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Michal Kwiatkowski clashes with Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Enric Mas after Stage 7; Lucky cyclist dodges terrifying collision; 50 Cent's two cents on Tour crash; Britain's best routes; Brompton bling; The Cav effect + more on the live blog

Happy Friday everyone, Dan Alexander will be taking you through the final live blog of the week before we all knock off for a cold one

SUMMARY

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02 July 2021, 15:38
Michal Kwiatkowski clashes with Movistar's Alejandro Valverde and Enric Mas after Stage 7

There's plenty to unpack here. Whatever happened away from the cameras left two of Movistar's leaders visibly agitated, with Enric Mas in particular taking issue with the former world champion. Michal Kwiatkowski, Alejandro Valverde and Mas, all crossed the finish in the main bunch, 5:15 behind stage winner Matej Mohoric. Kwiatkowski's leader, Richard Carapaz, formerly of Movistar had made a late attack before being chased down by his former teammates.

Kwiatkowski and Valverde were then seen having words as they rolled away from the finish before Mas, who crashed earlier in the stage, went after the Ineos rider to remonstrate about something, grabbing his arm before they continued their 'discussion' riding out of shot.

What caused it? Who knows. Hopefully we'll get some answers soon. One thing we do know is that the third season of Movistar's Netflix documentary can't come soon enough...

02 July 2021, 14:42
Brompton bling
02 July 2021, 14:29
It was a llama after all...Al-pack-up my things and see myself out
Llama comment

Miller has done great work in the comments showing up my shoddy mammal identification. It was a llama.

Also some great shouts for 50 Cent headlines have left me kicking myself. Credit to all involved, we should let you write the headlines more often.

02 July 2021, 14:08
Where are Britain's best cycling routes?
Flax Bourton Greenway (picture credit Sustrans)

The people over at money.co.uk have seen searches for cycling gear increase by 3,890 per cent in the past year and were inspired to find Britain's best routes. So they analysed all the routes on letsride, looking at the average ratings to come up with the following list...

West Sussex came out on top with an average rating of 6.7 out of 10, closely followed by Cardiff in second with 6.6. East Sussex was third on 6, while Renfrewshire represented Scotland in fourth. Durham, Bristol, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Tyne and Wear and Suffolk rounded out the top ten in that order.

Interestingly, West Sussex's routes averaged 7.9 miles and had an elevation of just 87 metres, making them highly rated while also being family and commute friendly. Neighbouring East Sussex's average routes were by contrast far longer at 29.75 miles with 563.5 metres of climbing.

Did your favourite place to ride make the list? Are there some glaring omissions? 

02 July 2021, 13:55
The Cav effect
02 July 2021, 13:24
Bring your alpaca to work day at the Tour de France (or is it a llama?)

Much more civilised than the Giro's chainsaw-wielding maniacs chasing Egan Bernal up Passo Giau... 

Maybe we have a camelid mammal expert in our midst who can give us help with the ID? Anyway, I'm banking on alpaca...

02 July 2021, 11:54
Won't somebody please think of the Wiggle customers
Haribo Gold Bears (via YouTube).jpg

Wiggle customers may be an unexpected victim as German confectionery giant Haribo says it is struggling to deliver its sugary goods to shops in the UK because of a shortage of lorry drivers. The BBC reports the problem is affecting deliveries of all the company's sweets. We'll get in touch with Wiggle to see if you should expect fewer bags of Haribo goodness in your orders...

The haulage industry has blamed the pandemic and Brexit for thousands of unfilled HGV driver jobs. It is estimated that around 30,000 HGV driver tests did not take place last year due to the pandemic which means the industry is working at an estimated shortfall of 60,000 drivers.

02 July 2021, 11:12
50 Cent weighs in on Tour de France crash debate...no, really

Twitter is a weird place at the best of times; a place where anyone can voice their opinion on anything. Even if you're 50 Cent and the topic is the Tour de France...

The rapper weighed in on the debate surrounding the spectator who caused the crash on the opening stage, telling his 12.6M followers essentially the same message as G and Luke Rowe said yesterday...great minds.

"they should jus give her a fine, this was not done with malice. it was just a mistake she wasn’t even looking. They gonna give her 10 years in the FED’s for fu**ing up the bike race. LOL," he tweeted with hashtags advertising his Cognac business...

Wait until 50 hears that Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert have launched a 200km breakaway on stage seven...

02 July 2021, 10:46
Fuelling like a pro

Something tells us Cav's escape in the stacked morning breakaway might have been planned, based on these loaded pockets...eating copious amounts of scran is the bit of pro cycling we'd be more than happy signing up for... although admittedly it might be problematic stopping for a slice of cake from the cafe mid-stage.

02 July 2021, 10:13
Panic stations for UAE Team Emirates...and there is still 200km to go

Yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert, Vincenzo Nibali, Kasper Asgreen, Mark Cavendish, Philippe Gilbert, Matej Mohoric and Simon Yates are just a select few of the 24 riders who have made an incredible bid for freedom at the Tour this morning. UAE are panicking and have sent the whole team to the front, but the gap is still going out. It's over one minute now...193km to go...

02 July 2021, 09:57
Katie Archibald and Co talk track bikes with the Olympics one month away

Team GB track riders Katie Archibald, Ethan Vernon and Jack Carlin have spoken about their new bikes ahead of the Olympics next month. Aero gains are obviously key for Lotus' speed machine which is designed so the forks are in line with riders' knees and has wider seat stays for better air flow. Lotus will be hoping to be part of another chapter of GB track success having designed the Type 108 which Chris Boardman powered to Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992, Britain's first Olympic cycling medal for 72 years.

Hosted at the Izu Velodrome in Tokyo, the track cycling medals will be decided during competition in the first week of August (2nd-8th).

02 July 2021, 09:28
TV bike buddies...meet the ITV peloton
02 July 2021, 08:39
Cav's win broken down by the man who knows him best

Want to geek out on Cav's latest sprint triumph? If the answer's yes, Mark Renshaw has just the vid for you. The legendary lead-out has all the analysis you could need of how Deceuninck-Quick-Step delivered their man for his 32nd Tour stage win...

Win number 33 today? Unlikely. Stage seven looks a real tough test for the riders. At 248km it is the longest Tour stage for 20 years and has 3,000m of climbing largely packed into the back end of the day. In our stage-by-stage preview, road.cc news editor Simon MacMichael highlighted the penultimate climb as the key point, with the riders tackling a 1.5km climb averaging 11.5 per cent with ramps of 18 per cent...and there are bonus seconds on offer at the top. Tasty.

02 July 2021, 07:51
CCTV footage captures the moment one lucky cyclist dodges out of control driver who smashed into zebra crossing

Here's an absolute shocker to start Friday. This CCTV footage from outside Gola, an Italian restaurant on Fulham Road caught the moment a lucky cyclist and pedestrian somehow managed to avoid being hit by an out of control driver. The vehicle can be seen drifting across the wrong side of the road before the driver pulls away from the pavement at the last minute, smashing into the zebra crossing instead.

Not too many details on this yet, but both the pedestrian and cyclist appear to have got away unscathed...the latter can be seen stood further up the road as people rush to the driver.

Plenty of speculation in the replies, along with several facetious questions of could this all have been avoided if the zebra crossing was wearing hi-vis and paid 'road tax'? 

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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87 comments

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to vthejk | 3 years ago
0 likes

It made the Late Show Monologue on Monday or Tuesday. 

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vthejk replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 3 years ago
8 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

Politi-lies, the same Democrat/Pro-CCP organisation that stated the theory that Covid-19 started in a lab was "Inaccurate and ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire!"

Not the the theory published independently by a scientist, non-peer-reviewed and rubbished by pretty much every other academic body including the WHO?

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to vthejk | 3 years ago
3 likes

And unlike the famous Fox Legally Non-News shows, Politifacts acknowledge when new information might be available that could change a discourse. Although of course the same Political Alignment that turns "Dr Seuss Organisation have decided to stop publishing a couple of minor books with majorly racist depictions" into claims "The Left are cancelling Cat in the Hat!" wouldn't be able to spot the difference of claims it was "definitely man-made and deliberately released" to "investigating if it had accidently escaped from a bio lab that studies these natural diseases". Nope, just use it as another excuse to debunk a source for fake news and carry on watching the Anti-Woke channels and papers who never lie.

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grOg replied to vthejk | 3 years ago
0 likes

'Not Candace Owens, the notable far-right speaker and anti-semite (look it up: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/01/candace-owens/no-soros...(link is external)), and Lil Pump aka Gazzy Garcia, the rapper who is of - wait for it - Peurto Rican, i.e. Latin American heritage?'

 

So, Owens is an anti-Semite eh? I'd be very careful with defamatory claims like that, without having very good evidence to back it up.

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markieteeee replied to grOg | 3 years ago
2 likes

It doesn't really meet any criteria for being defamatory, so your concern for vthejk is kind but misplaced.

It's a view that any reasonable person could hold, due to her comments in support of Hitler. It doesn't cause her serious harm or damage her reputation, partly because her supporters don't mind her holding these sort of views but also because it's a comment below the line in a cycling thread where no-one she knows will read it.

Although if you meant it might provoke right-wing loons into hounding him, you might have point.

 

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iandusud | 3 years ago
1 like

"the latter can be seen stood further up the road". By whom?

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FrankH replied to iandusud | 3 years ago
1 like

By anybody who watches the video.

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iandusud replied to FrankH | 3 years ago
0 likes

stood by whom?

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Awavey | 3 years ago
0 likes

On the ITV thing,anyone been listening to Ned & Dave's Never Strays Far podcast ? Apparently they are sharing hotel & production studios with the ITV Euro2020 football crew and Ned had a very interesting chat over breakfast with Roy Keane who is very much into his cycling, though sadly not an audio interview for the podcast, but definitely worth a listen.

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Velophaart_95 | 3 years ago
13 likes

It's 'odds on' the driver was on a mobile device of some kind......and failed to see a zebra crossing/pedestrian,cyclist.....

And the sad fact is that shoulders are shrugged but nothing can/will be done.

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OldRidgeback replied to Velophaart_95 | 3 years ago
7 likes

At first I wondered if the driver had a medical episode of some kind. But then you see the person stepping out of the vehicle a bit after the impact. The driver was either drunk or distracted by a phone. That's a straight stretch of road and it'll have a 20mph speed limit now. If you can't drive along a striaght bit of road at 20mph then you shouldn't be driving at all.

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Rendel Harris replied to OldRidgeback | 3 years ago
2 likes

OldRidgeback wrote:

At first I wondered if the driver had a medical episode of some kind. But then you see the person stepping out of the vehicle a bit after the impact. The driver was either drunk or distracted by a phone. 

I agree that those are the most likely, but there is the possibility of, for example, an absence seizure (previously known as petit mal epilepsy) in which an individual can zone out for a few seconds and then be back as if nothing happened. People can have this sort of condition for years without ever noticing it, or simply regarding it as having poor concentration abilities, until one occurs in a critical situation such as driving a car. I daresay the reason will come out in the wash, just thank goodness nobody seems to have been hurt.

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eburtthebike replied to Velophaart_95 | 3 years ago
0 likes

Velophaart_95 wrote:

It's 'odds on' the driver was on a mobile device of some kind......and failed to see a zebra crossing/pedestrian,cyclist.....

I thought the same, but there are other, less plausible perhaps, explanations; attacked by a wasp, sneezing fit, attacked by passenger......

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brooksby replied to eburtthebike | 3 years ago
2 likes

eburtthebike wrote:

Velophaart_95 wrote:

It's 'odds on' the driver was on a mobile device of some kind......and failed to see a zebra crossing/pedestrian,cyclist.....

I thought the same, but there are other, less plausible perhaps, explanations; attacked by a wasp, sneezing fit, attacked by passenger......

Of course!  The passenger had a medical episode.  Then they died and woke up as a zombie.  And the driver was just so very distracted by all that....

(Sorry, been watching 'Black Summer' on Netflix).

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Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
12 likes

Having been away from the cycling game for quite a few months due to non-cycling related injury I have noticed driving seems worse than ever.

Done a full week of commute cycling and the worst offenders are these online order van twats. Just trying to get my legs back but I feel like I'll be lucky to have legs at this rate.

May be time to invest in a camera.

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Captain Badger replied to Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
9 likes

Rick_Rude wrote:

Having been away from the cycling game for quite a few months due to non-cycling related injury I have noticed driving seems worse than ever. Done a full week of commute cycling and the worst offenders are these online order van twats. Just trying to get my legs back but I feel like I'll be lucky to have legs at this rate. May be time to invest in a camera.

I don't leave home without one these days. It's an imposition I resent, but it's necessary due to the aggression from some drivers

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tdw replied to Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
5 likes
Rick_Rude wrote:

... the worst offenders are these online order van twats.

Rick_Rude wrote:

May be time to invest in a camera.

Cameras are useful, but on the delivery driver front I'm not sure that trying to tackle the issue from the driver end will make much headway. In larger companies (thinking amazon in particular) the performance metrics rule everything. If a driver slows down to pass cyclists too much or goes doesn't do the full 60mph down that single track country lane in the wet, or just in general doesn't drive like a reckless twat, they are likely to lose their jobs.
The whole setup seems to go out of its way to encourage and select for bad driving. Making bad drivers more aware or taking them off the road it important but without any changes to the underlying issues they will just be replaced by equally bad drivers.

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Captain Badger replied to tdw | 3 years ago
4 likes

tdw wrote:

 Cameras are useful, but on the delivery driver front I'm not sure that trying to tackle the issue from the driver end will make much headway. In larger companies (thinking amazon in particular) the performance metrics rule everything. If a driver slows down to pass cyclists too much or goes doesn't do the full 60mph down that single track country lane in the wet, or just in general doesn't drive like a reckless twat, they are likely to lose their jobs. .....

Do we actually know that? - it may be the case (I don't work for Amazon) however I've heard similar stories about my company, that aren't actually the case in the slightest. To be clear I have no interest in defending Bezos (or my own CEO for that matter), but how a driver drives is the driver's responsibility.

Clearly where drivers are penalised for late delivery that would in my view make the company culpable, and they should be chased down. But that is separate campaign to ensuring that drivers fulfil their own culpability on the road for being unduly distracted by outside factors.

 

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tdw replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
3 likes

Captain Badger wrote:

Do we actually know that? - it may be the case (I don't work for Amazon)

I must admit I don’t work for amazon either and can't confirm that this is going on in the UK but the in the US it has recently come out that amazon flex workers (the independent gig based workers) are being rated and "fired" by an algorithm with little to no human oversite, and to top it off the response style of the appeals process rases a couple of red flags that it might also be a bot.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-t...

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Captain Badger replied to tdw | 3 years ago
3 likes
tdw wrote:

Captain Badger wrote:

Do we actually know that? - it may be the case (I don't work for Amazon)

I must admit I don’t work for amazon either and can't confirm that this is going on in the UK but the in the US it has recently come out that amazon flex workers (the independent gig based workers) are being rated and "fired" by an algorithm with little to no human oversite, and to top it off the response style of the appeals process rases a couple of red flags that it might also be a bot.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-t...

Absolutely, their workers rights record is appalling, and deserves condemnation in itself.

Edit: just read that article. Sickening.

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Captain Badger replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 3 years ago
2 likes

Nigel Garrage wrote:

They might not have got the algorith quite right yet, but I welcome the idea of being managed by a robot. No more nepotism and personal favours, but raw meritocratic talent shining through.

Not getting it quite right means still in testing whilst running alongside accountable (human) systems. It doesn't look like this was the case reading the article - basically sacking people wholesale for no good reason. Don't forget what' "right" for Bezos isn't necessarily ethically right, or even pragmatically right for the individuals or wider society

In addition they also have form on recruitment algorithms. " What does merit look like?" basically translated to white, male and middle class, which was what the algorithms were frighteningly able to pick up in spite of anonymising CVs. Note that the algos themselves weren't racist classist or sexist, neither was Amazon's intent (probably) but the results most certainly were. 

No, fallible humans that can be held accountable, retrained or redeployed for me every time

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Captain Badger | 3 years ago
0 likes

Plenty of articles out there about racism unintentionally programmed into Algorithims and AI bots. (plus other biases as well.)

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eburtthebike replied to Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
5 likes

Rick_Rude wrote:

Having been away from the cycling game for quite a few months due to non-cycling related injury I have noticed driving seems worse than ever. Done a full week of commute cycling and the worst offenders are these online order van twats. Just trying to get my legs back but I feel like I'll be lucky to have legs at this rate. May be time to invest in a camera.

If you haven't seen "Sorry, We Missed You" it is well worth a view.  Like others, I won't ride on the road without two cameras.

The cameras will look very cheap when you are contesting the driver's version when you claim damages.

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Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
12 likes

Surely it was the car that lost control, mounted the pavement and was then in collision with the crossing beacon? If it was not for the prompt action of the driver both the pedestrian and the cyclist could have been seriously injured.

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Rick_Rude replied to Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
7 likes

Car accidents nearly all suffer this odd way of reporting. 'The car' lost control or whatever. When you see a report involving a lone motorcyclist or cyclists it's always the rider the lost control never the bike. Maybe autonomously driven cars are everywhere I didn't notice. KITT lives. 

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OldRidgeback replied to Rick_Rude | 3 years ago
8 likes

Car crashes you mean. The word 'accident' suggests that it was an unavoidable incident caused by a freak situation. It was a car crash, most likely caused by poor driving. As I commented elsewhere, it's a straight stretch of road with a 20mph speed limit. If someone can't drive a vehicle in a straight line at 20mph, they shouldn't be driving at all.

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eburtthebike replied to Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
2 likes

Mungecrundle wrote:

Surely it was the car that lost control, mounted the pavement and was then in collision with the crossing beacon? If it was not for the prompt action of the driver both the pedestrian and the cyclist could have been seriously injured.

noyes

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Captain Badger replied to Mungecrundle | 3 years ago
4 likes

Mungecrundle wrote:

Surely it was the car that lost control, mounted the pavement and was then in collision with the crossing beacon? If it was not for the prompt action of the driver both the pedestrian and the cyclist could have been seriously injured.

I think you've identified the true hero of the hour Munge, they don't all wear capes.... Loafers, slacks and a crisply ironed shirt is this lifesaver's uniform!

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samuri | 3 years ago
23 likes

The very worst part of this is the guy gets out of the car and shows not the slightest interest in the two people he's almost killed. Hands on hips, he looks exasperatedly at his car, "well this is another fine mess you've gotten me into". It's digusting. The de-humanisation process of driving makes good people bad and bad people worse.

There is no place for cars in built up areas, we can all point at this and exclaim but two people were inches from losing their lives, or at least experiencing life changing injuries and it's considered completely normal.

Cars should be restricted to areas where they and their drivers can't harm anyone not in a car.  Like the moon.

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Captain Badger replied to samuri | 3 years ago
15 likes

samuri wrote:

The very worst part of this is the guy gets out of the car and shows not the slightest interest in the two people he's almost killed. Hands on hips, he looks exasperatedly at his car, "well this is another fine mess you've gotten me into". It's digusting. The de-humanisation process of driving makes good people bad and bad people worse..

proabaly wasn't even aware of them cos his BookFace post was more interesting/important. Either that or fell asleep. What a w&nker

Edit. Didn't even touch the brake until after hitting the eBelisha....

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