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Ultimate car in bike lane pic? (no, that's not it); CUK urges MPs to support cycling & walking; The Ras is back; Driver who killed pro cyclist gets community order; Steve Cummings' finest hour; Freeman researched testosterone online+more in the Live blog

All the cycling news from this site and beyond...
Thu, Nov 21, 2019 18:39
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Ultimate car in bike lane pic? (no, that's not it); CUK urges MPs to support cycling & walking; The Ras is back; Driver who killed pro cyclist gets community order; Steve Cummings' finest hour; Freeman researched testosterone online+more in the Live blogwedding
21 November 2019, 16:44
Not entirely sure what the light shade's about

As you'd probably inferred from the gradient and his untroubled facial expression, the bike had electric assist.

Got married last year. Best way to get her to the altar! from r/bicycling

21 November 2019, 16:27
Well that was worth it

We see a lot of close passes, but the sheer, mind-blowing pointlessness of most of them still gets us every time.

Proving it's not just a UK thing...

One of these days I'm going to have to start taking the lane... from r/bikecommuting

21 November 2019, 16:16
Jeremy Vine has passed comment on the car parked in a cycle lane we posted earlier

Typically understated.

Confirming that Twitter remains the home of nonsensical whataboutery, several people have replied to Vine saying, 'what about cyclists who don't use cycle lanes?'

21 November 2019, 15:31
Ras logo
The Ras is back (under new organisers)

There was no Rás Tailteann in 2019 for the first time since 1953. The Irish race had been looking for a title sponsor since An Post in 2017.

It’s now been announced that the race will be back in 2020 under a new promotions group comprising volunteer figures who’ve been involved with the race over the last decade.

RTE reports that the 2020 edition is likely to be over fewer days, possibly five, but the new organisers hope to rebuilt its status in the coming years and eventually get back to eight days.

The date of the event will not be confirmed for a number of weeks.

"We are thrilled to see this legendary race continue," said race director Eimear Dignam.

"It has a special place in the hearts of not only the cycling community in Ireland, but also now in the hearts of those who've competed in it from around the world.

"We know the new organisers extremely well, having worked with them on the race for many years, and we’re delighted to have them take up the mantle."

21 November 2019, 14:50
Shane Sutton (picture source Team Sky 2013).jpg
‘Speaking out on doping cost me my career’ says Shane Sutton's former team-mate

Last week, during Dr Richard Freeman’s tribunal, his defence team tried to discredit Shane Sutton by claiming that he had doped as a rider.

Mary O’Rourke QC said that an anonymous witness had testified to her that Sutton had injected himself with testosterone which he kept in his fridge in his home in Rowley Regis.

Sutton denied it and asked whether Darryl Webster was the source. He said Webster was just out for revenge because Sutton had insulted him after his wife left him.

O’Rourke said it wasn’t Webster.

The Telegraph’s gone and had a word with Webster anyway. It’s an interesting read; the story of a rider who believes that speaking out on doping cost him his career and who has endured difficult times since. (He twice attempted suicide in 2001 and in 2013 was sentenced to 300 hours community work after cannabis plants were found in his home.)

He’s also found it difficult to see certain unnamed contemporaries remain in cycling.

“I have been a little bitter about that, seeing the people who I knew cheated getting the plaudits that they got and the financial compensation that they got. But I wouldn't want to be them.  What you've done is wrong. That's more important than remuneration.”

21 November 2019, 14:07
Cycling UK calls on nation’s future MPs to pledge support for cycling and walking

The charity is calling for at least 5% of transport spending to go on cycling and walking in 2020, and to rise to at least 10% within five years.

They’ve got a thing on their website so that you can very easily write to your local candidates to let them know active travel is important to you.

21 November 2019, 12:40
A predictably mixed reaction to our stirring earlier
21 November 2019, 12:32
Jason Lowndes (via Israel Cycling Academy Twitter).jpg
Driver who killed pro cyclist gets community corrections order

The Age reports that Billie Rodda has been sentenced to a three-year community corrections order after she pleaded guilty to causing the death of Australian pro cyclist Jason Lowndes by dangerous driving.

She also pleaded guilty to a summary charge of using a mobile phone while driving.

As well as the community order, she was fined and banned from driving for three years.

We’d already reported that Rodda was going to be spared jail, in large part because the prosecution and defence accepted she had not been using her phone in the moments immediately before the crash – even though she’d sent and received a whole series of texts leading up to it.

It was also agreed that she would have had between 2.2 and four seconds to see him. Reading the reports, this seems to have been considered a small amount of time.

We’d consider two seconds to be quite a long time to spot something on the road while driving. Four seconds is an age.

The defence said she’d been looking at her speedometer.

"You said you had no time to react and indeed you did not brake or steer away before the collision," said Judge Wendy Wilmoth. "There were no warning signs as to the likely presence of cyclists and there was no dedicated bike lane nor any opportunity for either Mr Lowndes or you to veer left."

Wilmoth said Rodda's moral culpability was low as she was not speeding, on drugs or alcohol, or fatigued at the time.

21 November 2019, 12:03
Today's top Twitter hashtag

The others are Rachel Riley, Donald Trump and Priti Patel but this is wayyyy more controversial... 

21 November 2019, 11:39
There's parking in cycle lanes and there's parking in cycle lanes
21 November 2019, 11:01
Team Ineos sign Colombian rider Brandon Rivera

The 23-year-old is the current Pan American time trial champion.

He knows Egan Bernal pretty well. “Egan and I are very good friends. We have known each other since the age of 10 when we started on the mountain bike in Zipaquirá.

"We were both full of dreams, and so to now be riding together again is incredible. I have to thank him very much for riding with me all these years and for always believing in me. In Colombia Egan is an example that dreams do come true and he’s an idol for children and adults.”

21 November 2019, 10:05
The Cycling Nation
21 November 2019, 10:00
Video: When Steve Cummings mugged Pinot and Bardet in the Tour de France

Cummings' retirement is a good excuse to revisit one of the finer stage victories.

21 November 2019, 09:49
Sralan's back on his bike and keeping a low profile
21 November 2019, 09:44
Steve Cummings winning stage four of 2016 Tirreno-Adriatico (ANSA, PERI - ZENNARO).jpg
Steve Cummings' final pro race

Steve Cummings retired yesterday, having been unable to find a team for next season.

This means his pro career drew to a close with a crash on the Wirral during the Tour of Britain.

Speaking to the Wirral Globe, he said: "In one way it was good to finish my career one kilometre from home. But not with a broken back - that's not ideal."

21 November 2019, 09:38
Dr Richard Freeman (picture credit Team Sky)
Freeman researched impact of endurance exercise on testosterone levels

Yesterday’s main revelation in the Dr Richard Freeman tribunal was that he researched the impact of endurance exercise on testosterone levels.

Depending what angle you’re approaching this from, this is either (a) massively incriminating, given that the former British Cycling and Team Sky doctor ordered a load of testosterone to be sent to the National Cycling Centre, or (b) an important part of a sports doctor’s job.

Appearing as an expert witness yesterday, Professor David Cowan OBE, the co-founder and director of the Drug Control Centre, said that he “noted with interest the monitoring of levels of testosterone in the blood of cyclists” by Freeman.

The Mail reports that Cowan said the material downloaded by Freeman – as well as his email correspondence – “indicated a lot of knowledge and interest of testosterone concentration in riders.”

He added that: “Certain concern was expressed that particular cyclists had lower levels of testosterone than normal, but there was no indication of any treatment for that other than rest.”

Freeman’s defence team pointed out that three-monthly testosterone tests carried out by cycling's world governing body would require Freeman to have some knowledge of testosterone.

21 November 2019, 09:28
Morning

Welcome to Thursday's live blog, which will hopefully have some actual news on it shortly and not just this perfunctory introductory sentence.

Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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14 comments

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
1 like

zero trooper, I agree with you so much.

Smart phones are such complicated peices of computerised equipment, they have knowledge and record every screen touch, every thing, orientation, the works.

All it takes is a bit of digital forensics, complex but doable.

But hey, only a cyclist.

I would think that if a person had constantly made use of their phone whilst driving, and this was known, then when they drove into someone without even braking or even swerving, with complete obliviousness then maybe it could be surmised that they may have been perhaps, looking at their phone.

 

Avatar
zero_trooper | 5 years ago
1 like

The problem with the Rodda case is in the final paragraph. The 'moral culpability' list should have included 'using a mobile phone'.

I suspect that the prosecution just didn't have the evidence that she was actually using her mobile at the time of the accident.

Avatar
Philh68 | 5 years ago
2 likes

If I could I would Brooksby, but I doubt even Danny could do that on 35kg of cargo bike! But I think I could stand it  upright, put it in walk assist and guide it over if I tried… angel

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
4 likes

My favorite tweet in reply to the bad parking was from EricEatsPickles.

I, of course, do not condone criminal damage, nor do I in any way condone really, really awful and inconsiderate parking.

Avatar
brooksby replied to ktache | 5 years ago
3 likes
ktache wrote:

My favorite tweet in reply to the bad parking was from EricEatsPickles.

I, of course, do not condone criminal damage, nor do I in any way condone really, really awful and inconsiderate parking.

I've had to squeeze past a car parked up on the footway near where I lived, because I refused to walk out onto the road.  I was carrying a shopping bag, and it may have banged against the side of the car and moved their wing mirror.  The owner coincidentally appeared at that point and asked did I touch his car? "Your badly and illegally parked car blocking the footway so the elderly and women with pushchairs can't get past?", said I. Luckily, he just got in his car, muttering, and drove off.

(In hindsight, it could have gone another way...  )

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
1 like
brooksby wrote:
ktache wrote:

My favorite tweet in reply to the bad parking was from EricEatsPickles.

I, of course, do not condone criminal damage, nor do I in any way condone really, really awful and inconsiderate parking.

I've had to squeeze past a car parked up on the footway near where I lived, because I refused to walk out onto the road.  I was carrying a shopping bag, and it may have banged against the side of the car and moved their wing mirror.  The owner coincidentally appeared at that point and asked did I touch his car? "Your badly and illegally parked car blocking the footway so the elderly and women with pushchairs can't get past?", said I. Luckily, he just got in his car, muttering, and drove off.

(In hindsight, it could have gone another way...  )

Unfortunately, the law would have been on the car-owner's side. Inconsiderate parking is just considered normal these days, whereas keying the side of the car is criminal damage.

Avatar
Philh68 | 5 years ago
1 like

If motorists insist on parking in cycle lanes, then you just have to treat it as a cyclocross course, dismount and climb over the obstacle…

Avatar
brooksby replied to Philh68 | 5 years ago
3 likes
Philh68 wrote:

If motorists insist on parking in cycle lanes, then you just have to treat it as a cyclocross course, dismount and climb over the obstacle…

Or do a Danny Macaskill and don't even bother to dismount?

Avatar
CyclingInBeastMode | 5 years ago
1 like

A judge excusing a killer motorist, who would have guessed!

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iandusud | 5 years ago
5 likes

I'm not too unhappy about a non-custodial sentence for  Billie Rodda, as I'd rather see people contributing something to society rather than being a burden on it. I see the purpose of custodial sentencing as protecting the general public from those who present a threat to them. This however leads me onto to my big gripe. She has clearly demonstrated that she is unsafe behind the wheel of a car and should have had her driving licence revoked for life. If she were to be found driving again whilst being disqualified then a long custodial sentence would be wholey apropriate. 

Avatar
jacko645 replied to iandusud | 5 years ago
1 like
iandusud wrote:

I'm not too unhappy about a non-custodial sentence for  Billie Rodda, as I'd rather see people contributing something to society rather than being a burden on it. I see the purpose of custodial sentencing as protecting the general public from those who present a threat to them.  

Yes! This is so true. We are keen to see prison sentences handed down because that's what we think of as being the most severe punishment but actually putting someone in prison is a really expensive thing for society to do. Far better to gain from them, send them out picking litter, cleaning graffiti, whatever. The problem of course is just being able to enforce the ban on driving.

Avatar
Christopher TR1 replied to jacko645 | 5 years ago
1 like
jacko645 wrote:
iandusud wrote:

I'm not too unhappy about a non-custodial sentence for  Billie Rodda, as I'd rather see people contributing something to society rather than being a burden on it. I see the purpose of custodial sentencing as protecting the general public from those who present a threat to them.  

Yes! This is so true. We are keen to see prison sentences handed down because that's what we think of as being the most severe punishment but actually putting someone in prison is a really expensive thing for society to do. Far better to gain from them, send them out picking litter, cleaning graffiti, whatever. The problem of course is just being able to enforce the ban on driving.

It's a fair point. However, if I (or a member of my family) get taken out by a texting numpty I want that person to be properly punished. And  picking up a bit of litter is not a proper puishment for taking a life!!

Avatar
Kendalred | 5 years ago
1 like

So not just here in the UK that drivers can get away reletively scott free. Sickening.

And from the same Aussie news website: "Tax-dodging socialite goes from Toorak mansion to Deer Park prison".

Avatar
peted76 | 5 years ago
2 likes

So many good things in todays live blog! 

Highlight has to be CAT, BIKE, BASKET, I want a cat like that.

Lest we forget, we should celebrate the fact that Alan Sugar's stem is no longer pointing upwards! Oo er Mrs. 

 

Cummings had one amazing season which I'll never forget watching. Almost too amazing... regardless, watching it was ace!

 

 

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