Nothing is happening at the Tour de France today – and I mean nothing, no breakaway, no splits, nothing – so I thought I’d take the opportunity to bring up the big controversy from this year’s race so far (and no, I’m not talking about the whole Jonas and Wout thing, or Bahrain’s, ahem, interesting way of handling tough questions).
I’m talking about the green jersey.
(A.S.O./Pauline Ballet)
As regular racing fans and readers of the blog will know, ASO’s new, darker, broodier, seemingly Bora-Hansgrohe-inspired take on the green points jersey has been knocking about since Paris-Nice (where, incidentally, Bora’s Sam Bennett was its first wearer, causing untold amounts of confusion and games of ‘Spot Sam’).
But, since the Tour is the only race that matters, seemingly, it’s taken until July for the penny to drop that, yes, that is the new green jersey.
And, let’s just say the British racing green/Saudi Arabia football kit homage has divided opinion (and when I say divided, I mean 99 percent of fans and pundits hate it).
Just to re-confirm, the new Green Jersey is basically invisible. Truly a terrible decision to change it. #TDF2023
— Benji Naesen (@BenjiNaesen) July 3, 2023
Probably the most positive thing I’ve heard about the new kit so far is from GCN’s Adam Blythe, who noted that it’s a nice shade of green, just not for the Tour’s green jersey. Ah, makes sense.
Meanwhile, Carlton Kirby – who, if we’re honest, doesn’t need any help when it comes to misidentifying kits in the peloton – compared it in comms to a “smoker’s bogey”. Delightful.
Have to say, I really like the colour of the new green jersey, just not for the “Green Jersey”#CouchPeloton#sbstdfpic.twitter.com/xxUQ6TQwVx
— Fordy’s Triple Vax’d (@SoireeCreative) July 3, 2023
But what do you think? Is the new green jersey an abomination, a sacrilegious insult to the sprinting memory of Zabel, Cav, and Sagan? Or is it not that bad, and we’re just not used to it yet?
I told you we only ask the important questions on the blog…
A judicial review into London mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand the city’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) at the end of August gets under way today at the High Court, following an appeal by five Conservative-led councils.
According to the Labour mayor’s plans, the ULEZ – inside which motorists will be charged £12.50 a day for driving non-compliant, high-polluting cars – will be extended to outer London from 29 August, a decision described by Khan as “not easy but necessary to reduce the capital's toxic air pollution”.
As part of the expansion, a £110m scrappage scheme will also be introduced, which aims to provide low-income Londoners with grants of up to £2,000 to replace their high-polluting vehicles.
However, since the start of 2023, Khan has faced increasing pressure from local authorities to reconsider the expansion. Eleven of the 19 outer London councils initially expressed their apprehension towards the scheme over issues such as the seven-month timescale of implementation (which they believe does not give residents enough time to switch vehicles), the scrappage policy, and poor public transport links.
But in the end, it was the Conservative-controlled Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Harrow, and Hillingdon councils who launched legal action over the expanded ULEZ, after publicly declaring that they would “do everything in our power to stop it from going ahead”.
The councils argued that there were five grounds for a judicial review, though in April the High Court ruled there was only sufficient evidence for three of them.
These include the belief that the expansion is too big and should thus be treated as a new scheme, that the consultation was flawed, and that it did not consider the potential for those bordering the zone to take advantage of the scrappage scheme.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Paul Osborn, the Conservative leader of Harrow Council, said the local authority believed the ULEZ expansion would have a “devastating impact on the poorest motorists in Harrow”.
“People who do low paid jobs in antisocial hours, they don’t have public transport alternatives,” he said. “They’re being asked to pay £12.50 every day to go to work and if they work over midnight, they’ll be asked to pay £25 because they have to pay it for the next day as well.”
Great to have it confirmed that ULEZ opposition comes from a tiny handful of cranks. We can safely move on. https://t.co/VavIH437j7
— Abraham LinkedIn 🎩 (@ukgaragefan) January 29, 2023
However, Hirra Khan Adeogun, head of Car Free Cities at climate change charity Possible, told the programme that the legal action was a distraction from the main issues concerning pollution and the environment.
“It’s such a shame to see these local authorities wasting time and taxpayers’ money trying to prolong the negative impacts of air pollution and climate crisis,” she said.
“It’s absolutely essential that people in outer London get cleaner air and be part of a greener London and that includes poorer Londoners who are most at risk when it comes to toxic air.”
Meanwhile, Khan told Reuters: “The independent assessment confirms that ULEZ works and the expansion will lead to five million more Londoners breathing cleaner air.
“You’re not going to please 100 percent of people all the time. No politician in history has managed to do so.”
Earlier this year, Khan also argued that the opposition to the scheme was simply a political strategy by Tory councils who he says are “in the pocket of vested interests”.
The BBC was also told in January that the councils keen to instigate a judicial review accept that it would be unlikely to succeed, but that it would nevertheless act as a “delay tactic” to “tangle the mayor up in court and push a decision on the matter closer to the 2024 London mayoral election”.
🏔On top of Passo del Lupo, 🇳🇱 Annemiek van Vleuten is leading with 🇮🇹 Gaia Realini.#UCIWWT#GiroDonne23
📸@GettySportpic.twitter.com/ophcMnhoHZ— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) July 4, 2023
We may not be able to watch it on the TV – ah, the joys of following one of the biggest races in the world – but Annemiek van Vleuten is busy doing Annemiek van Vleuten things at the Giro Donne this morning.
The pink jersey, with her Yorkshire 2019 legs and head seemingly in place, has exploded stage 5 to pieces on the early Passo del Lupo, the Cima Coppi of this year’s Giro. Pocket rocket Gaia Realini is currently the only rider able to follow the rampant Dutch star’s pace on the nine percent gradients, with Niamh Fisher-Black about 20 seconds behind and Realini’s Lidl-Trek teammate, and yesterday’s stage winner, Elisa Longo Borghini around three quarters of a minute back.
Attack @AvVleuten not even half way the Cima Coppi. @ElisaLongoB trying to join. Peloton shattered all over the place. 15 km into the race. Annemiek going Yorkshire style? #GiroDonne
— Bart Hazen (@Bartoli84) July 4, 2023
Will Van Vleuten be able to nag career win number 101 in classic AVV fashion? Well, it’s a good job we only have another ten minutes to wait until we can finally watch some of it…
I was today years old when I found out who “fed up kid” grew up to be. #TDF2023pic.twitter.com/5E9rloo2rh
— Anna Mac 👑🪱 🌈🖤 (@AnnamacB) July 3, 2023
We all know the Tour de France loves nostalgia (which is why we’re heading back to the Puy de Dôme on Sunday after 35 years), but I for one certainly didn’t have ‘US Postal/Johan Bruyneel blacklisting tactics from the early noughties’ on my Tour throwback bingo card for this year…
But that’s the strategy apparently being deployed at the moment by Bahrain Victorious who – according to a tweet posted this morning by leading anti-doping journalist Hajo Seppelt – are refusing to give interviews to ARD after the German broadcaster asked the team’s sprinter Phil Bauhaus questions about doping for a report at last month’s Tour of Slovenia.
German sprinter Bauhaus finishes second on yesterday’s stage to Bayonne, his first ever sprint at the Tour (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
ARD’s report – which focused on the current effectiveness of the fight against doping, especially in Slovenia, the home country of current stars Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, and Bahrain rider Matej Mohorič – featured an interview with yesterday’s second placed finisher Bauhaus, whose Bahrain Victorious team has come under scrutiny in recent years for its management’s alleged links to Mark Schmidt, the German physician jailed for his role as head of the ‘Aderlass’ doping ring.
This time last year, on the eve of the Tour de France, the homes of a number of Bahrain Victorious riders were searched by police, while a raid was carried out on the team’s hotel days before the start of the race – less than a year after the team’s vehicles and hotel were also searched by police in Pau (the Mecca of cycling doping raids) during the Tour as part of the ongoing Europol investigation into allegations of doping within the team.
> Bahrain Victorious Tour de France cyclists' homes searched by police
And just like Bahrain Victorious were quick to shut down any questions about doping at last year’s Tour – ending a pre-race press conference at such a rate Jasper Philipsen would have struggled to keep up – the squad appear to be adopting the same ‘no tricky questions’ policy at this year’s race.
Team Bahrain-Victorious gibt der ARD keine Interviews bei der Tour de France - weil wir Phil Bauhaus kurz vor der Tour zum Thema Doping Fragen stellten - vor dem Hintergrund von Razzien beim Team in vergangenen Jahren, einer Ermittlung der französischen Staatsanwaltschaft…1/2
— Hajo Seppelt (@hajoseppelt) July 4, 2023
“Team Bahrain Victorious does not give ARD any interviews at the Tour de France – because we asked Phil Bauhaus questions about doping shortly before the Tour – against the background of raids on the team in recent years, an investigation by the French public prosecutor, and due to the current team manager’s apparent ties to convicted German doctor Mark [Schmidt],” Seppelt, a journalist whose work has uncovered doping in cycling, Russian athletics, and German sport, over the past two decades, tweeted this morning.
“I well remember dark times on the Tour when well-paid professional cyclists reacted similarly to journalists just doing their jobs.”
Bauhaus, for his part, messaged Seppelt following his tweet, writing: “I would be happy to speak to you in person or on the phone. We have the same interests – a clean sport.”
Caption Contest: What are Jasper ‘Disaster’ Philipsen and his good mate and decent bike rider Tadej Pogačar saying to each other, as they peer nervously at the TV monitors during the Belgian sprinter’s anxious 20-minute wait to find out whether he’d be stripped of his stage win for irregular sprinting?
Or maybe they’re not taking about Philipsen’s (ultimately quashed) sprint deviation charge at all, and are instead catching up on all the latest juicy Jumbo-Visma goss?
(A.S.O./Pauline Ballet)
Ah, Brittany Ferries, how we’ve missed you on the live blog…
Back in January, you may remember, we reported on the blog that former pro mountain biker and Active Nation commissioner for Scotland Lee Craigie wasn’t too happy with the ferry operator’s decision to charge cyclists £75 for taking their bikes from Portsmouth to Santander, an eyebrow-raising price which Craigie reckoned would cause bike-carrying passengers to “expect a valet service”.
Brittany Ferries, to their credit (kind of), swiftly got back to the mountain biker, citing the allocation of garage space for bikes, “reducing the space for other vehicle types”, a separate check-in and route through port for cyclists, and the use of different facilities as the reasons behind the hefty price tag.
> “Can we expect a valet service?” Former pro mountain biker charged £75 to bring bike on ferry
Now, six months later, Brittany Ferries are once again attracting the ire of bike-using passengers boarding their ships – for asking them to wear helmets and hi-vis clothing.
According to their guidelines for travel, posted on Twitter by cyclist Kirsty Lewin, Brittany Ferries tells cyclists that “as you’re travelling by bicycle, and given that our ports are busy places during embarkation and disembarkation, we have some extra important safety information for you.”
This extra important info continued: “Whilst in the port: Please ensure you’re wearing high-visibility clothing at all times whilst transiting our ports; Whilst on the move, please ensure you’re wearing a helmet; During the hours of darkness and in poor weather, please switch on all necessary rear and forward lights.”
Seriously @BrittanyFerries? I have to wear a helmet and hi-vis to take my bike on your ferry? So I'll have to take two things I don't own (and don't need) on holiday to comply with this? I'm assuming that I don't have to wear a helmet when pushing my bike?? pic.twitter.com/KYYbSHC0NO
— Kirsty Lewin (@KirstyLewin) July 3, 2023
Those guidelines haven’t gone down too well with Kirsty, who’s heading to Santander on her way to Madrid and Lisbon, who tweeted: “Seriously Brittany Ferries? have to wear a helmet and hi-vis to take my bike on your ferry?
“So I'll have to take two things I don’t own (and don’t need) on holiday to comply with this? I’m assuming that I don’t have to wear a helmet when pushing my bike??”
Others were just as bemused as Kirsty by the ferry operator’s guidelines.
I would find more logical to wear a life jacket, tbh
— Martí Trujols //*\\ (@MartiTV) July 3, 2023
“Do they make pedestrians wear hi-vis too or is this just a punishment for cyclists?” wrote Girl on a Brompton.
“Ask them if those walking from cars need the same?” added another Twitter user, while Charlotte noted that “I can understand hi-vis, just about – but helmets is daft.”
I dunno by my read these all just say “please” and that means a recommendation and not a requirement to me.
— Jeremy Cole (@jeremycole) July 4, 2023
“I used Brittany Ferries in June,” replied Philip. “None of us had hi-vis and I had no helmet. I wasn’t even aware of those instructions, and no-one mentioned them. A gasmask might be useful when you are waiting to get off.”
However, Matt pointed out that the guidelines are probably an offshoot of Spain’s quite intricate (and infrequently enforced) helmet laws, which require cyclists over the age of 16 to wear a helmet… unless you’re in a town or city, or riding up a steep hill, or during periods of excessive heat, of if you’re a pro cyclist…
Spain *does* have compulsory helmet laws for 16+ outside of city centres, it seems !
(Except when going up steep hills, apparently).
Presumably you leave it at the bottom, and get fined on the way down .🙂🤪 https://t.co/Hx9cWOXQcR— mattwardman (@mattwardman) July 3, 2023
Well, that clears that up then…