Group ride crashes after dog runs into the road; Active travel group condemns "divisive" no cycling signs; Riding 2000 miles in a week; Alaphilippe wins Flèche Wallonne; Awful cycling infra; Ronde Van Der Breggen; Mur de Huy scenes + more on the live blog

This video sent to us from Montreal left the cyclist with hip pain, mild concussion and a broken helmet. Thankfully nothing more serious considering the heavy fall at a decent speed. No mention of the dog apart from André's warning for other cyclists to watch out for the mad dog on Chemin de la Savane, so hopefully that means it was unharmed and will be kept away from the road in future...

Dogs being involved in cycling crashes is unfortunately a fairly common story in the road.cc archives. Just last month, actress Rebel Wilson posted a picture of her leg covered in ice packs with the caption “F*ck people who don’t have their dogs on the lead”.

And it is not just us amateurs who have to be careful...A crash at the 2016 Tour of Guatamala was caused by a pup running into the peloton...

The signage of mad men... pic.twitter.com/r971YYRSVc

— Sam Underwood (@misterunderwood) April 18, 2021

You might remember these no cycling signs from the live blog last week. Cllr Louis Stephen, leader of the Green Party in Worcester, unsuccessfuly argued against the public space protection order which was passed by a casting vote from the chair of the city council's communities committee. As a result, anyone who cycles dangerously can be fined £100.

Stephen called the signage "tacky" and "unwelcoming". "This is a very divisive topic," he told Worcester News. "When the subject came to committee the vote was split 50:50, I voted against and the measures only went through with the chair's casting vote. The bollard covers look tacky and I believe the messages are negative and unwelcoming to visitors and local residents."

Dan Brothwell of Bike Worcester added: "It is not very welcoming and that is an understatement. I think they are really unpleasant and pretty ugly as well. I understand the reasons for the PSPO being put in, I was consulted on that and I suggested it wasn’t a very good idea but I get that it is here and with us.

"The notion of dangerous cycling is not defined. There needs to be perspective with that. If you are walking you may think a cyclist is going too fast or close but from the perspective of the cyclist that may have been pretty reasonable.

"Having the signs up will probably cause conflict, they empower people to speak out and the global share with care message would be far more appropriate, to encourage everyone to get along next to each other and just get on with it. That would be reasonable, I don’t think this is."

Alaphilippe sprint sneller dan Roglic op de Muur van Hoei en wint de Waalse Pijl #wp pic.twitter.com/JaPsv0PqbL

— Sporza 🚴 (@sporza_koers) April 21, 2021

Winning up the Mur de Huy is clearly a world champion thing. After Anna Van Der Bregen won the women's race this morning, Julian Alaphilippe took the men's race this afternoon to take their combined Flèche Wallonne tally to ten wins...The Frenchman danced up the steepest section to reel in Primož Roglič with 50m to go. Former world champ Alejandro Valverde was third, while Mike Woods will once again be wondering what could have been after surging to fourth with a late burst from the back of the group. Tom Pidcock recovered from his crash to take sixth.

🔥🔥🔥
pic.twitter.com/VrLud2gWRn

— Colin Bourgeat (@ColinBourgeat) April 21, 2021

GREATEST DISTANCE CYCLED IN A WEEK: GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS🥇🌎

Sponsor: @Thomas_Franks_

Current record: 2,177 miles / 311 daily
Target: 320 miles daily.
Plan: 4 laps of 80 mile route in Aberdeenshire each day

Charity fundraising for @Arthritis_ACTN aiming to raise £10,000 pic.twitter.com/mTkoc8DZdw

— Josh Quigley (@JoshQuigley2026) April 20, 2021

Josh Quigley is no stranger to epic feats of cycling record-breaking. In September he completed the 516-mile North Coast 500 route across the Scottish Highlands in 31 hours, beating the previous best by five minutes. However, we didn't expect to see him back at his mind-boggling best this soon after a serious crash in Dubai at the end of January left the cyclist with multiple fractures to his pelvis, shoulder, elbow and spine...

To beat the current record Josh will have to ride 2,177 miles. That's seven consecutive 311-mile days...Josh is aiming for 320 miles every day and has planned an 80-mile route in Aberdeenshire which he hopes to complete four times per day. 

On top of the incredible physical challenge Josh has set a target of raising £10,000 for Arthritis Action.

Cheers Matt. Course is around 6-8,000feet of climbing each day depending which mapping software you use. But based on 18 hours of riding each day it’s relatively flat and no major climbs, just some small steady inclines and declines. Sleep maybe 3-4 hours at most.

— Josh Quigley (@JoshQuigley2026) April 21, 2021

🌞Sunny day out on 🇧🇪 roads ahead of tomorrow’s @flechewallonne @HugoHoule & @jakob_fuglsang enjoyed the landscape 😉 pic.twitter.com/g8M0FiZh00

— Astana – Premier Tech (@AstanaPremTech) April 20, 2021

Jakob Fuglsang told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad he believes he wasted eight years of his career by eating too little. I can't say this has been a problem I've had...Comparing himself to the new generation of racers such as Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel, who are already competing and winning at the highest level early in their careers, the Dane explained how times have changed for young professionals.

"Young riders are better guided than when I was a neo pro," he said. "When I debuted, you had to earn a wind tunnel test. Only the best riders of the team were given a chance to do so. Every team also employs an army of dieticians. I had to learn that myself, through trial and error.

"I wasted eight years of my career eating too little. Nobody pointed this out to me, because that was something you as a rider had to discover for yourself. When a young rider eats too little for one day, that is corrected immediately."

Despite the envy of the resources available to today's young stars, the 36-year-old questioned how long they can maintain their incredible performance levels. "I am convinced that with today’s guidance I would have performed better much earlier. Although I sometimes have my doubts about the current approach. Training hardcore in December to be there immediately on the first day of racing. I am curious to see where those young guys will be in ten years’ time."

World Class Cycle Infrastructure! #shitstreetsforall Via @furtiveone pic.twitter.com/0qFwpMH7eG

— Shit Planning (@PlanningShit) April 21, 2021

Some crackers coming up this morning for the rubbish cycling infrastructure folder...Maybe if we paint a bike on the road that will do? No, how about we paint two bikes facing each other...

At least those bikes were painted properly...

Na, you know it's first class when the (misshapen) bike symbol is before the lane starts, and the start of the lane says END.... pic.twitter.com/X50pALCkXs

— Kev S (@kevjs1982) April 21, 2021

We all have negative and we don’t start Flèche Wallone.
We had false positive yesterday but came three times negative afterwards.

— Tadej Pogačar (@TamauPogi) April 21, 2021

I'm sure we'll hear more about this throughout the day. Tadej Pogačar claims his UAE Team Emirates squad has been denied a start at Flèche Wallonne after what he called a "false positive"...