“One of the worst MGIF pieces of cycling I’ve ever seen”: Driving instructor Ashley Neal slated for “dangerous” manoeuvre while testing e-bike; Scrapping safe streets “an attack on children’s futures”; Thomas signs new Ineos deal + more on the live blog

It feels like it’s been a while since everyone’s favourite driving instructor/YouTuber/son of a four-time European Cup-winning full back popped up on the live blog, but don’t worry – Ashley Neal is back after a quiet summer and is once again causing controversy within the cycling community… and this time he’s on a bike.

(Yes, I do realise that paragraph sounds like the opening seconds of a trailer for an incredibly niche film. Maybe Marvel are interested? Okay, maybe not…)

> CyclingMikey wishes Ashley Neal would "leave me alone" as YouTube driving instructor uploads another video criticising his approach

Anyway… What has Ashley – who has amassed 146,000 subscribers on YouTube over the years thanks to his videos on all things road safety – done to irk cyclists on social media this time?

Well, in the Liverpool-based driving instructor’s latest video, titled ‘The Crazybird Jumper Tested; And Why Cyclists Do What They Do; A Motorists Guide’, he’s swapped the driving and passenger’s seat for one of the aforementioned brand’s fat tyre e-bikes, which he spends 46 minutes testing out (with his saddle height a bit too low for my liking) around Liverpool, while providing a running commentary on how to cycle safely.

Except when he maybe isn’t cycling safely, however.

Holy crap, please do not filter like this guy, incredibly dangerous, far far too close to the vehicle, in danger of hitting the wing mirror, clipping the refuge/kerb. One of the worst MGIF pieces of cycling I've ever seen.@PudseyPedaller @2wheelsgoodBrum @StuInNorway pic.twitter.com/Q3E6K1rQUW

— CykelTony (@tony_eh) October 23, 2023

About 11 minutes into the video, as he approaches a set of traffic lights, Neal filters past a motorist who had just overtaken him, narrowly squeezing between the car and a traffic island, almost clipping the vehicle’s wing mirror in the process.

After fiddling with his camera while stopped, Neal says during the video: “This car behind, have I just caused an issue? Possibly. They did overtake first, when it wasn’t necessary, and if they hadn’t have done, we’d be status quo.

“I haven’t done this to get my own back, I did it to show the motorist that a lot of the time there is no point in overtaking, when you’re coming up to lights like that – cyclists are just going to slip past.”

Despite his explanation, Neal’s spot of filtering – especially for a driving instructor usually critical of poor cycling habits – hasn’t gone down well online.

“Holy crap, please do not filter like this guy, incredibly dangerous, far, far too close to the vehicle, in danger of hitting the wing mirror, clipping the refuge/kerb,” CykelTony wrote.

“One of the worst MGIF pieces of cycling I’ve ever seen. And he’s a driving instructor who constantly complains about cyclists riding into risk.”

“You don’t have to filter. Sometimes it is safer to wait behind the traffic,” added while CycleGaz, prompting Tony to reply: “This all day long. He was clearly too distracted fiddling with his new ‘toy’ to pay proper attention to the road. As he himself likes to say, ‘failed to anticipate!’”

> “He pays road tax, you don’t”: Motorists – and Ashley Neal – blast Jeremy Vine for black cab close pass video

Ashley’s preoccupation with his e-bike was also picked up by other cyclists, with one e-bike rider asking: “Why the **** is he talking about ‘putting it up a couple of levels’ immediately before a tight manoeuvre and slowing down to a stop? That’s the last place you want an e-bike in turbo.”

“Cycling like a drivist! No one expected that, did they?! Oh, wait, it’s exactly what we expected, isn’t it?” Bicycal Life said.

“Yes, but as AN teaches us, it matters little about the safety of the cyclist as long as drivers aren’t inconvenienced,” added Tim. “He isn’t even consistent. In other videos he says you shouldn’t filter past because drivers will have to overtake again.

“And moments later he lets a car very close pass because he’s fiddling with the gears in secondary, but excuses the driver. He has no self-awareness as a rider, he does not look ahead.”

> "More than primary encourages an undertake": Footballer-turned-driving instructor Ashley Neal questions cyclist's positioning

However, others weren’t as scathing of Ashley’s on-bike take on cycling safety.

“I’m in two minds about this,” says Melissa. ”It’s clearly MGIF syndrome by AN. But the car is into the painted bike area. I think I’d pass it just to watch the driver panic due to nearly clipping the car, but only if the lights had just gone red.”

What do you think? Was Ashley’s filtering a case of MGIF driving directly transferred onto a bike? Or do you think the manoeuvre was a perfectly responsible, and relatively safe, response to a pointless overtake?

Whatever you think about Mr Neal, he never fails to ignite online discourse, anyway…

🇹🇼 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱!🤝

We're ready to 𝗙𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆!⛰

💬 "There are not many climbs like that & doing a race that is basically one big climb will be a really interesting challenge." - @SimonYatess #TaiwanKOM read more ⤵️

— Team Jayco AlUla (@GreenEDGEteam) October 23, 2023

Speaking of curious post-season relaxation techniques, Simon Yates will head to Taiwan this week to take on the country’s infamous KOM Challenge – a gruelling climbing test attempted every year since 2012 by both amateurs and professionals (and even tackled by road.cc in 2014).

Located in Taiwan’s Hualien County, the climb of Mount Hehuan takes the riders from sea level to 3,275 metres in 87 long, leg-deadening, oxygen-sapping kilometres, averaging 3.5 percent with sections hitting almost 16 percent.

So, like I said, very relaxing.

Yates – who capped off a successful 2023, which saw him finish fourth at the Tour de France, just behind twin brother Adam, with fifth at Il Lombardia earlier this month – will travel to Taiwan alongside Jayco-AlUla teammate, 23-year-old Colombian climber Jesus David Peña, as the pair seek to break Vincenzo Nibali’s course record of 3:19:54, set by the Italian legend in 2017.

> From zero to 3250 metres in 105km... The Taiwan KOM Challenge

“The Taiwan KOM Challenge is a different style of racing to what we are used to with the race starting at sea level and then climbing to over 3000 metres,” Yates said before jetting off for Friday’s rather unique mountain time trial.

“There are not many climbs like that and doing a race that is basically one big climb will be a really interesting challenge and totally different to anything I’ve done before. Also, lining up alongside riders of all different levels from all over the world will be a unique experience.”

Needless to say, I imagine this particular zero to high altitude test will require a different sort of effort than that usually displayed on the short but steep affairs of the British hill climb scene, eh Simon?

Not quite my cup of tea, anyway...

A classic of the ‘Sorry, didn’t see you there’ genre of driving around cyclists, courtesy of this astoundingly oblivious driver in Comber, Co Down…

Contender for idiot of the week. pic.twitter.com/MR7toBD8Bj

— Belfast Cyclist (@BelfastCyclist1) October 22, 2023

Surrey County Council has promised to make life on the roads safer for cyclists, after data released by the Department for Transport revealed that 139 people on bikes were killed or seriously injured in the county in 2022, making it the country’s most dangerous local authority for cyclists.

But thanks to a new Vision Zero project, which will see the council work alongside Surrey Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue, and National Highways, the council aims to halve all road deaths by 2030 and eliminate them completely by 2050.

> Almost 4,000 submissions of driving offences to police force led to just 10 prosecutions, FOI request reveals

“Over two thirds of our cycling casualties take place on 30mph speed limit roads, so we’re looking at putting more segregated cycling infrastructure in, either a kerb or a section of wands,” Duncan Knox, a road safety expert working for the council, said.

“There’s lots of roads that could easily become 20mph, especially where there isn’t room for segregated infrastructure.”

Welcoming the plan, Cycling UK’s Keir Gallagher said: “We need to stop seeing people dying on our roads as acceptable, it isn’t.

“Surrey does have a very high density of motor traffic and a lot of cycling, so I think the important thing is to be looking at how we can get those deaths and serious injuries down while being proactive.”

Tower Hamlets Council’s decision last month to remove most of the borough’s low traffic neighbourhood schemes, despite a series of consultations showing that residents were in favour of retaining the traffic-calming measures, has been criticised by a group of local headteachers, who have penned an open letter to mayor Lutfur Rahman urging the notoriously anti-active travel politician to reverse the decision, which they branded “an attack on thousands of children’s futures”.

Last month, we reported that Tower Hamlets Council voted to scrap the walking and cycling initiatives introduced by the previous Labour administration in 2021 in Columbia Road, Arnold Circus, and Old Bethnal Green.

A similar Liveable Streets scheme on Canrobert Street, however, was retained, while a bus gate restriction in Wapping was kept due to “exceptional” support in a consultation last year.

“As headteachers of Tower Hamlets schools, we have a duty of care to all the young people in the borough and we are shocked and dismayed by the way that Mayor Rahman’s decision on 20 September deprioritised the health and safety of students in Bethnal Green,” the letter, addressed to councillor Mushtak Ahmed and signed by 86 primary and secondary school headteachers, said.

This isn’t the first time, meanwhile, that Rahman’s pro-car platform – since his re-election last year, the Aspire Party leader has rolled back a series of initiatives aimed at reducing motor vehicle traffic and promoting active travel, which he claims have increased congestion and contributed to more CO2 emissions in the area – has been opposed by local schools.

Last October, children, teachers, and parents installed their own Les Misérables-style barricade outside a school in Bow in protest at the council’s decision to put an end to School Streets initiatives in the borough, designed to restrict the use of motor vehicles outside schools at drop-off and pick-up times – a campaign that eventually saw Rahman reverse his decision.

> Children take to the barricades to save School Street

And in their open letter to the mayor, they accused the council of ignoring the views of local schools when it came to ripping out the borough’s “popular and successful” Liveable Streets measures, a decision they say would bring the borough “back to square one”.

The letter said: “Five of the most affected schools (Oaklands, Lawdale, Elizabeth Selby, Virginia, Columbia) wrote jointly to the mayor on 30 January 2023. In the letter they outlined why they supported the current street layouts in Bethnal Green, their concerns about the proposals to reintroduce thousands of extra cars per day in front of their school gates, and their belief that there are ways to improve the current layouts, for example by introducing more controlled crossings.

“The letter did not receive a response, neither the mayor nor any member of his cabinet went to speak to the schools, and it was not included in the consultation reports appended to the officer report for the 20 September decision. This is an unacceptable omission in the decision-making process.

“Mayor Rahman promotes the interests of Tower Hamlets’ young people through his free school meals policy for secondary schools and in his decision to retain the 33 ‘school streets’ across the borough.

“However, his decision to remove the current street layouts in Bethnal Green, and his failure to take any steps to reduce vehicle journeys in the borough, are an attack on thousands of children’s futures.”

> “Extreme, undemocratic, and dangerous”: Council scraps majority of low traffic neighbourhoods – despite “overwhelming” public support for cycling and walking schemes

The headteachers noted that, according to the council’s public health team, only 23 percent of children and young people in Tower Hamlets are physically active and that all schools in the area have council-approved School Travel Plans, which aim to encourage cycling and walking to school, and reducing car use.

“So, infrastructure which encourages walking and cycling to school is a powerful tool for the council to use, yet the mayor has decided to spend millions of pounds removing the most successful active travel infrastructure in the borough,” the letter said.

The council’s own equalities impact assessment, the teachers pointed out, also flagged during the decision-making process that scrapping LTNs would have a particularly negative effect on young people, due to the “increase in road danger, pollution, and discouragement for walking and cycling”.

> Police urge against scrapping low traffic neighbourhood, saying it reduces crime

The letter concluded: “While the immediate effects of this decision will be felt most significantly by schools within the low traffic neighbourhood in Bethnal Green, the impact will be felt across the borough.

“Children and young people will see that their daily safety and their long-term health is less important to the powers that be than the interests of people passing their schools in motor vehicles.

“More children will spend more days doing short journeys in cars, undermining their fitness, and increasing their risk of obesity. And they will all have friends in neighbouring boroughs who are much happier walking and cycling to school, where the councils have ongoing programmes to install and improve active travel infrastructure.

“How is it rational to feed and teach our children well, mandate that schools should encourage walking and cycling to school, and then remove the infrastructure which makes it safe and easy for young people to travel in a healthy way every day?”

A proposal which the council says would see the “front of York Station transformed to create a new and improved gateway to the city”, with safe cycling infrastructure, improved pedestrian facilities, and better access for bus users, has attracted objections from some residents who do not want to lose the parking spaces in front of their homes – despite the local authority announcing mitigation for blue badge holders, tradespeople, and emergency service workers.

“There’s just not room for everything and that’s part of the challenge that faces us,” James Gilchrist, York Council’s director of environment transport and planning, said. “Walking and cycling are prioritised over buses and then that over cars.”

Read more: > Residents’ anger at plans to scrap car parking for cycle lane, but council transport director says walking and cycling should be “prioritised” as “there’s just not room for everything”

First Thibaut Pinot retires, then his Groupama-FDJ team end their 22-year-long partnership with bike supplier Lapierre… What’s happening to the sport I love?

Setting aside my nostalgic yearning for the early 2010s, it was revealed over the weekend that the long collaboration between the Dijon-based bike brand and France’s most emblematic team – a partnership which yielded over 300 victories courtesy of the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Jacky Durand, Bradley Wiggins, Arnaud Démare, and, of course, Pinot himself – will come to a close at the end of the year.

However, Lapierre will continue to supply bikes to the women’s team, FDJ-Suez, in 2024, Velo101 reports.

> Tour de France pro bike: Thibaut Pinot’s Lapierre Xelius SL Exclusive

And while Lotto Dstny’s split from long-term bike supplier Ridley earlier this year was a messy affair, Groupama-FDJ boss Marc Madiot had nothing but kind words for the departing Lapierre.

“This is the end of a historic partnership of more than twenty years and we will always remember our great performances on Lapierre bikes,” the car door panel beating team manager said.

“During these two decades we co-developed some of the most efficient bikes in the world and it was a wonderful adventure, full of success. We respect Lapierre’s choice to end the partnership. Like every company, Lapierre must make strategic choices. The end of this collaboration is an illustration of this and we are respectful of this decision. Lapierre is and will remain a great bicycle brand!”

Perusing road.cc’s X/Twitter notifications on a Monday morning is quite often the perfect way to kick off a particularly unhinged week, but this reply – responding to our story on West Midlands Police thanking people for reporting “hundreds of careless and dangerous drivers” – made even me stop in my tracks:

Cyclists should have to be licenced and insured. And legally required to use cycleways, and on narrow roads should be legally obliged to pull over to let proper road-users past. Or, better still, allow hunting the bastards with dags. pic.twitter.com/gRc5vf7Ov0

— Emily Cee (@DocEmCee) October 23, 2023

I’m still not sure if the post is serious or just an elaborate anti-cycling bingo satire, but in any case – Full house!