Let's start Friday with this tweet from Greater Manchester Police shall we?
@gmptraffic saw a cyclist riding past red lights in the city. Refusing to stop he believed we had no powers if he had no helmet on. After 3 failed Police stops, we introduced him to Rugby as a new sport.
Charged: Dangerous Cycling, Fail to stop. Obstruct Police. pic.twitter.com/dFYpnfRtn4— GMP Traffic (@gmptraffic) July 13, 2023
I did have to double check we hadn't fallen for one of those parody police accounts, the most famous of which is named after Hot Fuzz's Sandford 'crime-fighting' station, but nope, it's the real deal.
The post has sparked a few questions, namely how proportionate the response was? How do you safely rugby tackle a cyclist? Would the police accept risking serious injury to another road user to stop them after running a red light? Unfortunately we don't have any footage so much of our impression of the incident is shaped by the police's tone of the portrayal.
Rather predictably the comments are split between people with flags in their Twitter bio commending the officers on their work, and cyclists asking if the response was proportionate to the crime given... well, the sheer extent of similar (and more dangerous) road offences you'll see if you go for even just a 10-minute spin around town.
> Police in Hackney catch 18 red light jumping cyclists in 90 minutes
One reply from EricEatsPickles said it "sounds like a totally disproportionate response. Even drivers who kill & maim don't get rugby tackled to the ground. Most drivers who ignore signals are themselves ignored. The few who 'get caught' receive a NIP in the post, not physically assaulted."
Another account added: "I mean yeah definitely don't ride like this, but would be nice if they spent a bit of time focusing on the greatest threat of harm on the roads - idiots behind the wheel of what's essentially dangerous machinery. Meanwhile, third-party reporting is failing."
However, one account called LetMeCycle said: "They ride among us. We can't expect drivers to follow the rules in the Highway Code, if we (cyclists) don't follow them too. Don't ride like a dick."
@gmptraffic put the brake on those commuting on Oldham Road, who weren't shy going bumper to spokes.
Our Mighty Mat gave a visual clue with some words of advice to both drivers and cyclists. We hope now this gets a chain reaction to their conduct in future #OpClosePasspic.twitter.com/zoga6tZXX5— GMP Traffic (@gmptraffic) July 13, 2023
The tweet from Manchester's police comes just days after we reported cyclists in the city had called for proper segregation as brazen vandals stole an entire bike lane's cones... again. OneTrafford confirmed the "systematic theft" and said it had been reported to the police who they would be working with in the future to tackle the problem.
Right, let's do reaction to the big story of the day's live blogging... this could take a while...
Mungecrundle: "Might seem disproportionate for a RLJ offence, but failing to stop is going to ping any law enforcement officer's spidey senses. Concealed weapon? Carrying illegal substances? Outstanding warrant? If nothing else, when keyboard warriors go on about cyclists being above the law, Police never tackle RLJ cyclists etc, then you can point them at this story."
A minority of cyclists do cycle dangerously and they give ‘proper’ cyclists a bad name so I’m more than happy for them to be stopped and fined. It seems a bit extreme to rugby tackle them but we don’t know the full story.
— Simon Drury (@sidrury) July 14, 2023
Oldfatgit (their selected name, not ours...): "There's some really false equivalence in the highlighted posts above ... How exactly would an officer rugby tackle a car?
As far as I know UK Police have uses their vehicles in the past as physical stops on other vehicles, including rolling road blocks and physical impact.
"Rugby tackling a red light running driver ... if the driver decides to leg it on foot, then yes, the police do use force to apprehend where appropriate. If they leg it in the car, see above. The cyclist jumped two red lights, and failed to stop ... as far as I'm concerned the police did what they had to do and no more excessively than if it was a driver. And for those thinking that the police were excesive... how would *you* stop a cyclist that does not wish to be stopped?"
He shouldn't have jumped a red light then ignored three police requests to stop, but is a rugby tackle appropriate when he isn't wearing a helmet? https://t.co/cUUXH7a5kF
— Shropshire Triathlon (Sprint, Standard & Middle) (@ShropshireTri) July 14, 2023
Tom_77: "F*** around and find out, as the kids say. They've tried to stop him three times and he refused, at that point I don't think it's unreasonable to use force."
HoldingOn:"Agreed - 'don't ride like a dick', but also - don't Twitter like a dick and don't police like a dick."
Poor Chris can't catch a break at the minute. While his boss mouths off about him not being worth his salary it's also been pointed out it's the five-year anniversary of this moment that will go down in Tour de France folklore...
P.S. If I was getting paid a reported €5 million a year editor Jack could say whatever he wants about me... if your reading this, Jack, it's worth thinking about...
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
> Chris Froome “absolutely not value for money”, says Israel-Premier Tech co-owner
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Plenty of comments over on Facebook...
Andrew Hill called it "change for change sake", Andy Ruane and Matt Cartwright are happy with their SL7 and SL6s respectively.
Clik here to view.
Properly chuckled at that one. Bike industry marketing departments making aero gain/stiffness/watt-saving claims? Never...
Randy DeVoe predicts it will "provide 31 per cent more vertical compliance while quadratic doubling of lateral stiffness therefore eliminating vector forces and road static v ratio vibration by 79 per cent."
Ok people. I need your help. Trying to find two TT bikes that the Ugandan team could borrow for Glasgow 2023.
Looking for a 24cm frame for a 1.48m tall female and 50-52cm frame for a 1.64m tall male. Any Stirlingshire bike shops that could help with set-up would be awesome too!— Dan Jarvis (@worldcupdan) July 13, 2023
What an absolute shambles. This is going to be unenforceable, and challenged left right and centre. https://t.co/sstB7PsF8r
— Mike Stead (@tweetymike) July 13, 2023
Well, as expected, this got a fair bit of attention.
road.cc Simon is local and has spent many an hour riding bikes (including that glorious pink Colnago) along the Thames.
His thoughts are that having "spent far too much time at the spot I took this picture from it's a lovely place, but in early evenings, or at weekends, it is way busier with people outside the pubs than it looks here. People who ride this route regularly will either detour, or go through slowly.
"But, some who don't know the area, often on hire e-bikes, won't know ways round bottlenecks, will often just try and plough through (eg tourists not used to riding bikes in shared space). There are a few pinch points on river in H&F, can understand council has to manage.
"I can understand why they have put restrictions in, at least it's not a blanket ban. And alternative safe/quiet routes just off river do exist, see Jon Stone's London Cycle Routes vids, avoids Thames Path like the plague Putney-Hammersmith then pops up to C9.
"If there is ANYTHING on wheels needs to be banned on this stretch though, it's the nutter bloke on inline skates who'd barrel through like he was practising for Winter Olympics short track, screaming at everyone to get out of his way."
So they are banning ebikes, but not analogue bikes.
Would that ban include ebikes with the e-assist turned off so they're just regular bikes?
Has this actually been thought through?https://t.co/YIZx1T2sU6— Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d [at] toot.bike (@gazza_d) July 13, 2023
RipThorn: "So I can ride with my mates on our pedal bikes but the one guy who needs an e-bike would have to walk? I understand the reasoning behind this, but it's not right. They should just ban illegal e-bikes."
Clik here to view.
Over to Simon once again for today's preview:
With Bastille Day falling on a Friday, the roadsides will be lined with revellers kicking off their long weekend in party mode and hoping to see a home win on the Fête Nationale for the first time since Warren Barguil triumphed in Foix in 2017 – and certainly, there will be no shortage of French riders trying to get into the break during a long, flat opening to the stage which ends in the Jura mountains.
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The intermediate sprint comes during a long but uncategorised climb, followed by a descent before the road flattens out ahead of the final ascent, which begins with 17.4km left and averages 7.1 per cent. The Tour first tackled the Grand Colombier in 2012, with the first summit finish in 2020 when Tadej Pogačar prevailed – although today’s tough ascent will be from a different direction.
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For all the stages and to take an early look at the third week, have a read of Simon's mega Tour preview...
> Tour de France 2023: From Bilbao to Paris, our stage-by-stage guide to cycling's biggest race