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‘Get rid of the bike lane, drivers keep hitting the kerb!’: More genius anti-cycle lane arguments; “Car culture machine”: SUV reviewer drives on cycle lane, bollards; Police ask ‘How long do you spend behind cyclists?’; Red Remco + more on the live blog

It’s Thursday and, just like Rudy Molard, live blogger Ryan Mallon is keeping his eyes on the prize (the weekend that is, not the red jersey or Fred Wright’s back wheel…)
25 August 2022, 16:28
“Cyclists! How long are you held up by drivers in an average week?”

Twitter user Dave McCraw has responded to Surrey Police’s latest social media poll concerning cyclists, drivers and traffic with his own fifth option:

25 August 2022, 15:20
Jay Vines wins stage six, 2022 Vuelta (Unipublic/Sprint Cycling Agency)
Vuelta a España: Remco in red and Roglič under pressure as Jay Vine emerges from the clouds to take first pro win

While the hardy fans who braved the elements on the Pico Jano could barely see the riders as they battled through the rain and low cloud on the first summit finish of this year’s Vuelta a España, by the fog-covered finish line, things (metaphorically, if not literally) were a whole lot clearer.

This newfound clarity not only applied to the GC race – which was turned upside down by three-time Vuelta winner Primož Roglič’s shock 1:22 concession to young upstart Remco Evenepoel – but also, perhaps, to the trajectory of Evenepoel’s entire career.

Remco Evenepoel, 2022 Vuelta (Unipublic/Sprint Cycling Agency)

Unipublic/Sprint Cycling Agency

The precocious Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl rider is, lest we forget, still only 22, and has already amassed victories at major one-day classics Liège-Bastogne-Liège (in typically dominant fashion) and San Sebastian (twice), as well as GC wins in one-week races like the Tour of Poland, Volta ao Algarve and Tour of Belgium.

However, perhaps thanks to the potentially overwhelming pressure placed by the Belgian press on the latest in the long like of ‘New Eddy Merckxes’, this year’s Vuelta appeared to represent a make-or-break opportunity for Evenepoel at the grand tours.

Ever since he turned professional as an all-conquering teenager in 2019, the man from Aalst has faced an incredible level of scrutiny not even reserved for his most successful peers like Tadej Pogačar.

A Belgian superstar in the making, riding for Belgium’s biggest team, he has been criticised by fans, the media, Merckx himself, and even his own management for issues surrounding his weight, his temperament, and (most ludicrously) his failure to compete for the overall win at his first ever grand tour, the 2021 Giro d’Italia, just months after suffering a fractured pelvis while on the cusp of winning Il Lombardia.

But today, in atrocious weather conditions, Evenepoel answered any lingering doubts over his grand tour credentials by accelerating with over nine kilometres left to the summit of Pico Jano.

While only Roglič, Enric Mas, Juan Ayuso (another teenage sensation), Pavel Sivakov, Simon Yates and Ben O’Connor were the only ones who could follow that initial burst, it was Evenepoel’s slow ramping up of the pace that truly shattered the field.

Roglič, seemingly impenetrable in Spain for the last three years, finally looked human as he slowly let the Belgian’s back wheel drift away, the tell-tale signs of Tour de France-inflicted injuries perhaps finally showing after five days of bluffing and winning.

By the top Remco was in red: Enric Mas – himself the subject of unrelenting external pressure from Spanish supporters – was the only GC threat who could hang on to Evenepoel’s steady but searing pressure. Ayuso tried in vain to bridge across, but ultimately ceded ground, despite gaining on everyone else, in a tremendous showing by the 19-year-old.

Roglič then led home an eleven-strong group, over a minute and twenty behind what surely constitutes the biggest threat to his Vuelta fiefdom since Pogačar went wandering on the final mountain stages in 2019.

Whether Evenepoel can maintain this level of brilliance remains to be seen, of course, but the race for red is well and truly on.

While the GC battle started in earnest, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jay Vine – a blue blur in the dense fog – timed his own career-defining moment to perfection, attacking from the peloton with ten kilometres left to first rein in the break’s Mark Padun before holding on gamely in the face of the Remco offensive to take the biggest win of his career.

The current Esports world champion – a pro by way of the Zwift Academy – has now made his mark out on the open road after a third-place finish on a stage at last year’s Vuelta, and did so with bravery and panache.

“It’s almost unreal,” the Australian said at the finish. “I’ve been working towards this all year after last year and coming so close. It’s a dream come true.”

While the public may not have been able to see Vine as he crossed the line, his win – and the performance of the second-placed rider behind him – capped a day of breakthroughs in the rain and fog.

25 August 2022, 14:57
Tweets that precede unfortunate events

Five minutes later: 

Landa dropped at Vuelta 2022 (GCN)
25 August 2022, 14:34
And breathe… Mark Padun and Vuelta peloton make it down treacherous descent

It was a tough watch, and he lost the majority of his lead thanks to some 50p cornering, but Mark Padun made it down the other side of the Collada de Brenes at the head of the Vuelta!

Unfortunately for the Ukrainian, Julian Alaphilippe is still driving it on at the front of the peloton (after descending like it was a lovely sunny afternoon), teeing up a seemingly inevitable Remco assault on the final climb.

Judging by Twitter, everyone else was watching that wet and wild descent through their fingers:

25 August 2022, 14:19
“As a young athlete it’s drilled into you that if you want to reach elite level, you have to make sacrifices”: MTB world champion Evie Richards opens up about health struggles
25 August 2022, 13:56
Sketchy times at the Vuelta as riders hit the deck on wet descent

It may be sunny and warm around most of the UK today, but in northern Spain the weather’s pretty grim as the riders prepare to take on the first summit finish of the Vuelta.

Coming into the steep penultimate climb of the Collada de Brenes, a number of riders crashed on a particularly slippery corner, with Israel-Premier Tech’s Carl Fredrik Hagen looking (and sounding) in considerable pain as he lay on the road.

While the Norwegian rider receives treatment, EF EasyPost’s Mark Padun has accelerated off the front of the breakaway, in a bid to get a head start before the next tricky downhill and long slog to the finish at the top of the category one Ascensión al Pico Jano.

Back in the fractured main pack, world champion Julian Alaphilippe is upping the pace for Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl leader Remco Evenepoel.

Will the young Belgian pull a ‘Remco’ and attack early, after all the pre-stage hype and work from his team?

Or will today provide us with yet another prime example of ‘Roglification’ at the Vuelta?

25 August 2022, 13:10
Surrey Police asks drivers, ‘How long do you spend in traffic caused by cyclists?’

Surrey’s Roads Policing unit – the owners of everyone’s favourite police and road safety-themed Twitter account – have been having fun this week with the bird app’s poll function.

On Monday, they asked their car-using followers how long, in an average week, they spend in traffic caused by other drivers.

Of the four options, ranging from ‘less than ten minutes’ to ‘more than 60 minutes’, the results were quite evenly spread: while 31.5 percent of drivers said they were stuck in motorist-related traffic for over an hour a week, just over 21 percent claimed that traffic is but a construct that has little effect on their daily lives.

Yesterday, Surrey Police commenced round two of their social (media) experiment, asking drivers how long they spent per week “in traffic caused by cyclists”.

Of the 4,290 Twitter users who have cast their votes at the time of writing, 68.4 percent clicked the ‘none’ option, almost 17 percent said ‘one to five minutes’, six percent reckoned people on bikes accounted for five to 15 minutes of their weekly traffic time, while nine percent so far say that cyclists hold them up for MORE than 15 minutes a week.

Some users – viewing the cycling-related poll out of context, perhaps – have criticised its existence, though Surrey Police have reliably informed us that they “have a plan”:

25 August 2022, 12:18
‘Get in the cycle lane!’, ‘What cycle lane?’: Belfast edition

Belfast’s ‘Bolder Vision’ for active travel seems to be working out well:

If by bold, you mean almost non-existent:

25 August 2022, 11:35
Spot the bidon

What’s this? Yesterday’s Vuelta stage winner Marc Soler being helped on his way to victory by a cheeky bottle from his old mates at Movistar?

While Soler’s UAE Team Emirates squad ‘officially’ (through their Twitter account) thanked the Spanish outfit for their hand in the mercurial Soler’s solo win in Bilbao, one of the team’s soigneurs was on hand to quickly dispose of the evidence at the finish line:

Surely that’s worth half an episode or so in next year’s Movistar documentary series? Especially if Chente García Acosta punched the car roof in anger at the treacherous bottle-gifter, and then deleted the footage…

25 August 2022, 11:03
Hayter loving life at the Vuelta

While the Ineos Grenadiers’ Ethan Hayter was forced to relinquish the best young rider’s jersey at the Vuelta yesterday, at least he was able to pass it on to his old VC Londres mucker Fred Wright:

Though judging from that chaotic stage to Bilbao, Rudy Molard may be hiding somewhere under Wright’s new white jersey…

25 August 2022, 10:14
“The car culture machine in all its glory”: Ford Bronco Raptor reviewer drives on cycle lane, over bollards, on pavement…

How not to review a car in 2022 (or ever, really):

Now, I realise that road.cc’s readers aren’t necessarily the target audience for a review of an arrogantly-sized American quasi-monster truck, but even so, this YouTube appraisal – conducted by automotive lifestyle company Hagerty’s Jason Cammisa – surely takes the biscuit when it comes to romanticising the damaging excesses of car culture.

In the video, which is almost certainly aimed at six-year-olds, Cammisa nonchalantly drives the new Ford Bronco Raptor (comfortably the size of your average English village) up kerbs, on the pavement, and in cycle lanes, ticking off the flexi bollards designed to protect vulnerable road users as he goes.

Perhaps he thought he was driving in Stoke-on-Trent?

Cammisa then adds insult to bollard injury by casually making jokes about striking pedestrians, that you wouldn’t be able to see anyway from your twenty-foot-high cockpit.

“The off-road ability may be something people don’t actually use, but it pays huge dividends in the real word,” he casually says, sipping on a Slurpee as another bollard bites the dust.

“The Bronco Raptor hits the same potholes, kerbs and pedestrians that all the other cars hit. The difference is, they just don’t exist in this thing.”

Lovely.

But don’t worry, this review certainly won’t have any real-world implications – the video includes, for a whole two seconds, a tiny, tiny warning at the bottom of the screen that the driver is a ‘professional idiot’ and that you should ‘not attempt’ any of his dangerous driving antics.

That’ll be grand, I’m sure.

Maybe he’ll review the Ineos Grenadier next…

25 August 2022, 09:49
Beefeaters on the Beeb
25 August 2022, 09:15
Not your usual feedback from a passing motorist…

We’ve all been there at some point in our cycling lives (some more than others unfortunately), when a motorist attempts to overtake you and your mates out on a group ride.

As the driver pulls up alongside, you look to your right and notice their window’s down, bracing yourself for the almost inevitable volley of abuse or attempt at a smart alec remark about lycra or the Tour de France…

Well, that’s what FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope’s Australian pro Brodie Chapman was expecting when a driver shouted at her and her teammates while training in France yesterday.

Instead of the anticipated “naff abuse”, however, the motorist was in fact complimenting the FDJ riders for their performance at last month’s Tour de France Femmes:

If only all drivers praised every cyclist they passed on the roads – ‘Great 10-mile PB the other night, keep it up!’; ‘Fantastic commute home on Friday, good call on bringing your coat’ – what a world that would be…

25 August 2022, 08:32
‘Get rid of the bike lane, drivers keep hitting the kerb!’: More from Hanley’s famous new protected cycle lane, as one local says it should be ripped out – because drivers keep hitting it…

I enjoyed Dan’s take on the not-at-all-over-the-top reaction to Hanley’s newly extended segregated cycle lane so much that I’ve decided to kick off today’s live blog with round two… 

Unfortunately, Raging Russell Porter and Desperate Dan Jellyman couldn’t make this morning’s bout (reports suggest that they’ve failed anti-doping tests), but don’t worry as another resident, the less imaginatively named Stewart Robinson, has stepped up to top the bill.

And as far as anti-cycle lane arguments go, Stewart’s is worthy of any pay-per-view event [alright, enough of the wrestling metaphors – Ed.]:

“They've just put new cycle lanes in and the kerb is raised. Cars keep hitting them as they're just in the middle of the road,” says Stewart, who evidently struggled with simple maths at primary school.

“There’s signs on them, but one has already been knocked off from a car hitting it… I’ve contacted the council about one of the signs being knocked off and I’m going to ring Highways to see if we can get the kerbs taken out as there’s going to be more accidents. I’ve seen three vehicles hit them in the last month.

“Cars just come down the road and hit them, because they're just stuck in the middle of the road.”

Ah yes, Stewart, that classic argument against protected cycle lanes: that the poor motorists keep driving into the infrastructure, rather than just the cyclists themselves…

Apparently, the Shelton New Road isn’t the only part of Stoke where drivers are struggling to spot raised kerbs and bollards designed to protect the human beings on the other side:

So, the next time someone asks you why protected cycling infrastructure is necessary, just take them to Stoke.

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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25 comments

Avatar
Hirsute | 1 year ago
4 likes

4 year ban seems light for this (and a pcso)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-62603653

Hussain was jailed for two years on Friday after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He also admitted driving under the influence of drugs and driving without insurance

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Hirsute | 1 year ago
3 likes

Maximum: 5 years’ custody

So essentially maximum of three for pleading guilty. Seem the Judge didn't want to do the full max for some reason. 

Just to point out, her (cycling) helmet was knocked off by the impact and she suffered serious brain injuries. So again shows that they are not "fit for the purpose" of surviving through a collision with another vehicle that all drivers think they are. 

Avatar
ShutTheFrontDawes replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

No, this one instance does not show that at all. Talk about cherry-picking data! It shows that helmets are not 100% effective at preventing brain injuries. But then, did anyone say they were?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to ShutTheFrontDawes | 1 year ago
2 likes

Quote:

But then, did anyone say they were?

Every car driver and twitter commentator to a picture of someone cycling without one. 

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anagallis_arvensis | 1 year ago
1 like

Interesting to Solar get a bottle from UAE. I wonder if INEOS will return the favour of Jumbo who refused Thomas a bottle in LeTour

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stonojnr | 1 year ago
2 likes

I'd treat keeping 2 miles of bike lanes as a win,its stupidly easy for councils to unwind this stuff or downgraded infra.

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TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
4 likes

And if you watch the video of the Bronco Raptor around the 8 seconds mark.... you will see a flying doll for a brief second..... presumably a bit of 'jokey humour' showing how kids will just bounce off the Bronco Raptor

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
10 likes

Didn't realise it was a review, thought it was UK Dashcams.

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IanMK replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
2 likes

No he's a professional idiot. UK Dashcams is just idiots.

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brooksby replied to TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
1 like

Did you see those (apparently not satirical) stories over the last couple of weeks about Tesla fanboys standing children (their own or loaners) in front of their car in 'self-driving mode', to confirm that it really won't just drive into children?

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to TriTaxMan | 1 year ago
4 likes

The youtube video has other bits missed from the cut where he almost drives into a woman pushing a pram (to indicate it needs a front facing parking cam) and she gives the camera the finger. So not sure if the doll is part of that. 

It is worrying as it is a definitive real review dressed up as a spoof one to "laugh" off the vehicles inappropriateness as an urban vehicle. 

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

It did make me wonder about the legality of his driving. How much of what he did was illegal in the US? I think if you reported a similar video to the police in the UK, they might be inclined to investigate (public interest against promoting careless driving).

It made me wonder whether driving on the sidewalk is legal in the US in some states. Generally though, there must have been a fair few misdemeanors, if not felonies.

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Hirsute replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
1 like

28th amendment - protects the right to drive any how and anywhere you like.

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S13SFC | 1 year ago
2 likes

The picture on the red route is part of my commute if I head to work by bike.

It's on a roundabout that serves as access towards the train station, uni, the A500 and the A50 as well as being a link between the two halves of the city.

The 6th form in 500m behind where the photo is taken, as is the uni with the FE college not far away.

I'm willing to bet it is buses that have taken out those bollards over the years as they've hammered it around from the station towards Fenton.

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brooksby | 1 year ago
4 likes

Pensioner spends £8,000 on speed bumps outside home to tackle reckless drivers

https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/25/kent-pensioner-spends-8000-on-speed-bumps...

Quote:

The 65-year-old decided to make the purchase after his grandchildren said they were to scared to play outside.

Neighbours were also said to have been repeatedly hit by stones flicked up by fast-moving vehicles and a car window was allegedly smashed in.

Huge transporter lorries have even been spotted hurtling along the narrow private street.

So along with a neighbour, Mr Kent paid £8,000 for new speedhumps to be put along the just over 100-yard stretch of road.

They split the bill for tarmac and speedbumps to be laid on the previously dirt road, which homeowners are responsible for maintaining, rather than the local council.

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
8 likes

All that headlin and main body of the story and yet the last few paragraphs mentioned it didn't really do anything until he added planters and essentially turned it into an LTN and it all worked. I wonder why the paper barely touched on that bit.  

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brooksby replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

Looking at the photos of the road, I was concerned with WTF there were "Huge transporter lorries" speeding along there...

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brooksby replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
2 likes

Quote:

But after installing the tarmac and the speedbumps, Mr Kent admitted it was a waste of time and money.

The final straw came when a cement mixer hit one of the bumps and spilt its load all over the street, leaving Mr Kent with a two-hour cleaning operation.

Since this set-back he blocked off part of the road with planters, and for the past 18 months Kent County Council Highways, the fire service and police have raised no objections.

The planters have been a success, he said: ‘It’s lovely and quiet now, but the amount of traffic coming down here was quite something before.

‘I had the feeling people liked driving on the dirt road – especially the young guys.

‘It has given us long-term stability over the road surface and it is safer.’

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andystow replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Found the road. It would work as a shortcut if it didn't have the planters.

https://goo.gl/maps/1dkQ41xeFoLoyA4C8

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brooksby replied to andystow | 1 year ago
0 likes

Thanks for that.  I agree about the cut through.  Seems weird that it's a private road, and just seems to have been missed off the publicly maintained / public highway network...

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

Lots of "Private" roads don;t have asphalt etc as the owners of the houses are responsible for the road, not the public.

This one is near me and would require MTB / Gravel bike usage. The "smoothness" on the streetview is false but the gravel and bricks dropped in is noticeable. 

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Awavey replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 1 year ago
1 like

they often do it as a means to discourage other people from using them as cut throughs, which I kind of see the logic of.

but looking at those speed bumps Im not surprised they didnt work, Im sure I remember when "sleeping policeman" first came in, or at least when I first experienced them, they were big curves of tarmac that if you hit at anything more than 10mph, you risked ripping your suspension or wheels off.

these days there are unmended potholes and sinkholes in the road that are bigger than most speed bumps, in fact they even call them "speed cushions" now, and frankly most of them you can drive over at unabated speed, or straddle them, so I really fail to see what value they add.

should have made it an LTN straight away and saved 8k.

Avatar
S13SFC | 1 year ago
1 like

His point about the roadworks heading down through Shelton is valid as there are no roadworks but they've left all the signs and cones there.

The signs and cones are all on the "new improved" cycle lane, which, at that point has flipped from being on the road to being on the footpath over the railway bridge before rejoining the road 50m before the turning to get onto the A500, the very busy main dual carriageway through SOT.

So, you have a segregated lane, downhill, for 200m that spits you out into the carriageway at the exact spot cars kink left over the canal bridge and then a murder strip that flips from road to path to road but can't be used as all the signs and cones are in it just as it comes up and past a key turning onto the busiest road in the region. 

Lovely.

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Bigfoz replied to S13SFC | 1 year ago
3 likes

I have this theory that every coucil in the country has more cones and signs than they can store, so just randomly store them on a road... No roadworks, just signs and cones...

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Awavey replied to S13SFC | 1 year ago
1 like

its common in highways depts thesedays to have separate teams who are responsible for the cones & signs, and then those that actually do the digging/repairing stuff, apparently its more efficient that way...

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