Council blasted for issuing more “nonsense” nuisance notices on bikes parked on pavement; “Cycling teams, enough with the shady sponsors”: Movistar accused of sportswashing after Saudi Arabia deal; Amy Pieters takes first steps + more on the live blog

Back at the start of September, we reported that Hackney Council had come in for criticism after one of its officers slapped an enforcement notice on a family-owned cargo bike parked on a pavement, demanding its removal within seven days.

Just under seven weeks later (so, Liz Truss’s entire stint in No. 10 then), the council has once again been blasted for issuing the so-called ‘nuisance’ notices, this time to two bikes locked outside their owners’ home on the footpath.

@hackneycouncil what on earth is going on? Not just cargobikes, you are now ticketing 'standard' cycles locked outside people's houses (with PLENTY of space left on the pavement). We have two cycle hangers for over 100 houses/flats! @metecoban92 can you please stop this nonsense? pic.twitter.com/WKmhoypxUg

— Ruth-Anna (@bikesandbabies) October 22, 2022

Posting images of the parked bikes on Twitter, along with the seven-day notice to remove them from the street, local cyclist Ruth-Anna wrote: “Hackney Council, what on earth is going on? Not just cargo bikes, you are now ticketing ‘standard’ cycles locked outside people’s houses (with PLENTY of space left on the pavement). We have two cycle hangars for over 100 houses/flats!”

She also called on Hackney councillor Mete Coban, who has expressed sympathy in the past for the plight of cyclists forced to store their bikes outside, to “stop this nonsense”.

> Council slaps nuisance notice on family cargo bike parked on pavement

In September, Will Prochaska’s cargo bike, which he uses to transport his three toddlers around the area and which is parked on the pavement due to a lack of private storage space, was issued with a seven-day ‘nuisance’ notice from the council.

According to Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980, “if anything is so deposited on a highway as to constitute a nuisance, the highway authority for the highway may by notice require the person who deposited it there to remove it forthwith.”

If the perceived nuisance isn’t removed by the owner within a week, the local authority may lodge a complaint with a magistrates’ court or remove the offending item themselves immediately.

We were shocked to find a council notice on our bike today saying it’s a nuisance that will be removed in 7 days.☹ We think it's a fantastic example of healthy travel. It’s parked in a way that doesn't block the pavement. Where can we move it? @metecoban92 @hackneycouncil pic.twitter.com/bIHYcVu86d

— Will Prochaska (@WillProchaska) September 6, 2022

After Will posted on Twitter about the unexpected notice (the result, it later transpired, of a complaint from another resident), arguing, like Ruth-Anna, that the bike doesn’t block the footpath and represents a “fantastic example” of healthy travel, Hackney Council was roundly condemned for what many viewed as its rather flippant response to the issue.

Responding to the post on social media, the council argued that Will’s bike “is causing an obstruction on the pavement so it would need to be removed and parked somewhere safe. This can be on your own private property or somewhere designated for bicycles.”

“I think the case shows the desperate need for cargo bike parking solutions in Hackney,” Will told road.cc at the time. “As it is, the way we park our bike never blocks the pavement, so the argument that it’s an obstruction is false.

“Hackney Council have led the way in the UK to support active travel, so this nuisance notice was a surprise. I suspect it’s indicative of an over-zealous council officer who may have a chip on their shoulder about cyclists.”

Credit: Twitter, bikesandbabies

Responding to road.cc’s request for comment, a spokesperson for Hackney Council said in September: “We’re London’s top borough for cycling, with nearly one in four of our residents cycling once a week and the most residential cycle parking of any London borough.

“We’ve just announced the introduction of 675 new cycle hangars, doubling what we already have, and it’s really important that we continue to encourage people to travel healthily, including by cargo bike.

“The aim of enforcement notices like this is to keep our pavements clear of obstructions for prams and people who use wheelchairs… However, we do recognise that it can be hard for people to park cargo bikes if they don’t have private space for it.”

Unsurprisingly, Hackney Council’s latest example of “encouraging people to travel healthily” – by making them remove their bikes from the footpath – hasn’t gone down too well on Twitter:

But this is fine. Spoiler they're all illegally parked https://t.co/CNEJVzskXU

— Bob From Accounts 🚲 (@BobFromAccounts) October 22, 2022

Councils need to introduce some new guidelines which allow people to put their own bike parking sheds in the street. If a box with wheels outside is allowed, a box with wheels inside should be as well

— Talia Hussain (@Talia_inReality) October 23, 2022

There needs to be Sheffield stands in parking spaces on every road

— Tom Massey (@tomass78) October 22, 2022

Dan will be taking over live blog duties for the rest of the week, so I’ll catch you all on Monday. Anyway, as the nights close in, I’m off for a date with the much-neglected turbo trainer…

Cette illustration de 1897 est incroyable ! Home-trainer, soufflerie, vidéo...

Source : “The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review” pic.twitter.com/zp8JU8OGwd

— David Guénel (@davidguenel) October 24, 2022

People protecting constant fly-parking in 24-hour cycle lane to schools @ Harold’s Cross @IBIKEDublin @DubCityCouncil pic.twitter.com/IHgGGe11sp

— Petrichor (@Sinabhfuil) October 25, 2022

When is protected infrastructure not protected infrastructure? When you have to form a human barrier to prevent motorists from using it and to allow children to cycle safely to school, that’s when.

This rather startling safety initiative was held this morning on a 24-hour cycle lane in the Dublin inner suburb of Harold’s Cross, close to five local schools, and was supported by local cycling campaign group I Bike Dublin.

thank you @IBIKEDublin, It was fantastic to see some much support!! something needs to be done to improve the cycling infrastructure in Harold's Cross! there are 5 schools in the area and no safe cycling for the children. Speed limit is at 50km/h with plenty of cars speeding! https://t.co/NwScgMRfQm pic.twitter.com/PaxzofqEHs

— Francesco Pilla (@f_pilla) October 25, 2022

However, despite the efforts of those involved, some drivers still seemed unable or unwilling to heed the message:

As always a van blocks entrance to 24-hour cycle lane pic.twitter.com/Nvw6W4N94S

— Petrichor (@Sinabhfuil) October 25, 2022

And the very second the lane protection line was gone, a car and a van pulled up blocking the entrance. Driver "Mind yer own business" - is it not our business that this 24-hour cycle lane is meant to protect our safety? Not good enough @DubCityCouncil

— Petrichor (@Sinabhfuil) October 25, 2022

Il y a 50 ans aujourd’hui, Eddy Merckx battait le record de l’heure à Mexico (49,431 km).
pic.twitter.com/26YButokvB

— David Guénel (@davidguenel) October 25, 2022

While Filippo Ganna’s scorching, superhuman effort in Grenchen earlier this month has reignited the cycling world’s interest in the Hour Record, and effectively tore up the script concerning one of cycling’s most prestigious feats, the most iconic Hour Record moment still belongs to the greatest male cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx.

> Filippo Ganna roars to spectacular new UCI Hour Record of 56.792km

Fifty years ago today, on the morning of 25 October 1972, after two days in which the rain had made the outdoor track in Mexico City unrideable, Merckx set off for his 60 minutes of cycling purgatory with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Firmly established as the most dominant rider of his, or indeed any, generation, the pressure on Merckx was enormous: Fail, and everything he had achieved up to that point – the Tours, the Giri, the classics, the rainbow jerseys – could be eclipsed by one moment of defining, excruciatingly public failure.

Those reputational concerns, exacerbated by Merckx’s last-minute aim to break two intermediate records on the way to the Hour, were clearly palpable trackside.

Sports journalist Marc Jeuniau, who described the record attempt as the most intense experience of his reporting career, wrote: “The men intimately concerned with the champion’s performance were going through atrocious moments that they will never forget. The face of Jean Van Buggenhout was crimson. Old Piero Molteni was crying. Colnago, who was ready to run over if Merckx had a puncture, looked weighed down by the spare bike on his shoulders. Lucien Acou, the least confident of all of them, had trouble hiding his nerves, and, alone in a corner of the track, Doctor Cavalli was following Merckx with haggard eyes.”

Oct 25,1972, Eddy Merckx (Bel) " The Cannibal" broke the UCI hour record, riding 49.431 kilometers in one hour. Look at the bike ridden by Merckx, an incredible athlete. pic.twitter.com/mdxDGECVuF

— The World of Cycling (@twocGAME) November 22, 2020

They needn’t have worried: Merckx’s start was blisteringly, almost recklessly, fast – especially at altitude. His first kilometre, from a standing start, took only one minute and 10 seconds (a time worthy of a world champs medal in the Kilo back then), while world records for the 10km and 20km distances were set along the way.

A mid-Hour crisis was duly navigated through sheer force of will, before a final crescendo saw Merckx destroy Ole Ritter’s record by 788 metres (the biggest jump the record had seen since 1912) to set an ‘unbeatable’ mark of 49.431 kilometres.

> Cycling’s greatest ever seasons

The Belgian, after a quick warm down, was carried from his bike, his face distorted into a painful, iconic grimace.

Chris Boardman, who in 2000 broke the Cannibal’s 1972 mark, following the UCI’s disastrous decision to ‘reset’ the Hour in the midst of the superbike age, told cycling author William Fotheringham for his Merckx biography, Half Man Half Bike: “I watched footage of Merckx being carried off afterwards and was laughing a bit, I thought it was showmanship. But I couldn’t walk for four days after the 2000 Hour. There is something about that position that does massive damage to you. It’s to do with riding on the drops.”

Merckx, meanwhile, told his DS at Molteni, Giorgio Albani, “never to mention the Hour Record again”.

Fifty years ago today, the Cannibal was finally defeated by the only man capable of the feat: Himself.

Three-time Madison world champion Amy Pieters has walked for the first time since a training crash last December left her in a coma for four months.

The 31-year-old former Dutch road race champion, who has won the European road race championships, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Ronde van Drenthe and the GP Plouay during her eleven-year professional career, has been undergoing rehabilitation since waking from a coma in April.

The SD Worx rider was on a training camp in Calpe near Alicante when she crashed two days before Christmas last year, losing consciousness and sustaining serious head injuries.

> Amy Pieters shows signs of “awareness” four months after crash that left her in a coma

Pieters, who had won a stage of the Tour of Britain and finished fourth overall in her last road race of 2021, was placed in an induced coma and underwent an operation to relieve the pressure on her brain, before being repatriated to the Netherlands by air ambulance in early January.

Since waking from a coma in April, she then moved her recovery to the Daan Theeuwes Centre in Woerden, a specialist brain injury facility. There, her rehabilitation has improved – despite some setbacks – and she has cycled on a side-by-side tandem and, most recently, taken her first steps.

Amy Pieters has taken her first steps!

Amy has been in therapy for a while at the Daan Theeuwes Center in Woerden. She has also already been able to cycle along on a side-by-side tandem.

Read more about her rehabilitation: https://t.co/S3fbOLTDkN#smiletoenjoy pic.twitter.com/Q4nK8sSDel

— Team SD Worx (@teamsdworx) October 25, 2022

“Amy has taken her first steps!” an update on her website says. “Amy has been in therapy for a while at the Daan Theeuwes Center in Woerden, the Netherlands. Various exercises and training sessions are given that Amy participates in. Amy has already been able to cycle along on a side-by-side tandem.

“Lately, it’s been a little more difficult to motivate Amy with physical exercises. Talking is not yet possible, which makes it difficult to explain herself. Not being able to explain or express herself is sometimes a bit difficult for her and also for us. Fortunately, she can be motivated by playing a game. We take it for granted that she chooses her own moment. And that moment comes because suddenly she is standing!

“With a little help, she gets up from her chair and takes her own steps. She walks for short moments when supported. This is what we like to see.

“Amy sets the pace. There are days when she doesn’t want to show this again, and then there comes another day when she wants to stand, starts walking, and immediately makes a serious effort. What she shows then is the conviction that Amy will be able to walk again! Amy’s tiny steps are already turning into real steps. What a progression!

“We now hear more and more soft sounds from her. Then we’re glad to hear from her. Sometimes we suddenly hear a small word clearly escape from her mouth. She does not repeat this yet, but it’s so nice and hopeful to hear her familiar voice in this spontaneously uttered word.”

However, the update also emphasised that there have been several setbacks and interruptions to Pieters’ recovery, and that she has suffered a number of epileptic seizures.

“However, there are also moments of panic,” the update continues. “Everything seems to be going a little better and then suddenly we are again confronted with the facts. Amy had an epileptic seizure. Ambulance at the door and panic everywhere. The last time Amy had an epileptic seizure, she had a massive relapse. Probably by acting well and quickly and letting her sleep for a long time, Amy has no further serious consequences, apart from a considerable fatigue. Thank God.

“We must have patience and hope. We are convinced that Amy will show us some very beautiful things.We can’t thank the people often enough who help Amy. This also applies to her fellow rehabilitators, who continue to motivate each other positively. This strengthens everyone. But also, thanks to the volunteers, therapists, doctors, friends, acquaintances, family and everyone who gives Amy a warm heart.”