Another day, another cellphone-using driver caught by CyclingMikey. But this time, it's not the image of the motorist that the cyclist Mike van Erp, known for catching motorists using a mobile phone while driving, has shared on social media. Instead, it's the image of cabbie, who in a devious attempt to help out the person behind the wheel continue their distracted driving ways and warn them that they were in fact being filmed by Mikey, has ended up on the cyclist's social media.
"I don't think you should be abandoning your cab in the middle of the road to warn a phone driver that he is about to be caught (he was already caught anyway)," wrote CyclingMikey.
I don't think you should be abandoning your cab in the middle of the road to warn a phone driver that he is about to be caught (he was already caught anyway). LS15GFV pic.twitter.com/SqOtTzA9X3
— CyclingMikey the Unspeakable (@MikeyCycling) August 29, 2024
As a Twitter user pointed out, in doing his good Samaritan routine, the cab driver was himself violating the Highway Code Rule 123, which states: "You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road.
"Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults."
Lots of medals for British athletes at the Paris Summer Paralympics, with cyclists leading the charge. Jaco van Gass defended his individual pursuit title, beating GB teammate Finlay Graham for a gold medal, while Lizzi Jordan and her pilot Danni Khan absolutely smashed it in the time trial, ramping up the the pace on the final straight and finishing half a second quicker that the Aussies, bringing home another gold.
A day for a decisive blow into the GC leader's gap as Roglič, in his suave, effortless riding style once again ate up Ben O'Connor's massive lead, effectively bringing it down from over three minutes to just a minute and tweny seconds on the final climb of Puerta de Ancares of the stage 13 of Vuelta a España.
With no teammates, who had done quite the formidable albeit controversial job of helping him, O'Connor had to dig deep in the final two kilometres to barely keep his red jersey, putting up a valiant defence — and it's going to get more difficult from here now if Roglič's form is anything to go by.
It was Michael Woods, who taking a page out of his recent hobby of birdwatching, put up a serene, patient figure as he went to claim a solo victory, marking his fourth victory in a Grand Tour, following his heroics on the top of Puy de Dôme in Tour de France last year and two previous wins in La Vuelta in 2018 and 2020.
A local councillor’s claim that he was verbally abused and threatened by cyclists after pointing out that they couldn’t ride their bikes on an ancient hill fort has been slammed by one of the mountain bikers involved in the confrontation, who says it was the politician who “started ranting at us” and that they were not riding their bikes on the historic landmark, but had in fact pushed them up the hill.
The cyclist, who claims the councillor appeared above them as they sat and chatted, before shouting at them and threatening to phone the police, has also criticised his “inaccurate, self-serving” account of the incident (a short video of which was sent to road.cc), and has reported his “inflammatory actions” to the council.
Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had Jeremy Vine on our live blog, but he’s back with a video showing not just one, not just two, but a total of sixty-eight — yes 68 vehicles parked on a cycle lane, basically blocking it the whole way.
The cycle lane in question is the Kensington cycle lane, or “cycle lane”, in inverted commas as the BBC and Channel 5 presenter puts it in his short clip shared on Twitter. And despite the blasphemous stuff we’ve seen at road.cc regarding bike lanes, including the “BMX track” masquerading as one yesterday, this one is definitely up there in terms of being one of the worst offenders.
“Now don’t laugh”, says Vine in the video. “This is the start of the Kensington ‘cycle lane’… Look how many cars are parked in it, because apparently cyclists don’t need protecting on bank holidays.”
“But the thing is, people are cycling on bank holidays. And drivers are behaving the same!” he continues, as a couple more cyclists on Lime bikes pass him by. But that’s not where the drama ends, as we see the few-seconds old phrase “drivers behaving the same” repeated once again, with a motorist — face buried in their cell phone — holding up a fire engine. But yeah, it’s because of all the cycle lanes that emergency services are delayed, got it.
How the hell did I count SIXTY-EIGHT cars parked in the Kensington cycle lane on one commute this week?
What on earth is the council @RBKC playing at? pic.twitter.com/4WxBxecf53— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) August 29, 2024
Vine says: “So I head to the front of this line of cars and vans, we see a fire engine… and the fire engine is being held up by this guy, the fire engine hoots, and what do we think this guy is doing? Of course he’s on his phone.
“I counted 68 cars parked in the cycle lane! Compare it with this, a segregated lane, King Street, Hammersmith,” he says while cutting to a different video, showing him riding in the bike lane separated by wands while a Waitrose HGV passes him on the road. “That’s a massive truck, but I’m safe. Those beautiful wands keep us apart.
“This is why you have cycle lanes, in a nutshell, that’s it. Not just painted lines, Kensington… Kensington will never change, we know that. You just have to be very careful in that borough because on two wheels in Kensington, you’re in mortal danger.”
One person wrote sarcastically: “This is why cyclists should be forced to use cycle lanes when they're there. Unless of course we're parked in them. Then they don't have to use them,” while CyclingMikey commented: “Playing at being the Royal Borough of Killing Children due to their ridiculously pro-car and anti-people policies.”
Meanwhile, David Kirkwood said: “The brutal reality is that key decision makers are carcentric. If we remember public highway is land the public had a right to use in reasonable safety - then ask why it’s been delivered up for use by motor vehicles that is so obviously obstructive & dangerous to the public?”
Well, the next time someone asks you why don’t cyclists use the bike lane, maybe just point them to this video, or this live blog. Or maybe, this one from February, where drivers got mad at cyclists and claimed that they’re “playing with traffic”, because cyclists didn’t feel like using this “perfectly good footpath that has a bike symbol on it and a bollard in the middle of it”.
Or maybe this one, where pretty similar to the Kensington bike lane, motorists turned Bristol’s *checks notes* Park Row into a… car park. Ah, the irony is too on the nose sometimes, isn’t it?
Perhaps even more ironically, road.cc’s favourite politician, Nick Fletcher who’s built up quite a CV for himself spouting non-sense about everything, from 15-minute cities being a an “international socialist conspiracy” to the “rarely used” cycling infrastructure in Doncaster taking away from drivers and pedestrians, said in January this year that cyclists that are “unloved” by cyclists were finally being used in the town centre — but not by cyclists, but by motorists to park their cars… I told you, the irony writes itself!
As more and more people seem to be talking about crank length on the bike nowadays, we've turned to the experts to see if you too should be using shorter cranks. Bike fit specialists are increasingly recommending a move away from the accepted wisdom of yore, especially for riders with hip issues, time trial riders and anyone who wants to get into a really deep tuck. Let's find out why...
The formidable Belgian, who's already sitting pretty at the top of the points classification with a comfortable lead over Alpecin-Deceuninck's Kaden Groves, now has found himself in an early breakaway with a 12 minutes lead over the rest of the pelton, and won five KOM points over the summit of the Alto O Portelo, taking him three points ahead of UAE Team Emirates' Adam Yates in the mountain classification as well.
💙+💚 Wout van Aert takes the first climb of the day and moves into the provisional lead of the mountains classification, 3 points ahead of Adam Yates
💙+💚 Wout van Aert ha sido el primero en el Alto Campo de Arbre y es el líder provisional de la montaña con 3 puntos sobre Adam… pic.twitter.com/1BxSNIDoEf
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 30, 2024
Despite the countless reasons that we've illustrated on road.cc as to why cyclists don't use the cycle lane, including the one we discussed today about the bike lane being a car park, or the one yesterday where the cycle path was compared to a "BMX track", we still have drivers with the MGIF (or, Must Get in Front) mindset dangerously passing cyclists — as this video from Twitter user Chaponabike shows.
Here's some really shit driving for you all to have a look at. pic.twitter.com/Ql1EeQWsbo
— Chapona Bike (@ChaponaBike123) August 28, 2024
And all of that for what, getting to the lights two seconds before the rider?
The mentality of MGIF, no doubt you’re very close to riding 20mph. Pointless manoeuvre from the driver. But he got to the lights a second or two quicker to sit there!! #ukcyclechat
— UKCycleChat™ (@UKCycleChat) August 29, 2024
A cyclist who suffered multiple serious injuries after crashing while trying to avoid a pedestrian who stepped in front of him on a new cycle path has called for greater safety and protective measures to be installed on the seafront infrastructure, arguing that while people “wouldn’t walk onto a road”, the “will walk on the cycle track” because “it doesn’t have the same threat”.
The fallout of that Richard Carapaz crash from two days ago is still continuing, with the EF Education-EasyPost rider hitting out at Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, and being dismayed with the team not even issuing an apology.
The crash occurred in stage 11 on Wednesday with 93kms to go, as TV cameras picked up the Ecuadorian getting up from the ground and getting himself back on the bike. A replay, frustratingly blocked by a tree at the crucial moment, showed the moment he fell from his bike having left the road, with a Decathlon-AG2R rider swerving and meandering too close to Carapaz.
It was followed by EF Education boss Jonathan Vaughters tweeting the clip of the crash replay with the harsh words: “Accidents happen in cycling. We all know that. It’s a rough sport. But this was not an accident.”
Accidents happen in cycling. We all know that. It’s a rough sport. But this was not an accident: pic.twitter.com/0PorhVlASy
— Jonathan Vaughters (@Vaughters) August 28, 2024
Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale’s Ben O’Connor, who finds himself in the red jersey with more than a three minutes’ lead over Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Primož Roglič, was not very pleased with the UCI dishing out four yellow cards to his teammates, and speaking to Eurosport before yesterday’s stage, said: “I really think we did absolutely nothing wrong. We’ve spoken to EF together and everything is clear and it was absolutely zero animosity. Geoffrey [Bouchard] really did absolutely nothing. So, I don't really understand the sanctioning between all the other boys in my team as well because we didn't do anything wrong.
“Yeah, he [Carapaz] may have hit the pedal or the wheel, but my teammate did not move at all. He was there on the left, he didn't swing left, he was just riding. So, I don't think it's very fair to be honest.”
Richard Carapaz at La Vuelta 2024, stage 9 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
But Carapaz had a different story to tell yesterday after the stage, outright claiming that his crash had been caused due to Decathlon’s blocking manoeuvre, adding that the TV replay was evidence enough to prove that.
"Yes. In the end, it was very clear,” said Carapaz, who ended up shipping crucial seconds to Enric Mas due to his crash and dropped down from third to fourth in the general classification, Mas leapfrogging him. “There are many ways of defending a jersey but the way they’re doing it is very sad to me because it's a lack of respect. I can’t judge it, everybody does what they do.”
The commissaries had paid a visit to the EF Education-EasyPost bus before the start to hear their account of Carapaz’s crash the previous afternoon, and they also held a parley with members of the Decathlon staff. There was, however, no clearing of the air between Carapaz and Decathlon ahead of the stage.
He added: “There’s been nothing, and that's the worst thing, you know. We’re waiting for that to happen. If you make a mistake, you should at least speak about it and say that you're sorry, it wasn't intentional. There is a lot of arrogance, I haven't heard anything else from them.”
It’s getting spicy at the Vuelta…
This video, shared by cyclist Mark Newell, shows a London bus driver making a turn as he approaches the intersection, with Newell captioning it as: "An interesting point to make about this type of incident is that London bus drivers have had no specific training about sharing the road with cyclists".
Audio off due to my swearing!
An interesting point to make about this type of incident is that London bus drivers have had no specific training about sharing the road with cyclists.@cyclegaz@CycleOrpington@Cycling_In_LDN@MikeyCycling@London_Cycling@markandcharliepic.twitter.com/klgbjHHO1P— mark newell 💙 (@nununoolio) August 29, 2024
One person, meanwhile, asked: "Why didn’t you just stop and let the bus through, car drivers would have," meanwhile, another said, reflecting a contrasting opinion: "All the driver needed to do is slow to a walking pace to remove the threat of harm....quite simple."
I'll leave this one for you all to discuss if the cyclist did the right thing or could he have waited and let the bus past...
It's been another topsy-turvy season for Belgian's Wout van Aert. He started the season strongly with stage wins at Volta ao Algarve and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and then finishing third at the E3 Saxo Classic, before his season was derailed at the most critical time before Paris-Roubaix and Ronde van Vlaanderen, owing to that terrible crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Since his recovery, it hasn't been a rosy road, with a dismal showing at the Tour de France and the Olympic road race. However, he did bag a bronze medal at the Paris Olympic time trial, and now has three stage wins at Vuelta a España besides a comfortable lead in the points jersey. And with the Joshua Tarling's withdrawal, Van Aert would be licking his lips for a fourth stage win in final stage, that is the Madrid time trial.
Wout van Aert gets his third win of this Vuelta, stage 10 of 2024 Vuelta a España (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
But with that would come an end to Van Aert's time trial season, as he's decided not to do the time trials at the upcoming UCI World Championships in Zürich, reports HLN. Instead, he'll be going for the rainbow jersey in the road race in the Swiss city, a race that's expected to be an all-timer as double gold medallist at Paris Olympics Remco Evenepoel, three-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar and now, Wout van Aert will aim to take the bands away from reigning champion (psst, and Van Aert's age-old rival) Mathieu van der Poel.
He said: "After the Vuelta, my preference is for the road race at the European Championships in Limburg and the road race at the World Championships in Zurich. In our opinion, adding the World Championship time trial would be too much. That may sound strange, in a period of three weeks, but in terms of training, adding such a time trial is completely different.
"Due to the three-week gap between the Vuelta and the World Championship road race, I will have to train hard during that period and it is too short notice and it requires too much focus to also add the World Championship time trial. After the Vuelta, I will and want to focus one hundred percent two more times to be as good as possible. That will be more than enough after such a tough and busy summer."