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Great sportsmanship as smiling Pogačar congratulates Vingegaard on taking yellow (+ reaction to one of the great Tour stages); Meltdown over 20mph speed limits; Magnus Cort being weird; Man with TWO bikes on M62; Mountain porn + more on the live blog

After the weekend's rest and two warm-up days keeping the legs spinning through road.cc news coverage Dan Alexander is ready for a double-header of monster Alpine live blog days. Will he get dropped before the sprinters? Almost certainly... ...
Wed, Jul 13, 2022 08:59
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Great sportsmanship as smiling Pogačar congratulates Vingegaard on taking yellow (+ reaction to one of the great Tour stages); Meltdown over 20mph speed limits; Magnus Cort being weird; Man with TWO bikes on M62; Mountain porn + more on the live blogPogacar Vingegaard stage 11 Tour de France 2022 (screenshot Twitter vid Jumbo Visma)
13 July 2022, 16:19
What happens when a Tour de France rider HATES their bike, kit or the Yellow Jersey?

13 July 2022, 16:10
13 July 2022, 15:56
Great respect as smiling Tadej Pogačar congratulates Vingegaard on taking yellow

How gracious in defeat would you have been if you'd minutes earlier, at the end of an epic mountain stage, pedalled squares up 10km of Alpine high-altitude suffering, losing time on all your major rivals and watching the main one take your yellow jersey?

Not as gracious as Tadej Pogačar, I'd suggest...

After the UAE Team Emirates leader had finished resting his exhausted head on his stem and brought his heart rate back down to a somewhat normal, he went back to find Vingegaard, shaking his hand and congratulating him on an impressive win. Although it did prompt some Danish fans to warn Jonas to quickly sanitise his hands...UAE's covid record and all...

Here are some of the nicer comments...

And to think that wasn't even the Queen Stage... same time and place tomorrow... 

13 July 2022, 16:11
13 July 2022, 07:39
It's the "unrelenting war on drivers" (apparently) — meltdown over 20mph speed limits

So, as expected, last night the Welsh Parliament voted through a new law to introduce a nation-wide default 20mph speed limit on all restricted roads from September 2023, bringing the old limit down from 30mph and becoming the first UK nation to do so...

 "The evidence is clear," climate change minister Julie James said afterwards. "Decreasing speeds not only reduces accidents and saves lives, but helps improve people's quality of life – making our streets and communities a safer and more welcoming place for cyclists and pedestrians, while helping reduce our environmental impact."

And while our readership seemed to be pretty positive about the move...

Certain sections of society have not. Cue the fury...

Welsh Conservatives spread pictures across social media with the tag line 'Labour Slowing Wales Down!' (altered by one reply to Slowing Wales Down... to save children's lives)...

Hmmmm, that's awkward.

 A motoring podcaster claimed: "Ah, Wales. Where there is so very little evidence they make a difference, in fact increase emissions and don't get an uptick in active travel, you’re going for it. This is what happens when belief takes over reality."

That fact-checkers' favourite "Great Reset" got another airing too...something something war on drivers something something...

The replies were fun, in an incredibly concerning way, too...

Which prompted this...

And lastly, a joke (we hope)...

13 July 2022, 15:02
Working hard or hardly working?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by road.cc (@road.cc)

13 July 2022, 15:01
GC after stage 11

We're all supporting Romain Bardet, right? 

13 July 2022, 14:46
Tadej Pogačar cracks — Jonas Vingegaard wins stage 11 and rides into yellow

DRAMA...

We have a new yellow jersey: Jonas Vingegaard. The Jumbo-Visma Dane finished off a spectacular stage with a devastating attack, sweeping up the rest of the breakaway and leaving Tadej Pogačar pedalling squares further down the mountain. By the finish Pogačar had been passed by Geraint Thomas, David Gaudu, Adam Yates (and also finished behind earlier attackers Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet).

The Slovenian lost 2:51 to new race leader Vingegaard, 1:13 to Thomas.

13 July 2022, 14:11
Col du Granon
13 July 2022, 13:26
Could everyone stop attacking?

It quietened down for a second, came back together, now they're back kicking energy gels out of each other. Roglič has been distanced by the latest attack, from the yellow jersey himself. Now it's just Pog and Vingegaard left in the group of GC favourites...

I'm getting quite peckish so, to quote Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: "Could everyone stop getting shot (out the back of the Tour de France)?!" Just for 15 minutes please...

13 July 2022, 12:58
FIREWORKS

You know in a normal bike race in the mountains when the group starts with everyone then slowly whittles down to the strongest few on the final climb? Yep, well tear that idea up...

The big names are on the Galibier and trading punches. Roglič has attacked a couple of times, Pog chased, Vingegaard attacked, Pog followed, Pogačar attacked, Jumbo-Visma and Geraint Thomas followed...oh for goodness' sake even as I write this Vingegaard's gone again...pulled back...now Roglič goes!!!

They're six minutes behind the break and only on the lower slopes of the second climb of the day. Is anyone going to be left at the finish?

Can we please have some calm so I can get some lunch?

13 July 2022, 12:42
Jumbo-Visma go long

Here's the moment Tiesj Benoot and Primož Roglič darted out the peloton midway up the Col du Télégraphe. No problem for Ineos and Pog just yet, that was closed fairly easily. Benoot is back to keeping the pace high on the front.

Up the road, teammate Wout van Aert is in position for a breakaway stage win or later teammate duty. He's just crossed the first climb and will be soon onto the Galibier. Pierre Latour won the KOM points sprint ahead of Warren Barguil and current polka dots wearer Simon Geschke.

Having gone on the attack from the gun, Mathieu van der Poel has now abandoned the Tour. He'll be back in better form at some point soon, no doubt.

13 July 2022, 12:41
Meanwhile at Alpe d'Huez
13 July 2022, 11:43
Mountain porn

Everyone's favourite bit of squiggly tarmac...

13 July 2022, 11:39
13 July 2022, 10:35
Is it 'cross season already?
Van der Poel Van Aert Tour de France (GCN Eurosport)

Someone give Tom Pidcock a nudge, he must have missed the cyclocross breakaway memo...

Yes, these two have gone on the attack from the gun on stage 11. I mean, why wouldn't you with 150km of horrible mountains ahead? It'll be interesting to see if Wout calls it quits after the intermediate sprint in 15km. Naturally, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl are chasing. It's like the Classics all over...

13 July 2022, 10:13
13 July 2022, 10:07
It's that time of the year when Geraint Thomas (and his namesake) shine

I'd rather be Geraint Thomas than the Jon Jones, but not the Jon Jones, who shoots to social media prominence every time the former UFC champion hits the headlines for the wrong reasons...

13 July 2022, 09:49
£6,000 raised after horrific crash leaves rider needing extensive dental work
Paschal GoFundMe

Last Friday, Paschal knocked out six teeth, dislocated his jaw and suffered inner and outer mouth lacerations in a severe crash. More than £6,000 has been raised in the days since, over half of the fundraising target of £12,000 to cover the cost of dental work (not covered by the NHS) at a price of minimum £2,000 per tooth...

The crash led to an emergency CT scan at St Thomas’ Hospital, and a transfer to King's College London for specialist care from the Maxillofacial team. Luckily, there were no lifelong damages to the head, neck or spine, just a quite eye-watering dental bill to come...

Link to GoFundMe...

13 July 2022, 10:13
13 July 2022, 09:41
Cyclist WITH TWO BIKES pulled over by police on the M6
M6 (via StreetView)

A man with two bikes was pulled over by police near Junction 6 of the M6 in Birmingham. Rady Salim, operations manager for National Highways, said: “This seems to have been a case of a cyclist using the M6 after following a map on his phone. We'd always remind people to familiarise themselves with the law.”

The Birmingham Mail said it was unclear why the man had two bikes and shared pictures of police speaking to him at around 12.50pm yesterday.

13 July 2022, 09:35
The bike of today's stage winner? EDIT: THIS AGED EXCEPTIONALLY WELL

Granted Vingegaard (we think) was on a Cervelo R5 today. It's potentially one of the Tour de France-winning bikes anyway, give us a break... 

13 July 2022, 09:06
Count the cyclists
13 July 2022, 08:57
Tour de France mountain showdown

It's time...

TdF 2022 Stage 11 profile

Much of the day's racing will be decided above 2,000m and also in sweltering heat...

After 40km of flat, including a well-placed intermediate sprint, the peloton will ascend the Lacets de Montvernier, giving us all the most TV-friendly pictures of the Tour... 

Anyone dropped here might as well pack it in and hop in the team car to save themselves the struggle: Col du Télégraphe (11.9km @ 7.1 per cent), straight into the Galibier (17.7km @ 6.9 per cent and topping out at 2,642m above sea level), finally a return to the Col du Granon for the first time in decades... 11.3km @ 9.2 per cent and climbing to a finish line altitude of 2,413m above sea level.

Can Jumbo-Visma and Ineos crack Pogačar?

13 July 2022, 08:45
Magnus Cort talks erections, farm animals & improved skin in utterly bizarre post-stage win Instagram

What is going on?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Magnus Cort (@magnuscort)

Apparently it's all to do with a post he was told to swiftly delete when he raced for Astana a few years back when he, essentially, wrote this exact endorsement about a bit of team kit. By the standard of some press releases we see, those claims are pretty humble...

Insert jokes about Cannondale's stiffest ever ride, helmets and it all being a hard sell...

13 July 2022, 08:39
Building Romain Bardet's Tour de France Bike — The All-New SCOTT Foil RC

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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77 comments

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

Incidentally, why doesn't Harlech have a pub?

I asked myself the exact same question when I'd just pushed the Elephant Bike plus the pup in basket up that insanely steep road on my last trip that way, pre-COVID.

The Victoria Inn in Llanbedr, a couple of kilometres to the south, was very nice though.

Avatar
SimoninSpalding replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
0 likes

I spent a lot of childhood holidays in the area (caravan at Llanaber) and one of the things I remember is the overwhelming smell of car fumes in Barmouth - I'm guessing it is something to do with the topography that they don't disperse.

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hawkinspeter replied to SimoninSpalding | 2 years ago
0 likes

SimoninSpalding wrote:

I spent a lot of childhood holidays in the area (caravan at Llanaber) and one of the things I remember is the overwhelming smell of car fumes in Barmouth - I'm guessing it is something to do with the topography that they don't disperse.

I'd say that it's more to do with its popularity as you'd expect coastal towns to have plenty of clean air blowing in. I particularly noticed it around the car park by the beach and as a pedestrian it was tricky crossing the roads there. Unfortunately, we contributed to the traffic as well, though Mrs HawkinsPeter and I did cycle there when we stayed near Dolgellau a few years back.

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don simon fbpe replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
0 likes

You were hit by the unofficial 20mph limits then. Others might call them roadworks, motorhomes or caravans. Some of the best people in the world have origins in that area.

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brooksby replied to don simon fbpe | 2 years ago
2 likes

On the M5 northbound yesterday there was a breakdown north of Clevedon.  Traffic was moving at 6mph.  On the motorway.

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don simon fbpe replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
5 likes

Yes, but 20mph limits in high risk areas!!! It's a war on cars!!!!

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Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
11 likes

War on drivers? If KSI stats are any sort of measure of who is winning this "war" then drivers are winning it hands down. Time to change the rules.

Declaration of interest - I am a driver.

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brooksby replied to Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
3 likes

Does anyone know whether civilians can buy caltrops or stingers?  Asking for a friend.

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Hirsute replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

That came up in the last few weeks. No was the answer, you have to be a particular organisation.

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brooksby replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
4 likes

Thanks.  I'll tell my - er - friend.

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Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
4 likes

20's Plenty.

Sounds catchy, eh?

Another sticking plaster solution to the fct that there are far too many vehicles on the roads.

Will it achieve anything, doubtful. Who is going to enforce it, the Police turn a blind eye to the majority of those breaking the limit elsewhere in the UK so I don't see it being enforced any differently in Wales either.

If the Senedd  really want to make a difference, concentrate on taking road space from motorists and build infrastructure that appeals to all active travel users.

A shared lane between pedestrians and cyclists is not infrastructure. A lick of paint at the side of the road is not infrastructure. 

We only have to look across the North Sea to our neighbours in Holland, Germany and Denmark to see what real infrastructure is, yet we still get it wrong, time after time after time...

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hawkinspeter replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
8 likes

Just replied to Rich_cb in another thread, but this seems relevant here - the results of Bristol's 20mph city centre roads:

https://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=3766

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-43050841

Average speeds reduced by 2.7mph, saving 4.5 lives a year and approx £15m from reduced injuries.

Avatar
Steve K replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
2 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

Just replied to Rich_cb in another thread, but this seems relevant here - the results of Bristol's 20mph city centre roads:

https://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=3766

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-43050841

Average speeds reduced by 2.7mph, saving 4.5 lives a year and approx £15m from reduced injuries.

That's both positive - the life and cost savings - and depressing - the fact the average speed is over the speed limit.

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Dr Frasier Crane replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
2 likes

Ha ha, I live in Bristol and it's nothing to do with the 20mph speed limits (which are not enforced) it's the fact that Bristol as stated in a recent survey is No.1 in the Country as the worst city to drive in. It beats London hands down.....

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chrisonabike replied to Dr Frasier Crane | 2 years ago
3 likes

Bristol bad for driving?  It's probably all the flooding caused by rising sea levels.  That's due to all the sunken statues.  Water which then has nowhere to go because someone painted white lines either side of the road.

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hawkinspeter replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
2 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

Bristol bad for driving?  It's probably all the flooding caused by rising sea levels.  That's due to all the sunken statues.  Water which then has nowhere to go because someone painted white lines either side of the road.

With any luck, it'll get even worse for people driving in and around Bristol: Bus gate could see section of Cumberland Road closed to cars

(Cumberland Road is the road that goes alongside the now closed Chocolate Path)

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iandusud replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
4 likes

Owd Big 'Ead wrote:

20's Plenty.

Sounds catchy, eh?

Who is going to enforce it,

Responsible drivers. I unfortunately have to drive a van for my work 4 days a week. I ridgidly stick to speed limits, including 20mph zones, needless to say it slows down all the eager beavers that line up behind me. I often drive well below the posted 30mph limit in built up areas when I consider it inappropriate. 

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