Timmy Mallett was back out on the bike yesterday, on familiar off-road paths near Maidenhead and Windsor, including a stretch of National Cycle Network 50. Unfortunately the take-home message from this spin in the countryside was that "sadly it looks like the end of cycle route 50" because of this...
"For decades I've been riding the green ways of Britain and this green way, like many others, is by permission of the landowner," Mallett told his Strava followers. "Oh dear. This week a new bike trap at Lighlands lane, Cookham, has gone in on cycle route 50, and I can't get my handlebars through.
"The result is the green way is now off limits and not accessible for cyclists, hand bikes or wheelchairs. What a shame."
"It is of course the prerogative of the landowner how they choose to make the way accessible and for whom. Sadly it looks like the end of cycle route 50," Mallett continued. "Instead the detour is over the treacherous Widbrook common, which is utterly scary.
"I pedalled along a road into Maidenhead, picked up NCN4 where the bike gates have been removed and the green way is shared safely and happily. Across the new cycle path by the side of the M4 over the Thames to Dorney and down past Boveney chapel to the lovely meadows by Eton.
> Utterly brilliant: An interview with Timmy Mallet on all things e-bike
"May is a gorgeous month to enjoy Britain's cycle paths. There's a new pedestrian area being constructed by Queen Victoria's state next to Windsor castle. The way home came through fields of buttercups and cascading white may blossom. There were also huge flooded footpaths.
"A Sustrans volunteer was at work on the Jubilee River doing an audit of these bike hazard entrance gates/traps. The Highway Code has made the vulnerable a priority. The green way landowners have some way to go to make the cycle paths accessible..."
This group ride playing 'how many cyclists does it take to lift a cargo bike over cycle route barrier?' made our live blog back in March...
On the same lines as Timmy Mallett's post (and dare I say the never-ending talk about bike storage on trains), fine if you've got skinny bars and can lift your bike, not so fine for those in wheelchairs, riding cargo bikes, wider handlebar bikes etc.
And from the replies to Mallett's Strava activity, he's not the only one pissed off...
Karen: "There are campaigns to take these out all across the country. It's really disappointing to see new ones going in."
Rob: "To those saying to turn the bars 90 degrees. We need to be making our cycle ways more accessible for those with a wide range of abilities riding a wide range of bikes. Simply letting these gates be installed and only used by the able isn't the answer."
Simon: "This has happened in Portsmouth, also on a Sustrans route."
Crispin: "Such barriers are in breach of equality legislation. They should be being removed, not installed. Report to Sustrans."
Andrew: "Supposed to stop motorbikes, but still rubbish for people with wide bars and even wheelchair users."
Serves 'em right for enjoying yesterday's sunny jaunt along the Amalfi Coast and making us all very jealous...
Lots of standing water and water flowing down the roads early in todays stage ☔️
It’s weather for ducks, eh @AG2RCITROENTEAM🦆 take care peloton and team care 🤞 #Giropic.twitter.com/BFI0GEmTRS
— Hannah Walker (@spannawalker) May 12, 2023
*Jaws music*
Recognise this “keen cyclist” - helmet on, foot down on a Lime Bike?
Journo from Mail or Telegraph come for a put up job by Chiswick’s anti cycling group and happy puppets of the far right culture war?
Watch out for a hatchet job on #Cycleway9 this weekend 😉 pic.twitter.com/zmM69Z3u2Z
— Paul Campbell 🚲 (@PauloCampbell) May 11, 2023
Simon's over in Italy, snapping pink bikes (some of which may or may not be horror movie worthy)...
Here's what's on the menu today...
The race is headed to the highest point in the Apennines, the climb where in 1999 (off the back of a Giro-Tour double the previous year and just two weeks away from that fateful positive test) Marco Pantani soared to victory by 20 seconds at the end of a seven-hour-long 253km stage. Just the 218km today.
More recently, in 2018, Simon Yates took the first of three stage wins that year, eventually cracking three days from home as Chris Froome launched a comeback for the ages. So cautious optimism for whoever wins today, you might be the best in the race now, but there's still no guarantee of pink in Rome...
Thibaut Pinot was second that day in 2018, wouldn't a Giro stage win in his final year as a pro be a popular victory.