Tom Pidcock claims famous Strava KOM... but quickly deletes ride; A 'cyclists dismount' sign for the ages; Mark Cavendish signs Tour Colombia fan's... slightly creepy Cav doll; Sam Bennett: "I've been s***" + more on the live blog

Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP) has revealed that more than 1,000 close passes were reported by cyclists in the county in 2023. Of 1,279 reports made through the Extra Eyes third-party reporting service, 84 per cent were for close passes.

However, the largest number of reports came from motorists using dash-cams, with 2,816 reports last year.

Of the reports by cyclists, 56 per cent were taken forward by Essex Police, which will have resulted in prosecution or the offer of a driver improvement course, seven per cent resulted in an advice letter being sent and 35 per cent resulted in no further action. For driver submissions the figures were: 35 per cent actioned, three per cent sent an advice letter, and 53 per cent no further action.

There were also 934 reports by pedestrians, 28 by motorcyclists and 36 by horse riders.

Stuart Johnson, spokesperson for the Colchester Cycling Campaign, has praised Essex Police for improvements to the service in the past 12 months.

"In the first quarter of 2023, we were dissatisfied with the high number of advice letters that the police were sending in response to close passes," he said. "We were dubious that these were effective and called on the police to take more robust action against careless and dangerous drivers.

"Since March, we have seen a large drop in the number of advice letters and a big increase in the numbers of drivers being sent on driver improvement courses which we believe are likely to be a more effective way to improve driving behaviour and reduce the risk to road users."

> "Unprecedented success" of Cycling World Championships inspires 80% of Scots to ride their bikes more, independent report finds

You might have seen on yesterday's live blog the comments from Movistar boss Eusebio Unzué raising the question about certain measures that could be introduced to Grand Tours to better protect riders, notably substitutions for injured or ill riders in the opening week, or even reducing the length of races to 15 days.

Unzué was not offering outright support to the ideas, although he sounded pretty convinced of the merits of the substitute proposal.

"If [Grand Tours] were reduced to 15 days, the best riders would probably ride all three Grand Tours. That would give them enough time to recover between them and be competitive in all three. It would create spectacle if the best riders were racing against each other more often.

"If a rider crashes, can he not climb into a car or ambulance to get examined and then start again the next day if he hasn't broken anything. Why not? We want more humanity. We want to protect the riders' health. And why don't we allow substitutions, at least in the first week of a Grand Tour? We lost Enric on the first day to a crash. So why not at least allow us to replace him and have eight riders on the team?

"I think we've all grown used to the idea of an epic sport and the belief that all these things form part of the epic nature of the sport. But remember, football didn't allow substitutions in the past either. Why don't we give it a try? Let's take the step and see if we like it. A change is needed."

So, what do we think?

Unsurprisingly, considering everything we know about the man, Soudal Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere isn't a fan, and said it would "give us a headache".

[Zac Williams/SWpix.com]

"Unfortunately, falling and getting sick are part of it," he said. "A big part of your team's success is being resilient, being able to switch to a plan b. Those are the moments when the great champions rise up, bounce back from a setback – that's what people want to see. Racing is boxing: just because you're hanging in the ropes at a certain moment doesn't mean you lose the match.

"Who will determine when an injury or illness is real? I'm already looking forward to the VAR. It will be absolutely impartial and will undoubtedly consist of French doctors... No, this is going to give us a headache. I'm not going to stop this, but I'm not going to support it either. It will be for cycling after Lefevere ."

No surprises big Patrick is a man who'll refer to himself in the third-person... UAE Team Emirates' Joxean Fernández Matxin was more supportive and said in principle it is "absolutely very good" but also raises potential questions...

"It is complicated," he said. "Who will evaluate whether a crash is big enough? How serious does an injury have to be? Should you break your kneecap or is pain in your knee sufficient? And what about fatigue? After two weeks of racing, exhaustion is very similar to being ill.

"Still, I think the idea itself is absolutely very good. I am in favour of a simple variant, without medical criteria: I would give each team the right to change one rider in the last week."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by sam bennett (@sammmyben)

Following the eye-catching comments of his former leadout man, Danny van Poppel, who heralded working with Sam Welsford at the Tour Down Under and said he had been "waiting for a fast sprinter", the Irishman has himself done a candid interview about his performances in recent times.

Bennett, who has moved to Decthlon AG2R La Mondiale for 2024 on a two-year deal, and will get to race Van Rysel bikes and kit, gave an honest assessment of his form since winning two stages and the green jersey at the 2020 Tour de France.

"I've been shit," he told the Irish Independent. "I wasn't up to scratch, up to the standard I should be. OK, if I never did what I did before then, they'd be all right seasons, but when I know what I'm capable of... it's not great."

Can totally relate, Sam. Those pro cycling horror film name suggestions I shared earlier really were...

Looking ahead to a fresh start with the French team, the 33-year-old said the Tour is "one of the main objectives".

"Of course I need to be going good at the start of the year but the Tour, I need to get back there and win again. The team asked me about doing the Giro but it’s too hard to do the Giro and Tour," he said.

"The Giro is the hardest one. There was one year I did it and I just didn't recover for months, so it's maybe better to put all my eggs in the one basket. Maybe if I'm good and there's a lot of sprints in the Vuelta, then maybe it's possible to do the Tour and Vuelta. It just works a bit better. But it's too hard to do the Giro and Tour unless you're a climber and you're super strong or you mind yourself on certain days, and just target stages. Then it's doable, but otherwise it's too much.

"The Olympics is in my head the whole time too. I should have done one before but the parcours never suited me. Now, this year, it's creeping up and we (Ireland) only have two places. It's a tough one but I need to do it once in my career and I don’t know if I'll be still around when the next one comes. I've had a great career but I'd be sad to never have ridden it. It’s something that if I come out of the Tour good, I'd like to have a go at it. If there's not a breakaway there, it could be a select bunch sprint and I could be there."

Nothing to see here, totally normal fan/rider interaction in Colombia...

El muñeco de Mark Cavendish 🤣💙

La afición loca en el Tour Colombia por uno de los mejores sprinter del mundo 💥 pic.twitter.com/CcWUqAVbCJ

— Rodri (@RodriSabato) February 6, 2024

Coming to cinemas near you: a legendary sprinter is haunted by a creepy doll... of himself... gifted to him by a fan at a race, as he wrestles with the pressure of one last shot at Tour de France glory.

 It's a work in progress... (Aero k)It? The silence of the opening week flat stage? Get out (my leadout train)? Yeah, gonna need a better name...