Former GB Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies belly-flops into 15-minute cities debate; Should dogs wear helmets?; Uber Eats cyclist goes viral for very British bike theft fear; SD Worx admit Amy Pieters in "a difficult period" + more on the live blog

Remember the good ol' days when it was just LTNs getting shouty people on the internet worked up? It has been some week for the 15-minute city 'debate', starting with Conservative MP Nick Fletcher raising a known conspiracy theory in Parliament, sparking the inevitable GB News reaction, but now we've even got an Olympic swimmer wading in at the deep end...

Yeap & Meantime we’re going to get fined for travelling 15 mins from our house! pic.twitter.com/Br5kvp1c4f

— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) February 16, 2023

Did I say 'wading in'? Maybe cannonballing would be more accurate. And admittedly it's a bit of a two for the price of one situation, with Davies' initial Bath-based complaint being about the Clean Air Zone, but also mentioning Oxford where 15-minute city plans seem to be the issue.

 Anyway, the 1980 Moscow Olympics silver medallist, who has also been outspoken about trans issues in sport, did not see the comments go unnoticed...

I know what it’s going to cost me ( & others) to see friends & pick my son up from school in Bath. I know all shop keepers are hugely anti. I know 90% of those consulted in Oxford are also anti! This should not be put in place stealth. It’s nothing more than another tax

— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) February 16, 2023

[click on the photo to see the full info below]

How is it going to cost anything extra than it does right now? pic.twitter.com/gYYo6UHo21

— Rich (@531Forever) February 16, 2023

Oxford resident here, 90% are not against it, we would like to be able to freely move about our city without it being clogged up with cars. We also know that it is faster to use the ring road rather than trying to drive across it on medieval streets

— Peter Kimsey (@KimseyPeter) February 16, 2023

You don’t get the irony. Driving into Bath is what’s causing the jams, that and driving from one side of the city to the other, driving round & round looking for a parking spot.

— Sir Gordon & the Vaccines (@thegordonkerr) February 16, 2023

Incidentally, here's Oliver Wainwright's piece in The Guardian yesterday, 'In praise of the ‘15-minute city’ – the mundane planning theory terrifying conspiracists'... sorry, not sure how that ended up there...

> Hitting 100kph on a bike — what does it take to break this elusive cycling speed barrier?

Esteban Chaves is the new Colombian national champion, sparking a great deal of excitment about how EF Education–EasyPost, the team behind several eye-catchingly radical kits over the years, would celebrate their rider's success. The answer?

No!!! Wtf is that?! pic.twitter.com/cqwbCzoSbd

— Tim Bonville-Ginn (@TimBonvilleGinn) February 17, 2023

What do we reckon? A tad undersold? Maybe it's the curse of too much expectation, but to our eye that does look a little bit too UAE Team Emirates-y...

I'm so disappointed pic.twitter.com/3Ts9w3iLNj

— Tim Bonville-Ginn (@TimBonvilleGinn) February 17, 2023

That is the Venezuelan champion but yes the design is better...

I was expecting this! 👇 pic.twitter.com/oxgr8hB5Yu

— Tim Bonville-Ginn (@TimBonvilleGinn) February 17, 2023

Our only hope?

I doubt it, but we shall see 🙃

— Tim Bonville-Ginn (@TimBonvilleGinn) February 17, 2023

Come on Vaughters, the people want an explosion in a yellow paint factory... step it up... 

Figures published by the Mouvement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) show that there were 29 cases of alleged doping in cycling in 2022, ten more than in 2021.

Using data from anti-doping agencies, courts, federations and news reports the MPCC puts together its annual report into doping at a professional level in cycling and found last year's figure was the second highest since 2015.

While the numbers seem high the MPCC was quick to point out there were just two cases in the sport's top two tiers (WorldTour and ProTour), the lowest number recorded since before the Festina affair of 1998.

"In 2022, the large majority of doping proceedings in top-level cycling concerned semi-professional men riders from continental road teams (12 cases)," the MPCC explained.

Some of your thoughts on Davies' dip into active travel...

ubercurmudgeon: "As a general rule, anyone who includes in their Twitter name or handle a three-letter-acronym for some gong they received for letting the royal family associate themselves with their modest achievements, isn't worth listening to."

Patrick9-32: "Car drivers: Take up 95 per cent of infrastructure space and budget. Also car drivers: 'Can't we just make public transport, walking and cycling better without doing anything that makes driving even one per cent less convenient???? why is there a war on cars?"

billymansell: "As the saying goes, 'when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression'."

Approaching our 15th birthday it remains the proudest moment of this website's existence the day No Context Brits shared our story about the round-the-world cyclist whose bike got stolen outside a Wetherspoons in Reading. The peak of any journalist's career...

Well, the popular Twitter account with 1.6 million followers is back on our patch...

pic.twitter.com/oYlCtLs43y

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) February 16, 2023

Less cycling-related, but fun for a Friday morning...

pic.twitter.com/0F2GjztU7k

— Chris™ (@Chrisw_1) February 16, 2023

With the helmet debate done to death, perhaps this is the next frontier...

I just met a very sweet Pomeranian near St Paul's and the owners did not believe I'd seen one last year in Naples with a bike helmet, so here's the proof 😂 pic.twitter.com/NfodraLpPl

— Simon MacMichael 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇹🇪🇺❤️💙🚲 (@simonmacmichael) February 16, 2023