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Cyclists slam "dangerous" THINK! advice suggesting parents move kids into "single-file" to let traffic through; Dave B's back on Strava; Star-studded gravel World Champs startlist; Danny MacAskill being Danny MacAskill + more on the live blog

It's Thursday and Dan Alexander is in the hot seat for all your live blog needs...
Thu, Oct 06, 2022 09:13
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Cyclists slam "dangerous" THINK! advice suggesting parents move kids into "single-file" to let traffic through; Dave B's back on Strava; Star-studded gravel World Champs startlist; Danny MacAskill being Danny MacAskill + more on the live blogTHINK! Cycle To School Week
06 October 2022, 16:04
Good value? How Santander Cycles e-bikes stack up against the capital competition

Our first reaction was £3.30 seems steep...BUT in comparison with other schemes, for longer dockless journeys, £3.30 comes out looking pretty decent...

06 October 2022, 15:56
Cyclist who went missing in the New Forest found safely
surrey police car - via surrey police.PNG

A cyclist who went missing while out for a bike ride with his wife in the New Forest has now been found, Hampshire Police confirmed.

72-year-old Charles Pugh got separated from his wife at around 12.30pm on Tuesday near Beechen Lane in Lyndhurst, prompting a search. The pensioner was found overnight and Hampshire Constabulary thanked those who helped with the appeal.

06 October 2022, 14:57
Utrecht's bicycle graveyard
06 October 2022, 14:33
Peloton set to sack 500 staff, 12% of workforce, as part of "transformation journey"
Peloton bike (via YouTube)

More bad news coming out of Peloton today...

On the slide since gyms reopened following Covid-related lockdowns, Peloton cut the cost of its exercise bike by 20 per cent last year after posting worsening losses. The bad news kept coming in 2022 too – in July, the company announced it would stop making bikes in the US as its share price hit an all-time low (and has dropped further since).

In August, Peloton reported a $1.2 billion fourth quarter loss... and now is set to sack 500 staff. The Evening Standard reports the move represents 12 per cent of the fitness brand's workforce, and is the second major round of job cuts in the last few months (adding to an August statement that 784 people would lose their jobs).

A spokesperson said: "A key aspect of Peloton's transformation journey is optimising efficiencies and implementing cost savings to simplify our business and achieve break-even cash flow by the end of our fiscal year."

06 October 2022, 14:23
06 October 2022, 14:08
The Richmond Park survival video game

Here's a niche one for the select group of readers familiar with Richmond Park. Shout out to the Twitter follower who forwarded it to us (apologies, it was way back this morning and I can't find it now)... this video game clip appeared on the Nature in Richmond Borough Facebook page by someone "currently developing a Richmond Park video game". "Crazy cyclists and drivers are next to be added as enemies"... apparently.

Each to their own, I guess...

06 October 2022, 13:14
The bike of the next Hour Record holder?

😍

How's that for an aero machine? Pretty darned good, we'd say...

> Pinarello unveils "the first high-performance 3D-printed bike" for Ganna’s UCI Hour Record attempt

 Pinarello unveiled Filippo Ganna's ride, "the first high-performance 3D-printed bike", a Bolide F HR 3D, earlier this week. It was developed with the help of Ineos Grenadiers' performance engineer, and current Hour Record holder, Dan Bigham, who rode a prototype in his record-breaking ride back in August.

2022 Pinarello Bolide F HR 3D Filippo Ganna - 3.jpeg

"The frame was only five parts, with the front triangle made in three pieces and the seatstays/chainstays as two more pieces," says Pinarello. "These pieces were made individually and after meticulous cleaning and support removal, the parts were bonded together using an aerospace-grade epoxy."

The bike's elite, so is Ganna... the only question now is: how far he'll go?

The Italian will take on the UCI Hour Record in Grenchen, Switzerland, on Saturday 8 October at 8pm CEST (7pm BST). The attempt will be broadcast free on Ineos Grenadiers' YouTube channel.

06 October 2022, 11:59
road.cc Simon on the ground at Gran Piemonte

Who's that lad in the white?

06 October 2022, 11:37
Dave B's back on Strava
 

The news I know we've all been on tenterhooks for. Dave B is back on Strava...

> Sir Dave Brailsford reveals his personal diet and training regime on Strava 

06 October 2022, 11:27
06 October 2022, 10:59
Could most road safety advice be boiled down to...don't be a knob? Your thoughts on THINK!'s Cycle To School Week message

 Big suggestion from Jetmans Dad in the comments this lunchtime... can we boil most road safety advice down to, quite simply, don't be a knob?

The suggestion came after Patrick9-32's comment: "If you look at these things from where a lot of people are coming from which is: 'My convenience is roughly equivalent in importance to anyone else's safety' the arguments start to make a lot more sense. So many of those 'but what if I have to stay behind a cyclist for a mile???' comments that seem insane suddenly make sense, they are just coming from a person who is broken. 

What THINK! and other organisations need to push isn't: 'Cyclists, improve the convenience of motorists where you can please...' That builds up that equivalence further, but instead: 'drivers, your convenience is less important than a human life, slow down, wait, don't be a knob'." 

HoarseMann suggested the way the advice was edited caused a problem: "The problem with that THINK! tweet is they've done what most drivers do when reading that sentence from the Highway Code; they've missed out the YOU FEEL.

"The rule is not 'when safe to do so', it's when YOU the cyclist FEELS it's safe (which might be never if you're riding with a child)."

LeadenSkies added: "They have tried to take a snippet from the overall rule and ended up taking bits out of context and changing the overall meaning/ emphasis. The first sentence in the Highway Code paragraph itself is general advice about being considerate to other road users, the second sentence adds clarification that you can ride two abreast and indeed they give two scenarios where it is safer.

"The third sentence returns to general advice and doesn't build on sentence two at all. By only paraphrasing sentences two and three in their tweet THINK! have changed the emphasis and meaning. Poor on their part."

06 October 2022, 10:46
THINK! plays it safe on day four

No such drama today... 

06 October 2022, 10:00
David Lappartient 'addresses' sportswashing in pro cycling

Here we go...

Question: What is the UCI doing about 'sportswashing', where countries with poor human rights records host major sporting events?

David Lappartient: "That's of course a potential danger. The money involved in cycling is not very high compared to, say, football, even if we are one of the biggest sports when it comes to the number of fans.

"If you aggregate budgets for the teams and the race organisers, we have not so much more than €800 million, which is not so high. When you are in a closed stadium you sell tickets, but when you are on the road and the road is completely free, you can't sell tickets to have people there.

"This means we have to combine potential markets wich are key for us and the passion for the sport, but of course we have to balance that with human rights, which is also something key for the UCI and sport globally."

> UCI under fire amid allegations of blocking press freedom by denying journalist World Championships accreditation

At least that's cleared up... right, where was I? Oh yes... checking UAE Team Emirates, Bahrain Victorious and Israel-Premier Tech's Il Lombardia line ups... 

06 October 2022, 09:45
Santander Cycles adds e-bikes to its fleet
Santander Cycles e-bike (Transport for London)

Transport for London and Santander Cycles have expanded their fleet of hire bikes in the capital to include 500 e-bikes. They can be used for up to 60 minutes, have been distributed across central London, and can be docked as normal at any of the 800 docking stations.

> E-bikes finally coming to London's Santander Cycles Hire Scheme

The rollout had been due to happen last month, but was postponed due to the Queen's funeral. TfL's chair, Sadiq Khan, said it was a "momentous" day, and he is "determined to make cycling as accessible as possible as we continue building a safer, greener, more prosperous London for everyone."

Santander Cycles now joins Lime, HumanForest, TIER and Dott in offering Londoners e-bike hire.

06 October 2022, 09:29
Can an iPhone 14 survive Danny MacAskill landing a jump from a telephone box?

Forgive the clunky TikTok embed, guess it serves me right for sharing something from the godawful favourite of the youth... 

@danny_macaskill Putting a slight twist on the usual iphone drop test! @Mous keeping things nice and safe… #livewithoutlimits #iphone14 #droptest #edinburgh #royalmile ♬ original sound - Danny Macaskill

Turns out this one's a few months old, and yes, it did survive...thanks to its Mous case...yes, it was an ad...

06 October 2022, 08:50
Sagan, Van der Poel, Van Avermaet, López, Lutsenko... Star-studded startlist for gravel World Champs

Coming to you from Veneto, north-east Italy, first on Saturday afternoon for the women's race, then on Sunday for the men, the 2022 UCI Gravel World Championships has attracted some startlist... 

06 October 2022, 07:56
Cyclists slam Cycle To School Week advice suggesting parents move kids into "single-file" to let traffic through

THINK! road safety's third day of Cycle To School Week started with the following advice for parents cycling with their kids...

Followed by a full pile-in over the second paragraph, which many suggested was inappropriate and unsafe advice...

So where did this advice come from? THINK!? Nope, this heavily-criticised advice came directly from... well... the Highway Code...

Be considerate of the needs of other road users when riding in groups. You can ride two abreast and it can be safer to do so, particularly in larger groups or when accompanying children or less experienced riders. Be aware of drivers behind you and allow them to overtake (for example, by moving into single file or stopping) when you feel it is safe to let them do so. 

This revelation made it a smidge more understandable (to some) why THINK! had used that wording, but others pointed out protecting children cycling on the road should probably come slightly higher on the ol' priorities hierarchy than abiding perfectly to the code.

Is the key point "if you feel safe to do so" and/or do parts of the Highway Code still need updating?

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

Add new comment

13 comments

Avatar
HoarseMann | 2 years ago
2 likes

Looks like they've tracked down that 180mph Ferrari SF90 driver...

https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/news/derbyshire/news/appeals/north/2022...

Avatar
PRSboy | 2 years ago
0 likes

So, the king of marginal gains, Mr D Brailsford, is using TrainerRoad.

Quite a coup for them.

Or possibly he is frustrated by the Mickey Mouse training user interface on Zwift.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
20 likes

This kind of advice comes from a deep seated and subconscious idea that if you drive a car you are superior. This is backed up by the feelings of power, safety and enlarged volume of personal space that being in a car confers. Many of the comments by the ignorati revolve around the fundamental belief that if you drive your purpose is more important than those who chose to cycle or walk.

The fact is that on the list of road situations that hold car drivers up, cyclists are orders of magnitude below such every day occurrences as traffic lights, level crossings, other people in cars, badly parked vehicles, drivers waiting to turn right, collisions, road works, agricultural machinery, etc In many urban environments it is cyclists who flow around cars like water in a rock choked stream.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to Mungecrundle | 2 years ago
0 likes

I'm sure everyone here remembers the Think! campaign about helmets, not so very subtly implying that it was the cyclist's fault for being run over; no mention of drivers actually taking care not to run them over.

Avatar
Patrick9-32 | 2 years ago
15 likes

If you look at these things from where a lot of people are coming from which is: "My convenience is roughly equivalent in importance to anyone else's safety." the arguments start to make a lot more sense. So many of those "But what if I have to stay behind a cyclist for a mile???" comments that seem insane suddenly make sense, they are just coming from a person who is broken. 

What Think! and other organisations need to push isn't

"Cyclists, improve the convenience of motorists where you can please..."

as that builds up that equivalence further, but instead

"Drivers, your convenience is less important than a human life, slow down, wait, don't be a knob."

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to Patrick9-32 | 2 years ago
9 likes

Patrick9-32 wrote:

"... don't be a knob."

Let's be honest ... most road safety advice could be boiled down to those four words. 

Avatar
Clem Fandango replied to Jetmans Dad | 2 years ago
18 likes

That's the new Highway Code sorted then.

Avatar
Patrick9-32 replied to Clem Fandango | 2 years ago
7 likes

That chart seems surprisingly difficult for a lot of people to follow...

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
10 likes

Remember to be aware of people driving and stop to doff your cap and beg forgiveness for daring to use the road.

Avatar
rjfrussell replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
9 likes

their road.

Avatar
HoarseMann | 2 years ago
7 likes

The problem with that THINK! tweet is they've done what most drivers do when reading that sentence from the highway code; they've missed out the YOU FEEL.

The rule is not 'when safe to do so', it's when YOU the cyclist FEELS it's safe (which might be never if you're riding with a child).

edit: that's being too kind to most drivers, I think most don't read past the parentheses. All they see is 'Be aware of drivers behind you and allow them to overtake'.

Avatar
LeadenSkies replied to HoarseMann | 2 years ago
6 likes

They have tried to take a snippet from the overall rule and ended up taking bits out of context and changing the overall meaning/ emphasis. The first sentence in the HC paragraph itself is general advice about being considerate to other road users, the second sentence adds clarification that you can ride two abreast and indeed they give two scenarios where it is safer. The third sentence returns to general advice and doesn't build on sentence two at all. By only paraphrasing sentences two and three in their tweet Think! have changed the emphasis and meaning. Poor on their part.

Avatar
qwerty360 replied to HoarseMann | 2 years ago
3 likes

Also clearly the if safe proviso to move to single file is never met when immediately before the highway code states that you should ride two abreast with children/inexperienced riders for safety...

 

Do X when Y for safety;

Change from doing X to Z when safe.

 

Implies to me that you shouldn't change to Z when Y.

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