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news
Fiat Punto GBTGeraint Thomas to help front Fiat and British Cycling 'share the road' campaign
Olympic champion cyclist and Team Sky star Geraint Thomas has been recruited, along with other GB riders, to front a campaign called ‘Let’s clear the air’ that is to be launched jointly by British Cycling and car maker Fiat, its official vehicle supplier.
According to the trade website BikeBiz, the campaign aims to "to improve relations between cyclists and motorists on the road." It is timed to run alongside the relaunch of the Fiat Punto. One model in the new range, the GBT (pictured) comes with a year’s membership of British Cycling thrown in.
Thomas, who is alternating between the road and the track in the build-up to the London Olympics, where he aims to retain the team pursuit gold medal he helped Great Britain win at Beijing four years ago, spoke about his involvement in the initiative in a column for the newspaper Metro last week.
“Off the bike I’ve been working on a campaign with Fiat trying to improve relations between cyclists and motorists on the road – to prove we’re not guys in Lycra who don’t pay taxes,” he said – although BikeBiz points out that Fiat too was until recently of incorporating the incorrect term ‘road tax’ in its print adverts.
Thomas added: “Most cyclists own cars too, so we all need to try and get along!” In fact, market research has shown that regular cyclists are more likely than average to have more than one car in their household, while according to the Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey, 83 per cent of cyclists own a car, compared to 82 per cent of non-cyclists.
Fiat’s UK website has a page dedicated to its backing of the governing body, where it says it is “lining up some exclusive offers for British Cycling members.” As yet, there’s no details of what those might be, although members are encouraged to sign up for updates.
In the past, Fiat was the official vehicle supplier to both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia – which last year began in the Italian marque’s home city of Turin – a role now undertaken by Volkswagen-owned Skoda.
News of Fiat and British Cycling’s joint campaign comes in the same week as the US arm of German car manufacturer Volkswagen unveiled a partnership with national cycling advocacy group, Bikes Belong.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- E6toSE3 13 min 15 sec ago
Lights: they should be punished. Unlit bikes are a serious threat to pedestrians and other cyclists, especially when riding on pavements that not...
- AidanR 59 min 55 sec ago
You might be safer using one of these: https://yplac.co.uk/product/yplac-mini-stickers/
- I love my bike 1 hour 9 min ago
I live in an English city, where multiple times in the year, one side of the market square & high street (that are explicitly open to cycle...
- chrisonabike 1 hour 10 min ago
Wait a minute - coaster brakes not suited for descents? Someone better time-travel back and tell the embryonic MTB community......
- chrisonabike 1 hour 13 min ago
Argh! Now there's some kind of rat problem there too! Definitely no windows!
- quiff 3 hours 24 min ago
Fair point - I was restricting myself to pedal bikes. As I've never spent that kind of money on anything though (mortgage doesn't count), it's kind...
- brooksby 4 hours 26 min ago
And finally: I wonder how many of the "more than 3,000" signatures on that petition are actually locals, who live or work there (and are not just...
- Doug_D 6 hours 2 min ago
Another book suggestion - I can highly recommend "Lost Summers and Half-Forgotten Afternoons: A Mint Sauce collection" - a beautifully presented...
- mdavidford 7 hours 53 min ago
I think you're missing an opportunity to pack even more tech into it - add accelerometers that can detect whether they're pedalling or stepping....
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15 comments
okay how far could they go with this
a mobile phone company or two to highlight the danger of driving whilst on the phone. Stobbarts to cover the lorry angle. Avon to cover the makeup angle. a deicer supplier to cover those to lazy or inpatient to clear their windows. the police to prosecute a few more numpties. and maybe Garaint should have a halo as we are all angels on the road arent we!!
British Cycling membership free with a new car?
Wouldn't it make sense to give cycling membership with a new bike, and AA membership with the car?
How about they at least make a built in bike rack or something on it!!!
Anyway, we do need a campaign like this as motorists really do drive like cyclists dont exist.
Good to see the NUMPTY comments on this topic!
IMHO it's good to hear that the bicycle and motorised vehicle issue is at least being tackled by two car manufacturers! Geraint Thomas is one of the up and coming young cyclists; and shows great potential for the future. Oh BTW I can see his right leg (it's just tucked back on the pedal) as the left leg is fully forward on the left pedal, the right leg is back; and slightly covered by the frame DT.
Well done Geraint, for bringing the issue of safer cycling on our roads to the fore-front. Fiat and VW are showing some initiative; lets hope other manufacturers join the campaign.
G is the right person for this job. Tweet of his from last Wednesday:
I *think* the lower right leg is lurking behind the downtube/Gatorade bottles. Difficult to tell conclusively though.
Having is right hand stuck to that Fiat may give him a chance despite his leg though!!
The Fiat must have an output similar to Cavendish .... although slightly slower 0-60!!
Geraint Thomas is a fantastic rider, of this there can be no doubt.
However, I don't see him doing that well and winning much this year, sadly.
Not since he appears to have lost his right leg in some tragic accident which has gone unreported...
A tragic photoshop accident that no-one was supposed to notice.
Obviously Fiat want to exclamate their motor...in doing so have made the advert a bit stupid ?
Exclamate?
Anyway, it's all good that VW and Fiat are doing something positive in this regard.
Could be interesting and productive. Let's hope they can at least go some way towards clearing up the road tax thing!
Has he been shrunk during the photoshop process
Appears to be riding an Islabike with Pinarello paint job - those wheels scale up to about 18" by my reckoning
Good news, I had a couple of near misses yesterday. Can GT do anything about the girl pulling out in front of me while on her phone as well?!
Photoshopped?
Was G too busy to actually be there?