“What an odd thing to say” goes cycling: Motorists call for “road tax” and claim “roads are for cars” as predicted in response to viral TikTok trend video of kids cycling to school; Van der Poel returns to cyclocross; Darth Pogačar + more on the live blog

This is exciting news for all Baltic cycling fans: The first three stages of next year’s 108th edition of the Giro d’Italia are set to take place in Albania.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia)

The first Grand Tour of the new season kicks off on Friday, May 9 with a medium-mountain stage starting in Durres and finishing in Tirana, offering a “mountain stage in the city” and featuring 1,800 metres of climbing spread across 164 km. The next day, riders will start where they finished the previous day, taking to the streets of the Albanian capital for a 13.7km individual time trial — an important stage for anyone looking to grab a commanding lead of the maglia rosa.

Finally, the Baltic excursion of the Corsa Rosa will conclude with another medium-mountain stage on Sunday, May 11, a 160 km loop starting and ending in Vlora with 2,800 metres of elevation gain.

A local cycling campaign with just more than 200 followers has managed to make it big on TikTok, after posting a video of a ‘bike bus’ showing children cycling safely with parents and attracting thousands of comments from raging anti-cyclists who seemed to do exactly what was predicted in the video.

Bike buses are organised cycle rides that follow a set route where people can join or leave at any location, with loads of local cycling campaigns organising them on the weekends to encourage children to ride their bikes on the road safely in a group and reduce the risk of coming into contact with motorists.

The video which has been viewed over 240,000 times builds on the popular TikTok trend (don’t ask why) of using Geraldine James’ dialogue “What an odd thing to say!” from 2010’s Alice in Wonderland movie, with the campaigners writing the text: “We think children should be able to travel safely to school without the need for cars”, followed by a satirical depiction of “strangers on the internet” responding: “I hate this! Roads are for cars only!” finally culminating in the punchline: “What an odd thing to say!”

 

 

 

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A post shared by Bike Worcester (@bikeworcester99)

And as they say, life imitates art — life, being TikTok comments, and art being a TikTok video, strangers on the internet did end up commenting lots of stuff along the lines of “I hate this!” and “Roads are for cars only!” — even demanding “road tax” from children. In fact, two of the top comments simply read: “Road is for car” and “Roads are for cars” — you simply couldn’t make that up.

Here’s a roundup of some of the top comments with hundreds of likes on the platform…

“Great idea go at 2mph in the middle of the road when everyone is trying to go to work. Dossers.”

“I mean you can, once you pay insurance, tax and a travel duty (fuel) like us drivers too.”

“It’s good kids cycling to school, but how on earth are you supposed to overtake when you take up the whole side of the road and it’s such a long group.”

“But none of them are insured, and unable to stick to a safe speed. Driving slow can also be dangerous when others behind aren’t expecting that. How is that safe?”

“This is more likely to get them hurt, to be honest.”

“Keep your hobby in the park.”

Perhaps one person, going against the grain, summed it up better than I could: “Drivers are like miserable coworkers. Can’t be happy with anything but their way and will try to bring you down with them both emotionally and physically.”

Dan Brothwell, chair of Bike Worcester, told Worcester News: “There is no such thing as road tax. Roads are funded by general tax and I think it shows people's ignorance that they think that the vehicle emissions duty they pay is a road tax.

“I own an electric car and I pay nothing in vehicle emissions tax, just like a cyclist wouldn’t.”

He added: “We have bike buses all over Worcester helping children get to school. The only thing that makes them dangerous is drivers breaking the law.

“At rush hour in Worcester, we travel at the same speeds as vehicles so we are not slowing anybody down.”

In April 2025, Worcester is set to host the third annual World Bike Bus Summit, with previous hosts being Barcelona and Frankfurt, and Brothwell added: “We want to have bike buses running to every primary school in Worcester and beyond. Anyone who wants to start a bike bus can do so by getting in touch.”

I’m not going to wax lyrical about Mathieu van der Poel’s exploits this weekend, given that he’s about to do it all again in a few minutes, but the most succinct way to summarise it would be how Eurosport’s commentator put it: “Welcome back to the wizard of cross”.

Marking a return to the dirt and grime of cyclocross, the reigning world champion made his mark in the most spectacular way, winning the Zonhoven World Cup for a record fifth time on Sunday with a performance that looked too effortless, too stylish, too perfect... too Van der Poel.

The world champ doing what he does best 😎

Mathieu van der Poel takes the 𝑾𝑰𝑵 in Zonhoven 👑#CXWorldCup pic.twitter.com/EenG6LV20l

— Eurosport (@eurosport) December 22, 2024

He even managed to sneak in some showboating to enthral the spectators!

Today is the day 😍

Mathieu van der Poel starts his cyclocross season today in Zonhoven. 🌈

🎥: jurgenvdbroek pic.twitter.com/TkaHYzanjN

— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) December 22, 2024

After crossing the finish line a minute and a half ahead of Thibau Nys, Van der Poel said: “One of the best [race] and maybe the one I didn't expect, so it’s really nice.

“I did a different approach to my first race, a bit less, interval and more like endurance rides to try and get through this busy period, a bit fresher than I did last year, but yeah, I felt really good from the beginning actually.”

“Also the technique was, was really good today, so I'm happy.”

Third-placed Joran Wyseure, in fact, admitted that there was nothing to be done about Van der Poel after the Dutch rider sailed into an early lead thanks to his thrilling bike control on the steep, sandy descent, adding that he could barely even see the World Champion.

“Watching? I didn’t see him much, haha. I saw him pass by once after a hundred meters and then he was already gone. It is simply phenomenal how he rides around here, without much cross-specific preparation. And we have been training for months,” Wyseure said. “But it is super nice for the sport that he is at the start and will ride some races this winter. There were a lot of people.”

*Darth Tadej Pogačar isn't real, Darth Pogačar can't hurt you*

Darth Tadej Pogačar:

 

 

 

 

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