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Boy threatened with screwdriver during violent bike robbery; Sainsbury's delivery driver barges into cycle lane; "Backwards" no cycling signs; Quick-Step duo testify against TV presenter; City bikes a long way from home; Cav beaten + more on the live blog

It's Friday and Dan Alexander is here for the final live blog of the week...
16 April 2021, 15:40
The Run Up: new behind the scenes videos following some of the Women's WorldTour's biggest teams

The Run Up is a new series following the Women's World Tour's best teams at some of the biggest races on the calendar. Filmed, edited and released in the days before a race, The Run Up will show how teams prepare for races, starting with the first episode from Liège-Bastogne-Liège nest weekend. Team SD Worx, Trek-Segafredo and CANYON//SRAM racing have all agreed to be followed, opening their doors for some behind the scenes access.

Trek-Segafredo's British star Lizzie Deignan said she is excited to be taking part. "As a sports fan myself I am always inspired and excited to see the character behind the athlete. I think it’s a really interesting idea to allow women’s cycling fans behind the scenes to get to know the characters within our sport. There are so many diverse and interesting women in the peloton so I am sure it will be a really intriguing series to watch."

16 April 2021, 14:35
Enric Mas-ters summit finish to take Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana leader's jersey

Movistar's Enric Mas won the third stage of the rearranged Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana this afternoon, sprinting to victory at the top of the final climb. Whether his 35 second advantage over teammate Nelson Oliveira and 38 second buffer to Stefan Küng will hold on tomorrow's 14km flat TT remains to be seen, but for now he is in the leader's jersey and a first stage win since 2019.

16 April 2021, 14:20
BMX test event postponed due to the pandemic
Olympics

The Tokyo Olympics organisers have postponed the test event for the BMX freestyle until May or June due to the pandemic. It was scheduled to take place on April 24-25 but has been delayed, the organising committee confirmed in a statement.

"In order to ensure the best level of preparations for these test events and for the Tokyo 2020 Games, considering the schedule of each party under the current global COVID-19 conditions, it was felt that postponing the events was necessary," the statement said.

16 April 2021, 10:20
Boy threatened with screwdriver during violent bike robbery
Grantham Road (via Google Street View)

A 12-year-old boy was threatened with a screwdriver by two robbers in Bournemouth who took his backpack and bike. The child was riding his bike with a friend at around 3.50pm on Thursday 8 April when he was approached by two young males on the corner of Ashley Road and Grantham Road. The Bournemouth Echo reports one the males grabbed the victim's backpack, pushed him on the floor and threatened him with a screwdriver, before taking his bike.

The two men ran off and the bicycle was found nearby, with police now appealing for witnesses to come forward. "I am particularly keen to hear from the occupants of a small dark red car, possibly a Nissan, that was near to the traffic lights at the time and may have witnessed the incident. We would also like to speak to the driver of a white van, which was driving on Grantham Road around the time of the incident and may have information to assist my investigation," PC Olivia Holt said.

Information can be passed on to Dorset Police with the reference number 55210055296.

16 April 2021, 13:41
Deceuninck-Quick-Step duo testify against TV presenter
Tim Declercq (wikimedia commons)

Deceuninck-Quick-Step duo Yves Lampaert and Tim Declercq appeared in court in Belgium this week to testify against actor and TV presenter Melvin Klooster who allegedly assaulted Quick-Step pro Iljo Keisse in a nightclub brawl in 2017. Lampaert and Declercq were summoned along with former teammate Guillaume Van Keirsbulck by Klooster's legal team to examine "ambiguities" in their witness statements.

The Dutch TV presenter is accused of punching Keisse in the head and knocking him to the ground into broken glass. The prosecution service is asking for a two-year prison sentence if convicted, however Klooster denies he punched the veteran pro cyclist.

Het Nieuwsblad reports Lampaert, Declercq and Keisse all testified it was Klooster who attacked their teammate. "He attacked him from behind. I saw that," Lampaert apparently told the court. "And no, I hadn't drunk so much that I couldn't remember it exactly. Once a year we got permission from the team to go out together. Around 5am I started to gather everyone to go to the team's hotel in Brussels. We would return by taxi."

Declercq recalled what happened next. "When we came out, we were faced with a brawl. Two men were kicking and hitting a guy who was on the ground. I was shocked by so much violence. We thought Fernando Gaviria was on the ground, so we intervened by standing around the victim. Then it turned out it was someone else. Iljo Keisse helped the man up."

The Belgian newspaper reports the Quick-Step riders had a run in with Klooster earlier in the evening after he saw his girlfriend talking to Colombian sprinter Fernando Gaviria. Lampaert claimed this upset Klooster, "it all went very quickly, but I saw him waving his arm and then saw Iljo's knees give way. He hit his temple."

A verdict is expected in June with Keisse seeking €90,000 in compensation for a hand injury which forced him to miss the 2017 Gent Six Day.

16 April 2021, 13:23
"Muppets" spotted riding Glasgow city hire bikes on Isle of Arran 50 miles away

 An Isle of Arran resident wasn't too pleased to see two people riding Glasgow city bikes on the island and accused the pair of breaking travel restrictions. The cyclists were spotted on Saturday in Brodick, the main village on the island more than 50 miles away from Glasgow.

In Scotland the current requirement is to 'stay local' and only make non-essential journeys in their local authority area. Nextbike replied to the tweet saying: "Thank you for reporting this. It is against our terms and conditions to take bikes outside of Glasgow. If you recall the bike numbers, we will fine these customers."

16 April 2021, 12:10
Jasper Philipsen beats Andre Greipel and Mark Cavendish to stage six sprint in Turkey

No fourth stage win for Cav just yet. Philipsen finally got his win, nudging out Andre Greipel in a photo finish. Norwegian Kristoffer Halvorsen was third with Cav fifth after being forced to go the long way around Polish national champion Stanisław Aniołkowski. Fortunately he managed to stay upright after a little coming together on the line... 

16 April 2021, 11:17
Team GB women's pursuit squad to target time not position in Tokyo
Elinor Barker wins scratch race gold at the 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships (picture credit SWPix.com)

Elinor Barker told BBC Sport the uncertainty around the Tokyo Olympics means the GB women's team pursuit squad will be focusing on posting a good time, rather than position. Having not raced against many of their rivals due to the pandemic, and the likely inconvenience of restrictions, the 26-year-old explained all the team can do is focus on setting a strong time.

"It makes it tricky to put expectations on, but it'll be the same for everybody. It's difficult for everybody involved," Barker said. "Usually at this point in the [Olympic] cycle we'd have a pretty decent understanding of where the rest of the world are and what we need to work on. Whereas we haven't actually raced some of our biggest competitors for over a year now already.

"That makes it quite difficult to say where we think we are. But we've got a very good understanding of ourselves now because we've had so long to train. So I think when it comes to goals and targets it's very much time-based rather than position-based."

This summer will be five years since the Welsh cyclist won her first Olympic gold, however she is expecting a very different experience in Tokyo. "'I'm preparing for maximum safety procedures and inconvenience," she explained. "Then anything from there is just going to be a bonus. Before Rio we were there for 10 days. One of the many rumours I've heard is that this year we'll be allowed five days, then as soon as we race we have to leave."

16 April 2021, 09:51
Julian Alaphilippe signs new long-term deal with Deceuninck-Quick-Step

World champion Julian Alaphilippe will be staying at Deceuninck-Quick-Step for the next few years having signed a long-term deal until 2024 with the Belgian outfit. The news follows another of Quick-Step's stars, Remco Evenepoel, also committing his future to Patrick Lefevere's team in recent weeks. Alaphilippe has ridden for Quick-Step under their various banners for his entire career and his new deal will run out at the end of his 12th season with the team.

"I’m very happy to extend my stay with the team. It was the logical thing to do, and at no moment there was the question of doing anything different," the Frenchman said. "I look forward to continuing with this family and I want to say thank you to Patrick [Lefevere, team manager] and the sponsors for the confidence they have shown in these eight years and continue to show. It’s incredible to think of what we achieved together and all the beautiful memories we have."

Alaphilippe is back racing in the Ardennes Classics at Amstel Gold this weekend after a couple of weeks off after the Tour of Flanders.

16 April 2021, 08:59
Welcome to Worcester!
16 April 2021, 08:35
UKIP Gammons tries to break 1% with LTN rant

The latest poll from Politico has UKIP London mayoral candidate Peter Gammons on one per cent, so I guess the 'motivational speaker' is going all in to break the two per cent barrier...Naturally, his target of choice is LTNs...

This is the same candidate whose big idea for getting London moving was to send cyclists underground. "I want to get London moving again. There are over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London. I want to convert these disused spaces into walkways, safe cycle lanes, and create the world’s first underground ‘Pod’ transport system," he said on his campaign website.

An underground public transport system in London sounds familiar...Unfortunately for Gammons, with one per cent of the vote, that could be quite tricky to implement.

16 April 2021, 07:56
Sainsbury's delivery driver barges into cycle lane to park in front of cyclist

It seems you can now get your Sainsbury's order delivered straight to your nearest bike lane... I wonder why there's a cyclist riding in the delivery van parking lane? Some with local knowledge have pointed out this episode is made worse by the fact the Sainsbury's supermarket is just a two minute walk away...Now, if only there was a bicycle-powered way of delivering shopping that would bypass the problem of trying to park a great big van in built-up areas?

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

Add new comment

56 comments

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 2 years ago
2 likes

If there are 2,000,000 miles of unused tunnels in London can we put trucks in them please, then cars, then political incompetents of all persuasions. 

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to Chris Hayes | 2 years ago
1 like

Chris Hayes wrote:

If there are 2,000,000 miles of unused tunnels in London can we put trucks in them please, then cars, then political incompetents of all persuasions. 

Of course!  But you've inverted the entry order.

Avatar
EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
11 likes

The thing is...the sort of "cyclists" who would pop a dangerous wheelie in a busy pedestrain area are exactly the sort of "cyclist" who don't give a f**k about minor rules they wont ever be punished for.

Normal teenagers in other words*

 

 

* Don't mean to be bad mouthing modern teenagers. Like us back in the day, they are mostly harmless and having a bit of fun

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
9 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

I do mean to bad mouth modern teenagers. They need to toughen up - school of the hard knocks never did anyone any harm.

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
4 likes

Didn't your poster boys all go to private school? Very 'hard knocks" 

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Simon E replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
1 like

Nigel Garrage wrote:

I do mean to bad mouth modern teenagers. They need to toughen up - school of the hard knocks never did anyone any harm.

'Hard man' blather by an anonymous internet troll.

Pathetic. Were you bullied at school Nige?

I'm sure there are many teenagers far tougher, smarter and wiser than you.

Avatar
Simon E replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
3 likes

Abuse? Oh dear.

Or did you mean that the road.cc admin would not look kindly on your trash talking all young people?

There are 2 teenagers in my household and you couldn't hold a candle to either of them with regards to integrity, honesty and respect for others. But you would surely win an arm-wrestling or beer-drinking contest as neither is 'tough' if measured by traditional male ideas of 'toughness'.

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Captain Badger replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
2 likes
Nigel Garrage wrote:

No need for abuse, Simon - the road.cc admins take personal abuse very seriously

Isn't it lucky that you attended the "school of hard knocks", and so are hardy in the face of such terrible "abuse"
A lesser man would probably be destroyed by Simon's merciless attack..

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
2 likes

The other year, the teenagers round us were popping wheelies and deciding to see if they could "tap" the unsuspecting peds in front of them on the back with the front wheel. Although they were from the same area where they ride mopeds and motor bikes on the pavement or road without helmets and other exciting "harmless" things. 

Avatar
Hirsute replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
2 likes

I told some lad today to stop doing wheelies outside the shops, on the pavement, during lunchtime, on a busy high street. He tried to stare me out for some odd reason.

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Captain Badger replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
0 likes
hirsute wrote:

I told some lad today to stop doing wheelies outside the shops, on the pavement, during lunchtime, on a busy high street. He tried to stare me out for some odd reason.

Only sensible thing to do...

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
1 like
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

The other year, the teenagers round us were popping wheelies and deciding to see if they could "tap" the unsuspecting peds in front of them on the back with the front wheel. Although they were from the same area where they ride mopeds and motor bikes on the pavement or road without helmets and other exciting "harmless" things. 

Correlation causation yada yada.

The real significant factor is that they were cyclists of course

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eburtthebike replied to EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
3 likes

EddyBerckx wrote:

Like us back in the day, they are mostly harmless and having a bit of fun

Fun!?  When I were lad we used to live in shoe box in middle of t'road, etc, etc.

Avatar
oceandweller | 2 years ago
11 likes

Gammons: "I want to get London moving again. There are over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London"

Wow! 2 million miles, that's incredible! Ummm, let's try & figure this out - if each tunnel, street etc is, on average, 2m wide that means there's 6,440 sq km of unused space beneath London. That nice Mr. Wikepedia says the total area of Greater London is 1,583 sq km, so London is literally floating on air! After 20-odd years living there I'd kind of come to regard London as a hole in ground, but now I discover I was wrong & it's actually a hole in a multidimensional hyperspace. Puts a whole new perspective on things, quite literally.

Or else, & this might perhaps be more likely, maybe Gammons isn't much good with numbers. Or thinking more generally I suspect.

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EddyBerckx replied to oceandweller | 2 years ago
0 likes

oceandweller wrote:

Gammons: "I want to get London moving again. There are over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London"

Wow! 2 million miles, that's incredible! Ummm, let's try & figure this out - if each tunnel, street etc is, on average, 2m wide that means there's 6,440 sq km of unused space beneath London. That nice Mr. Wikepedia says the total area of Greater London is 1,583 sq km, so London is literally floating on air! After 20-odd years living there I'd kind of come to regard London as a hole in ground, but now I discover I was wrong & it's actually a hole in a multidimensional hyperspace. Puts a whole new perspective on things, quite literally.

Or else, & this might perhaps be more likely, maybe Gammons isn't much good with numbers. Or thinking more generally I suspect.

...and with the 100's of billions in tax revenue he'd need to make it work I suspect he wouldn't even get the right wing gammon vote for that plan...

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to EddyBerckx | 2 years ago
1 like

EddyBerckx wrote:

...and with the 100's of billions in tax revenue he'd need to make it work I suspect he wouldn't even get the right wing gammon vote for that plan...

Obviously, as Mayor, he'd just make cyclists pay Road Tax (even if they would be paying to not use the roads). Bosh - job done!

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to oceandweller | 2 years ago
4 likes

oceandweller wrote:

Gammons: "I want to get London moving again. There are over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London"

Wow! 2 million miles, that's incredible! Ummm, let's try & figure this out - if each tunnel, street etc is, on average, 2m wide that means there's 6,440 sq km of unused space beneath London.

6440 square km, equates to a square 80km by 80km, centreing this square on tower bridge mean the extents would be Stevenage, Basildon, Slough and Crawley.

Of course you are not considering that tunnels can exist at different depths, but even then I don't see how 4km2 of buried tunnels, roads and chambers could exist for each square km of space.

UKIP candidate lies before election shocker

 

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
2 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

 

 

He didn't say "over 2 million square miles" though did he? That's just a made up quote you've attributed to him (not that I thought his suggestion was any good by the way). Maybe he was thinking of sewage pipes.

I mean there are 22 feet of small intestines in the average human adult.

And Ocean Dweller didn't mention 2m square miles. That's just a quote that you made up isn't it.....

Gammons however did say 2m miles, OD is correct.

I imagine that you are familiar with this website - 

https://www.ukip.org/dr-peter-gammons-is-ukip-s-candidate-for-london-mayor

Here is the quote if you can't find it:

“I want to get London moving again. There are over 2 million miles of unused tunnels, streets, and chambers beneath London. This abandoned network was secretly built by the Ministry of Defence, Post Office, and BT."

 
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Awavey replied to Captain Badger | 2 years ago
0 likes

I assume he is talking about this http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20201005-the-uks-rumoured-subterranean-n... not that its proven to exist or capable to be a transport network

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
1 like
Nigel Garrage wrote:

The point was he made up an assumption of surface area that doesn't hold true under any measurement (not least because he's comparing the 2d surface area of London to a 3d space, then making up an assumption as to how wide it is without evidence) - it's far simpler to just say it's a crap idea.

I thought the point you were making was that OD fabricated a quote, and attributed it to Gammons. Remember typing that?

Avatar
brooksby replied to Captain Badger | 2 years ago
5 likes

Quote:

the Ministry of Defence, Post Office, and BT.

It's not exactly the Illuminati, is it?

Avatar
Captain Badger replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
6 likes
brooksby wrote:

Quote:

the Ministry of Defence, Post Office, and BT.

It's not exactly the Illuminati, is it?

That's what they want you to think 🤨

Avatar
mdavidford replied to oceandweller | 2 years ago
4 likes

oceandweller wrote:

if each tunnel, street etc is, on average, 2m wide

Why would you assume that though? I'm guessing he's not big on worrying about how much clearance to give cyclists. You should take your 6 inch pipe for cycling down and be grateful for it!

Avatar
Organon | 2 years ago
1 like

British cyclists are naturally not gammon due to our low blood pressure.

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IanMK | 2 years ago
11 likes

I think I need to run through some maths with Gammons. In fact we could turn it in to a GCSE question.

Because of a minor diversion poor Karen is forced to drive an extra mile to get to her destination. Assuming that the average speed of traffic 12mph,  If Karen's journey time is now doubled how far would her original destination have been without the diversion?

For a bonus mark; can you think of a better way for Karen to do this journey?

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brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

The Worcester signage says 'no dangerous cycling' so presumably for so long as you ride safely you're fine?

 

 

(No, I didn't really think so).

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
4 likes

It says no cycling 10-6 at the bottom, so outside of that you can cycle responsibly - although I suspect we are both a bit old to pop a wheelie !

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Cupov replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
0 likes

surely that 10-6 sign should have a line through it if cycling is prohibited between those times? so not only are the signs aggressive and unwelcoming they are unclear as well. well done the local authorities.

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Hirsute replied to Cupov | 2 years ago
2 likes

Don't see why, it just gives a limit to the restriction

 

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Tired of the tr... replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

It's interesting (well, to me) that traffic signs that prohibit something (no vehicles, no overtaking etc) do not have a diagonal bar, whereas official health&safety signs (no smoking) do have a diagonal bar. Different kinds of regulations.

But, question: Given that the "no cycling" sign in this particular form is an official indicator of the traffic rules that apply at a certain place, can they just include these signs without accompanying traffic regulation orders and all the related paperwork like consultations and opportunity for objections?

The rest of the poster is nonspecific, but including an official traffic sign might be legally very dubious as it suggests to naive bystanders a force of law that doesn't exist.

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