Here's a brainteaser for your Monday: if a road user is travelling at exactly 20mph in a 20mph zone, and there are other road users in front also travelling at 20mph, why would there be any need for the road user behind to overtake the other road user in front?
That's the question the internet is trying to answer after one person's TikTok about a newly introduced 20mph speed limit in Wales caused some befuddlement...
Driver can’t deal with the fact that these cyclists are going as fast as the speed limit #MGIFpic.twitter.com/od4rYHGsoZ
— PedalPerspective (@Pedalperspectiv) October 8, 2023
The "reality" of the speed limits, the social media sharer claimed, is that when "going at 20mph" she has been behind "these cyclists for about four miles" without being "able to overtake them" because... "they're actually cycling faster than me going at 20mph".
"I'm going 20mph and I cannot overtake these bikes".
Sounds like, dare I say it, the rules of the road working perfectly as intended? Scary stuff...
Some questioned the point of the video, one reply asked then "why would she need to overtake the cyclists?" Another keen to know "if there were no bikes there what speed would she be doing?"
I'm confused. If she's doing the speed limit, and the cyclists are also travelling at the same speed, then why would she need or want to overtake them?
— Pharmacist on a Pushbike (@PPushbike) October 9, 2023
Complain when you get held up by people on bikes, and complain when you’re not held up by people on bikes. Can’t win.
— Robert Blunt (@RobbertBlunt) October 9, 2023
I'm not clear, is she complaining that she's *not* being held up by cyclists?
— MW (@MggW) October 8, 2023
It's not the first eyebrow-raising reaction to Wales' introduction of default 20mph speed limits we've seen... there was that bloke on Twitter who reckoned the recent media coverage of Russell Brand was all a plot to distract from the introduction of lower limits. Then there was the person who claimed driving instructors were being forced to lengthen their lessons because they simply couldn't cover the necessary distance in an hour. The internet's a fun place, isn't it?
Anyway, here's our report into the initial analysis of Wales' 20mph speed limit implementation from transport and public health data analysts Agilysis...
The Tour of Turkey isn't the first race that comes to mind when we think of monster climbs. But maybe it should, given tomorrow's stage features possibly the most fear-inducing ascent we've seen for quite some time...
And the race organisers reckon it's three kilometres longer than that, all at an average gradient of 10.3 per cent, with nine of those kilometres above 12 per cent. Add in what looks like a 'challenging' surface, with potentially even a cobbled sector, and tomorrow's looking like a particularly grim day to be a sprinter.
Cycling UK's Big Bike Revival will receive another £4 million of funding from Active Travel England. The programme, which provides funding for events designed to improve cycling skills, including 'learn to fix' or 'learn to ride' sessions, as well as led rides run through community groups and not-for-profit organisations.
Funding has now been confirmed until March 2025, with 2022 figures showing that over a third of people who took part in the programme switched to cycling for some or all of the short journeys they previously travelled by car.
"I'm delighted that we can now reach even more people than before through the Big Bike Revival," Cycling UK chief executive Sarah Mitchell said. "We know what an impact the programme has had from talking to some of the 700,000 people who have taken part over the past decade. Many of them have changed the way they travel after coming along to a Big Bike Revival event.
"We estimate that over 40 per cent of adults in England have access to a bike, but only one in six of them cycles more than once a week. So this significant new funding will enable us to spread the benefits of cycling to even more communities, improving health and wellbeing and saving people money in a cost of living crisis."
[RCS]
In some people's eyes, more important than any of the boring old who won this who won that was the retirement party of Thibaut Pinot, just as it did on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, taking over Il Lombardia...
— Équipe Cycliste Groupama-FDJ (@GroupamaFDJ) October 8, 2023
Bowing out at the race he won in 2018, Pinot brought the curtain down on a career filled with promise, challenges, victories, disappointments and heartache, all followed closely by the support of a cult following that most athletes could only dream of.
[RCS]
Completing 14 seasons with the team currently known as Groupama FDJ, Pinot broke through with a 2012 stage victory at the Tour de France, willed on by directeur sportif Marc Madiot's famous shouted 'encouragements'.
As with any promising French climbing talent, a fate also suffered by his contemporary Romain Bardet, Pinot's career unfolded to the backdrop of never-ending speculation about if he could end the French drought and win the Tour de France? A podium finish in 2014 was as close as he came.
Four DNFs at his home Grand Tour, most recently in 2019 having been third on GC after the first week, only to lose time on the sprint stage to Albi, drop further back in the TT, win atop the Tourmalet, move up to fourth the day after, and abandon the race on stage 19 having been 1:50 off the yellow jersey the night before.
Ultimately, the touted Grand Tour-winning heights were never reached, but many a more successful pro cyclist has retired without a tenth of the fanfare and acclaim that Thibaut Pinot took on Saturday afternoon...
Pinot’s corner 🥺🙌🏼
📹 Sea Are Content on IG.#IlLombardiapic.twitter.com/Puls5SDk3Z
— Laura Meseguer (@Laura_Meseguer) October 8, 2023
So, what happened in the cycling world while you were busy riding your bike this weekend and not sat at work procrastinating the Monday morning away?
The managing director of Brompton Bike Hire became the latest voice within the cycling industry to criticise Rishi Sunak's recently announced batch of "proudly pro-car" policies, describing the prime minister's attempt to halt the so-called 'war on motorists' as "wedge politics" and an "artificial construct" which will "hopefully blow over given time".
Elsewhere, in the racing world, Tadej Pogačar completed his Il Lombardia hat-trick on Saturday, while Kasia Niewiadoma won the UCI Gravel World Championships...
> Tadej Pogačar wins Il Lombardia for the third time in a row with solo attack
Then, yesterday, Matej Mohorič added a men's UCI Gravel World Championship victory to his impressive palmares ahead of a stacked field that included Wout van Aert and a not-so-retired Alejandro Valverde. Our favourite story to come out of that, however, was Nathan Haas being forced to ride the event on a museum Colnago after his bike was lost in transit.
And our video team have been busy looking into the pros and cons of aero vs lightweight with the help of Ribble.
> Aero vs lightweight road bikes with Ribble: How much faster could an aero bike make you?
> REVIEW: Techalogic DC-2 Pro Dual Lens Helmet Camera
Did some cycling limbo today. pic.twitter.com/mOUEBVh7e3
— Bill Hulley (@billhulley) October 8, 2023
Here's your 90-second rundown of Drum & Bass On The Bike, in case this is your first time hearing about the city-hopping cycling celebration...
It's the creation of High Wycombe-based DJ Dom Whiting who had the genius lockdown idea of retrofitting a trike with decks and speakers, live streaming himself riding around a town or city blasting tunes. Better than another 5km run or banana bread loaf.
"It started during the lockdown, through pure boredom really," Whiting told road.cc in June. "We couldn't have music at the time, we couldn't do this, we couldn't do that. It was just one of those crazy lockdown creations, that now takes up a hundred percent my life! The whole thing was a complete accident in that I didn't expect it to evolve the way it has."
The format was born and has grown in popularity since, Whiting's early days seeing just himself or a handful of people showing up. Now, hundreds or thousands turn up every time.
From Brighton to Berlin via just about every major UK city, Barcelona, Dublin and more, Drum & Bass On The Bike fever has spread, his full ride videos getting hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube where he has 232,000 subscribers.
"I don't want to put a limit on where I think this will go, because there is no end goal," he told us recently. "There's no way you can say we'll stop at 4,000, 5,000 people, because you could have 10,000 and facilitate that with more sound.
"The variety of people that turn up, it just kind of makes it all worth it. Even if it does cost me fucking three or four, five grand a time, you can't really put a price tag on the feeling."
For more, check out editor Jack's sit-down interview with the DJ behind it all...
The challenge for Dom Whiting was working out how to best last year?
Sheffield... Can we beat last year’s Drum & Bass On The Bike turn out?! pic.twitter.com/eA5quaON0u
— Domonic (@domwhiting) October 5, 2023
From the footage we've seen doing the rounds on social media since yesterday, that would be a yes...
Fab day for the #sheffieldmasscycle with #drumandbass blaring out of speakers powered by @domwhiting in #sheffield. The sun was shining, the music was banging and there were a hell of of lot of people #cycling and having fun. More #activetravel please pic.twitter.com/dG5sJep5cq
— Lorraine (@lozclarke4) October 8, 2023
#SheffieldMassCycle - phenomenal experience !!! So many bikes in #Sheffield - wonder why I don’t see these numbers on my morning commute ? @olivercoppard@Ed_Clancypic.twitter.com/6MdMmrLoGV
— GPNGreggs 💙 🇺🇦 🇾🇪 🇵🇸 (@AnnGreggsRN) October 8, 2023
@CycleSheffield@sccactivetravel@HelpSheffield Tudor Square pic.twitter.com/tXKJ2mAuBs
— Red Vanilla - A Learning & Development Business (@JonRedVanilla) October 8, 2023
Not bad for a series that started with Dom's one-man rides live streamed online, now attended by hundreds, perhaps thousands of people enjoying riding bikes through their city in a safe, party atmosphere. While we're going to keep this a positive post it might be amusing to point out how the plan to return to Sheffield caught the attention of one Facebook group dedicated to opposing active travel plans in part of the city.
"The velociraptor cycle gangs are planning terrorist action to bring Sheffield to a standstill this weekend. We must stand up to this vile behaviour, we cannot allow the terrorists to win."
"The velociraptor cycle gangs are planning a terrorist action to bring Sheffield to a standstill this weekend".
Things seen on Facebook.
Sheffield's at a standstill every day, and I'm not sure if it's dinosaurs or terrorists that are the culprit. pic.twitter.com/I63tx2ju2d
— Tweets from the hills (@twunderclap) October 5, 2023
Sorry, pal. Think everyone's too busy enjoying a bike ride to join the resistance...
The after party @domwhiting
Drum and bass ride Sheffield.@CycleSheffield@russ_cycle_shed@JohnyCam@matlockjohn1971@matt_corbishleypic.twitter.com/wkJOWEKCMR— Bells and Bikes (@bellsandbikes) October 8, 2023