Welcome to Tuesday on the road.cc live blog with Simon MacMichael, Jack Sexty and the rest of the team.
15/01/2019, 16:46
Koo eyewear partners with Trek-Segafredo
The Word Tour team's men's and women's squads will wear Koo shades for at least the next two years. They will wear the Open Cube and Orion sunglasses for the 2019 season, and have already being debuted at the Tour Down Under. head over to Koo's website for more product info.
15/01/2019, 15:27
A familiar sight on British streets?
Haringey wants a reputation for being a walking and cycling borough nationally - yet this is what greets pedestrians on our streets....it’s time for change @haringeycouncil@kirstenhearn@CllrEjiofor@HaringeyCyclist@CrescentRdChaos@livingstreets@ZenaBrabazonpic.twitter.com/UsvPMxRRoc
— Catherine Kenyon (@cmdkenyon) January 15, 2019
15/01/2019, 14:19
Police hunt Bristol cyclist who seriously injured pedestrian in hit-and-run crash
Avon & Somerset Constabulary have launched a witness appeal after a cyclist and pedestrian were in a collision this morning, with the bike rider subsequently fleeing the scene. The appeal reads:
We’re appealing for information after a woman sustained potentially life-changing injuries in a collision in East Street, Bedminster.
The incident involved a man on a bicycle and a woman pedestrian. It happened just before 9am on Tuesday 15 January.
A woman is in hospital for treatment.
The cyclist left the scene of the crash in East Street, Bedminster. Officers are currently trying to trace him. We have seized a bike as part of our enquiries and the road remains closed while the investigation continues.
If you can help please get in touch quoting reference 5219010049
We will of course be keeping an eye on this story to see how it develops.
15/01/2019, 12:50
American study finds vulnerable road users are "subtly, but consistently, blamed for crashes" in local news coverage
The Texas A&M University study, titled 'Editorial Patterns in Bicyclist and Pedestrian Crash Reporting', says that local news reports generally show overly negative reporting towards car crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, often using terminology to suggest the victim may have been at fault. The study scraped 200 news articles from a two month period from early 2018, 100 involving cyclists and 100 pedestrians, and used content and linguistic analysis to examine how the information assigned blame and if the injuries and deaths were framed as public health issues.
They found that only 65% of articles identified the 'agent' who hit the vulnerable road user, and in 35% of cases the crash just 'happened' without describing any details. They also found 73% of articles emphasised mentions of the vulnerable road user, which is found to receive more blame. 48% of articles suggested that the incident could have been avoided if the VRU's behaviour was different i.e. wearing high-vis clothing or crossing only at designated crossings. The researchers recommends this for journalists: "We first suggest journalists be aware of the relationship between grammatical choices and perceived blame. As a test, try replacing the word “car” with the word “hammer” when describing a crash. “A person was hit by a hammer” sounds strange, as someone must have been holding it. “Hit by a car” similarly obscures agency. Next, journalists should use public health framing when describing crashes. Linking each instance to the epidemic of VRU deaths will help bring about meaningful solutions. Finally, we advise journalists to include elements that humanize VRU crash victims when possible."
Do you think crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians are often wrongly reported in the UK too?
15/01/2019, 12:24
Elia Viviani wins first stage of 2019 at the Tour Down Under
When you win the first stage of the @UCI_cycling WorldTour Congratulations @eliaviviani ... #tourdownunderpic.twitter.com/0UVafdqsBS
— Santos Tour Down Under (@tourdownunder) January 15, 2019
The Quick Step sprinter bagged his first victory of the year, out-kicking Max Walscheid of Team Sunweb and winning by more than two bike lengths.
15/01/2019, 11:38
Defo needs a bike fit...
Pedalling into the first race of the UCI WorldTour calendar like... @tourdownunderpic.twitter.com/5sfoZw8sKu
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) January 14, 2019
15/01/2019, 11:06
Barking mad
15/01/2019, 10:58
A quite phenomenal acronym...
And I'm done. Look back through my timeline and read the first word of each of my Tweets and you'll find a, quite frankly, bizarre tribute to the greatest cycling commentary of all time.
And here it is (about 2 minutes in) enjoy! https://t.co/qiV6zOmTZM
— Cillian Kelly (@irishpeloton) January 14, 2019
Cillian Kelly may have a little too much time on his hands, but this is pretty impressive all the same! Ic you have a Twitter account, check out Kelly's profile and read the first word of each tweet from the top-down.
15/01/2019, 10:27
Criterium carnage
15/01/2019, 10:19
Tour Down Under Stage 1 highlights
The World Tour kicked off early this morning in Australia with the first stage of the Tour Down Under. A sprint stage to begin with, so one for the flat track bullies to have a go at. And who came out on top? Watch the highlights to find out!
15/01/2019, 09:59
eBay seller wants £150,000 for Rapha x Paul Smith Grand Depart jersey
An eBay seller who in 2017 listed a Rapha x Paul Smith London 2007 Tour de France Grand Depart jersey on the website with a Buy It Now price of £10,000 is looking to sell the same garment - or at least, one that is identical - but this time, it will cost you a cool £150,000.
The limited edition jersey cost £175 when it went on sale a little over a decade ago and gas achieved iconic status, even appearing in a retrospective of Sir Paul Smith's work at the Design Museum in London five years ago.