🎧 Hear @teamsdworx staff cheering 🇨🇭Marlen Reusser at the front of the race.
🎧 L'équipe @teamsdworx encourage 🇨🇭Marlen Reusser qui file vers la victoire !#TDFF#WatchTheFemmespic.twitter.com/foXGFL9lx3
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 27, 2022
Report to follow
Journée catastrophique pour Mavi Garcia qui tombe après avoir touché la voiture de sa propre équipe ! L'Espagnole va perdre beaucoup de temps aujourd'hui. #TDFFpic.twitter.com/JNwOOsBac7
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) July 27, 2022
It’s been a disastrous day on the gravel for UAE Team ADQ’s Spanish champion Mavi García. Despite looking strong on the dirt roads – García has finished second at Strade Bianche after all – she has suffered the kind of bad luck which has led many fans to question the purpose of gravel or cobble sections in stage races.
García punctured twice on the rough gravel roads, and then, as she once again chased back onto the main group of favourites, she was taken out by her own team car in a freak incident, the DS clipping her back wheel and sending her to the ground.
¡JODER! ¡JODER!
Caída tremenda de 🇪🇸 Mavi García por culpa del coche de su propio equipo, el UAE
Después de dos pinchazos en el sterrato, día durísimo para la española que era candidata a todo en este Tour mostrando un gran estado de forma pic.twitter.com/9uczep1LEt
— José Manuel Amorós (@AmorosCuatro) July 27, 2022
García got back on her bike, bloodied and torn, but her hopes of overall victory at the Tour Femmes are now almost certainly lost in the dust of France’s vineyards.
With the Commonwealth Games kicking off tomorrow in Birmingham, Brompton is offering free bike hire so those attending the games can get about the city centre.
The Brompton Bike Hire lockers are situated at Birmingham New Street, Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill Station, alongside Brindley Place and Birmingham Aston University.
To hire a bike, you have to download the Brompton Bike Hire app and enter the promo code B2022.
The West Midlands Cycle Hire scheme, run by Transport for West Midlands, is also offering everyone in the region two free bike rides each day during the upcoming games. The offer allows everyone to have two 30-minute rides each day for free.
The peloton in the first white gravel road of the day! 🍇
Le peloton dans le premier chemin blanc du jour ! 🍇#TDFF#WatchTheFemmespic.twitter.com/p73jraOVYG
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) July 27, 2022
The white roads of France’s champagne country are already taking prisoners with 50 kilometres to go on today’s stage of the Tour Femmes.
Lotte Kopecky – a Strade Bianche and Ronde winner this year – is one of the riders, rather surprisingly, struggling in the dust and dirt, as Trek-Segafredo’s Ellen van Dijk sets the tempo at the front of the bunch…
A huge celebration is due! Jonas Vingegaard has landed in Copenhagen and we are ready! 🇩🇰👏🏆 #letourdk#TDF2022pic.twitter.com/mQf3J2NDMt
— Grand Départ 2022 🇩🇰 (@letourdk) July 27, 2022
It hasn’t been a bad month for Danish bike racing, has it?
From a boisterous Grand Départ and a second overall Tour win courtesy of Jonas Vingegaard, to stage wins for Magnus Cort, Mads Pedersen, and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig – it’s fair to say that Denmark is currently on top of the cycling world.
And today the people of Copenhagen, having dug out their flags and yellow t-shirts, are once again out in force, lining the streets to celebrate Vingegaard’s victory and to keep the Tour party going…
He is here 💛🇩🇰#letourdk#TDF2022pic.twitter.com/msmAhYOzRo
— Grand Départ 2022 🇩🇰 (@letourdk) July 27, 2022
Jonas Vingegaard 💛🇩🇰#letourdk#TDF2022pic.twitter.com/bnXU3ZcPdj
— Grand Départ 2022 🇩🇰 (@letourdk) July 27, 2022
An iconic moment 🇩🇰
Jonas Vingegaard and his family on the balcony 👏#letourdk#TDF2022pic.twitter.com/xGfHLncb9l
— Grand Départ 2022 🇩🇰 (@letourdk) July 27, 2022
After a barnstorming ride at the Baby Giro last month, during which he took two stage wins and the overall in a ruthlessly dominant display, Leo Hayter could be set to follow in the wheel tracks of older brother Ethan, who has also enjoyed a breakthrough 2022, by joining the Ineos Grenadiers as a stagiaire at the end of the season.
According to VeloNews, the younger Hayter – a winner of the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège last year – will race for Great Britain at next month’s Tour de l‘Avenir, widely regarded as one of the most important stage races for young riders, before joining up with the British World Tour outfit for the season-ending Italian one-day races.
20-year-old Leo, who currently rides for Axel Merckx’s Hagens Berman Axeon development squad, has attracted the interest of a number of top teams, including Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates, all aiming to secure the highly touted Brit for the 2023 season.
However, Hayter’s presence at a recent Ineos Grenadiers training camp in Andorra, combined with his upcoming apprenticeship, point to a likely link-up with Ethan at the British squad next year.
@CUttrupLudwig spotted last night out on a bender after her stagewin in #TDFFpic.twitter.com/6aTDBZeHyd
— Cycling Fanfiction (@Cyclingfanfict) July 27, 2022
Now that’s what I call cycling content…
After one of the toughest Tours de France in recent memory, runner-up Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates squad has confirmed that the two-time yellow jersey winner will not line up at next month’s Vuelta a España.
While the 23-year-old had hinted at a possible Tour-Vuelta double at the start of the season, Pogačar will now focus solely on one-day races until the end of the year, starting with Saturday’s Clásica San Sebastián.
The Slovenian will then race the GP Plouay before heading to Canada for the GPs Quebec and Montreal, as part of his build-up to the road world championships in Wollongong.
After the worlds, Pogačar will end his season in Italy, where he will aim to defend his Il Lombardia title and take the third monument win of his young career.
The double Tour champion’s absence at the Vuelta, and the current doubts hanging over Primož Roglič’s defence of his title due to injury, may result in the Spanish race becoming one of the most open grand tours in history, with Giro winner Jai Hindley, Richard Carapaz and Remco Evenepoel targeting success in the final three-weeker of the season.
Main image: SW Pix/Zac Williams
Traffic congestion, London pic.twitter.com/K8IWd0gkIy
— citymobility (@citycyclists) July 26, 2022
Never seen so many cyclists at the Wellington Arch crossings. We’ll eventually take over, watch this space 😜@London_Cycling@London_Cycles#cyclingpic.twitter.com/kf1Xi6mxpz
— Lauren O’Brien (@LaurenComposer) July 26, 2022
During yesterday’s frenetic stage of the Tour de France Femmes, Canyon-SRAM’s Tiffany Cromwell enlisted her partner Valtteri Bottas (who’s pretty handy behind a steering wheel, I’m told) to help out with a different kind of pit stop refuelling job:
Race support 🍼#VB77#TDFF@LeTourFemmes@tiffanycromwell@WMNcyclingpic.twitter.com/fCXmcCKSC9
— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) July 26, 2022
If the F1 gig doesn’t work out Valtteri, I’m sure Canyon-SRAM would take you on as an apprentice soigneur…
For the last segment of this morning’s newspaper roundup (I promise), we head to Scotland, where the Daily Record has published an article on this year’s revisions to the Highway Code and how they affect cyclists.
Where have they been the last six months?
Anyway, the bulk of the article, a regurgitation of an old Express piece, simply lists the rules around cycling – from decades-old laws concerning ‘dangerous’ and ‘careless’ cycling to the need to stop at traffic lights and have working lights while riding at night.
The writer also points out that the Highway Code tells us that cyclists “can ride two abreast and it can be safer to do so, particularly in larger groups or when accompanying children or less experienced riders”. Fair enough, I suppose.
But, when scrolling through my Google news feed, it was the headline that grabbed my attention.
“Cyclists could be fined £2,500 for riding next to cars on roads in Highway Code rule,” it read.
Huh?
For a brief moment, I thought that the Highway Code ‘whataboutery’ merchants had finally had their way – ‘If you come within 1.5 metres of my wing mirror, that’s a grand!’
Things get even more confusing when you spot the site’s trending stories list. “Cyclists fined for riding next to cars,” the shortened headline reads.
The article’s introduction is just as baffling.
“It's not just motorists who have to stick to the Highway Code while on the roads – cyclists also have to stick by the rules,” the author diligently points out.
“While cycling can be a great way to get fit, it sometimes involves road riding which means that riders must abide by the Highway Code.
“A number of laws recently came into place to keep cyclists safe, however they are also to protect the drivers around them.”
While a cursory glance at the article itself reveals the rather bland truth, the 21st century tendency to only read headlines – and then spout off in the comments – reared its ill-informed head.
“If this is true, it’s not before time,” typed one avid Daily Record reader.
One user, thankfully, summed the whole thing up rather concisely: “The daftest clickbait headline I've ever seen.”
Ah, the letters section of local newspapers – a platform for residents and readers to engage with and debate, in a studied, forensic manner, the great political, socio-economic, and philosophical questions of the day.
Or maybe they’re just used to regurgitate the same old worn-out tropes about cyclists. Yeah, maybe that’s it.
This morning’s‘Letters to the Argus’, Brighton and Hove’s local news outlet (famous, of course, for including a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler on a front page story about cycle lanes in April), featured a potential all-time classic of the anti-cycling bingo genre.
So, eyes down, cards at the ready – Christine from Brighton, take it away:
“Most people, especially drivers, know that cyclists do have a law of their own,” she begins, getting us all off to a good start.
“They don’t have insurance, pay road fund licence nor do they seem to know that the Highway Code exists.”
Line!
“Two weeks ago I was early for my dental appointment at Fiveways, Ditchling Road. As it was such a hot day I sat at the bus stop until my appointment was due.
“I counted seven cyclists ride through the lights. Six of them were completely dressed in black and were riding black cycles. Very hard to see, especially in poor light or at night.”
Which one was it, Christine, poor light or night?
“Two of them were riding side by side having a chat.”
The scoundrels…
“Cyclist number seven was the only one dressed in high visibility clothing and was easy to see. However, he rode straight through the red light and shot past me at some considerable speed.”
My card’s filling up nicely now.
> ‘Crass and insensitive’ front page slammed after ‘Adolf Hitler’ signs bike lane petition
“According to the new edition of the Highway Code, we, the car drivers, are supposed to give cyclists all sorts of consideration when we are driving.
“We have to have road fund licence, insurance and MOT.
“If we have an accident we could lose our licence. If the cyclists have an accident what exactly do they lose?”
Yes, Christine, if a cyclist is hit by a one tonne metal box at speed, what could they possibly lose?
She concludes: “They use the roads, so they should abide by all the rules and regulations laid out for car drivers.”
Full house!
Bonus points also go to the Argus’ sub for captioning the image used above the letter with the profound “Drivers can lose their licence after an accident”.
Anti-cycling bingo? Completed it, mate.