadworthy within the drive thru lane ^Adam
— Costa Coffee (@CostaCoffee) June 5, 2020
Whilst it really wasn't good on their part, at least @CostaCoffee admitted they messed up and retracted it. Leave it at that, and if you still want to buy coffee from them, so be it. The people at my local are really rather nice tbh. https://t.co/mwtOijzr66
— James Gleave (@mobilityguy2) June 4, 2020
I think it's just a standard policy with all drive thru operators - I'm trying to find some more information on our policy and if it can be reviewed ^Adam
— Costa Coffee (@CostaCoffee) June 4, 2020
The beleaguered social media manager is still batting away negative replies this morning, and has even promised to look into the policy to see if it can be reviewed; and for that, in our view it's time Costa Adam got credit where credit is due. In the meantime, it looks like cyclists who really want Costa Coffee will have to skip the drive-thru and use one of their reopened takeaway stores instead...
We have a further 181 stores reopening for takeaway today, taking us up to a total of 501 stores open. A massive thank you to all of our team members for their hard work and passion to get these stores reopen. You can find all open stores here: https://t.co/Fe1ZNOV8UApic.twitter.com/8CycwojiTt
— Costa Coffee (@CostaCoffee) June 4, 2020
If your gravel bike has a very appropriate earthy green-coloured frame, then you'll be wanting these tyres with an olive sidewall to match - the limited edition G-One Ultrabite Gravel tubeless tyre will be available from specialist bike shops this month, in a 40mm size and priced at €59.90 (we don't have a UK price yet).
With changing transport now & after Lockdown. To support safe #Cycling Traffic 👮♂️ patrols intensified in Urban Roads. Extreme speeding enforcement increased
➖20mph 1,167%
➖30mph 151%
We encourage #Headcam use & reporting traffic offences; improves #TooCloseForComfort awareness. pic.twitter.com/tlfGypTcDK— Andy Cox (@SuptAndyCox) June 5, 2020
Superintendent Andy Cox says that patrols have increased to support safe cycling, with headcam footage of traffic offences encouraged to deal with the problem.
Want tips on getting decent camera evidence to the police? We have a guide for that.