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2023 Ford RideLondon sportive (RideLondon)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”
As thousands of cyclists, from families to pro racers, take to the streets of London on their bikes today as part of RideLondon’s festival of cycling, veteran DJ and TV presenter Tony Blackburn has claimed that the mass participation events should be replaced next year by an event “for car owners” – because “there are more of us and we do pay to go on the roads”.
The former BBC Radio 1 DJ and Top of the Pops host was replying to a tweet from London mayor Sadiq Khan, who described RideLondon as the “world’s biggest city bike festival”, after organisers confirmed that 50,000 riders would take part in today’s mass participation events, including the RideLondon-Essex sportive and the family-friendly FreeCycle, which took place over eight miles of traffic-free roads in central London earlier today.
That festival of cycling ends later this afternoon with the finish of the third and final stage of the RideLondon Classique on the Mall, with Lizzie Deignan – making her return to British roads following the birth of her second child – sitting in second place overall heading into today, behind American Chloe Dygert.
How about having an event next year for car owners in London instead of cyclists after all there are more of us and we do pay to go on the roads, https://t.co/K7sNmu7ciX
— Tony Blackburn (@tonyblackburn) May 28, 2023
However, cycling’s one-day takeover of central London has appeared to irk 80-year-old Blackburn, who tweeted this morning: “How about having an event next year for car owners in London instead of cyclists? After all there are more of us and we do pay to go on the roads.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the DJ’s tweet has been widely criticised online, with one cyclist replying that “every day is an event for car owners, Tony”.
Others questioned Blackburn’s claim that motorists pay to use the roads – an allusion to Vehicle Excise Duty or, as it’s often mistakenly referred to as, ‘road tax’ – with Twitter user Phil asking Blackburn to “direct me to where you pay, and what you pay”.
“Cyclists very often are car owners. So are many marathon runners at a marathon ‘event’,” wrote CyclingInASkirt. “How much more do you pay exactly to use the road than either of these? You’re aware general taxation pays for roads – which we all pay – aren’t you?”
> 'Road tax' is coming... but not for cyclists
Blackburn’s tweet comes less than two months after another post in which he criticised what he views as Britain’s “ridiculous obsession with 20mph speed limits everywhere”.
He continued: “Who is it that decides that we motorists now are overtaken by cyclists?”
Of course, the winner of the 2002 edition of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here isn’t the first to take aim at RideLondon’s annual use of the roads.
Back in January, a local council in Essex claimed that the majority of locals “don’t particularly want” the sportive to return to the town this year as residents “can’t get out of their own road” during the popular mass ride event, which moved to the county for 2022 following seven editions in Surrey.
Members of Ongar Town Council also argued that the apparent benefits of hosting the sportive – particularly for local businesses – were unfounded, and that the money made available to charities thanks to the event could be exceeded if all households in the area donated a “pound or two”.
What an 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐜 day so far, the good times just keep on rolling ✌️#RideLondon pic.twitter.com/jXoKx5LlfF
— Ford RideLondon (@RideLondon) May 28, 2023
Despite the concerns of DJs and some local authorities, this year’s RideLondon – which marks the tenth anniversary of the event – has continued to prove a success, attracting a record 25,000 participants for the 30, 60, and 100 mile sportive rides, and the same number for the closed roads family ride through London.
The glorious sunshine and sight of thousands of cyclists riding through the centre of London prompted a much more upbeat and enthusiastic tweet from Olympic champion and Active Travel England chief Chris Boardman:
Not a bad office for the day.#ridelondon pic.twitter.com/FSKDLuV4cW
— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) May 28, 2023
And, naturally, one sarcastic reply aimed at a certain Mr Blackburn:
@tonyblackburn bloody cyclists 😡
— Ken Storr (@kennethstorr) May 28, 2023
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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51 comments
If they're an embarrassment to you then move - you're an embarrassment to our country.
It's fitting that you should think that fealty to some land-owner should come before the rights of people to live in the area that they were born. That kind of attitude is what led to some of the worst British Empire atrocities including torture of those people that wouldn't submit.
Personally, I don't mind if people want to swear an oath to some figurehead - that's their business though I think they've just bought into the media propaganda. Meanwhile you seem to have a wish to only have a monoculture of people all thinking the same and with no dissenting voices - sounds like nationalistic intolerance to me.
I think you will finf 'our' country has a plethora of views on the monarchy. Some you will like and some you won't and expressing dislike of a hereditary monarchy is maybe a minority one, but it is a significant one.
Monarchists generally develop three arguments
The last is probably the best of a bad bunch, but it is hardly a huge vote of confidence.
If 'go and emigrate' is the level of your discussion. You have lost the argument.
I know who is embarrassing themselves on this Forum and he doesn't have a penchant for a squirrel image.
Me too - it's an amazing palace. I think I prefer the quirkiness of Neuschwanstein Castle (built for "Mad" King Ludwig II) along with Linderhof Palace (also Ludwig's) that has a massive dining table that was designed to be loaded with food in the kitchen and then winched up to where the king would dine so that he didn't have to interact with anyone.
Do they? 15,000,000 people visit Versaille every year, and France hasn't had a monarchy since 1792.
Do you think tourists will stop visiting London or Windsor if there is no Monarch?
I'm not a republican, as I can't see how ripping up the institiution will make any difference in our lives, the country is run by parliament not the monarch. But I'm not convinced by the assertion that all Visitors to London are only here because of the royals.
Indeed, I was in that there London at the weekend, for a pleasant ride on my bike.
Didn't even become king by being handed a sword by a woman in a lake.
Surely Penny Mordaunt counts for something though?
If I went around saying I was king just because some Tory bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they'd lock me away!
Come and see the violence inherant in the system! Help, help, I'm being oppressed!!
How about claiming that you're the emperor?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton
"Bloody London Marathon! Roads closed! Can't get anywhere! People trapped in their houses! And have any of them have paid any Road Tax?!?!?"
Said absolutely nobody!
Probably quite a few, but not many with high media profiles.
I actually agree with the request. Imagine closing the M25 for a day for those that are willing to pay to drive round for a few hours.
Alternatively, allowing people drive how, when and where they want for 24hrs, no tax, mot or insurance required. You crash you pay and don't expect emergency services to attend. You breakdown you have to wait until time is up.
The drivist equivalent of The Purge?
"I actually agree with the request. Imagine closing the M25 for a day for those that are willing to pay to drive round for a few hours."
And with a special prize for any that get to the end.
"I actually agree with the request. Imagine closing the M25 for a day for those that are willing to pay to drive round for a few hours."
.. because most people that start to drive around the M25 never actually make it.
Old age gets to them first...
Why doesn't he head off to the M25 for an enjoyable day out with thousands of other motorists? There's even a taxpayer funded reserved route that cyclists are banned from. Entry is free (though a small charge is made if you want to do the Thames crossing section in Essex) and there are even special service areas for a welcome snack as you make your way around.
I think maybe he did just that. A couple of hours ago, cycling up the A23 at Merstham, where it crosses the M25, I glanced down and saw 4 lanes of nose-to-tail traffic, trundling very slowly clockwise, with 40 limit signs on the gantries. Is that the "event" the old dinosaur wants for his "car owners who pay for the roads"?
As a northerner and not familiar with the geography of the south, where is the fee paying Thames crossing in Essex?
The Dartford Crossing is a toll road, taking you from Kent south of the Thames to Essex north of it.
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