“Tell ‘em Marlen”: Cyclist berates van driver… on the way to winning Tour de France time trial; Cyclists constantly riding through red lights on bike lane – because they won’t turn green; Tour de France Femmes recap: End of an era? + more on the live blog

Now, obviously I wish it weren’t so, but sometimes – sometimes – tensions can arise and things can get a little heated on the roads, especially between cyclists and motorists (though you probably already know that if you read this website).

So, it’s not unusual, then, after a spot of poor or dangerous driving, to see a cyclist look across at a van driver, for example, and direct some choice words and a derisory hand gesture towards them.

It is a bit unusual, however, to see such an interaction taking place in the middle of a Tour de France time trial.

🚴🇫🇷 | Reusser is bezig met een enorm snelle tijdrit. Zo snel zelfs dat ze in de weg wordt gereden door een bus van UAE en een motard #TDFF2023⁣⁣
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📺 Koers kijk je op discovery+ pic.twitter.com/gOcCiihER3

— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) July 30, 2023

But that’s what happened during yesterday’s final stage of the Tour de France Femmes, a 22km loop around Pau, when red-hot favourite Marlen Reusser – flying down the route’s main, tricky, narrow descent – was held up by the driver of a van following UAE Team ADQ’s Eleonora Gasparrini.

> SD Worx manager Danny Stam excluded from Tour de France Femmes for dangerous driving and “inappropriate comments”

While it wasn’t the first time during the Tour that a SD Worx rider was caught behind a team vehicle (looking at you, Danny Stam), this particular impromptu traffic jam slowed down Reusser, forcing the Swiss rider to wave and shout frantically to ensure the van driver – using the larger vehicle, presumably, because the rest of the team’s cars were out on the course – would give her enough room to pass.

(Yes, a van driver holding up a much faster cyclist – what would the Daily Mail think?)

By the time Reusser managed to pass the driver, let’s just say she wasn’t too happy with the whole situation…

tell him Marlen #TDFF2023 pic.twitter.com/N2t97LASWc

— Emma Bianchi 🩵 #SiempreGino (@cyclartist) July 30, 2023

On the Eurosport motorbike, Iris Slappendel described the UAE driver as “amateurish” (I’m sure Marlen’s choice of words would have been stronger), while fans on social media said the whole situation was “unacceptable”.

The only way to stop Marlen Reusser is obiously a car. Not cool UAE! #TDFF2023 #WatchTheFemmes

— Rafael (@Rafael_Nala) July 30, 2023

Also the entire nation of UAE is so lucky Marlen won because I and everyone else in the world would’ve filed a lawsuit.

— Leslie Ethridge (@leslie_ethridge) July 30, 2023

Luckily (for the UAE driver, mostly), Reusser’s brief hold-up on the descent wasn’t enough to stop her winning the stage – her second in two years at the Tour Femmes, setting herself up nicely for next week’s worlds TT in Stirling – though SD Worx teammate and overall winner Demi Vollering did, naturally, run her close…

Marlen Reusser watching fellow team mate and yellow jersey wearer Demi Vollering nearly breaking her time at the intermediate sprint. “Go fast, but not too fast, Demi!” pic.twitter.com/trBaUON3MV

— Team SD Worx (@teamsdworx) July 30, 2023

Judging by her ride up the Tourmalet and in Pau, “Demi, go fast but not too fast” may be the mantra of the entire peloton over the next few years…

Angry motorists who love banging on about cyclists always jumping red lights, here’s a story just for you… (but wait, there’s a twist.)

A new cycle lane in Newcastle has been come in for criticism from local cyclists – because is traffic lights appear to be permanently stuck on red.

While the lights for motor vehicles on Heaton Road, one of the city’s prime active travel spots thanks to its cycling infrastructure, do change as normal, cyclists using the new segregated bike lane are forced to ride through on red.

Just wanted to pop up to say I freakin' love Heaton Road 😍

Walking along today we were passed by so many people on bikes. No helmets, no special clothes (except for the vicar 😄) Folk smiled and said hello. Kids wheeling on the cycle lane so they could chat to their mates.

— icouldntcarless (@icouldntcarless) May 5, 2023

Father Jonathan Lawson, a vicar at St Gabriel’s church in Heaton, told the BBC that the non-functioning lights have made the bike lane “more dangerous than what was there before”, and that cyclists are now having to “take a risk” when crossing at side roads.

“I have a hunch that it’s been wired incorrectly, as the traffic lights turn red regularly on Heaton Road even when there’s nothing waiting at Rothbury Terrace, which seems odd for brand new traffic lights,” Fr Lawson said.

“So they also cause extra congestion and pollution and a greater hazard for cyclists.”

He added that the current situation was sending “a message to young people and adults that it’s alright to cycle through red lights”.

Nice!

The new bits of Heaton Road (going North, then South)@NewCycling pic.twitter.com/5rWaelv9ks

— Jim Stanton (@jstantn) April 25, 2023

(The cycle lane before the lights turned red…)

Local cyclist Sebastian Popa also said that he rides on the bike lane up to three times a day and has never seen the lights turn green.

He also said that he was not surprised the lights were not working, as “it took forever” to finish the cycle lane, with residents complaining that the finished infrastructure has unnecessary sharp turns and gaps.

Responding to the non-functioning bike lane on Heaton Road, Cycling UK’s Keir Gallagher pointed out that a council’s responsibility for cycling infrastructure “does not end once it’s been built”.

“Whether it’s gritting, road debris, and defects, or faulty traffic lights, these are issues which impact on people’s safety and need to be addressed swiftly just as they would on a main road,” he said.

In perhaps the least surprising news of the day so far – cheers, Rishi – a new international YouGov survey has revealed that, out of 12 countries worldwide, people in the United Kingdom are least likely to have a favourable view of riding a bike.

According to the survey – which looked at how people view different forms of transport in several European nations, as well as the US, Canada, Australia, and Singapore – British people had the most negative view of travelling by bike, with the UK being the only country surveyed where more people had a negative view of cycling than positive (with 46 percent holding a negative view, compared to 43 percent positive).

Meanwhile, in Poland, 80 percent of those surveyed were in favour of getting around by bike.

Perhaps surprisingly, walking actually topped the list of methods of travel according to British people, ahead of being in a car as a passenger and a driver.

Well, I suppose it could be worse – we could be in the US, where travelling in a car topped everything else as the most preferred way to travel. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you…

Greater Manchester’s cycle hire scheme is currently being scaled back following a spate of vandalism which has taken around 800 of the 1,000 bikes previously available off the road, the Manchester Evening News reports.

Just 160 Bee Bikes were available to hire earlier this month, though transport bosses are hoping this will rise to 500 – half of the original network – by the end of August.

To ensure the reduced service runs smoothly, Transport for Greater Manchester – which owns and manages the Bee Network Hire Scheme – is also temporarily closing more than 1,000 bike stands across the region (a 40 percent reduction), in a bid to increase the availability of bikes at the stands which remain open. These bike stands will predominantly be available where demand is highest, such as Manchester city centre, for a scheme with almost 65,000 users.

> Vandalism hits Greater Manchester’s cycle hire scheme again

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said that scaling back the scheme means it can be built back up “in a manageable way”.

“Some docking stations are being temporarily suspended, but that’s necessary to bring bikes back to the places where they’re most used,” Burnham said. “So the sites that are being suspended, I think, are having very few rides per day.

“Actually, the scheme has not yet fully landed in those places from a positive use point of view and it’s in those places where some of the negatives is outweighing the benefits. So there’ll be a temporary suspension there.

“But the aim will be to bring the bikes back there. It’s not a case of use it or lose it, it’s a case of just look after it, everybody. The more we all look after it the more it will all be there for everyone.”

Transport for Greater Manchester hopes to combat the swathes of vandalism hitting the scheme – five years after dockless bike hire operator Mobike pulled out of the city-region, citing similar anti-social behaviour – by introducing new locking rules and heavier fines for those who do not properly return the bikes.

Ah, I see the world championships pothole debacle is continuing to rumble on, with one MSP describing the recent, apparently selective, repair works in Glasgow as a “kick in the teeth for motorists”…

Read more: > Anger as “dangerous” potholes repaired on World Championships route while other roads nearby remain “abysmal” 

A promising 17-year-old cyclist due to represent the United States at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland next week has been killed in a collision while training ahead of the event.

USA Cycling last night confirmed the tragic news, saying that Magnus White had died after being “struck by a car” while he was cycling near his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Read more: > Promising teenage cyclist killed in collision just days before World Championships

In many respects, Demi Vollering’s Tour de France-winning ride through the dense fog on the Col du Tourmalet summed up SD Worx’s entire race.

When the 26-year-old finally emerged through the clouds as she crossed the line, her dominance – serene, confident, seemingly inevitable – was clear. It’s just that it was hard to actually see it until the finish line.

Such was the fog that surrounded what, in the end, proved to be the perfect Tour de France for SD Worx, the sport’s most powerful squad.

(A.S.O./Charly Lopez)

Four stage wins (out of eight), courtesy of four different riders, the entire Tour holding the yellow jersey, a one-two-three in the final time trial in Pau, the points classification, the GC, and a one-two on the overall podium, thanks to Vollering and the race’s surprise package, classics star Lotte Kopecky, whose performances in the sprints, on the TT bike, and in the 2,000m-plus mountains of the Pyrenees has certainly placed herself alongside compatriot Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar in the pantheon of cycling’s great all-rounders.

Simple, then.

However, despite the dominance implied on the results sheet, SD Worx’s Tour was confusingly chaotic.

First, there was the debacle that surrounded the team’s refusal to work on the front of the bunch on the early flatter stages – despite ostensibly defending Kopecky’s yellow jersey and Vollering’s GC place, while also possessing by far the fastest sprinter in the race in Lorena Wiebes. But still, SD Worx refused to budge, and left the chasing up to the others.

That was the first tick of the box in the unpopularity stakes.

(A.S.O./Thomas Maheux)

Then, draftgate happened – and while Danny Stam’s dangerous driving and Vollering’s questionable interpretation of the rules were bad enough, the squad made matters worse through their ill-judged reaction in the media to the commissaires’ decision to dock Vollering 20 seconds. Not the best look.

> “Are these people capable of running the Tour de France?” Demi Vollering’s team slam “ridiculous, unjustified” time penalty for drafting

Vollering’s very un-PR-like responses to questions continued to plague the team even after Stam’s dismissal from the race, as the eventual Tour winner again courted controversy for claiming that other teams “lack respect” – by not opening gaps for her and her teammates in the bunch.

And, all the while SD Worx seemed to play up their pantomime villain role at this year’s Tour, there was also the lingering suspicion that – by focusing so strongly on the Tourmalet stage on the penultimate day – the team saw opportunities for further stage wins slip through their grasp, as the breakaway enjoyed unprecedented success in the second half of the race.

(A.S.O./Thomas Maheux)

Of course, not that all this social media muttering matters one bit to SD Worx. They’re the biggest and most successful team in the world, and they underlined that at this year’s Tour, chaos and drama notwithstanding.

And all that talk about popularity and rubbing people up the wrong way? It won’t leave even the faintest stain on Vollering’s yellow jersey.

Away from the changing of the guard at the Tour de France Femmes (which we’ll get back to in a minute), here’s what you may have missed on road.cc over the weekend…

> Rishi Sunak accused of seeking to exploit division over LTNs as he orders review of schemes

> Brexit blamed as London-Paris organisers say next year’s edition will be the last

> Driver charged following death of GB triathlete Rebecca Comins as she took part in time trial on A40

> Family of cyclist who went missing on charity ride to sue driver who killed him then hid body

> Mark Cavendish wants his Netflix documentary to boost mental health awareness

> Jail for speeding driver who killed teenage cyclist and fled scene

> Why is Strava telling me how much CO2 I’ve saved by cycling? Plus more tech news from Specialized, Cadex, Kickstarter & loads more