“No housing? No problem”: Cyclist baffled why brakes no longer work after shocking DIY cable botch job – then complains mechanic charged him too much; Van der Poel returns to racing – but no Strade Bianche, team says + more on the live blog

The Biking Lawyer – the Canada-based “personal injury lawyer for cyclists” who went viral back in 2023 for his tongue-in-cheek ‘advert’ suggesting cars should be hi-vis – is at it again this week, flipping anti-cycling tropes on their head and redirecting them towards motorists and their vehicles.

This time he’s teamed up with cycling safety activist Tom Flood to produce this striking poster, putting a motoring twist on the age-old question: ‘Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lanes?’

“We’re not seeing drivers using the new bridge we built,” the parody ad poster, featuring a bridge the quality of which most cycling infrastructure can only aspire to, proclaims.

On a more serious note, the poster continues at the bottom: “Connected networks are just as important for people on bikes as they are for those driving cars.”

 And, just like that earlier hi-vis car ad, it appears ‘The Bridge’ has captured the imagination.

“Perfect metaphor,” said one BlueSky user. “Exactly what I try to explain to all the ‘no one uses that bike lane’ and the ‘no one rides the metro’ people.

“If it comes from and goes nowhere, who does it serve what does it encourage? Build a network, not an island!”

Absolutely, Paint isn't infrastructure

[image or embed]

— Mark On A Bike (@mtonabike.bsky.social) March 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM

“This perfectly sums up 100 per cent of the cycling infrastructure in the UK,” added Girl on a Brompton.

“This is very likely right. Can anyone think of a single cycling journey they might have reason to make in the UK that would not involve at least one stretch of the ride designed to put you in danger?” replied John.

“I can’t. The sample size is small (so far), but the 100 per cent number holds!”

> “We ask our children to do everything ‘right’, so adult drivers can do everything wrong”: Cycling safety activist responds to ‘safety is a two-way street’ video with powerful remix, hoping to “expose the absurdity we’ve normalised”

Some, meanwhile, with their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks, saw nothing wrong with Tom and the Biking Lawyer’s bridge.

“There’s no need to even build the bridge,” joked one user. “Nobody is swimming across the river, so they must not need to get to the other side.”

“A couple of ramps and it would be fine,” wrote CykelTony.

Or surely all the drivers could get out and push their cars, right?

An interesting development here in the world of mountain bike trials, where a British coach and event organiser is taking the UCI to the European Commission, after accusing the sport’s governing body of breaking antitrust laws for “unfairly blocking” cyclists, particularly children, from competing in rival, non-UCI events.

Read more: > British cycling coach accuses UCI of threatening to fine children, takes governing body to European Commission for ‘unfairly blocking’ riders from cycle event

 

 

 

 

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Forget the Tour Down Under, forget your Middle East and Med tune-ups, even forget Opening Weekend (I know, I feel bad even writing that). The phony wars are over, Mathieu van der Poel has pinned on a number on the road – the cycling season has properly commenced now.

Roll on Samremo and the Ronde…

Today’s the day, folks. After another imperiously dominant winter on the cyclocross bike, as we reported yesterday, Mathieu van der Poel is set to make a surprise early return to road racing today at Le Samyn, the Walloon cobbled race that serves as an epilogue to Belgium’s Opening Weekend.

The 30-year-old was initially planning to kick off his road season at Tirreno-Adriatico next week, but has now instead opted for an early leg loosener on the slightly more forgiving pavé of Wallonia as he begins his monument preparation.

However, despite Van der Poel’s early return to action spawning speculation that Strade Bianche – the race he won in blistering fashion in 2021 – could be on the cards this Saturday, Alpecin’s co-manager Christoph Roodhooft has come along to spoil the party, telling Het Nieuwsblad that Tuscany’s iconic gravel classic will not make it onto his Dutch star’s programme.

(Cor Vos/SWPix.com)

Instead, Van der Poel will follow his season debut at Le Samyn with an Italian double whammy of Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Samremo, which he won in 2023, before turning his attention to the Flemish classics in late March and a hugely anticipated showdown with Tadej Pogačar.

Nevertheless, with his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Jasper Philipsen arguably emerging as the man of Opening Weekend, taking third at Omloop and a long-awaited victory at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne after a stuttering start to the season, Van der Poel’s social media proclamation that the “itch” to race was getting too strong will surely send an ominous shiver down the spines of Alpecin’s rivals.

Among those rivals this afternoon will be Belgian champion Arnaud De Lie and Soudal Quick-Step’s in-form wunderkind Paul Magnier, fresh off second at Omloop on Saturday.

 (Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

“Second place is a bit frustrating, especially as I was so close, but at the end of the day, it’s a podium in my first cobbled classic,” 20-year-old Magnier said at the weekend.

“So, at the same time, I am happy with this result after a hard race and an equally hard sprint in the headwind. It’s a good result for us and for our confidence to kick off the classics. Now I will focus on Le Samyn and hopefully I will be in the position to fight for a good result also there.”

Following last week’s news that Rabobank is returning to professional cycling as the jersey sponsor of its old Visma-Lease a Bike squads, road.cc spoke to the team’s former leader Michael Rasmussen – an ex-pro synonymous with the Dutch bank’s scandal-laden years in charge – to discuss what’s changed in pro cycling since 2012, and why Rabobank should never have left in the first place: 

“If they really wanted to clean up the sport, they should have stayed”: Rabobank’s return to pro cycling – decade after leaving due to doping scandals – a “no brainer”, says Michael Rasmussen