“Pandering to the few that don’t even pay to be on the roads”: New Dutch-style roundabout branded an “expensive disaster area” by drivers – but cyclists say it’s “100% safer” and the “start of better cycling infrastructure” + more on the live blog

After almost two years of construction work, and months of delays, the first ever ‘Dutch-style’ roundabout in Sheffield – and only the second of its kind in the UK – has finally opened this week.

And it’s fair to say it’s already diving opinion.

First introduced in the UK in Cambridge in 2020, the new roundabout layout at West Bar in Sheffield, which was originally due to be completed in October after work began in April 2023, offers priority to cyclists and pedestrians, with motorists asked to give way to more vulnerable road users on entering and exiting the roundabout (so you can already see why there’s a bit of debate about it).

Based on a design made popular in the Netherlands (hence the name), zebra crossings have been installed at each arm of the Dutch-style roundabout, giving pedestrians priority over drivers, while a one-way protected cycle lane moves clockwise around the infrastructure, providing dedicated space for those on bikes, with give-ways at each exit.

Sheffield City Council says the new layout at West Bar forms part of wider plans to improve sustainable links to the city centre, “making it and easier for people to get around the city in an active way”.

At the infrastructure’s grand unveiling on Monday, three-time Olympic team pursuit champion Ed Clancy, in his role as South Yorkshire’s Active Travel Commissioner, said the West Bar scheme “demonstrates Sheffield Council’s ambition and commitment to being at the forefront of design that gives people more freedom and choice about getting around”.

“New walking, wheeling and cycling projects are happening right across South Yorkshire, creating better places and more opportunities for us all to move more and move differently,” the 39-year-old said.

(Sheffield City Council)

“For too long people wanting to cross West Bar roundabout to get around the city have had to wait for a gap in the traffic to do so in a safe manner,” added Sheffield City Council’s transport committee chair Ben Miskell.

“The changes we are delivering will make it easier for those on foot or on their bike in fantastic new ways [while managing] the speed of traffic using the roundabout, increasing safety for everyone.”

However, due to the delays which have hit the project in recent months, West Bar’s Dutch roundabout isn’t quite the finished article, with some sections of the protected bike lane exiting the roundabout yet to be completed.

 (Les Sturch)

The BBC has also reported that another 20m section of the cycleway was unfinished at the time of the infrastructure’s opening, and one stretch featured barriers across the lane where repair work was being carried out.

“Hopefully, in time they will finish all this off and join it up,” cyclist Charlotte Tallyfield told the BBC after using the new roundabout.

“It’s a huge issue everywhere in the city: the lanes still disappear and you suddenly get abandoned on to the road.”

Despite these teething problems, the roundabout’s design – and the priority it offers to vulnerable road users – already seems to be a hit with local cyclists.

“I feel very safe going round here. It’s not too fast and all the cars stopped for me. I’m really pleased it’s open,” cargo bike rider Billie Turner told the BBC, describing the roundabout as “perfect for cyclists”.

 (Les Sturch)

Meanwhile, other cyclists have described the new layout as “100 per cent safer for cyclists” compared to the mayhem that preceded it.

“It used to be mayhem and chaos, you would be trying to cross anywhere on the roundabout,” Mila Pesa Mezzola told Sheffield Live this week.

“It’s a lot easier now – we once spent 20 minutes waiting to cross and eventually just had to go. When they were doing the work, the path was really small and we kept going onto the main road.”

“It’s definitely easier as you don’t have to keep waiting. You can just cross anywhere,” added Ighauo De La Vega.

“There used to be loads of litter and food on the road when they were doing the construction work, but now it’s a lot better.”

“I came before the work was done and it felt like a maze when I was trying to cross. But it looks better and it’s 100 per cent safer now,” agreed Richard.

And university student Mingli said: “Every car has to wait for you, which makes you feel quite safe. The drivers have all been polite and have stopped. I think the new roundabout will help save a bit more time as you aren’t waiting to cross.”

“It’s all part of a jigsaw. It can’t just be this, we need a larger network,” added Peter Holt, who said he hoped the roundabout would mark the “start of better cycling infrastructure” in Sheffield.

“It should be welcomed, though, because it shows our council and hopefully other councils this is the way to do it.”

(Les Sturch)

However, not everyone was as welcoming when it came to the new infrastructure.

“I strongly believe this will cause more rear-ended bumps than a normal roundabout would,” Sheffield-based driving instructor Nadeem told the Telegraph, which also reported, in classic Telegraph-style, that the new layout had immediately caused “traffic jams” in the area.

“With these sorts of roundabouts there are more cons than pros. By the time a pedestrian is spotted it is too late to brake as the driver is usually focusing on the road far ahead rather than what they can see in their peripheral vision.”

“Can see this being an expensive disaster area,” Paul Cook said on social media. “No bloody wonder we’re missing £22bn.”

“I drove around it the other day and there are no road signs explaining it on the approach to it at all so if you don’t know about it you won’t know how to use it properly. It’s ridiculous!” wrote Kat.

> More collisions at UK's first Dutch-style roundabout than old layout, figures reveal

“Problem I see is idiots coming off the roundabout too fast and hitting someone on crossing,” added Troy. “Also coming off roundabout, stopping, then someone rear ends you. I know it works well in Holland, but cyclists and pedestrians well outnumber cars.”

And anti-cycling bingo enthusiast Mike concluded: “Pandering to the few again that don’t even pay to be on the roads.

“Don’t they realise A&E have enough to cope with already, disaster waiting to happen, and then it will be redesigned, wasting another few million quid.”

Well, I suppose you can’t please everyone…

A last-ditch effort to piece together a British men’s Continental team from the ruins of Saint Piran has collapsed due to an inability to attract a title sponsor at such short notice, the rider behind the attempt, Harry Tanfield, has confirmed today.

In late November, it was revealed that the formerly dominant domestic squad Saint Piran was closing at the end of 2024, leaving no remaining men’s UCI Continental team based in Britain for the first time since 2004, following the demise of Trinity earlier that month.

The Cornwall-based outfit, which was established in 2018 before stepping up to UCI Continental level in 2021, said the decision to shut up shop follows a “tough season” as the squad was hit by sponsorship troubles following what it called “turbulent media coverage”.

> “And then there were none”: Cycling fans lament “sorry state of affairs” for British cycling following “very depressing” demise of Saint Piran, the UK’s last remaining Continental team

One of the riders left without a team for 2025 following Saint Piran’s collapse, Commonwealth Games time trial silver medallist Harry Tanfield, responded to the news by launching an ambitious effort to piece together a new team and apply for a UCI Conti licence, ahead of the governing body’s 6 December deadline.

However, the 30-year-old told Cycling Weekly today that the struggle to raise sufficient funds in time meant his bid never got off the ground.

 (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

“We can’t go Continental, that’s just not possible,” Tanfield said. “We’re not really sure what to do now. I kind of just want to have a week off to compose my thoughts. We can’t go Continental so there’s no deadline now to reach. If we want to register an elite team [racing in British domestic events] then I think we can do that.

“There are a few things that could happen but as of yet I haven’t got anything confirmed. It would be nice if a team could get off the ground in some way here in the UK.

“I’m just going to keep looking for the sponsorship now going forward to 2026 as we can’t make the deadline for this year as it's passed now, it’s gone. British Cycling said to come back in November next year.”

> Team GB's Charlie and Harry Tanfield struck by motorist in “intentional” hit and run

Following Tanfield’s bid, British Cycling were reportedly concerned about the proposed new team’s links to Saint Piran, after the Cornish squad attracted negative headlines in recent months for using non-UCI approved framesets imported from China (sparking an investigation from cycling’s governing body), while founder Richard Pascoe was accused of charging riders looking to join the squad £500 for their performance data to be analysed.

However, Tanfield played down the links to his old squad, and said he will now focus on pitching plans for a new elite team to the national governing body.

“It is just protocol and you can’t change it,” the Tour de Yorkshire stage winner said. “And anyway, even if they had given us an extra month to do something it doesn’t change anything, you can’t get a title sponsor in a month. It’s just not possible for us so end of. It is what it is.

“I’ll just be plugging away over the winter essentially and into next year to just see where I can go with this. Some of the companies we approached regarding sponsorship were really interested, but they just didn’t have the marketing budget at this time of year so can’t do anything about it.

“Hopefully we could maybe try and get something off the ground for 2026 but I’m not too sure.”

Here on the live blog, we’re well aware that certain anti-cycling antagonists – looking at you, Telegraph headline writers – have a hard time when it comes to distinguishing where the middle of something is.

For example, are cyclists advised for safety purposes, and to prevent close passes, to ride in the middle of the lane? Or is it the middle of the road? That’s a conundrum which has baffled many whose only knowledge of the Highway Code is their own distorted version of it frequently aired during tiresome social media debates.

Over at the Argus in Brighton, however, there appears to be confusion over what constitutes the middle of the pavement, for a change.

A new set of cycle parking stands, recently installed on Beach Green in Shoreham, have attracted the ire of the usual car-brained social media set, due to what the Argus has described as their “stupid” positioning “in the middle of the pavement” – despite photographic evidence clearly showing the stands located at the far reaches of the decent-sized footpath.

Posting some curiously close-up images of the racks on Twitter, local Eddie Mitchell said: “There is a large space to the left of the pavement to put the bike stands, the public on autopilot use the pavement.”

That prompted others, such as Mozza91648022, to chime in, writing: “Yep, that will stop Bob on his mobility scooter. And Jane with her pram. Good work, money well spent.”

However, not everyone was convinced by Eddie’s claim that the bike racks were a fiendish plot by the council to block the pavement for people who don’t cycle.

“Presumably a person in a wheelchair would just go around. It all looks uneven to be honest. I do not think a wheelchair is restricted to only going on broken pavement slabs,” said Street Hawk.

That interjection – a far cry from the “stupid council t***s” approach adopted by most other commenters – prompted photographer Eddie to reply: “The local beef is they have been set in the pavement when there is a large chunk of unused space right by the install area. A lack of common sense basically.”

So, a storm in a teacup basically – which nonetheless enabled the Argus to wheel out a rather erroneous “Cycle racks installed in middle of pavement” headline this morning.

Responding to all this ‘criticism’, a spokesperson from Adur and Worthing Council, who installed the racks, said: “We have recently installed a number of new bicycle racks across Adur thanks to government grant funding that will encourage sustainable active travel and further enable our residents to make journeys by bike or scooter.

“We’re sorry to hear that some residents aren’t happy with the location of the new bicycle racks outside the shops on Beach Green, so we’re looking at the options available to address the concerns raised.

“West Sussex County Council published a standard 28-day public notice to make locals aware of our plans to install the new bicycle racks outside the shops on Beach Green, during which no objections were made.

“We’ve installed dozens of new bicycle racks across the district this year, all of which have been funded through the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”

But anything for an anti-cycling headline, eh?

Eddy Merckx has joked that he will be digging out his old pair of stabilisers next time he rides his bike, after undergoing successful hip replacement surgery for what the Cannibal described as a “stupid fall” while cycling earlier this week.

On Monday we reported on the live blog that the 79-year-old came off his bike while going over a railway crossing in Hombeek. He was taken to hospital immediately when it became clear he was in a lot of pain and had broken his right hip in the fall.

On Tuesday, doctors at AZ St Elisabeth hospital in Herentals performed a total hip replacement for what they described as a “common fracture”, with a statement from the hospital confirming that Merckx will begin rehabilitation today and that a “full recovery is expected”.

And speaking to various Belgian media outlets from his hospital bed, the five-time Tour de France winner said he was feeling “much better” after surgery.

“They gave me a new hip. The pain is not too bad at the moment,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. “[Monday] it was terrible, but it’s better since the surgery.”

Describing the crash, Merckx said: “I fell on my hip and could not stand up. I was alone on the bike. Fortunately a few bystanders stayed. Otherwise, it would have been a disaster. I was scared, yes.

“It was a stupid fall. But it can indeed happen to anyone. Still, next time I will ride with two training wheels.”

A statement from the hospital, released yesterday, said: “The operation went very smoothly and a full recovery is expected. Eddy Merckx will now stay in the hospital for at least one night to recover from the procedure.

“Tomorrow his rehabilitation will begin, during which full support will be possible immediately, which means that most patients are back on their feet quickly.

“Full recovery usually takes a few months, but fortunately for Eddy Merckx, cycling is an excellent rehabilitation activity that is allowed after just a few weeks.”

Better get those training wheels sorted soon then, Eddy.

UAE Team Emirates are no longer using the controversial method of carbon monoxide rebreathing to test their riders’ progress during altitude training camps, the squad’s performance co-ordinator has confirmed.

Last month, world cycling’s governing body, the UCI, called for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to “take a position” on the use of carbon monoxide inhalation in the peloton, after Escape Collective broke the news during this year’s Tour de France that UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike, and Israel-Premier Tech have access to a CO rebreather to test blood values.

Providing an accurate means of measuring key blood values such as haemoglobin (a protein that facilities the movement of oxygen in red blood cells), several pro squads have confirmed that they use CO rebreathers to track their riders’ progress during red blood cell boosting altitude training camps.

(ASO/Charly Lopez)

Both Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard confirmed at the Tour that they had previously used carbon monoxide rebreathers, with Pogačar even dismissing the practice as a “pretty simple test” and claiming he’d never actually completed it, while Vingegaard told Danish reporters that there was “nothing suspicious” about the controversial rebreathing technique.

However, despite not breaking any current anti-doping rules, those very same carbon monoxide rebreathers also allow for precise dosing of the gas into the lungs, which could potentially assist riders’ bodies in producing more red blood cells and improve their aerobic capacity, enhancing their performance artificially – an alternative use of the equipment which all teams at the Tour denied using.

After urging WADA to take a stance on the issue, and requesting that teams and riders avoid using “repeated CO inhalation”, clarifying that “only the medical use of a single inhalation of CO in a controlled medical environment could be acceptable”, UCI president David Lappartient last week officially called for the method to be banned.

> “There are a lot of people smoking cigarettes every day”: Jonas Vingegaard says carbon monoxide method is like “smoking one cigarette” and claims he “never knew” it could be misused

But if a ban does eventually come into effect, it shouldn’t have an impact on Pogačar, however, after his UAE Team Emirates performance co-ordinator Jeroen Swart confirmed that the squad has stopped using carbon monoxide rebreathing after finishing an 18-month-long “process”.

(ASO/Charly Lopez)

“To give you complete clarity on that, carbon monoxide rebreathing is a technique that has already been validated for 20 years and has been used by climbers, endurance sportsmen and athletes around the world to measure haemoglobin mass when they go to altitude,” Swart told Cyclingnews during UAE’s training camp in Spain this week.

“We’ve been very good with our altitude training camps in the last seven years. We feel that we’ve done a really good job in terms of the benefit, but there’s no way that you can quantify that clearly, other than measuring haemoglobin mass.

“So, two years ago, we decided to assess whether or not our riders were improving to our expectations. And so, it was an exercise that we conducted over 18 months and assessed the haemoglobin mass using carbon monoxide rebreathing which is a very standardised technique with very specific equipment.

“Actually, we finished that process now and our results show that our training camps are actually very well suited to the maximal adaptation for our riders which we see in the performances as well.

“So, we actually don't need to do the tests any further. We don’t plan to do any more.”

 (ASO/Billy Ceusters)

After confirming the end of UAE’s dalliance with the controversial method, Swart then criticised Escape Collective’s apparently “sensationalist” initial reporting on the issue.

“But I think it’s quite a sensationalist article that’s been published and speculating about using a technique that would be quite complicated and probably not something that I can see anybody actually doing,” he said of the alleged performance-enhancing benefits.

“It doesn’t come across as realistic. So, I think there’s a lot of sensation.”

> Remco Evenepoel calls for drivers to use Dutch Reach after suffering multiple fractures in dooring incident on training ride

The Cambridge Cycling Campaign, Camcycle, has raised £30,120 for community active travel projects, through the 2024 Big Give Christmas Challenge, a seasonal match-funding initiative joined by over 1,000 charities across the UK.

The funds raised will support Camcycle’s ‘Cambridgeshire Community Placemakers’ project, which provides support for local community groups working for better walking and cycling routes and sustainable, healthy neighbourhoods.

The total raised this year came from 120 donors, including match funding by two local donors and the Reed Foundation, the founders of Big Gove, and was a record for Camcycle, meeting its aim to raise £30,000 to mark its 30th anniversary next year.

“We’re incredibly grateful to the community for getting behind our festive fundraising campaign with a record number of donors helping us reach our largest result ever,” Camcycle’s CEO Roxanne De Beaux said.

“This is a testament to the support from our community for Camcycle’s work and with these funds we can help even more local people create more great places in 2025.

“Thank you to everyone who contributed to Camcycle in 2024 as members, donors and volunteers: together you’re helping to enable more cycling in our region for a better future for everyone.”

Nick Flynn, of Better Walking for West Chesterton, one of the groups which benefitted from Camcycle’s fundraising efforts by using them to push for, and win, new active travel links during a town redevelopment project, said: “Camcycle played a critical role in the success of our campaign. Their strategic advice, support at council meetings, and ability to mobilise assistance from members were instrumental in achieving our goals. We couldn’t have done it without their invaluable help.”

> Last minute Christmas gifts for cyclists 2024 — very last minute ideas + lots more for the cyclist in your life