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£100 to rent a bike hangar...but £30 to park your car?; Could Pogačar miss Liège?; Oleg Tinkov lambasts Russian "massacre"; Roubaix behind the scenes; Cargobikes for Ukraine; No room for infra?; Changes to deadly junction + more on the live blog

Dan Alexander is in the hot seat for all your live blog needs this Thursday
21 April 2022, 16:36
End the day with another marvellous meme
21 April 2022, 15:26
"I wish life would smile on me for one day": Emotional Thibaut Pinot in tears during post-stage interview

Thibaut Pinot had to walk away from the post-stage interview for a second to compose himself after his late heartbreak on the fourth stage of Tour of the Alps. "It pisses me off," he said. "It pisses me off because it would have been good for me after the last two years I've been through. At my normal level, nobody would have caught up with me there, that's what's frustrating. I wish life would smile on me for one day but I have to be patient.

"It would have done me good to win today. I could have turned that shitty page and moved on to something else. It was another good chance to win and there aren't many as a pro. We'll see, we'll see if it can happen tomorrow and in the coming weeks."

Someone please just let that man win another bike race, please...

21 April 2022, 14:45
Transcontinental Race offers three bursary spots to support riders from lower income households
Mike Hall (Transcontinetal Race press release)

This year's Transcontinental Race will be the first edition since 2020, when the race (and bursary) were shelved during the pandemic. Now, with the race making a glorious return this summer, it is back on the table, and will offer three riders the chance to enter for free and have certain costs covered during the race.

In memory of Transcontinental Race founder Mike Hall, the bursary "reflects Mike's commitment to equality and Lost Dot's ambition to lead on improving diversity, equality and inclusion".

Three recipients will each recive free entry to the race, which starts in Geraardsbergen in Belgium, on 24 July. They will also have their costs (€1,500) covered: for travel to and from the race, accomodation and all food during the event.

"The values of inclusivity, equality and respect underpin all our work, as well as courage: be that the courage to take on the challenge of one of our races, or the courage to stand up for what we believe in," race coordinator David Ayre said. 

"We’re really excited to have Hashim, Becky and Amrei ride with us this year. Opening up the race to people who are passionate about cycling but who, in the past, have been unable to compete due to the cost is really important to us. The bursary is an important part of us nurturing Mike Hall’s legacy, ensuring that you do not need deep pockets when you have passion, determination and man’s greatest invention at your disposal."

21 April 2022, 13:48
Tadej Pogačar expected to defend Liège-Bastogne-Liège title despite family emergency
Pogacar Tirreno (Image credit: LaPresse)

Defending champion Tadej Pogačar should be on the startline for the third Monument of the season, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, despite Belgian media reporting the Slovenian has returned to his home country with his fiancé due to a family emergency.

Nieuwsblad is reporting the UAE Team Emirates rider returned home with Urska Zigart, who rides for Team BikeExchange, and both their teams are saying it is due to a family emergency.

The news outlet reports Pogačar will not be at the team's recon ride tomorrow but is, for now, still going to race on Sunday.

21 April 2022, 13:15
Is it 2014 again? Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet impress in the Alps

It wasn't to be on today's Tour of the Alps stage for Thibaut Pinot who was so close to his first victory since the 2019 Tour de France went up the Tourmalet. It's been a long road of injury and recovery for the perennial French hope...

Pinot attacked with 10km to go but was heartbreakingly caught by Netflix bad boy Miguel Ángel López who subsequently attacked, dropping everyone's stage hope...

Behind, Romain Bardet won the sprint for third and moved within two seconds of the race lead. It's all of a sudden feeling a bit like the mid 2010s again this afternoon...

21 April 2022, 12:57
Jurassic Parkéa–Samsic

We have no further comment about whether or not this is Liam making the most of his Paris-Roubaix trip after a few beers...

> What is it actually like to ride the Paris-Roubaix cobbles?

21 April 2022, 11:02
Former WorldTour team boss Oleg Tinkov lambasts Russian "massacre"
OLeg Tinkov (source Tinkoff Saxo on Facebook)

Former Tinkoff-Saxo team owner and one of Russia's highest-profile tycoons has spoken out against the country's "massacre" in Ukraine. Oleg Tinkov called for the end of the "crazy war" which has not "any beneficiary".

Tinkov's comments came in an Instagram post, making him one of the most high-profile Russians to speak out against Vladimir Putin. "I don't see a SINGLE beneficiary of this insane war! Innocent people and soldiers are dying," he wrote.

"Waking up with a hangover, the generals realised that they have a shit army. And how will the army be good, if everything else in the country is shitty and mired in nepotism, sycophancy and servility?"

The businessman formerly worth $4.4bn (£3.4bn) has lost his billionaire status, according to Forbes, since the invasion and was sanctioned by the UK government. Tinkov has previously denied having a close relationship with Putin and said 90 per cent of Russians are against the war, while the remaining 10 per cent are "morons".

In 2012, Tinkov bought a cycling team formerly owned by Bjarne Riis, and sponsored the team from until 2016, during which time he oversaw Alberto Contador winning the 2015 Giro d'Italia, and offered his star rider, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali (the three biggest GC riders at the time) 1 million euros to ride all three Grand Tours.

21 April 2022, 10:49
Top-tier memeing

The internet really is the gift that keeps on giving... 

21 April 2022, 10:37
Spain introduces new fines for drivers who stop in bike lanes
oxon travel cycle lane picture 2 - via twitter.PNG

Drivers in Spain who stop in cycle lanes can now be fined €200 under new traffic laws, which came into effect on March 21. According to Spanish news reports the DGT (General Directorate of Traffic) has been cracking down on the behaviour, along with other distractions behind the wheel, including mobile phone usage. €200 close pass punishments have also been brought in since January.

21 April 2022, 09:53
No space for infra?
21 April 2022, 09:38
Shocking scenes...

Stay safe out there people... 

21 April 2022, 09:26
Cargobikes for Ukraine

Here's an email from a reader hoping to raise funds to support Ukrainian people with cargo bikes...

So I’ve had a cargo bike for over five years now and during the first lockdown bought another a Larry vs Harry Bullitt which was a real step up from the original. I’ve always being a keen cyclist and along with cycling got more and more interested in environmental aspects and I guess more radicalised by the people in tin boxes appearing to want to hurt us. Anyway, the war in Ukraine inspired me to think about cargo bikes as a method of transporting food and medical supplies across the towns and cities in Ukraine when obviously they may have the advantage over cars not having to rely on petrol.

I also thought if we could embed the cargo bike culture within Ukraine so when the war is over they’d be a great take up so I came up with the name Bullitts For Ukraine (ahem). I stuck my idea out over social media and immediately got my head blown off for the name, people thought it offensive etc. anyway I relented and ended up setting up a group on FB called Cargobikes for Ukraine and started to recruit people to the group.

I then found out that several of the members of this new group are Ukrainian and have a cargo bike business is Kyiv and are already operating in a similar way to what I was thinking about, so now there’s extra emphasis for me and others to try and support these and other people in Ukraine by trying to obtain funds to source second-hand or new cargo bikes potentially in all Ukrainian colours to send onto to help set up delivery business out there.

Join the Cargobikes for Ukraine Facebook group here... 

21 April 2022, 08:54
More interviews like this, please...
21 April 2022, 08:45
Temporary changes at Oxford Parkway junction where first of two cyclists to die in one month was killed

The Oxford Mail is reporting the county council has installed temporary measures aimed at reducing the speed of vehicles turning left towards the station at Oxford Parkway junction. Ellen Moilanen was killed in a collision with a lorry being driven at the Oxford Road junction on February 8.

> "One month, two dead cyclists": Oxford's cycling city sign defaced after second death

The changes involve traffic cones and signs, which are to be replaced with water-filled barriers pending decisions about what permanent changes should be made to the road layout.

"We are very supportive," Dr Alison Hill of campaign group Cyclox said. "This is something we asked for. We asked for a shortening of that junction so it would cease to be used by people speeding along up to the junction and keeping their speed up.

"Some people watched it in operation yesterday and there appeared to be some slowing down. I think it’s doing the right thing."

21 April 2022, 08:28
"The best team car footage you will ever see": Watch Van Baarle's Roubaix win from the Ineos Grenadiers car

21 April 2022, 07:45
£100 to rent a bike hangar...but £30 to park your car?

Oliver Lord is the head of the Clean Cities Campaign, a European coalition of organisations encouraging cities to transition to zero-emission mobility by 2030. If you start to see more #ThisIsAwkward campaign material, now you know where it's come from...

 Sharing data from Fare City, another cycle parking disparity was shown, with no London borough, as of October 2021 to March 2022, having more than 600 hangars. Per the report, some of London's most densely populated areas have an "urgent need to provide greater levels of secure residential cycle parking", with waiting list times nearly three times greater than provision.

 Oliver concluded: "Agree, they have to be paid for and therefore cant be free. I'd argue they could be subsidised given the financial gain to NHS and social care from people cycling more. But ultimately there's something wrong when car parking is way cheaper (ie subsidised)".

Maybe, just maybe, it's time to make this April Fool's gag a reality...

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.

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22 comments

Avatar
mdavidford | 1 year ago
1 like

Quote:

This year's Transcontinental Race will be the first edition in 2020, but has been shelved during the pandemic.

Where to start with that...?

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Cupov replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

yeah i read that a few times in puzzlement. also what's that top tier memeing thing about? i'm not on twitter so can't see the tweet.

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mdavidford replied to Cupov | 1 year ago
1 like

It's been amended now, although I don't think it's quite right - I believe what it was trying to say is that it's the first edition since 2019, and that this edition should have taken place in 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.

The meme thing is that Marine le Pen apparently held up a print-out of one of her tweets in the debate last night to try to make a point, and people have been replacing it with all kinds of other things - in this case a message telling johnny-come-lately nations to stop interfering with cycling because it belongs to the French, Dutch, Belgians, etc.

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mdavidford | 1 year ago
2 likes

T. Rex - Segafredo, surely?

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mark1a replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
2 likes

Velo-ciraptor?

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Older and sadder | 1 year ago
0 likes

I would be interested to see a cost for the manufacture, installation and maintenance of these bike hangers? A Single Stainless Steel "Sheffield Cycle Stand" by Marshalls is available on line for £172.04 (inc.VAT). So if these hangers need 5 of these then there is £860 to start with, then the fabrication of cover plus instalation of the whole thing. I bet there isnt much change from £2000. So at £100 a year it takes 20 years for the council to recover the outlay, assuming of course these hangers last 20 years and no maintenance is required? That, in my opinion, makes £100 a very cheap price to pay? 

 

Avatar
mdavidford replied to Older and sadder | 1 year ago
7 likes

Cost of a hangar looks to be ~£2.5k. Don't know about installation and maintenance.

However, your maths appears to be leaving out that there are typically 6 spaces per hangar, so at £107 per space that's nearly £650/yr. For the average of £58 per space it's nearly £350/yr.

In any case, though, that's all missing the point that we don't insist that car parking permit fees cover the cost of provision, so why would we insist that cycle parking ones do, instead of making the fees reflect the relative public desirability of the different modes of transport?

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Older and sadder | 1 year ago
6 likes

Older and sadder wrote:

I would be interested to see a cost for the manufacture, installation and maintenance of these bike hangers? A Single Stainless Steel "Sheffield Cycle Stand" by Marshalls is available on line for £172.04 (inc.VAT). So if these hangers need 5 of these then there is £860 to start with, then the fabrication of cover plus instalation of the whole thing. I bet there isnt much change from £2000. So at £100 a year it takes 20 years for the council to recover the outlay, assuming of course these hangers last 20 years and no maintenance is required? That, in my opinion, makes £100 a very cheap price to pay? 

Pisspoor troll maths there, there are six spaces in a bike hangar costing £100 each, so the outlay you suggest would be recovered in under four years. Actually cycle hangars cost closer to £3k (they don't use Sheffield stands) but it would still take a quarter of the time you suggest to recoup the outlay. You could have discovered this on Google in less time than it took you to post the nonsense above.

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GMBasix replied to Older and sadder | 1 year ago
6 likes

But that is not the whole of the balance sheet.  The indirect gains from more cycling, less motoring include less strain on the NHS, less pollution, reduced carbon emissions, less congestion, reduced wear and tear on the highways network, reduced demand for more and more roads. 

£100 a year is very cheap for the benefits it brings. It shouldn't be the cyclists paying for it.

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Clem Fandango replied to Older and sadder | 1 year ago
6 likes

Shoddy maths aside - do they then become free after X years then?
Equally, is the cost of parking your motor linked to the cost of laying & maintaining the road in the same way? If not I suggest the council ramps prices up immediately - pot hole problems solved.

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Hirsute replied to Clem Fandango | 1 year ago
1 like

Perhaps more the signage, redoing line marking, admin costs of the scheme and costs of paying a ceo to check who is parking.

Doubt you would need a ceo to check a hangar for a rogue bike, so focusing on the initial outlay is misleading. What FTE of a ceo will 3k to 4k get you ?

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BIRMINGHAMisaDUMP replied to Older and sadder | 1 year ago
0 likes

hangars cost around 3.5K to purchase and install. There are other costs: Traffic Management Orders have to be published and consulted on and road amendments are often necessary (yellow lines need to be removed, kerbs dropped, bollards installed etc) so the total cost is usually around 5K. There is also ongoing damage / vandalism costs to consider. As far as I understand, Islington manage their hangars and therefore probably charge to cover their costs (installation, cleaning, damage, someone to manage the bookings and keys etc) Otherwise the hangars are managed by the contractors and the hire fee does not go to the Local Authority. 

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brooksby | 1 year ago
3 likes

"Please supply a photograph of someone who looks like a Russian oligarch and/or a Bond villain"  3

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Jenova20 replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

I too am interested in how you distinguish a stereotypical russian oligarch from a pirate or Bond villain.

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brooksby replied to Jenova20 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Tinkov looks like he's saying either "Kill. Him." or "One million dollars!"  4

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Jenova20 replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
2 likes
brooksby wrote:

Tinkov looks like he's saying either "Kill. Him." or "One million dollars!"  4

Pleased to introduce you to Jim Leningradnovigrod - totally not a Russian oligarch, and soon to be the next owner of Chelsea FC.

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Recarobob | 1 year ago
7 likes

On the piece about infrastructure, I've just spent 3 days cycling in Holland. I knew the infrastructure in Holland was good, just not that good! The Dutch have managed to create fully integrated transport solutions where cars/bikes/pedestrians can co-exist in harmony on existing road systems or on dedicated cycle paths. Not only that but there were next to zero potholes or badly filled trenches by so-called 'reinstatement companies'. 

What will it take in the UK to put this in as not one of our mainstream political parties, national or local, would even want to consider making the first steps?

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Recarobob | 1 year ago
6 likes

Recarobob wrote:

What will it take in the UK to put this in as not one of our mainstream political parties, national or local, would even want to consider making the first steps?

An invasion? #gekoloniseerd

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chrisonabike replied to Recarobob | 1 year ago
5 likes

Glad you had the chance.  I passed through the Netherlands once - ages ago - and didn't really appreciate the difference because "stuff just worked" and I wasn't paying attention.  Subsequent trips - I got it.  It's hard to believe things can be different and you don't notice what is "usual" to you.  So people in the UK don't understand how things could be different or what our problems are.  We don't see the cars everywhere, we think cities are inherently loud places, we assume we need a vehicle to carry anything or get more than half a mile.  Equally many of the Dutch couldn't give a particularly useful account of what's important about their system - it's just how it is.

A good account of this effect here: https://robertweetman.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/what-nobody-told-me-1/

There are a couple of key differences - call them "cultural" / "historical":
- The modal share of cycling fell drastically in The Netherlands in the 20th century, same as everywhere else.  However it didn't fall as low as most places.  Cycling remained a mode of transport.
- I believe non-car transport / public transport has remained important in The Netherlands.  Compare the UK where we ditched a lot of that in favour of roads and cars and deregulated public transport.
- I believe there are crucial organisational differences in planning / road building and maintenance.  Much more controlled and coordinated.  The UK's essentially the wild west by comparison - lots of "patch it better" and letting private industry dig it up piecemeal whenever.

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Hirsute | 1 year ago
5 likes

Cyclists should pay for the hangers as they damage them so much with their road rage and frustration at hold ups.

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

https://twitter.com/hauntedbastard/status/1516065204236398595

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brooksby | 1 year ago
5 likes

Secondhand bikes and city traffic: the joy and grit of an African cycle race

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/apr/21/secondhand-bi...

Avatar
gonedownhill replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

Thanks for that, great read and photographs.

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