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Vine’s latest vid makes motorists wheelie angry; ‘Stop built-in car dependency’: Labour Party under fire for calls to clamp down on Just Stop Oil protesters; Wout van Aert banned from Strava; Unusual Zwift setups + more on the live blog

It’s four days until Paris-Roubaix weekend – otherwise known as Tuesday – and Ryan Mallon is here to bring you the second live blog of the week
Tue, Apr 12, 2022 09:21
56
Vine’s latest vid makes motorists wheelie angry; ‘Stop built-in car dependency’: Labour Party under fire for calls to clamp down on Just Stop Oil protesters; Wout van Aert banned from Strava; Unusual Zwift setups + more on the live blogWheelie Kid (Jeremy Vine, Twitter)
12 April 2022, 16:24
Having a wheelie good time in the comments

I promise that will the last of the ‘wheelie’ puns…

Turns out most of our readers were shocked and appalled by Jeremy Vine’s video of the trickster cyclist, wheelieing his way around London.

Though they were mostly appalled because they can’t execute a wheelie of that beauty themselves:

I could wheelie like that when I was a teenager.

The fact that I can't now I'm in my 50s is obviously the fault of modern bikes. Can't ride ‘em no handed either.

Personally, I think it's appalling.  And that is in no way due to embarrassment that I can't do a wheely.  Not even when cycling on Wheely Down Road in Hampshire.  Oh no.

In the first lockdown I tried for a while to learn to wheelie. To my chagrin, I failed. Got quite close eventually, the trick is making yourself lean back, but the mental effort of forcing myself to do that was too much for me.

Others were less than impressed by some drivers’ reaction to the footage online, particularly the predictions that showboating cyclists would wreak ‘carnage’ on the capital:

I wonder how many motorists would be KSI'd by a wheelying cyclist?

But one car might have been scratched, and we all know that's far more important than the life of a human being.

The carnage bit seems to have been edited out of JV's video, and it seems to be missing from all the news sites... AP must be shitting themselves that they have missed a story about *carnage* in London...

12 April 2022, 16:14
12 April 2022, 15:56
What’s the hold up?

One from the comments section today:

Back from the shops and I was held up as I could not turn off the main road into the junction due to two chatting drivers, one in a lorry.

Must have been held up for over nine seconds. Will they get a NIP?

For those of you scratching your heads, here’s the original bizarre story of the cyclist handed a notice of intended prosecution for holding up a van driver for nine - yes, nine - seconds while filming a phone-using motorist:

> Police intend to prosecute helmet cam cyclist for holding up van driver – for nine seconds

12 April 2022, 15:41
Cargo bike hire scheme on its way to Wandsworth

A cargo bike hire scheme is set to launch in the London districts of Tooting, Clapham Junction and Battersea.

The Community Cargo Bikes scheme will be operated by bike provider Peddle My Wheels and supported by Wandsworth Council. For up to £5 an hour, locals will be able to rent the bikes for up to two hours a day.

Residents are asked to register their interest in the scheme at the Peddle My Wheels website. 

12 April 2022, 15:24
Meanwhile in Finland...

File this one away for the next time anyone tries to argue that bikes are no good for transporting things…

12 April 2022, 14:31
Perseverance pays off for Delaplace
12 April 2022, 14:26
Stolen bike wheel (via Leopard Tech)
Prolific bike thief targeted senior doctor as he treated Covid patients

A serial bike thief stole a doctor’s bike as he battled to save the lives of patients in intensive care during the Covid pandemic.

Dr Aiden Turner was working a 14-hour shift at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle in June 2021 when 26-year-old Callum Graylish stole his Specialized bike. Graylish had a number of previous convictions for stealing bikes (out of 95 in total) and would go on to steal two more high value bikes that summer on the grounds of Newcastle University.

In a victim impact statement, Dr Turner said he used the bike to commute to work so lost out financially as a result of the theft.

“On that day I had been due to finish work at 8.30pm but stayed on an extra hour to help out. It had been a hard, busy day and coming out to find my bike had been stolen was very demoralising,” he said.

Graylish was sentenced last week to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of theft and one of possessing the so-called ‘zombie drug’ spice with intent to supply.

12 April 2022, 14:10
12 April 2022, 13:57
Tony Martin auctions off Olympic medal to help children in Ukraine – and the highest bidder immediately returns it to him

A few weeks ago we reported that Tony Martin (Norfolk’s finest, according to Twitter’s UK Cycling Expert) was auctioning the silver medal he won at the 2012 London Olympics to raise money to help children and their families in Ukraine. 

Today the 36-year-old retired German pro announced that nutritional supplements brand FitLine was the highest bidder, donating €35,000 to charity Wir Helfen Kindern for the medal – before promptly returning it back to the former Jumbo-Visma rider.

“Even though I was absolutely fine with donating it, this massively generous gesture makes me speechless,” Martin said on Instagram.

“I really want to thank FitLine for the big support of my charity project and also for giving me back the chance to show my Olympic silver medal to my grandchildren one day.”

Last week, Germany’s 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich also raised €40,000 for children in Ukraine by auctioning off his yellow Pinarello from the following year’s controversial ‘Festina Tour’, where he was beaten in dramatic fashion by Marco Pantani.

12 April 2022, 13:33
And now for the Tories…

It’s lashing down where I am, but the sentiment remains.

Surely it's time for Boris to - as they say - get on his bike now?

12 April 2022, 12:33
Four days to Paris-Roubaix: Who says students are lazy?

Definitely beats eating last night’s pizza and watching Jeremy Kyle anyway [insert your own up-to-date daytime TV reference here]…

12 April 2022, 12:27
Portsmouth bike holiday robbery (Katharine Barker)
Bike snatched ‘right in front’ of woman just before cycling holiday

A Bristol cyclist had her bike stolen from ‘right in front’ of her just hours before she was set to travel to France for a cycling holiday with her partner and son.

Katharine Barker, her partner Henry and eight-year-old had travelled to Portsmouth on Saturday to board a ferry to Saint-Malo for a long-awaited, covid-postponed bike holiday.

As Katharine waited outside a local shopping centre on Commercial Road with the family’s three bikes, a thief “suddenly” appeared from behind her, grabbed her Canyon bike (fitted with panniers which included her son’s new cycling shoes), and rode off.

“He came from out of nowhere, it all happened in a flash,” Katharine told The News. 

“I wasn’t close enough to grab him so I screamed out. But it wasn’t very busy because it was about 5pm and the shops were closing.

“It felt worse because I literally saw it happen in front of me and I couldn’t stop it.”

Katharine says she contacted the police immediately but was told there was little they could do.

She described the thief as a slim, young man in his late teens or early 20s, who was wearing grey trousers and a black cap.

“I don’t think I will get my bike back but it’s important to raise awareness about this to prevent it happening to others,” she added.

“Maybe I was being naive, but I didn’t expect my bike to be taken from right in front of me.”

Her partner Henry told road.cc: “We’re all pretty gutted and it’s put a massive downer on what was meant to be a really enjoyable holiday”.

Anyone with information about the robbery can contact Hampshire Police on 101 quoting 44220139919 or by submitting information via the police’s website.

12 April 2022, 12:00
Ouch… Maybe Chris Froome was right after all?
12 April 2022, 11:52
Wout Van Aert on Stage 11 of 2021 Tour de France 02 A.S.O., Pauline Ballet
Wout van Aert told not to share Strava rides ahead of possible Paris-Roubaix return

Wout van Aert is back on his bike and training again*, after a bout of Covid ruled the Belgian champion out of the Tour of Flanders last week.

However, there’s bad news for fans who religiously scour Strava to keep up to date with the power numbers and heart rate of their favourite pros.

Van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma team have warned him not to publish any of his training rides on the app, in order “to prevent speculation” about a return to racing at this Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix.

After a scintillating start to the season which saw him win Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, a Paris-Nice stage and the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, Van Aert’s hopes for a maiden Ronde win in the Belgian tricolour were dashed when he contracted Covid in the days before a race he was due to enter as the red-hot favourite.

The 27-year-old has now returned to training in Spain, fuelling reports that he will line up at the Hell of the North, at least in a support role for his Jumbo-Visma teammates.

But general manager Richard Plugge is remaining tight-lipped about his star’s chances, even banning him from sharing details of his rides on Strava.

“We have made a very clear agreement with our medical management that we should be more cautious than cautious,” Plugge told Het Laatste Nieuws.

“That’s also because we do not know the effects of Covid in the longer term. Your heart, your muscle metabolism, your lungs: it can all be affected.

“There are still goals to come. Later this year and for years to come.

“I'd rather he now rest for two weeks, or three weeks, or five weeks for my part, if that is necessary so that he can race normally again afterwards. That's what we're looking at now: how much rest does Wout need?”

A final decision on whether Van Aert will ride Paris-Roubaix is expected on Thursday.

* Of course we have no way of confirming this... because if it's not on Strava it didn't happen, right? 

12 April 2022, 10:42
Spot the difference

And now for some balance, here’s a thread on London parking from Max Sullivan, Labour’s candidate for the Bayswater Ward at the upcoming Westminster City Council elections: 

12 April 2022, 10:30
12 April 2022, 10:25
Give bicycles a chance

And on an entirely unrelated note…

12 April 2022, 09:56
‘Stop built-in car dependency... fund active travel’: Labour Party under fire for calls to clamp down on Just Stop Oil protesters

Labour has come in for criticism from cyclists after the party called on the government yesterday to crack down on climate change activists who have attempted to disrupt supplies from eleven oil terminals in the Midlands and south-east of England.

The activists from Just Stop Oil, an off-shoot of Extinction Rebellion, are demanding that the government commits to not engaging in new oil and gas extraction in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over 400 people have taken part in the protests this month, with some chaining themselves to pipes and tankers to disrupt the delivery of fuel to petrol stations. Over 500 protesters have been arrested since the start of April.

A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil has said: “No-one wants to be doing this, but it's 2022 and right now there is a need to break the law so we are not guilty of greater crime, that of complicity with a great evil.

“We have no choice but to enter into civil resistance until the government announces an end to new oil and gas projects in the UK.”

Yesterday, Labour called for “nationwide injunctions” to block the demonstrations, which the party’s shadow justice secretary Steve Reed says are “causing misery for motorists”.

In a tweet which linked to an article from the Sun, Labour wrote: “Motorists were already being hammered by prices at the pump, and now millions can’t even access fuel.

“The government must immediately impose injunctions to put a stop to this disruption.”

The party’s call to crack down on the protests by making the police’s ability to arrest activists easier was heavily criticised by climate change and active travel campaigners online:

12 April 2022, 09:30
Just when you thought dropper posts were going to be the only tech breakthrough of the spring classics…
12 April 2022, 09:17
“If it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid”: Unusual Zwift setups
Zwift clothes horse set-up - via Devon Cumberland on Zwfit Riders facebook group

Talk about multi-functional…

This brilliantly creative solution to one of life’s great problems – where can I train and dry my washing at the same time? – was uploaded to the Zwift Riders Facebook group by US cyclist Devon Cumberland.

Devon’s unusual laptop holder got us thinking: what’s your turbo training setup like?

Has anybody gone for the clothes horse training station themselves? Any kitchen table or work desk Zwifters?  Maybe you use the lawnmower in the shed to precariously balance your laptop? (Speaking from experience here…)

Let us know!

12 April 2022, 08:19
Vine’s latest vid makes motorists wheelie angry

As regular readers of the blog will know, Jeremy Vine’s video updates from his two-wheeled London commute are scientifically proven to have the ability to wind up every anti-cycling, ‘why don’t they pay road tax’ motorist who has the misfortune to type the broadcaster’s name into the Twitter search function and view them.

Yesterday evening’s instalment was slightly different, however, as it didn’t feature a close pass, a speeding motorist, or even a taxi driver throwing a glass bottle at some bloke on a bike. 

Instead, Vine devoted 51 seconds of social media coverage to something a bit lighter: a young buck who just loves a wheelie. The trickster – who seems keen to avoid wearing out his front tyre – even knew who the presenter was, well kind of…

“You’re ITV3 right?”

“Yeah, Channel 5…”

Close enough.

Despite this spot of light relief, Vine still managed to be on the receiving end of some classic motoring ire:

Yes, because we all just wheelie about everywhere, of course. Let’s put that on the cycling bingo list with road tax, helmets, thinking we own the road… 

Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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56 comments

Avatar
IanMSpencer | 2 years ago
1 like

Driving Mrs S to the eye hospital in Brum, I was treated to the display of an off-road motorcycle* wheelie-ing its way along the Queensway. I was not impressed, and I want overly impressed by the cyclist who was strsying towards oncoming traffic.

*A rider may have been involved.

Avatar
SouthEastCyclis... | 2 years ago
5 likes

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/cycle-lane-plans-scrapped-af...

Note sure if this was flagged before but I do enjoy living in a county that seems so desperate to push back cycling despite the poor roads and endless traffic. 

Avatar
Clem Fandango replied to SouthEastCyclistDogma | 2 years ago
4 likes

Love the way articles in local rags ALWAYS refer to any plan re new cycle lanes or LTNs as being "controversial".

KSI stats. The number of cars on the roads. Being able to do 60 on a narrow country road. The positioning of rear number plates on new Landies.  The amount of road space given over to storage of private belongings.  Nothing controversial here, move along.

Avatar
mdavidford | 2 years ago
1 like

Butbutbut... they've put the flag on the wrong end!!

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Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
15 likes

As a climate activist who has been willing to be arrested 4 times now while trying to change the myopic view of the government and a massive percentage of the UK's voters, it's tragic that Starmer and Labour are aligning themselves with big oil.

They are supposed to be an opposition party, not Tory lite.

Avatar
brooksby replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
2 likes

Well that ship sailed some time ago... (may have been a ferry).

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chrisonabike replied to Owd Big 'Ead | 2 years ago
5 likes

As we all know what's most important to the Labour party is not sorting out the climate crisis, "saving the NHS", sticking it to the Tories or even standing up for whatever "working people" means now but becoming the next government.  The same would be true if the parties' situations were reversed of course.  I think the Tories are slightly more consistent in sticking by the people who donate huge sums of money to them though.

Avatar
Hirsute | 2 years ago
11 likes

Back from the shops and I was held up as I could not turn off the main road in to the junction due to 2 chatting drivers, one in a lorry.

Must have been held up for over 9 seconds. Will they get a NIP ?

Avatar
IanGlasgow | 2 years ago
5 likes

I could wheelie like that when I was a teenager.
The fact that I can't now I'm in my 50s is obviously the fault of modern bikes. Can't ride em no handed either.

Avatar
Benthic replied to IanGlasgow | 2 years ago
3 likes

Quote:

Katharine says she contacted the police immediately but was told there was little they could do.

You can bet your bottom dollar if it was a police constable that had been mugged the police helicopter would still be circling overhead.

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
7 likes

It's clear to see whose pocket Labour are in.

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IanMK replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
6 likes

I remember Ed Miliband, last year, going on about how covid was the greatest threat to modern life that we'd ever seen (or something like that). I remember wondering if the Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero actually understood anything about climate change. Looks like I have my answer.

btw, not cycling ralated but an interesting article in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/12/climate-anxiety-ther...

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to IanMK | 2 years ago
5 likes

IanMK wrote:

I remember Ed Miliband, last year, going on about how covid was the greatest threat to modern life that we'd ever seen (or something like that). I remember wondering if the Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero actually understood anything about climate change. Looks like I have my answer.

btw, not cycling ralated but an interesting article in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/12/climate-anxiety-ther...

It'll be fine - just kick the can down the road and let the next generation deal with it.

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
1 like

hawkinspeter wrote:

IanMK wrote:

I remember Ed Miliband, last year, going on about how covid was the greatest threat to modern life that we'd ever seen (or something like that). I remember wondering if the Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero actually understood anything about climate change. Looks like I have my answer.

btw, not cycling ralated but an interesting article in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/12/climate-anxiety-ther...

It'll be fine - just kick the can down the road and let the next generation deal with it.

They'll need a Hero...

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
8 likes

brooksby wrote:

They'll need a Hero...

My life fades, the vision dims.
All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos ruined dreams this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior the man we called Max. To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time when the world was powered by the black fuel and the deserts sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel they were nothing. They'd built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled the cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men. On the roads it was a white-line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay ordinary men were battered and smashed.

Avatar
HarrogateSpa replied to IanMK | 2 years ago
2 likes

To be fair, Ed Miliband does appear to understand global heating. In my view if he ever becomes SoS for Climate Change we will get some ambitious policies.

Avatar
Hirsute | 2 years ago
4 likes

The cyclist has a lot of control and skill, but still not suitable for the main road. Stick to off road for that.

I could practice my 100m sprints on the town centre pavements but that wouldn't be a good idea (also I would have to be many years younger and many kg lighter)

Avatar
Miller | 2 years ago
5 likes

In the first lockdown I tried for a while to learn to wheelie. To my chagrin, I failed. Got quite close eventually, the trick is making yourself lean back, but the mental effort of forcing myself to do that was too much for me. Anyway, those joyless twitterati shouldn't watch this: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAckkwE15ZA

Avatar
Steve K | 2 years ago
5 likes

Personally, I think it's appalling.  And that is in no way due to embarrassment that I can't do a wheely.  Not even when cycling on Wheely Down Road in Hampshire.  Oh no.

Avatar
brooksby | 2 years ago
4 likes

Anyone seen this story in the Grianuda:

San Francisco police stop self-driving car – and find nobody inside, video shows

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/11/self-driving-car-poli...

Quote:

Police in San Francisco stopped a vehicle operated by Cruise, an autonomous car company backed by General Motors, in a video posted on 1 April. Officers approached the car, which had been driving without headlights, only to find it was empty.

“Ain’t nobody in it – this is crazy,” a bystander can be heard saying in the video. The car then speeds away to the other side of the intersection, leaving the police behind.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
2 likes

brooksby wrote:

Anyone seen this story in the Grianuda:

San Francisco police stop self-driving car – and find nobody inside, video shows

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/11/self-driving-car-poli...

I saw that story but elsewhere (can't recall where exactly). What's interesting is that the car considered that the initial pull-over location wasn't safe and so it stopped and then continued so that it could stop at a safer location. That's exactly what people should do, but I daresay a lot of people in the U.S. would be scared of getting shot by the police if they tried that.

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mark1a replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
0 likes

Posted April 1st. Hmmmm 🤔

Avatar
brooksby replied to mark1a | 2 years ago
0 likes

Posted April 11th.  Hmmm 3

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

Posted April 11th.  Hmmm 3

First posted to Instagram on April 2nd. Hmmmm

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/04/cops-take-dim-view-of-autonomous-vehicle-driving-with-no-lights-at-night/

Avatar
mark1a replied to brooksby | 2 years ago
3 likes

brooksby wrote:

Posted April 11th.  Hmmm 3

Read your original quote again. Hmmmm.

 

Avatar
brooksby replied to mark1a | 2 years ago
3 likes

Bugger bugger bugger no

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to mark1a | 2 years ago
0 likes

I do have tio admit I did wonder, but it does seem to be real.

Surely the real fool is the one that designed such an autonomous car that can be "waved down" and will "move to a safe location" but forgot to program it to turn the lights on when it is dark. Afterall the lights are to be seen as well as to see with.

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nosferatu1001 replied to AlsoSomniloquism | 2 years ago
0 likes

The lights were malfunctioning , as per the article. 

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to nosferatu1001 | 2 years ago
3 likes

Didn't read the article much, just the reason for the pull. I would have said one up on man over machine with detecting an issue with the car, however the amount of drivers who pull away and forget to turn lights on because the roads are so well lit in a city....... and I admit I was one of those back in the early 90's.

Avatar
Patrick9-32 | 2 years ago
8 likes

Love a bit of false equivalence in the morning, "Would you have been as happy if that was a motorcyclist?" - No, probably not, because a motorcyclist would be significantly faster and the system weight would be 3-4 times what the cyclist has so any impact would be dramatically more signficant.

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