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Former GB Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies belly-flops into 15-minute cities debate; Should dogs wear helmets?; Uber Eats cyclist goes viral for very British bike theft fear; SD Worx admit Amy Pieters in "a difficult period" + more on the live blog

One stage to go on the Tour de Live Blog... Dan Alexander will be leading the peloton home this Friday
17 February 2023, 16:50
Have a great weekend!

Too kind, Jonathan, I thought it was just another standard live blog, but if you insist...

We'll see you all on Monday, have a great weekend everyone! 

17 February 2023, 08:46
Former GB Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies belly-flops into 15-minute cities debate

Remember the good ol' days when it was just LTNs getting shouty people on the internet worked up? It has been some week for the 15-minute city 'debate', starting with Conservative MP Nick Fletcher raising a known conspiracy theory in Parliament, sparking the inevitable GB News reaction, but now we've even got an Olympic swimmer wading in at the deep end...

Did I say 'wading in'? Maybe cannonballing would be more accurate. And admittedly it's a bit of a two for the price of one situation, with Davies' initial Bath-based complaint being about the Clean Air Zone, but also mentioning Oxford where 15-minute city plans seem to be the issue.

 Anyway, the 1980 Moscow Olympics silver medallist, who has also been outspoken about trans issues in sport, did not see the comments go unnoticed...

[click on the photo to see the full info below]

Incidentally, here's Oliver Wainwright's piece in The Guardian yesterday, 'In praise of the ‘15-minute city’ – the mundane planning theory terrifying conspiracists'... sorry, not sure how that ended up there...

17 February 2023, 16:26
Racing round-up: Come on guys, give someone else a go...

Four races for the round-up today, two won by the same person who won yesterday and one by the same rider who's won that stage twice before. Let's start in Spain where Elisa Balsamo made it two from two...

Meanwhile, Tadej Pogačar had a day off dominating the entire peloton into submission, but just so teammate Tim Wellens could take his third career win in Alcalá de los Gazules.

All the watts...

Talking of all the watts, how about this sprint from Magnus Cort, distancing the rest of the Volta ao Algarve startlist...

What's that? It wasn't a bunch sprint? Nope, King Cort was in an attack group that took off at the intermediate sprint at 24km to go... some big engines in there — Filippo Ganna, Tom Pidcock, Rui Costa, TT world champ Tobias Foss, Valentin Madouas — and yet the answer was perhaps the most obvious... yesterday's winner taking another victory today...

Oh, and before I forget, Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var stage one was won by Kévin Vauquelin. And breathe... 

17 February 2023, 16:13
Riding A Road Bike At 100 KM/H - How HARD Can It Be!?
17 February 2023, 15:51
road.cc Podcast guest Carla Francombe talks 15-minute cities on Radio 4
Salford LTN (via Sustrans)

Back in November we had Carla Francombe on the road.cc Podcast to discuss staying calm in the face of online abuse. You can catch that episode here, by the way... anyway, back to today's story — 15-minute cities...

Clearly her appearance on the road.cc little leagues was impressive enough to earn a call-up to the big time and Radio 4's AntiSocial programme. Joining Adam Flemming live alongside Alan Miller of Together Declaration, the anti-lockdown group that objected to vaccine passports and other issues during the Covid pandemic, Francombe represented the pro-15-minute city voice, championing active travel policy.

"For me, it's just a lot about having safe streets and people-friendly streets," she told the show. "The reason it came to me was we went to Guernsey, I took my little kids and we went to St Peter Port and the whole of the town centre had no cars.

"And it was just like this complete epiphany of I just haven't realised how much I was scared, all the time, walking the streets with my kids."

You can listen to the full hour-long episode here...

17 February 2023, 14:48
BREAKING: Danny MacAskill is human after all
17 February 2023, 14:18
How do you rate EF Education–EasyPost's Colombian champs kit?

Esteban Chaves is the new Colombian national champion, sparking a great deal of excitment about how EF Education–EasyPost, the team behind several eye-catchingly radical kits over the years, would celebrate their rider's success. The answer?

What do we reckon? A tad undersold? Maybe it's the curse of too much expectation, but to our eye that does look a little bit too UAE Team Emirates-y...

Our only hope?

Come on Vaughters, the people want an explosion in a yellow paint factory... step it up... 

17 February 2023, 12:57
Trek launches two new e-cargo bikes
17 February 2023, 12:21
Doping figures show 29 cases of alleged wrongdoing in cycling in 2022 — the second highest number since 2015 — but just two from WorldTour and ProTour
London 2012 anti-doping lab (picture credit LOCOG)

Figures published by the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) show that there were 29 cases of alleged doping in cycling in 2022, ten more than in 2021.

Using data from anti-doping agencies, courts, federations and news reports the MPCC puts together its annual report into doping at a professional level in cycling and found last year's figure was the second highest since 2015.

While the numbers seem high the MPCC was quick to point out there were just two cases in the sport's top two tiers (WorldTour and ProTour), the lowest number recorded since before the Festina affair of 1998.

"In 2022, the large majority of doping proceedings in top-level cycling concerned semi-professional men riders from continental road teams (12 cases)," the MPCC explained.

17 February 2023, 12:06
Your comments

Some of your thoughts on Davies' dip into active travel...

LTN planters

ubercurmudgeon: "As a general rule, anyone who includes in their Twitter name or handle a three-letter-acronym for some gong they received for letting the royal family associate themselves with their modest achievements, isn't worth listening to."

Patrick9-32: "Car drivers: Take up 95 per cent of infrastructure space and budget. Also car drivers: 'Can't we just make public transport, walking and cycling better without doing anything that makes driving even one per cent less convenient???? why is there a war on cars?"

billymansell: "As the saying goes, 'when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression'."

17 February 2023, 10:51
Tour de Dance

17 February 2023, 10:05
SD Worx admit Amy Pieters in "a difficult period"
Amy Pieters (SD Worx)

[📷: SD Worx]

Providing an update on Amy Pieters' recovery from the December 2021 crash which left the three-time rainbow jersey wearer in a coma for months, SD Worx admitted their rider is experiencing a "difficult period". In a post on the team's website...

It‘s been quiet around Amy Pieters for a while and there are reasons for that. Her rehabilitation can sometimes go less good. This is mainly due to a number of setbacks that she had to deal with. Pieters has had several epileptic seizures in a short period of time that slowed down her recovery. 

As a result, she has suffered a relapse in her mobility and her motivation to recover is also somewhat difficult due to the adjusted medication. This is a difficult period for her, but also for everyone who works and interacts with her.

Pieters can now answer with a clear yes and no, but unfortunately it is not yet possible to really have a conversation in sentences. She mainly communicates with facial expressions. Now there will be waited until the medication to be adjusted in such a way that she regains the energy and motivation so that she can work on the next steps of her rehabilitation.

Pieters still prefers to get on her bicycle and go for a ride outside, rather than sitting on an indoor bike in the gym. The Amy Pieters foundation has purchased an adapted bicycle for her, as well as a system to warn in the event of an epileptic attack. This so that she can also do cycling as an exercise at home during the weekends.

17 February 2023, 09:46
Uber Eats cyclist goes viral for very British bike theft fear

Approaching our 15th birthday it remains the proudest moment of this website's existence the day No Context Brits shared our story about the round-the-world cyclist whose bike got stolen outside a Wetherspoons in Reading. The peak of any journalist's career...

Well, the popular Twitter account with 1.6 million followers is back on our patch...

Less cycling-related, but fun for a Friday morning...

17 February 2023, 09:21
Should dogs wear helmets?

With the helmet debate done to death, perhaps this is the next frontier...

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

59 comments

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
2 likes

I think I've just gone down the rabbit hole with this one

"under magna carta you have the right to travel the length and breadth of this country in your own personal conveyance unhindered, they are breaking real law by limiting travel..."

Although some great responses

"Quite right it was actually the Declaration of Arbroath that first expressed views on modal filters, although it said a lot more about pelican crossings"

"My only criticism of The Commonwealth was that Cromwell didn't follow the guidance in LTN 1/20. But that's puritanism for you, fun was practically outlawed."

"Hurry up John, the parking charges are horrendous here..."

//pbs.twimg.com/media/FpUqfJGXoAA3lyN?format=jpg&name=small)

"Have you read Magna Carta? It’s a very easy read. There is no “right to travel” nor mention of “personal conveyance” Also, statutes are a thing. Only 3 clauses from MC still hold today. Yes, that’s how laws work."

https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/magna-carta-english-translation

Avatar
BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
4 likes

When we relocated our children's education from London to Paris the first thing we noticed (without knowing the current jargon) was that we were, at least in the part of Paris we had moved to, in a 15 minute city. In London the children went to music school, swimming, dance, horse riding and school. School and music school we could cycle to. Swimming, dance and horse riding required a car and sometimes lots of traffic and sitting in queues. In Paris we amazingly discovered that everything was in walking distance. This has much to do with the French philosophy that all children should have access to all amenities. (Not to mention that prices are a fraction of what they are in London) So in Paris we don't have a car. When we go out of Paris we hire a car. The other thing I noticed is that at the school gates there are lots of cargo bikes and eBikes with child seats. I am not saying all of France is a 'paradise' - I doubt it is. But the 15 minute city is a very attainable and achievable ideal. To know that the dance class is a 10 minute walk rather than 20 or maybe 30 or sometimes even 40 minutes in a car is very liberating. The other thing I noticed when first moving to Paris is seeing children walking about on their own - going places. And I don't mean teenagers but primaire school children. This wasn't the case in London - where everyone was in a car going somewhere. 

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Rendel Harris replied to BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP | 1 year ago
5 likes

That's something I notice on our frequent trips to Paris: we always rent an Air BnB, in the UK we'll take a box full of provisions because one can never be sure of the availability or quality of local retail; in Paris one just takes a bank card safe in the knowledge that in whatever neighbourhood one's staying (even the relatively impoverished ones) there will be good quality food shopping, chemists, off licences etc etc within a short walk at most. The culture of driving to the supermarket simply doesn't exist and it's all the better for it.

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
4 likes

BREAKING: Danny MacAskill is human after all

I was going to comment, but I don't think that in this case it's appropriate to pier review.
 

 

Avatar
eburtthebike | 1 year ago
3 likes

road.cc Podcast guest Carla Francombe talks 15-minute cities on Radio 4

This is a must listen.  If you doubted that these conspiracy theorists need to be challenged, just listen to that prog.  Carla did a great job, but only briefly mentioned that most LTNs are incredibly popular with the residents, a rather vital point, while the mouthy bloke went on and on about how unpopular they were.  He also kept saying that the elected local councillors were ignoring the public, but he was there to represent them.  He also claimed that certain cycling groups were threatening people.

You couldn't ask for a better example of how deluded and rabid are the petrolheads.

Avatar
SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
8 likes

Still wishing Amy Pieters the best recovery possible. 

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
6 likes

Today's clueless driver
2 cars in front both turning right and indicating.

I put my arm out in a vain attempt to get them to abort, but they barrel on.

Luckily for them, the red car driver did not turn right in the end.

I think the HC says something about overtaking and junctions but obviously I haven't read it since I passed my test.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes

We can't even get my dog to wear a Xmas jumper - I can't imagine getting him to wear a helmet!

Avatar
SimoninSpalding replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
7 likes

I'm more than happy to wear a helmet at the appropriate time, but NEVER a Christmas jumper, so that doesn't necessarily follow.

For the sake of clarity I am not claiming to be your dog.

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chrisonabike replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
2 likes

Quote:

For the sake of clarity I am not claiming to be your dog.

The Stooges!

Avatar
ubercurmudgeon | 1 year ago
3 likes

As a general rule, anyone who includes in their Twitter name or handle a three-letter-acronym for some gong they received for letting the royal family associate themselves with their modest achievements, isn't worth listening to. Here's another prime example.

Avatar
SimoninSpalding replied to ubercurmudgeon | 1 year ago
4 likes

I'm even pretty sceptical about anyone having BA/ BSc on their business card/ email footer...

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brooksby replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
1 like

Especially nowadays, when having a B<something> degree is like having an O-level maths back in the day...

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Rendel Harris replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
1 like

SimoninSpalding wrote:

I'm even pretty sceptical about anyone having BA/ BSc on their business card/ email footer...

The signs outside schools annoy me, it's always "Headteacher Mr Fred Whoosis, BA (Hons), PGCE..." when you (nearly always) can't be a (state) teacher of any level without those two things.

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Owd Big 'Ead | 1 year ago
12 likes

Used to know Sharron quite well many years ago, played squash regularly with her second husband. She wasn't the sharpest card back then. Nothing seems to have changed.

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HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
22 likes

Chris Boardman's view on opponents of active travel initiatives with illogical arguments is 'don't engage, just ignore them'. I agree.

Road.cc has some interesting content, but I find the constant search for outrage-generation stories wearing.

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sean1 replied to HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
8 likes

Yes road.cc definitely likes the click-bait articles.

I wish they wouldn't publish so many of these types of stories and balance them with more positive and worthwhile news.

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Jippily replied to HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
3 likes

It's far more important to know what Jeremy Vine is getting up to than any real cycling news.

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EddyBerckx replied to HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
5 likes

Yeah it means I visit less - I don't wanna get angry due to a minority of no nothing idiots and their vile / ignorant opinions shoved in my face every time I visit the website.

Cycling has been such a positive thing in my life - I'd rather keep it that way

Avatar
vthejk replied to EddyBerckx | 1 year ago
1 like

I struggle with this. Yes, I find cycling to be important and have positive associations with it; though equally, some of the outrage-generating issues are important and need discussing in order to put them to bed. Or are they only important because we write about them? Jury's out.

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Gimpl replied to vthejk | 1 year ago
4 likes

It's not usually the article but the bollocks underneath. From much the same posters.

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Flintshire Boy replied to Gimpl | 1 year ago
0 likes

.

LOL! Like it.

.

A LOT.

.

Yours, Even Nasty FB.

.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to HarrogateSpa | 1 year ago
10 likes

HarrogateSpa wrote:

Chris Boardman's view on opponents of active travel initiatives with illogical arguments is 'don't engage, just ignore them'. I agree.

I don't.  The problem with ignoring them, and not countering their arguments is that is all the public hears are the lies, so it becomes accepted wisdom.  Once the lies have been around for some time unchallenged, they get the status of facts, and the majority believe them, and once people believe something it is very difficult to change their minds, e.g. Brexit, helmets.

My opinion is that the people lying about LTNs and 15 minute neighbourhoods should be called out and their lies exposed at every opportunity.

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes
eburtthebike wrote:

HarrogateSpa wrote:

Chris Boardman's view on opponents of active travel initiatives with illogical arguments is 'don't engage, just ignore them'. I agree.

I don't.  The problem with ignoring them, and not countering their arguments is that is all the public hears are the lies, so it becomes accepted wisdom.  Once the lies have been around for some time unchallenged, they get the status of facts, and the majority believe them, and once people believe something it is very difficult to change their minds, e.g. Brexit, helmets.

My opinion is that the people lying about LTNs and 15 minute neighbourhoods should be called out and their lies exposed at every opportunity.

Yep, gotta challenge all those lies by telling people that... *checks notes* ... Helmets kill people. Bravo.

Avatar
AidanR replied to ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
3 likes
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:

Yep, gotta challenge all those lies by telling people that... *checks notes* ... Helmets kill people. Bravo.

Helmets don't kill people. People wearing helmets kill people.

Avatar
SimoninSpalding replied to AidanR | 1 year ago
1 like

Oh and now you've planted Goldie looking chain in my head again....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICG0MuzEYzw

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NotNigel replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
0 likes

Ditto.

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ShutTheFrontDawes replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
2 likes
SimoninSpalding wrote:

Oh and now you've planted Goldie looking chain in my head again....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICG0MuzEYzw

WOOP WOOP! Dats da sound of da police! Oh wait, no it isn't due to budget cuts in road policing.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to SimoninSpalding | 1 year ago
2 likes

"Helmets don't kill people, people wearing helmets do *:
I'm a helmet-wearer and I might kill you"?

* shouldn't this be 'people driving motor vehicles'?

Avatar
Backladder replied to AidanR | 1 year ago
0 likes

AidanR wrote:
ShutTheFrontDawes wrote:

Yep, gotta challenge all those lies by telling people that... *checks notes* ... Helmets kill people. Bravo.

Helmets don't kill people. People wearing helmets kill people.

No, no, no, no, no, get it right!

Helmets don't kill people, I kill people, with helmets.

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