I watched cycling on the TV today. Yes you read that correctly. Felt a bit weird, I didn't dislike it...
— Geraint Thomas (@geraintthomas) June 23, 2021
The Tour de France is just days away and that means that Geraint Thomas (not that one) is back fending off questions from cycling fans who mistakenly follow him on Twitter.
This Geraint works as a lecturer in visual effects at USW Film School Wales and he 'rose to fame' in 2018 after the Ineos Grenadiers (then Sky) rider stormed to victory at the Tour.
Let's get some FAQ's out of the way:
- Yes I'd quite enjoy a tour of France
- No I can't recommend a bike to you
- Yes I own a jersey somewhere
- No I generally don't get tired after climbing hills
- Yes my legs are just fine thanks
- No, nothing's occurrin'— Geraint Thomas (@geraintthomas) June 24, 2021
Following on from yesterday's storyabout Surrey Police sliding into an angry driver's DM's when they moaned about cyclists riding in the middle of the road, the force has now explained to other angry commentators why they need to educate motorists.
One person wrote under the initial post: "Cyclists are a law unto themselves. @SurreyRoadCops shame on you for promoting this."
In response, the force replied: Our job is to educate and encourage and enforce road safety matters - we can do that by stopping offenders out on the road, or via Social Media…which is why we have a Twitter account.
Cycling is a great enabler of transport and better health - it’s under promoted and under used. Surveys constantly show the primary reason people don’t cycle is because they feel unsafe due to motorists actions.
A motorist can (and regularly does) cause significant harm to…
— Roads Policing Unit (RPU) - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops) June 24, 2021
The full reply read: "Cycling is a great enabler of transport and better health - it’s under promoted and under used. Surveys constantly show the primary reason people don’t cycle is because they feel unsafe due to motorists actions.
A motorist can (and regularly does) cause significant harm to others, our job is to enforce that. Because there are more motorists on the road we naturally deal with significantly higher number of offenders by motorists than any other form of transport."
Was just cycling E on C9 and driver of a flatbed truck in @LBofHounslow livery pulled out in front of me from Duke Road. I'd anticipated it, when I told driver to look out, he said I was "going the wrong way." Um, no I wasn't. Tell your drivers took both ways please @LBofHounslowpic.twitter.com/LTpOMf0IdY
— Simon MacMichael (@simonmacmichael) June 24, 2021
Following a near miss for our news editor, Simon, earlier today, we thought we would see what people thought about bidirectional cycle lanes.
Bidirectional cycle lanes do take up less space while also allowing room for people to overtake, but they can be dangerous if they cross busy side-roads.
People leaving the side-roads are looking in the direction of conventional traffic, and can forget to check the other direction for people on bikes.
Think this guy clocked my @PassPixi sign and gave me waaaay too much room yesterday😲 pic.twitter.com/mBykb7H9mG
— Lee Walker (@lw4lker) May 29, 2021
Cyclist Lee Walker captured the extremely wide pass while out riding, but as someone commented on Twitter, there really is nothing worse than a person cycling on a footpath...
Team GB has launched it's undoubtedly well intentioned 'I am Team GB' Olympic linked campaign to get more people active.
However, as journalist Peter Walker wrote on Twitter, could it be that 'activity campaigns based on sport are a long-standing mistake'?
There's a new Olympics-linked drive to get people more active, called "I Am Team GB", which is perfectly laudable in its way, but will achieve *almost nothing* in getting many people more active, and makes the same mistakes of almost all such activity campaigns.
(mini-thread)
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) June 23, 2021
road.cc readers made similarly insightful points about the report into the impact the UCI World Championships had on cycling in Harrogate, which we posted about earlier today.
Walker also said that some of the sponsors of the GB campaign might not actually be that supportive of schemes promoting walking and cycling.
He added: "For activity to stick, it has to be embedded into people's lives, not least active travel like walking/cycling.
"But who is the lead sponsor of I Am Team GB? It's Toyota. Another "partner" is McVities. Neither company would sign up to a campaign that actually changed things."
Walker, political correspondent for the Guardian, continued: "Actually tackling inactivity takes big and politically scary changes, which ministers don't want to think about...
"In the meantime, Toyota can carry on selling two-tonne SUVs, and McVitie's can carry on selling biscuits which are 25% sugar, and put a page in their annual reports about corporate social responsibility."
Introducing the 3⃣ new rounds that make up the 2021 Tour Series schedule.#TourSeries
— The Tour Series (@TourSeries) June 24, 2021
The 2021 Tour Series calendar has been announced revealing the three new host venues for the August event.
Guisborough, Sunderland and Castle Douglas will each host men’s and women’s races in a compact week-long Tour Series, with events taking place on Sunday 8, Tuesday 10, and Thursday 12 August. Highlights of all three rounds will be broadcast on ITV4.
Launched in 2009, the Tour Series is the UK’s leading televised cycle race series.
Mick Bennett, Tour Series Race Director, said: "Hopefully this news can contribute an increase in confidence for domestic racing, not just for the rest of the year but going into 2022 as well."
Inspiring to see so many cyclists come out tonight to ride in support of the #LanarkRoad bike lane and all the other important changes that have been made in #Edinburgh to improve all types of active travel. Here’s a bumper photo album https://t.co/HZtFDjoUahpic.twitter.com/78iYLIsi8L
— Andy Catlin (@andycatlincom) June 23, 2021
Cyclists came out in force yesterday to protest against losing newly constructed cycle lanes in Edinburgh.
Large numbers of people rode out to a stretch of Lanark Road, which has recently seen a number of new measures put in place under the Spaces for People scheme, Edinburgh Live reports.
The dual carriageway was reduced to a single lane on each side with the speed limit reduced from 40mph to 30mph. Cycle lanes with bollards were also introduced.
The scheme was met with opposition at a consultation however and some of the comments on the local paper's article make for fairly depressing reading...
One man, Jon Clark, commented: "These protesters are doubtless a Spokes or "SusTrans “rent a crowd” brought in to make it looks like there’s a movement in favour of these dangerous and wasteful schemes."
Another, Scott Robertson, said: "It's quite amazing that people have 'turned up' when you could count on one hand the amount of bikes that actually use it."
And of course, one man, Alan Watt, waded in condemning some riders for not wearing helmets: "How stupid not wearing safety helmets on a main road such as Lanark Road, here's hoping that none of them have a trip to the ERI in the back of an ambulance because of their own stupidity and negligence."
The introduction of pizza delivery robots in Central Austin in the USA has sparked a debate about whether the machines should be allowed to go in cycle lanes.
The Austin Monitor report that Michigan-based tech firm Refraction AI started operations in Austin last week with 10 semi-autonomous robots delivering pizza to the city.
Jake Boone, vice chair of the city’s Bicycle Advisory Council, said: “My personal view is that I don’t believe these belong in the bike lane.
“I almost feel like we’re the test subject for this new technology, and that does bother me.
“What if in two years we have several hundred of these on the road?”
Some cyclists also expressed concerns about exactly how a REV-1 would move out of a rider's way on a path next to cars and trucks going past at 30 miles per hour or more...
For now a person on an electric scooter follows each REV-1 while the machine’s artificial intelligence learns the city's streets.
Eventually, the robot will roll on its own at up to 15 miles per hour with a remote operator monitoring it over the internet.
“We’re huge bike advocates and big believers that they are an important part of city transportation,” Refraction AI CEO Luke Schneider said.
“The robots are required to yield the right of way to bicycles, to pedestrians, as well as to regular vehicular traffic.”
Vinokourov ousted from Astana team https://t.co/wHktAClBuA
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) June 24, 2021
L'Equipe report that Astana's general manager Alexander Vinokourov has been dismissed from the team for 'personal reasons'.
The French paper says that the undefined personal reasons given are 'refuted' by Vinokourov and his lawyers are apparently already trying to get him reinstated at the team.
Vinokourov retired as a rider after winning gold at the 2012 Olympic men's road race, and took over management duties with Astana–Premier Tech the following year.
The controversial Kazakh has made his fair share of headlines over the years and only last month former Sports Director at Astana, Dmitry Sedun, revealed Vinokourov was fired by Astana before being re-instated just one day later, after he complained about the sacking of two of his colleagues.
More importantly however, this just gives us another excuse to watch that rap video...
Harrogate Borough Council has hailed the town's hosting of the UCI cycling championships as a boost for people's health and the health of the town's visitor economy after a new report on the 2019 event was published by British Cycling. https://t.co/MmnaT7X2X6
— Harrogate Advertiser (@HgateAdvertiser) June 23, 2021
The report into the social impact of the 2019 World Championships was carried out by The Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University.
The results showed 57 per cent of those who were surveyed felt more proud of Yorkshire/UK and 52 per felt more positive about where they live because of the UCI.
A total of 45 per cent were inspired to take up cycling or cycle more, and 47 per cent were inspired to do more sport and active recreation generally.
In the immediate aftermath of the event in 2019 there was widespread frustration that, perhaps due to the heavy rain, the number of cycling fans was much lower than expected, and business forced to close for the races claimed they lost thousands of pounds in trade.
> Harrogate says 'no thanks' to Tour de Yorkshire after Worlds experience
Even now, following the announcement of the report some local papers have criticised the 'astonishing claims' in the study and called the World Championships a 'niche event'.
Mads Pedersen surprised in the men's road race that year by becoming the first Danish world champion in the event after winning the sprint in a three-man breakaway.
In the women's race, Annemiek van Vleuten soloed to victory, after a lone breakaway of more than 100 km (62 mi).
The sign makes some pretty good points pic.twitter.com/G7ovTGBzPb
— Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio) June 24, 2021
A road sign has seemingly been hijacked to alert drivers stuck in heavy traffic to the benefits of cycling while also giving the motorists a few handy reminders about their vehicles...
The sign includes helpful messages such as 'cars are death machines', ' cars kill kids', 'cars melt glaciers' and 'Use bus, subway or bike'.
The sign appeared in Brooklyn, New York, and as the original poster says, it makes some pretty good points...