Two weeks ago, we reported that a cyclist was issued with a Notice of Intended Prosecution after holding up a van driver for nine whole seconds, while attempting to capture footage of a phone-using motorist.
Well, that story has gained traction in the national press over the last couple of days. Mr Loophole himself, Nick Freeman, has even weighed in, praising the police for taking action against “vigilante cyclists”.
The incident was also featured in a segment on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show yesterday, where Guardian columnist and left-wing activist Owen Jones inadvertently initiated a backlash from cycling Twitter after referring to the helmet camera-wearing cyclists as “a snitch”:
Sure, I was being overly flippant here - but he’s submitted over 500 police reports, which I just think is completely OTT given the scale of crimes the average individual is likely to encounter in their lifetime https://t.co/1j6YvRDOjj
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
I’m a very committed cyclist, I just don’t think over 500 police reports is proportionate, sorry!
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
Then I’m obviously not enduring enough incidents which are worth reporting to the police, by definition!
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
After batting off a seemingly endless barrage of tweets criticising what he called a ‘light-hearted’ and ‘flippant’ comment, Jones questioned the attitudes exhibited by some cycling activists on Twitter, which he claimed could potentially deter people from taking to two wheels:
I really do think Cycling Twitter need to consider how much they are deterring people from cycling by overhyping dangerous incidents on the roads, when cycling is overwhelmingly safe. https://t.co/hyZOcZMze9
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
Cycling is a very safe pursuit overall. It’s not true cyclists are killed every day - in 2020 it was 141 cyclists - which is horrible, but shouldn’t make people think cycling overall isn’t very safe. Cyclists aren’t an oppressed minority and it’s offensive to say this
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
The point I'm making is cycling is very popular in London despite better alternatives than most, and I don't think so many would be cycling if it was as unpleasant and dangerous as much of Cycling Twitter - who disproportionately seem to be Londoners - make out
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
My flippant aside has upset some fellow cyclists, but I really have to take issue with some of the responses.
You’d think from listening to some cyclists that cycling is like navigating a war zone every day. It isn’t! Cycling is overwhelmingly safe and more people should do it! https://t.co/3IDgdb0mCv
— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) March 22, 2022
What do you think? Does Jones have a point?
In the early hours of yesterday morning, EF Education-EasyPost’s resident adventurer Lachlan Morton completed his 1,000km-plus non-stop ride from Munich to Poland’s border with Ukraine.
Morton’s latest epic ride was organised to raise funds for refugees fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion over three weeks ago.
He’s currently raised over £173,600, well above his initial goal of £40,000.
As well as raising funds, since arriving at the Korczowa-Krakovets border crossing yesterday, the Australian has trained with a group of teenagers who fled Ukraine and are currently being hosted by the Polish cycling federation, as well as paying a visit to his Ukrainian teammate Mark Padun’s former coach.
Lachy found @markpadun96 first coach. Gave him some swag! pic.twitter.com/VQBVUcpc8f
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) March 21, 2022
Today, Lachlan visited a group of young Ukrainian cyclists who have had to flee their homes and are now being hosted by the Polish cycling federation.
Between the ages of 14 and 17, most of them have had to move there alone leaving parents and older siblings behind. pic.twitter.com/48rDdwDLVN
— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) March 21, 2022
You can still donate to Morton’s ‘One Ride Away’ fundraiser here.
On the subject of misleading captions, I’m not sure who signed off on this one for eyewear giant Oakley, or what that model told the photographer at the shoot…
At risk of shaming a sunglass company's PR firm, I just don't believe that caption. pic.twitter.com/SldDMY0mX2
— Iain Treloar (@IainTreloar) March 22, 2022
That's Cark Mavendish
— Francisco Araujo (@_chicoaraujo) March 22, 2022
In any case, it’s at least treated us to a round of cycling Twitter Spartacus:
Mark Cavendish pic.twitter.com/I3mYPBq1zt
— ☠︎𝔸𝕕𝕒𝕞☠︎ (@RideMelburn) March 22, 2022
Fabian Cancellara pic.twitter.com/rQPKyEf1F7
— Nick Squillari (@N_Squillari) March 22, 2022
Pantani pic.twitter.com/0cYdoY6qT8
— Jon (@Jontafkasi) March 22, 2022
Alaphilippe pic.twitter.com/OdSiLCJPZv
— Dave Everett (@ShoddyCycling) March 22, 2022
— Eemeli (@LosBrolin) March 22, 2022
Lachlan Morton pic.twitter.com/kDaGwDz9dn
— soxiam (@soxiam) March 22, 2022
Lance Armstrong pic.twitter.com/puBXxXqj8l
— Iain Treloar (@IainTreloar) March 22, 2022
Okay, that's enough for now...
The real Cav will be hoping he can continue his sparkling early-season form (which has seen him net prestigious wins at the UAE Tour and Milano-Torino) as he leads the all-powerful Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl sprint train at tomorrow’s Classic Brugge-De Panne.
The Manx Missile is aiming for his fourth win of the season after surprisingly getting the nod over teammate Fabio Jakobsen, who was originally scheduled to ride the windy Belgian one-day race.
Let’s just hope Oakley’s model doesn’t show up instead.
This headline is just...wow. pic.twitter.com/61plLsQcl2
— Stephen B (@BicycleAdagio) March 21, 2022
Now that’s a headline that will grab your attention.
It’s also – predictably – drew the ire of cycling Twitter, who have described the headline as ‘irresponsible’, ‘disgusting’, and ‘hate speech’.
The article appeared yesterday in the Murdoch-owned Sydney Daily Telegraph, after a cyclist was brutally attacked and robbed at a busy junction on Australia’s Gold Coast.
Police say the cyclist was hit in the head by an object thrown from a passing vehicle. When the cyclist approached what he believed to be the offending SUV, a passenger jumped out of the car before punching the cyclist and shoving him towards oncoming traffic.
The passenger then allegedly threw the cyclist’s bike at him before stealing his bag. The rider was left with minor injuries.
That shocking incident provided the context for Ann Wason Moore’s column, which was originally published in the Gold Coast Bulletin, also owned by News Corps, under the headline ‘Cyclists deserve safer roads and better protection, not an alleged punch in the head’.
In the columnist’s defence, the article appears to be a much more nuanced appraisal of the need for safe cycling infrastructure than the inflammatory headline suggests.
Moore starts the article by writing: ‘The cycle of abuse never stops on Gold Coast roads, but our cyclists deserve better protection – not a punch in the head and definitely not to be robbed.’ Hard to argue with that.
However, because both versions of the column appear behind a paywall – and even if you want to subscribe, you must have an Australian postcode (believe me, we’ve tried) – the divisive and misleading headline is unfortunately all that many cyclists and motorists will read.
The Clean Cities Campaign has launched a new initiative encouraging cyclists to share the weird and wacky places they store their bikes, in a bid to highlight the lack of secure bike hangars in London.
According to a Freedom of Information request, there are currently 60,715 people on a waiting list to hire a bike hangar across London’s 32 boroughs, a figure that has risen by 28 percent in the last six months.
With only 22,592 spaces available, you get the picture.
According to Transport for London’s analysis, more than half of Londoners view the lack of secure bike parking as a key deterrent to cycling in the city.
To highlight this lack of bike parking space the Clean Cities Campaign, a European coalition of organisations aiming to encourage cities to transition to zero-emission mobility, is encouraging cyclists to share images of their creative bike storage facilities on social media with the hashtag #ThisIsAwkward.
So far they’ve received images of bikes stored extremely close to beds (for extra comfort I assume?), precariously hung over a balcony, and even crammed next to a toilet.
Nice campaign from @cities_clean#Londoners! Sick of doing the ‘cycle salsa’ to pass bikes in your home?
Join the #ThisIsAwkward campaign. Post a pic of where you're forced to keep your wheels. We’re calling for bike storage across the city! Send to https://t.co/BhWPfQOq0ipic.twitter.com/Z9ojJ0D4sn
— Love Your Bike (@gmloveyourbike) March 21, 2022
The UK’s Head of the Clean Cities Campaign, Oliver Lord, said: “More than 60,000 Londoners are waiting for a bike hangar space - and that is just the people lucky to have the time and energy to put their name forward.
“If councillors want to help Londoners jump on a bike and use their car less then they have to make it as easy as possible. Forcing people to do the ‘cycle salsa’ at home isn’t just an inconvenience, it's utterly unfair given the abundance of space set aside for cars on our streets.
“By not delivering the secure bike parking we need, London’s councillors are failing residents who want to do the right thing and neglecting their duties to reduce air pollution, tackle the climate crisis and help prevent the 400 bike thefts that occur every week.”
So, who stores their bike in the most awkward – or more to the point, funny – place? Let us know in the comments!
As far as botched social media campaigns go, this is right up there.
Last night USA Cycling announced that it was giving ambitious bike-loving creatives the opportunity to design the country’s new member kit for 2022.
We want YOU to design the 2022 USA Cycling Member Kit! 🎉
If your design is selected, Cuore will bring your design to reality and you'll receive one for FREE.
Start Designing: https://t.co/LS2G8WXxds
*Designs must be submitted by March 31st! pic.twitter.com/x0ovbIwrfZ— USA Cycling (@usacycling) March 21, 2022
Sounds pretty cool, right? That’s until you see USA Cycling’s proposed compensation for the time, effort and skills of the successful designer – one, yes one, free kit. The kit that they designed… They get one of those. Yep.
Understandably, social media was not happy with this, and told USA Cycling so:
Hang on, all you get for doing the work for them for free is one free kit? pic.twitter.com/A8GZmB6tDW
— Dave Amirault 🏳️🌈 (@ozskier) March 21, 2022
So what you're saying is you don't want to pay to have your kit designed. Got it.
— Craig Harrison (@harrisoncreativ) March 21, 2022
Let’s just say, the ratios weren’t great (that’s how the kids speak nowadays, isn’t it?).
Faced with the first stirrings of a public backlash, USA Cycling swiftly prevented anyone else from replying to the tweet, while an Instagram post was also quickly deleted.
That hasn’t stopped people from criticising the governing body in the quote tweets, creatively using the kit design template to condemn USA Cycling’s apparently lax attitude towards labour rights:
Well, @usacycling took $1,000,000 in relief funds to pay its CEO $400,000+ and Comms Director $200,00+ and US cycling remains in complete shambles so here’s my submission: https://t.co/ny6S2Ok5Xxpic.twitter.com/SvsWcKEnbD
— Ride Fast | Drive Slow (@tlongpine) March 22, 2022
@usacycling here's my design. Vote for me!!!! https://t.co/nBfkheohLApic.twitter.com/tpzTF2WbnC
— Bike_Things (5G+) (@Andy_likes2bike) March 22, 2022
Some took the opportunity to criticise the body’s reaction to anti-trans activists protesting at the national cyclocross championships in December:
OK do mine !!! https://t.co/m8tiOEQ5FDpic.twitter.com/DpuIDxk5xf
— no war but class war (fox) (@____ecc) March 22, 2022
While others just had a bit of fun with it:
https://t.co/Aslywfb0Wlpic.twitter.com/wU5pWRZZek
— Josh Owen Morris (@JoshOwenMorris) March 22, 2022
I reckon Dave Zabriskie might be up for wearing that one…