Bank Holiday Monday News roundup

Cambridge needs new bike lanes to host Tour de France

Cambridge needs new bike lanes in which to host the Tour de France next year - and one road will need to be completely redesigned with a one-in-two gradient to allow the riders to complete a hill climb.

What's more, Highways Agency rules stipulate the city’s traffic lights cannot be switched off during the race - meaning the cyclists will have to stop if they hit a red light.

Cllr Neil Wardy-Biggs, who represents people in the city’s East Road area, told the Cambridge News: “The work planned for East Road is an outrage. We’ll only just have resurfaced it - again - and will have to dig it up so they can make it slope. The cost, in these straitened times, is prohibitive"

A spokesman for the county council said: “After the race is finished, the wider lanes will be extremely useful for foreign language students to use.”

Toronto to build $500 million bike lane network

It's another win this weekend for cycle lanes, with over $500 million pledged to make Toronto a better place to work, live and ride.

The city council has promised a network of separated bike lanes that will criss-cross the city, connecting the disjointed parts of the city's existing cycling network.

According to the local media, "the lanes will be separated from vehicular traffic by a raised bed of planters or, in some cases, a rubber hump."

"It's about redressing the balance, encouraging people to take up cycling, and protecting those who already bike to get to work," says Avril Tromper from the city's cycling division. "Yonge Street is a good example of where foot traffic can often outnumber road traffic ... adding bike lanes and widening the sidewalk makes sense."

Trek to lanch World's first Professional Commuter Team

Just getting to work alive often feels like winning, but Trek are taking it to another level, launching a 'Professional Commuter Team'.

Well, actually, they kind of are. Really. This is that rare thing - the story that is part April Fool, but mostly real.

“Sponsoring a team of professional commuters was really a no brainer for us,” said Trek UK’s Chris Garrison.

That's the joke bit as Chris Garrison of Trek UK confirmed to us, the rest is all true though, there is a team, they will all be commuting to work - competitively, but they're not professionals. (We can sort of see why the concept of the partial April Fool has failed to fly in the past). Anyway, back to Chris to explain:

“Commuting is a segment of the market that has huge participation levels, and there is a significant portion of people who are competing during their daily commutes. Sponsoring a team of elite commuters allows us to cast our net a bit wider into the top levels of cyclesport.

“Cyclismas is an ideal partner for this venture as their visionary outlook on life allows us to look beyond the sensible. This team is no joke.”

The Trek-Cyclismas Professional Commuter Team (TCPCT) is a six-person team, consisting of three men and three women, who commute to work by bike over a variety of distances and terrain. The team will be competing at the highest level of ‘getting to work’ sport, and will face competition from other ride-to-workers and Strava segment racers across the UK.

The TCPCT website will host information for those wanting to start commuting to work by bike, team bios, team blogs, and upcoming videos throughout the commuting season, which begins on January 1st, and runs through December 31st every year.

You can keep an eye on the future stars of the pro-commuting world on Twitter:

Adele Mitchell @adelemitchell
Georgie Wood @georgiewoodwood
Kerry Enzor @kerrypops
Ed Enzor @morebrokenarms
Rob Hunter @divingrob
Ed Oxley @greatrock

Chris goes on to say: "They will continue to commute, as they have done. But we'll be showing them in a 'team' situation. The blog posts they'll do will be real-world stories from their daily lives as commuters.

"The information on the site is legitimate for people who want to become bike commuters.

"We have loads more video footage from our first 'training camp', and we have another 'camp' planned in the next couple of months."