"Guerrilla gardener" cyclist spends hours sweeping bike lanes... but others warn of council “bully boy” response; Pogačar confirms Urška Žigart’s Olympics omission played role in him pulling out; Roy Keane the Tyre Extinguisher? + more on the live blog

Imagine you cycle 11 miles to a city that you don’t live in, spend hours sweeping, picking litter and trimming grass edges off cycle lanes, and then having to worry about the council not being too happy with your work…

Sounds hardly believable, I know, but a cyclist from around Belfast has shared images of cleaning up the bike lanes and even chopping down the grass edges (don’t ask me how), but the real questions are, why does it have to be a random cyclist instead of the council who takes responsibility, and more importantly, how will the council react to it, and finally most importantly, do we now have to rely on this sort of “guerrilla maintenance”?

The Twitter account which goes by the name ‘Belfast Cyclist’ shared an image showing before and after of the entrance to Titanic Quarter railway station, captioning it: “An hours work. I can do it, why can't those who get paid to maintain the City do it and who holds them accountable?”

Entrance to Titanic quarter train station before and after...
An hours work .
I can do it, why can't those who get paid to maintain the City do it and who holds them accountable ? pic.twitter.com/M5fSUBnYnD

— Belfast Cyclist (@BelfastCyclist1) July 21, 2024

> "Thought I'd sort it out before a cyclist went through it!": Public-spirited local fills in pothole... council arrives an hour later to fix it

An hour and half later, the person shared a bunch of more images showing the Middlepath Street cycle lane as well as the underpass, both having been swept by the cyclist. They wrote: “Litter picked the greenway from Comber to Middlepath st… Might go for a spin on the tallbike after lunch”

The replies to the post were full of positive stuff, with people describing them a “legend’ and “inspirational”, however one person replied: “Wouldn’t be surprised if the council tries a bit of bully boy in response to this lol.”

Swept Middlepath St cycle lane and the underpass..

Spent an hour on the entrance to the Titanic train station .. there's another post about that

Litter picked the greenway from Comber to Middlepath st ...

Might go for a spin on the tallbike after lunch pic.twitter.com/ytfL4ayAZR

— Belfast Cyclist (@BelfastCyclist1) July 21, 2024

Another person wrote: “Thanks! There's often litter and broken glass on that section and to be fair the council do seem to tidy it up fairly quickly, but the greenery doesn't get trimmed often enough in the summer,” to which the cyclist responded, defiantly may I add: “It's me that clears it up,” adding lots of pictures from many of his sweeping runs.

It's me that clears it up ....https://t.co/T8G6vMkkEHhttps://t.co/Tjj6egiLjChttps://t.co/rDdIuuKkaqhttps://t.co/MrsJFt9wkn

there's more ..a lot more

— Belfast Cyclist (@BelfastCyclist1) July 21, 2024

Looks like Belfast has found its cycling vigilante of sorts; the cyclist the city doesn’t deserve, but the cyclist the city needs…

The routes for the first two stages of the upcoming Lloyd's Tour of Britain have been announced, in what will be one of the hardest openings in the race's history. 

Stage one on Tuesday 3 September in the Scottish Borders, will be a 181.9-kilometre (113.1-mile) spectator friendly route, starting and finishing in Kelso, passing through Coldstream, Gordon, Melrose, Denholm, Jedburgh and St Boswells.

The route features two loops, enabling spectators in Kelso and Melrose, and on the categorised King of the Mountains climbs at Scott’s View and Dingleton, to see the race in action twice, with the final climb coming 23 kilometres from the finish of the stage.

Commenting on the route, Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men Race Director Rod Ellingworth said:

"The Scottish Borders has a long history with the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men and so we are delighted to have worked with our partners at Scottish Borders Council to come up with this spectator friendly, and challenging route, for the riders.

"With five categorised climbs this will be a tough opening stage, and is by no means certain to end in a sprint, so should set up a thrilling battle between the sprinters and those riders who believe the final climb at Dingleton can be a launchpad to victory in Kelso.”

A day later (Wednesday 4 September), the Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men heads to Darlington for the first time since 2009, for a 152-kilometre (94 miles) stage through the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire to Redcar.

The stage crosses the Cleveland Hills and heads through the North York Moors National Park to the coast at Robin Hood’s Bay via a series of short, sharp climbs.

Turning north via Whitby, the stage climbs Lythe Bank and the peloton will tackle the iconic Saltburn Bank twice, the latter ascent coming within the final ten kilometres of racing.

Commenting on the stage, Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men Race Director Rod Ellingworth said:

"The tough opening to this year's Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men intensifies on stage two with another day that is relentless up and down as we cross the Tees Valley and the North York Moors National Park. Two years ago, the climbs in this area provided decisive in the race and we are sure they will once again shape the overall general classification battle.

"Thanks to our partners across the Tees Valley, in Darlington, Stockton, and Redcar & Cleveland, plus stakeholders in North Yorkshire, we have put together a route that showcases some fantastic moorland and coastal scenery, while also providing plenty of opportunities for attacking and entertaining riding. I've no doubt that the closing kilometres of racing, with the double ascent of Saltburn Bank, will be among the most spectacular in this year's Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men."

British bicycle manufacturer Raleigh has received a warning notice from Companies House in relation to late accounts which have not been filed, the news coming months after the brand's parent company Accell confirmed job cuts, restructuring and a move away from the manufacturer's Nottingham headquarters due to a "challenging market".

While the serving of a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off on its own does not necessarily mean anything more than a company being late to file its accounts, it can raise concerns about goings on at a business and lead to questions about why the accounts for 2022, due to be published at the end of last year, still have not been filed.

Read more: > Raleigh uncertainty as bike manufacturer served warning notice from Companies House, just months after redundancies and restructuring

It's been three days since Pogačar soared to his third maillot jaune in Nice, Biniam Girmay gave Eritrea its first green jersey, Richard Carapaz doggedly held on to the mountains classification and became the first Ecuadorian to win the polka dot jersey and Remco Evenepoel also left his stamp on the Tour by winning the first white jersey for Belgium.

And while this live blog is a good way to fill the void left by all the ubercycling we so dearly miss, it's always a fascinating time to see how the pro teams and riders react to the Tour end.

So revelling in the post-Tour malaise is Derek Gee, the Israel-Premier Tech rider who secured 9th position in the general classification. His team has now posted a video updating on the Canadian's whereabouts and his "distinctive" hobby of birdwatching... is he our new Thibaut Pinot?

You’ve met @DerekGee7, the top-10 finisher at @letourdefrance 🚲

Now meet Derek Gee, the birdwatching enthusiast 🦅

We caught up with the Canadian star during the last off-season to learn about his distinctive hobby 🔍#YallaIPT pic.twitter.com/n3yR5w4Miw

— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) July 24, 2024

"I got into birdwatchin in August 2019 when we're doing an altitude camp in Colarado. There were a bunch of mountain birds I had never seen before and I was sitting out on an Airbnb balcony and started looking them up and started making a list, and then it became a hobby!" explains Gee in the video.

Bonus points to anyone who can come up with a cool nickname for Gee akin to Sepp Kuss' "Eagle of Durango". Hmm, Osprey of Ontario, anyone?

Keano, my club's legend and apparently about to go down a cult classic here too?

Who knew the Irishman would be on this side of the apparent War on Cars, as he discussed illegal parking with Ian Wright, Jill Scott and Gary Neville on the amazing 'Stick to Football' podcast?!

First congestion charges, now this?!

Why are the powerful taking aim at the poor hard-pressed motorists pic.twitter.com/P21LWl18vJ

— AA Roadwash (@aaroadwash) July 24, 2024

> Cycling campaigners paint fake “free parking” signs on pavement to protest against “anti-social” illegal parking in Dublin… but drivers continue to park over painted signs

"What do you think of people who park, you know people who have a few quid and they have a nice car and they just park anywhere they want, on double yellows or disabled, and they just think I've got money, I can park where I want," says Keane. "And they just take the ticket off, yeah I can pay that... Rude that!"

Wright asks: "So what should we do about it?"

"Slash their tyres," answers Keane... Maybe he's familiar with the Tyre Extinguishers?

Let's spare a thought for Visma-Lease a Bike, shall we? The team which conquered the world of pro cycling last year, winning all three Grand Tours marking an unprecedented moment in modern cycling history, has had quite the disappointing season by its standards.

Both the team's classics star Wout van Aert as well as two-time Tour champion and the only person who looked strong enough to give Pogačar a run for his money Jonas Vingegaard suffered heavy crashed early on, hampering not only their season but also much of their Tour de France training and preparation, yet somehow the two managed to make it Florence for the Grand Départ.

While Van Aert would like to forget this Tour as quickly as possible, Vingegaard, despite being "almost on the verge of death" in his own words, did manage to take the fight to Pogačar for a brief period of time, until the Slovenian went superhuman and run away with the yellow jersey, even pipping Visma's Jorgensen in the breakaway to what could have been his maiden stage win in a bitter blow.

In the end, the Dutch team only came back from Nice with one stage win, when Vingegaard trumped Pogačar in a two-up sprint on stage 11, and thus wrapping up by their standards, a dismal season so far.

> Is this pro cycling or Mission Impossible? Visma-Lease a Bike launch Control Room, the “first-ever command centre in cycling”

However, even before the Tour started, one of the talking points for Visma had been its Mission Impossible-style 'Control Room' van, a “command centre” to monitor cyclists’ performances, analyse data and make tactical decisions destined to take the data analysis side of the sport to its extremes.

Fans were quick to take shots at the van, with the UCI also getting involved, dropping its dreaded email confirming that the sport's governing body is "carrying out verifications to ensure that the setup put in place by the team is compliant with the regulatory framework in force".

Now, eagle-eyed fans have spotted that the van is up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, if you've got €11,000 that is... 

Visma are already selling the control van on Facebook marketplace😭😭😭 guess it didn’t work pic.twitter.com/kyAyc56ZEG

— loui (@looflol) July 24, 2024

"Guess it didn't work..." Ouch.