The rant to end all anti-cycling rants? Wiggins in bankruptcy hearing; "If cycling is so good for you, why did Boris Johnson catch Covid?", asks Nick Ferrari; Richmond Park restrictions lifted; Garmin "obtained decryption key" + more on the live blog

Mike is furious that Boris Johnson is investing £2bn of taxpayers' money into cycling: "What we don't need is more cyclists. The cycling community is nothing less than an absolute eye-sore on the entire country."

Watch the show ► https://t.co/yyg6agAiQt@Iromg pic.twitter.com/PvsnP2QOro

— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) July 28, 2020

After Nick Ferrari’s comments on LBC this morning, anti-cycling tirades on national radio have been turned up to 11 after Archibald Michael Graham – a former editor of the Scottish Daily Mirror – delivered a three minute tour de force of myths, anger and an unhealthy obsession with Lycra on Talkradio today.

Graham was discussing the £2 billion active travel fund earmarked for cycling and walking improvements in England, taking issue with this because cyclists are “are not in the majority in this country.”

He then claims the £2 billion will be given to the cycling community and Halfords, and that Halfords “does not deserve to be given free money by the government to fix somebody’s bike.”

He then claims cycling does not increase fitness, saying: “All that cycling will do is make you more objectionable.

“If you get on a bike and put Lycra on, as if you’re taking part in the Tour de France, all that will happen is you will become an interfering busybody that doesn’t obey the traffic laws.”

At 1:30 into the clip, Graham then says: “What we don’t need in this country is more cyclists. What we do need is more space for cars.

“Gas-guzzling Range Rovers are far safer than cycling. Cycling is dangerous.”

After some stuff about cyclists jumping red lights and causing “all sorts of damage”, Graham then claims that the cycling community is “nothing less than an absolute eyesore on the entire country”, before turning the screw for a huge, fact-barren finish:

"These people (cyclists) are not interested in anything. And it’s a very London-centric thing as well, because outside of London, everyone goes to work by train or by car.

“You can’t cycle to work in Leeds. You can’t cycle to work in Manchester. You can’t cycle to work in Newcastle. You can cycle to work in London, because the people in London are the centre of the cycling world. The Lycra-clad, ya know, new tech start-up types who can go to work and not look like idiots, because they’re dressed in Lycra. This is the problem with this country.

“And the idea that the Prime Minister thinks it’s a good plan to give £2 billion of hard-earned taxpayer’s money to these bozos, is quite frankly an insult to the rest of us.

“Boris Johnson needs to get real. He needs to sort out the economy, he needs to sort out immigration, he needs to sort out the police, and he needs to sort out what is wrong with this country.

“What he doesn’t need to do is give yet more money to the bleeding cyclists. Do you get me?

“Thank you Boris. Please, don’t use my money wrongly. Because if you do, there will be a problem and I’ll be coming to see you.”

Mr Graham might want to check out CityConnect's vision for a Cycling Superhighway in Leeds, read over the details of Manchester's hugely ambitious Bee Network plan and then go for a nice, relaxing bike ride to mull it all over... 

 

 

 

 

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Thank you all for your support! @hervis.slovenija @InfinityBikeSeat @spiegelbikes @banemsport @btccity @redbullsi @hammernutrition_cee @oceanorchidscyclingteam #btc #HowiHammer #HammerTime #wr1000km #wr24h #getmovin #RAAM #redbulltranssiberianextreme #leadwheels #ultracycling #btc #HowiHammer #HammerTime #infinitybikeseat #BalohCoaching #cycling #befast #beinvincible #besafeontheroad #gowattsocks #4endurance #rideinside #rideon #endurance #endurancetraining #enduranceathlete #letsplaybikes #justkeeppedaling #havefun

A post shared by Marko Baloh (@markobaloh) on Jul 28, 2020 at 3:04am PDT

The 53-year-old claims to have bagged the record for the fastest 1,000km of all time, completing the distance in 28hrs, 50mins and 14secs with an average speed of 34.67km/h. His bike sponsor Spiegel Bikes claim that he set a number of other records, and that the World Ultra Cycling Association will approve his achievements "in the next few days." STA also reports that Baloh failed to get the 24 hour record during the attempt, with his 865.3 km falling short of Christoph Strasser's 896.2km set in 2015. 

Baloh isn't the first record-breaking ultra cyclist from Slovenia, with the late Jure Robič hailing from the town of Jesenice close to the Austrian border. Robič won the Race Across America five times, and was known for pushing himself so hard that he regularly suffered from severe hallucinations in races due to sleep deprivation. He sadly died in 2010 following a head-on collision with a car during a training ride. 

As Garmin services began to resume yesterday, and the GPS giants finally admitted they were victims of a "cyber attack", there is speculation they could have engaged with Russia-based hacking organisation Evil Corp to recover their data. 

Sky News report that a source with knowledge of the incident claimed the firm "did not make direct payment to the hackers", but they could have instructed a third party to pay the ransom. Evil Corp were sanctioned by the US treasury in December last year; and even if US-based Garmin didn't pay a ransom directly, they could still be in violation of the Treasury sanctions along with any company they instructed to pay it. US Treasury sanction rules state: "Foreign persons may be subject to secondary sanctions for knowingly facilitating a significant transaction or transactions with these designated persons."

When asked to respond to the source's claims, Garmin told Sky News that the company "does not comment on rumour and speculation".

As outline in our updated full article, registrations for the first 50,000 vouchers will go live at 11:45pm tonight. 

We're pleased to announce that all temporary cycling restrictions in Richmond Park have been lifted. Cyclists are welcome back into the park on weekends from 1st August.

Enjoy the ride and please be considerate of other park users #BeKindToYourParks pic.twitter.com/kfw5M4ZOV4

— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) July 28, 2020

After a lengthy period of closure and then partial closure that drew much criticism, London's Richmond Park will be fully open to cyclists again from 1st August. 

Back in late March, The Royal Parks banned all cyclists from Richmond Park except for key workers and children due to "congestion", and since 22nd June it's been open to cyclists all day apart from weekends; the full lifting of restrictions will see weekend cycling return to the park. 

Good to speak to @krishgm on @bbc5live on the PM's cycling announcement.

Lockdown showed us we need to change the way we move. For decades, pedestrians and people on bikes have been shoved in a corner; the way we're moving is changing and we need to quickly adapt to that. pic.twitter.com/f9JQkw6szu

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) July 28, 2020

Tranter spoke to Krishnan Guru-Murthy this morning on the merits of getting more people on bikes, and the need for better cycling and walking infrastructure. 

“If cycling is so good for you, how come Boris Johnson caught Covid?’, asks @NickFerrariLBC of @LBC National broadcaster.

— 𝔻𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕕 𝕋𝕒𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕣 (@Davidntaylor) July 28, 2020

That is some “why are there still monkeys?” level of questioning.

— michał zadrąg (@MichalZadrag) July 28, 2020

If education is so good for you, explain Nick Ferrari.

— Jon 🇪🇺 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@jonnarbett) July 28, 2020

Nick Ferrari - an actual national broadcast journalist who hosts an actual radio show listened to (or tolerated) by thousands of actual people - said the above on LBC this morning, during a wider discussion about the government's plans for a “new golden age for cycling” and the £50 voucher scheme. Just 13 words, a 13 word utterance that takes any ounce of sensible logic, turns it a full 180 degrees and takes it into a whole new stratosphere of mind-numbing stupidity. 

Ferrari has form for his anti-cycling rhetoric, seemingly criticising all cyclists for jumping red lights and undertaking vehicles whenever the subject comes up on his morning radio slot. His name may be associated with luxury and style, but sometimes the words that come out of his mouth have all the grace of a clapped out Morris Minor. 

1/10.