Quickly deleted road tax poll doesn't go to plan (+ cycle lane petition); Bernal: I had 95% chance of becoming paraplegic; Wiggoception; Bet your brake pads aren't as worn as Dan Martin's; G's lovely day in 'Tenby' + more on the live blog

🎼 Astana Is My Team - Cycling Rap Music Video!

The path to big goals is best started by rallying together as united and motivated team!
Today we are setting the tone for the whole season, which, we are sure, will be successful!#AstanaQazaqstanTeam pic.twitter.com/B13l6JA4gr

— Astana Qazaqstan Team (@AstanaQazTeam) February 1, 2022

My most sincere apologies for what you are about to hear...

Astana, Vincenzo and Vino decided the best way to hype up their new season was dropping...a rap track. Thoughts...

Vinokourov has to be the next Bond villain. End of discussion. From Kazakhstan with Love, Cat 2 Licence to Kill, Team Skyfall, The World Championships Is Not Enough etc etc...

Joe Dombrowski definitely spent his 90s/00s childhood learning all the words to Eminem verses...

As far as bars go..."Our job is to win, Astana is my team, we're riding to win and it will be done"...is right down there fighting relegation...rhymning team with Kazakhstan seems dubious too...

If only it was a Miguel Ángel López Movistar diss track...

Former European champion Matteo Trentin believes the roads are getting more dangerous for cyclists. In an interview with Cycling Weekly off the back of Egan Bernal and Imogen Cotter's crashes last week, Trentin said cyclists are forced to "take more and more care on the roads" due to the dangers.

"It's more of a jungle than a proper training environment. That's what we have to deal with every single day, everybody knows it," Trentin suggested.

"Every time you step out your door going for training in the morning you never know which side you're going to come back on. Whether it's upright, or laid down in some kind of ambulance. We have to take more and more care on the roads.

"There's more traffic, people are getting more nervous. I cannot even count how many times a car passed me and then straight away turned right. Or a car has passed me and then stopped on a speed bump ten metres after. It happened already today. People get stressed for nothing. Then you put someone who's cycling in danger."

After a two year hiatus the Urban Hill Climb, organised by the London Cycling Campaign is back. The charity and membership organisation working to make cycling in London safe, accessible and enjoyable for everyone runs the popular hill climb up Swain's Lane, a short but steep climb in Highgate averaging 8 per cent, with a 20 per cent maximum.

We'll bring you all the details closer to the time...

🇧🇪 Vincent Baestaens has a concussion as a result of his early crash in CX Worlds. He continued his race and finished 32nd. "I didn't even know that the race was over. I thought that I still had to do five more laps. Apparently I've ridden on autopilot."https://t.co/nB5bWeaLmS

— Cyclocross24.com (@cyclocross24) January 31, 2022

Contrary to the tweet above Belgian rider Vincent Baestaens finished 31st at Sunday's 'cross worlds after crashing on the opening lap. But worryingly, the 32-year-old did so without realising he was racing.

"I didn't even know the race was over," he told Wielerflits. "I thought it was about five more laps. They had to get me off the bike. But apparently I rode the World Championships on autopilot, without realising much of it. I don't remember anything about my fall either.

"Unfortunately, the doctor Kris Van Der Mieren only saw the images of my fall later and said that he should never have allowed me to continue."

Baestaens was taken to hospital post-race and was diagnosed with a serious concussion.

"It turns out I did not make the right decision to continue racing," he concluded.

.@CalebEwan venceu a etapa 01 do #SaudiTour pic.twitter.com/CfH9xKuD4g

— País do Ciclismo (@DoCiclismo) February 1, 2022

This could be a very familiar sight in 2022 — Caleb Ewan's Lotto Soudal sprint train setting the Australian sprinter up for victory.

It turns out the plane necessary for the TV pictures to be broadcast (don't ask me how it works) wasn't allowed to take off, so all we got were finish line shots. When the kids cleared off and the peloton rounded the final bend Ewan, led by Jasper De Buyst was well in control, winning easily on the first day of term.

Brit Dan McLay just missed out on the top 10. To think by the end of the year, if all goes exactly to plan, Ewan may well have won Milan-San Remo, Giro stages, Tour stages, and a rainbow jersey at a home world championships...

Something tells me a January win in Saudi Arabia wasn't too high on his wishlist in the grand scheme of things, but hey, no win's a bad win...

After all the hysteria of last week's Highway Code columns in the Mail, Telegraph and Spectator, Autoexpresses' longest-serving reporter Mike Rutherford has penned an opinion piece titled 'Learn the new Highway Code and you could save lives'...

In the piece, Rutherford urges motorists to buy a physical copy of the 2022 Highway Code and afterwards invest £25 in a one-hour session with a driving instructor to "appraise your driving"..."you’ll learn an awful lot about your good and bad habits."

For the overwhelming majority of us, the most dangerous thing we’ll do today is drive a car, walk on or cross a road, or ride a bike on a public highway. 

A driver can invest a paltry £50 right now to significantly reduce his or her chances of being involved in a prang at this most risky time of year. Read what follows and you might just save a life – possibly your own. 

All his other top tips can read here...

We received this in our inbox this morning... nice of them to think of us...

There's a 38 Degrees petition asking for it to be mandatory for cyclists to use cycle lanes...and it has a whopping 11 signatures on it...

The whole point of the new Highway Code is to make it safer for cyclist's (sic). Surely its safer if they have there own cycling path to use then ride on the road. That's why it should be mandatory to use one if it's been provided.

Why is this important?

The amount of tax payers' money that has been spent to create safe cycling lanes. It should be mandatory to use them instead of cycling on the road

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Egan Bernal (@eganbernal)

 Egan Bernal has thanked the specialists at Clínica Universidad de La Sabana hospital in Bogotá, revealing he had a 95 per cent chance of becoming a paraplegic after crashing while training in Colombia.

He wrote on Instagram: "Having had a 95 per cent chance of becoming a paraplegic and nearly losing my life doing what I love to do most. Today I want to thank God, and all the specialists at Clínica Universidad de La Sabana for doing the impossible, my family, my partner, friends and all of you for your wishes.

"I'm still in the ICU waiting for more surgeries but trusting in God everything will be fine. With the unconditional support of Ineos Grenadiers and Xabier Artetxe [Bernal's coach]."

Getting half wheeled by Cam… so I dropped him 👌 Lovely day out in Tenby pic.twitter.com/fxPWnDbaLi

— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) January 31, 2022

Okay, G. We've finally worked it out the joke...

You're not actually training in Wales. Very good. At least it snared a few more of his followers, eager to get out and meet their hero on local roads. 'Strange, they must have repainted the road lines yellow'...