Furious van driver blasts horn and rages at cyclist… for stopping at a red light; “You are f***ing it up for all of us”: Cyclist berates Just Stop Oil activists for “harming the green cause”; “Fantastic turnout for DriveLondon” + more on the live blog

Ah, those pesky cyclists, always stopping at red lights… Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?

But that was the rather bewildering accusation thrown yesterday at Cork-based cyclist John – whose clips of poor driving from his Rightobikeit Twitter account have been featured previously on the blog and Near Miss of the Day – by a van driver unhappy that the cyclist had come to a stop… in a bike box… at a red light.

Hilarious. If he had rammed me from behind while I was stopping at at a red light it’d be my fault. 🤣🤣🤣 the red face on him that I didn’t facilitate him🤣🤣🤣. (Apologies I’d deleted the unstaffed video split) pic.twitter.com/SLoAUArT8W

— Righttobikeit 🇺🇦 (@righttobikeit) May 29, 2023

In the clip, as John stops at the traffic lights (coming to a halt in a designated painted section of the road designed to give people on bikes space), the impatient van driver immediately blares his horn, before opening and leaning out of his door to accuse the “very, very dangerous” cyclist of “jamming on his brakes”.

“At a red light? Really?” the baffled cyclist responds. “The lights are red, and you’re supposed to stop if you can.

“You’re responsible to stop a perfect distance away from me. I stopped at a red light!”

The video, posted on Twitter last night, was met with an equally confused response from John’s fellow cyclists.

“Great, now any time a driver complains about cyclists jumping red lights, we can show them this driver complaining that a cyclist didn’t do that,” wrote Steve.

“I don’t like cyclists because they go through red lights”

“I don’t like cyclists because they stop at red lights”

🤦‍♂️😂 https://t.co/IeW1AXMXzU

— Rich M (@noiseboyrich) May 30, 2023

Meanwhile, another Cork cyclist, Ashling, noted that the junction in question “has a delay between the red light you stopped at and the pedestrian crossing turning green. The pedestrian was already crossing as you stopped, so if you had done as he said was he going to run over the pedestrian.”

I’m not sure the van driver took that into consideration if I’m honest, Ashling…

Funny how those willing to be irresponsible & illegal road users expect others to be irresponsible & illegal road users unless being an irresponsible & illegal road user would somehow impede their determination to be an irresponsible & illegal road user
Something like that

— AcceptThe😷Person😷RichWiltshir🎃🟧 (@TheWiltshir) May 29, 2023

“The absolute f'ing irony,” says Bob. “‘Cyclists need number plates because they don’t stop at red lights’. Also: ‘Why did you stop at that red light!’”

As John noted on Twitter last night, yesterday’s incident wasn’t the first time that he has been subject to those startling levels of cognitive dissonance:

Funny how it’s ok for cyclists to break red lights when it suits some drivers pic.twitter.com/MBzrvpvvv9

— Righttobikeit 🇺🇦 (@righttobikeit) November 11, 2022

But remember – cyclists, red lights, hi-viz, and so on…

Shut up and take my money now…

To mark the end of the Giro, Vittoria has released these rather tasty pink sidewall Corsa Pros, which were worn around Rome during the Italian grand tour’s final stage on Sunday by EF Education-EasyPost, Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Astana Qazaqstan, with a certain British champion sprinting to the stage win on the limited-edition tyres.

It was the pink sidewalls that did it!

Only 1,000 of these beauties have been produced, so if you fancy mimicking Cav’s last ever Giro stage winning look, you better get on it quick…

> Vittoria claims new Corsa Pro is “the most advanced cotton road tyre ever made” 

I don’t know about you, but if I lost the Giro d’Italia by just 14 seconds on the penultimate day, and then managed to muster enough enthusiasm and energy to help my old mate score a fairy tale stage win the very next day, I’d probably spend the entirety of June in a dark room, never mind turning my attention to new goals and targets.

But that’s exactly what Geraint Thomas, the victim of that ruthless display of shock and awe by Primož Roglič on Monte Lussari on Saturday, has been doing since the weekend.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Speaking on his Watts Occurring podcast with teammate Luke Rowe, the Ineos Grenadiers rider says he will follow up the fourth grand tour podium of his career with a tilt at the British national championships at the end of June, before aiming to secure a first rainbow jersey on the road at August’s inaugural combined world championships in Scotland, where the rolling 47.8km course around Stirling should suit Thomas if he’s on form.

When it comes to three-week races, however, the 37-year-old is less sure about his plans – though he definitely won’t be lining up in Bilbao for the Tour de France on 1 July. However, he did say that the Vuelta a España, a race he’s only taken part in once, back in 2015, and a well-trodden path to redemption for those scorned at the Giro, was a “possibility”.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

“I’m with the family for a week now. I’ll do a coffee ride, one or two, just to turn the legs over, but this week pretty much shut it down, then get going again,” Thomas said on the podcast.

“Nationals will be my next race and I’m looking forward to that. Worlds will be the next target. Being in the UK, it’s a big one, isn’t it, so maybe target the TT there.

“Then possibly the Vuelta as well, but we’ll see about that. I’m not going to commit to anything just yet, but I’ve already done the Vuelta once and it wasn’t a good experience, so it would be nice to go and have a better one.”.

A moment of silence, please, as we mourn the sad loss of Campagnolo’s iconic thumb shifters, a mainstay of the Italian brand since the end of the down-tube shifting era.

Those beautiful, elegant (and distinctly Campagnolo) thumb shifters have vanished without a trace from the Super Record Wireless, Campag’s debut with wireless electronic shifting, replaced by two paddles behind the brake lever.

Out with the classic, and in with the 21st century...

They may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, certainly, but still, it’s a sad day for all lovers of tradition, history, and the satisfying thwack made as you shifted with your thumb.

Is nothing sacred anymore?!

Read more:

> Campagnolo ditches iconic thumb shifter and goes wireless with new Super Record Wireless electronic groupset... and it'll cost you £4.5k

Breaking News: TalkTV’s Mike Graham has taken the side of a cyclist (well kind of).

The concrete expert – who just two months ago advised his long-suffering viewers to not brake for people on bikes – was of course referring to the North London liberal cyclist who decided to vent his frustrations at yesterday’s Just Stop Oil protests in London, in a segment helpfully titled ‘Green Civil War’.

A cyclist in London has berated Just Stop Oil accusing them of “hurting the green cause”.

Nick Buckley MBE: “I think Just Stop Oil are being used, like Lenin said: ‘they are useful idiots’”@iromg | @NickBuckleyMBE pic.twitter.com/hcVEzyhW9a

— TalkTV (@TalkTV) May 30, 2023

Joined by independent, and anti-active travel (as well as anti- a few other things), Greater Manchester mayoral candidate Nick Buckley, Graham claimed that the climate activists were intent on provoking “violence” through their traffic-blocking demonstrations.

Well, at least he didn’t mention the Highway Code this time…

29-year-old German pro Rick Zabel (who’s been around long enough by now, I don’t feel the need to mention his more famous dad… Ah, shoot) appears to be combining his lead-out duties lately with a side hustle as the star, director, and producer of a series of bike-related Instagram videos.

His latest attempt, focusing on the eternal (and eternally boring, am I right?) wave debate, can best be described as an entertaining if deeply unsettling hybrid thriller/horror/cycling etiquette public information film:

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Rick Zabel (@rickzabel)

‘Pro cyclists have their say on everyday cycling debates’ – Now there’s an idea for a Netflix series…

Have you recovered yet from that weekend of pure sporting drama at the Giro d’Italia? (Alright, enough with the snarky comments about the previous three weeks…)

Well, if like me, you spent your weekend shouting at your television and your Bank Holiday Monday going for a long bike ride just to process it all, here’s what you may have missed on road.cc…

(Warning: may contain references to veteran DJs who just love a bit of a ‘joke’.)

> Mark Cavendish sprints to sensational farewell Giro d’Italia stage win in Rome... with the help of some friends  

> Heartbreak for Geraint Thomas as Primož Roglič seals sensational Giro d’Italia win despite dropping chain during dramatic time trial 

> “Educating people wasn’t working… Hopefully this will deter others”: Police target motorists using city centre pedestrian and cycle zone as a “shortcut”

> Tony Blackburn calls for RideLondon to be replaced by “event for car owners” – because “there are more of us and we pay to go on the roads”

Plus:

> Near Miss of the Day 866: £1,000 fine for close pass driver

> Almost all drivers agree that close passes of cyclists put lives at risk

> Grandmother, 85, completes 1,000-mile bike ride to remember her late children

> British Cycling’s new ‘Open’ category “patently designed to make sure that transgender women will compete at a major disadvantage”, says “perplexed” transgender cyclist

> Top TV comedy producer who “flipped the bird” and told CyclingMikey to “go f*** yourself” fined over £2,000 and handed six points for phone use while driving

> Primož Roglič gears up for decisive – and monstrous – Giro d’Italia mountain time trial by using gravel groupset… and specialist bike change mechanic