Yesterday we reported that of the £400,000 Surrey County Council paid out in pothole-related compensation claims, £100,000 went to one cyclist who was injured after hitting a pothole in Dorking - and further anaysis of the FOI request from Heycar reveals that £200,000 was paid out to a cyclist who fell on the A49 due to a pothole, reports driving.co.uk.
Even though councils in England filled 1.2 million potholes last year, or 20,000 a week, it's estimated that there are over 100,000 potholes on UK roads at any one time. The Asphalt Industry Alliance estimate it would cost more than £10 billion to nip the pothole problem in the bud and repair the lot. We can dream...
What a recovery from 🇨🇭 @aka_muni! A little scare to start off his TT.
Plus de peur que de mal pour Stefan Bissegger 🇨🇭#TDF2021pic.twitter.com/P4ezaQPjoS
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 30, 2021
Stefan Bissenger had a pretty scary wobble on today's stage 5 time trial, but managed to steady himself and get round the corner with just a second or so lost for the not-so-effiencient line he took. All in all, it's been a pretty fortunate week for the Swiss so far in cycling and football...
Deceuninck Quick-Step have released this video about Cav's return to the top at the Tour de France.
In unrelated news, I seem to have something in my eye...
Local residents opposed to the development of a free-to-use BMX track into what will be known as Surrey Bike Park have, Get Surrey reports, expressed their horror at the potential loss of habitat for rare Roman snails.
We first covered the potential Surrey Bike Park earlier this month when councillor Professor Patricia Wiltshire suggested that the development could attract child molesters, a claim that she clarified later as simply expressing the fear of a resident that had contacted her.
The area is already a popular spot with mountain bikers, but maintenance of the BMX track and trails that had been carried out by volunteers cannot be picked up by the council, as it says it can't afford to shell out for the work.
Plans are moving sluggishly and a recent agenda item to discuss the project was removed after it was decided that an ecological survey was needed to assess the site.
Some residents are also keen to keep the site as a free-to-use facility for families to use. Bike Park projects are nothing new, and users are generally expected to shell out a pay-to-ride or annual fee.
Really, the question is... what have the Roman snails ever done for us?
Never in doubt eh, @GeraintThomas86😜
Congrats, @MarkCavendish#TDF2021pic.twitter.com/TOln8s83um
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) June 29, 2021
"I hope he doesn't hear me say that..."
*tags Cav in tweet"
van der Poel's team wants him to keep Yellow after Wednesday's TT so they went hunting for some faster wheels.
They bought some Princeton CarbonWorks 6560 from Ineos rider Cameron Wurf and drove them 10 hours to Van der Poel's team hotel in Renneshttps://t.co/rrzLfJmpeH
— Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio) June 30, 2021
Van der Poel's Alpecin Fenix team would rather like to hang on to their Yellow jersey for a few more days, but that means getting Mathieu van der Poel through today's time trial.
He's near unbeatable in pretty much all bike-related activities, but the race of truth has never been somewhere that Van der Poel shines.
To give him every chance possible, Nieuwsblad reports that the team purchased the supposedly very speedy Princeton CarbonWorks 6560 front wheel from Ineos rider Cameron Wurf in Andorra and then took them to Van der Poel's team hotel in Rennes, a drive of about 10 hours.
According to Nieuwsblad, team manager Christoph Roodhooft called Shimano to ask permission to use a non-sponsored wheel and Shimano agreed to turn a blind eye. Princeton didn't have any stock available, so they had to contact Wurf who had an unused wheel. The owner of a hotel and friend of Roodhooft then collected the wheel and drove straight up to Rennes to deliver it to a (probably) very tired mechanic.
All in the name of speed...
For a few hours yesterday, my little world was perfect. Cav was being Cav - winning, making me shout at the TV and then swearing in the post-race interview. And then England were competent at football.
Today is TT day in the TdF. Some riders will be having a rest day. Not a full one, you've still got to ride pretty hard to make the time cut, but at least they should have a bit less stress while riding around on their own. It could, however, be a proper GC day. Primoz Roglic was heavily bandaged and we've heard that his Jumbo-Visma team expect him to lose around 1'30" to Pogacar today. How will Geraint Thomas cope after dislocating his shoulder?
We've also got some pothole news. As someone that has recently come off due to a pothole, I can actually feel this one. Anyone else had a run-in with a pothole recently?