Local politician tries telling Facebook followers why more people cycling is a win for everyone... has to close comments "within minutes"; Should TT bikes be banned?; Pro to miss Tour de France after collision with driver + more on the live blog

Nathan Ley is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Abingdon North in Oxfordshire, the local politician taking to Facebook to challenge his followers with an at-length post about the benefits of cycling, not just for those who partake, but for everyone else and society as a whole. Making the case for "why all of us (especially car drivers) should support making it easier for others to do it around town". Seriously? You tried converting people on Facebook?! The home of sensible, nuanced discussion? Tough gig that one...

Nathan reported having to "turn off the comments within minutes" after it "started to kick off with tabloid lines being trotted out", but stood by the fact "we have to challenge people sometimes". So what was the unforgivable pro-cycling writings that attracted the keyboard warriors? Here's the post in full, reshared on the secondary home of sensible, nuanced discussion... Twitter...

I challenged my Facebook followers by posting about cycling. I had to turn off the comments within minutes, but I repost it below and hope you will read - thank you

********************

🚲 𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗸𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀 (𝖊𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖈𝖎𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖞 𝖈𝖆𝖗… pic.twitter.com/zcJduyls4V

— Cllr Nathan Ley (@LeyNathan) June 13, 2024

 Let's dive in. Nathan concluded his post: "When something so simple is so transformative for ALL road users, I'm happy to put my neck on the line for it, and I will sing about it occasionally. Please consider joining us if you can, and make Abingdon a shining beacon of an example — for as long as I'm here I promise I'll try and make it easier for everyone to do so, if you want to."

In the preceding 1,000 words he outlined all the reasons why he's come to this viewpoint, starting with the reasons to ride a bike, before (perhaps even more importantly for those unconvinced) moving on to list reasons why more cycling benefits people who don't cycle themselves.

In the first section, the well-known pros of cycling are given a shout-out: health, environment, cost savings, supporting local businesses, safer roads, community spirit. 

"BUT..." Nathan wrote. "Here is why the real winner and why I think we should all care, even if you have no intention of ever jumping on a bike."

"And finally, in a virtuous cycle….Encourages Efficient Public Transport: A decrease in road congestion can also benefit public transport systems. Buses can run more smoothly and on schedule, making public transport a more attractive option for commuters and further reducing the number of cars on the road. It's chicken and egg. If Oxford Bus Company could be guaranteed less traffic then they would invest in more routes, more vehicles, more drivers, and options for everyone would be more plentiful."

Quite outrageous, I know... outrageous enough for a comments section pile-on anyway... 

It went down better with Nathan's followers on Twitter at least:

Agree. As you say, it's hard to get that point across in writing. Need to give everyone a free day with an eBike and say "go off, have a play with this" and so many opinions would be transformed.

— Cllr Nathan Ley (@LeyNathan) June 13, 2024

Richard J Law: "Well said. I think that, for the most part, the angry minority really have other issues & just live in a divisive world where they are encouraged by the media to blame others for their problems without the intervention of logic or empathy. Ride on." 

Raoul Morley: "This is excellent, I'm a late driver I passed today, and have used a bike my entire life as my main means of transport, and still will. Everyone wins with more cycling, there's less traffic and a healthier and happier population."

Johnny Plectrum: "Unfortunately social media discussions regarding cycle use invariably fail as there appears to be a good percentage of motorists that don't understand that it's not one or the other. Choice is permitted. The right vehicle at the right time is my motto."

As if Tadej Pogačar needed any more help. As if just being a ridiculously talented freak of a cyclist wasn't enough, his teammates that'll be helping in his aim to reclaim the Tour de France next month aren't half bad either.

So let me get this right, you're bringing Juan Ayuso, Adam Yates, João Almeida, Pavel Sivakov, Marc Soler, Tim Wellens and Nils Politt. As we said earlier, not half bad.

Yates and Almeida had their fun at the Tour de Suisse this afternoon, pulling off a 1-2 finish as the Brit extended his lead at the head of the GC, his teammate setting a ferocious pace up the final climb before reeling back in those who'd tried to go with Yates when he launched his stage-winning move.

UAE Team Emirates en démonstration ! Adam Yates conforte son maillot jaune en remportant la 5e étape du #TourdeSuisse devant João Almeida #LesRP pic.twitter.com/evLsIhIJ5m

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) June 13, 2024

Those riders in question were Egan Bernal, Enric Mas and an impressive Matthew Riccitello, before British duo Tom Pidcock and Oscar Onley came home 30 seconds back. 

Long bike riding ‘nutrition’

These days, this is how I roll 😀 pic.twitter.com/SC6iBlrh5L

— Chris Boardman (@Chris_Boardman) June 13, 2024

On the 3rd of June I was hit by a car during a training ride. I was transported immediately to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a heavy concussion. Next weeks I’ll need time to recover. Thanks for all the support and good luck to my team! @soudalquickstep

— Pieter Serry (@Pieter_Serry) June 12, 2024

 Soudal Quick-Step veteran Pieter Serry, a domestique who has started 17 Grand Tours in his career but never the Tour de France, will not be making his Tour debut this year after being hit by a driver.

The Belgian rider fortunately escaped without any fractures but has a bad concussion, the 35-year-old telling Het Nieuwsblad that while "there is no sign" of the crash except some "minor" cuts and bruises, he is seeing double due to the concussion.

Having ridden the Giro, Serry enjoyed a week off, returning to training last week in the hope of being one of the Soudal Quick-Step riders to make Tour selection from a 10-man longlist, an ambition the crash has now brought a premature end to.

"I hope to be able to start training on the rollers this week," he said. "It remains to be seen when I can get back on the road. It is difficult to set new goals, but I hope that I can do an altitude training course with the team in the summer and ride the classics or the Vuelta again in the autumn."

Elsewhere in the Belgian domestique news round-up, it is believed Victor Campenaerts will be joining Visma-Lease a Bike once transfers can be announced on August 1. It is reported Campenaerts will join at the start of next season with an eye to being a cog in the Dutch outfit's formidable Tour de France line-up, signing a three-year deal.

> Royal Parks cancels Richmond Park time trials over fears cyclists will break 20mph speed limit, after inquest into pedestrian fatality in "speeding" cyclist collision "brought this activity to people's attention"

Scott Mitchell from Endmoor in South Cumbria is now the holder of a world record for... most UK counties visited by bicycle in one week, the BBC reports. Scott actually completed the ride last June, but it has now been confirmed by Guinness, the father (completing the ride to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy UK, a condition his son lives with) riding through 43 of England's 48 counties.

The ride started in Cornwall and finished in Lancashire a week later as Scott raised almost £7,300 to raise awareness about the lack of cure for Becker muscular dystrophy.

"More than anything, I need the world to see what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and to spread the word," he said. "For Alex, the basics are hard — getting out of bed, getting from room to room — but it affects him mentally as well as physically. The progression of his condition is becoming increasingly obvious and impacts every aspect of his life, which is heartbreaking to watch as a parent."

The discussion around the safety of TT bikes has been resumed this week, a duo of legendary retired Dutch riders, Annemiek van Vleuten and Tom Dumoulin, disagreeing over whether the specialist aero set-ups are "dangerous" and whether the peloton would be better off simply using road bikes instead.

Van Vleuten — who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and was a two-time time trial world champion during her career, but also spent a week in hospital with injuries sustained in a collision involving a driver as she trained on a time trial bike in Italy in 2015 — told Dutch news outlet NOS it is "with a heavy heart" she believes "it would be better to ride time trials on regular (road) bikes again".

"Since then [the aforementioned 2015 collision] I have always been aware of the dangers," she explained. "I have never been able to train uninhibitedly on the time trial bike again. Even though you are cycling at 50km/h where no one else is riding. It is very vulnerable: the brakes are stuck. not near your hands.

"You want to win, it's all about seconds, and then you take risks. Especially when you're in that steering wheel and you're throwing yourself down a hill at 80km/h. Then you just have to trust that things will go well.

"The fact is: we ride much faster than ten years ago. It's going faster and faster. I'm sometimes afraid that something super serious has to happen first before the UCI makes changes."

> Road bike category introduced by British time trial governing body to "get more people time trialling"

The argument is nothing new, Chris Froome making the case for road bike TTs after his former teammate Egan Bernal suffered a devastating crash while training on his Pinarello time trial bike in Colombia, Froome himself having also suffered career-threatening injuries in a crash while training on his time trial bike at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.

"Is it really necessary for us to have time trial bikes in road cycling?" Froome said two years ago. "Being out on my time trial bike this morning, and in light of recent events, time trial bikes are not really meant to be ridden on the roads the way that we need to ride them in order to be ready."

Tom Pidcock too has said he believes time trial bikes are too dangerous for riders to train on public roads. At the time of the 2022 discussion, Froome's teammate Michael Woods said he believes "the majority" of teams, manufacturers, mechanics and staff would be "pretty happy" ditching TT bikes.

However, Bernal, whose crash sparked plenty of debate about road bike TTs and whether time trial bikes are safe for training on open roads, acknowledged that while it is "more dangerous", the time trial bike is part of the fabric of the sport and "without it cycling wouldn't be the same".

He said: "Time trialling is part of the spectacle of cycling and it's something a lot of riders and fans like. So I think they should stay."

In September, Stefan Küng's bizarre crash straight into barriers at the European Championships prompted former UCI chief Brian Cookson to call on the sport's governing body to crack down on the "crazy trend" of riding head down in time trials, riders sacrificing being able to see where they are going in search of aero gain.

 Jumping back to the present day, Tom Dumoulin "absolutely disagrees" with Van Vleuten and co. and does not "understand what is dangerous about time trials", suggesting that riders probably rode head-down less in the past.

"I think it is the least dangerous part in the entire sport of cycling," he said. "Riders fall much more often on road bikes than on time trial bikes. Just add up all the falls. So I don't see a pattern yet, to be honest.

"As a rider, you understand that if you want to look down during time trial, you shouldn't do that on a road with a lot of traffic? I always did my time trial blocks along the canal where no one comes, and certainly no cars. I also rode in hilly landscapes, but then I didn't look down all the time."

The former time trial world champion added that if the discipline were to be moved to road bikes, teams and riders would just look "for other ways to gain profit with even more dangerous bicycle designs".

"Then you end up with far too long stems or strange positions on the bicycle that are completely unsuitable for riding in a peloton," he said.