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"Are you kidding?": Jeremy Vine calls out much-criticised police advice to cyclists; Relieved RideLondon cyclists celebrate no 22mph safety car; Giro stage 11; Pre-race trampolining; Dowsett called on for Ironman record; Room 101 + more on the live blog

Happy Wednesday, folks...today's Giro stage looks...well, dull...if Dan Alexander starts snoring, give him a nudge.....
Wed, May 18, 2022 09:11
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SUMMARY

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"Are you kidding?": Jeremy Vine calls out much-criticised police advice to cyclists; Relieved RideLondon cyclists celebrate no 22mph safety car; Giro stage 11; Pre-race trampolining; Dowsett called on for Ironman record; Room 101 + more on the live blogMerseyside Police car (licensed CC BY 3.0 on Wikimedia Commons by John Bradley)
18 May 2022, 16:30
18 May 2022, 16:18
"So you're gonna attack from the gun, follow the moves, sit on before the climb then drop the hammer"

PE's changed... 

18 May 2022, 15:50
"Are you kidding?": Jeremy Vine calls out much-criticised police advice to cyclists

The tweet is still up. Fair play if you had nine hours plus on your betslip...and it's attracting even more heat...

Cyclists breaking speed limits? We think what Jeremy is getting at is that as per the speed limits listed in Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and also Rule 124 of the Highway Code, cyclists are not required to adhere to the same limits which apply to motorists. Local bylaws aside, therefore, speed limits do not apply to those on bicycles.

Rule 124 outlines a table of speed limits for different vehicles, but cyclists are not included. Of course, careless and dangerous cycling charges do apply if riders are deemed to meet the criteria, but Merseyside Police knew that already, of course...

18 May 2022, 15:33
18 May 2022, 15:26
Could Mathieu van der Poel beat Biniam Girmay with a bit more sleep?
Van der Poel Whoop

Who knows? What we do know is exactly how many hours kip the Dutchman got, thanks to Whoop...

18 May 2022, 14:33
Italy has its win: Alberto Dainese wins stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia

Alberto Dainese from nowhere to the front of the sprint in about five seconds...

The Italian gave his country its first win of the year at its home Grand Tour, flying past Fernando Gaviria and Simone Consonni in the final metres. The left side of the road seemed fastest, with Mark Cavendish, Caleb Ewan and Arnaud Démare pulling up short on the right.

Dainese stage 11 Giro 2022

Gaviria went first before Consonni and Dainese jumped to his left, the latter pipping him on the line in another sprint, characteristically tight for this year's race. Pre-stage favourites Démare, Ewan and Cav rolled home in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Dainese stage 11 Giro 2022

Now don't do what Biniam did, Alberto... 

18 May 2022, 14:31
18 May 2022, 13:55
Richard Carapaz sneaks three seconds at intermediate sprint

Richard Carapaz is now just 12 seconds behind Juan Pedro López after crossing the line first at the intermediate sprint on stage 11. Clever work from Ben Swift and the rest of the Ineos Grenadiers who strung it out, smashed out some watts, and left their Ecuadorian unchallenged...

18 May 2022, 13:26
Wednesday whinge
2022 3T Exploro Racemax Italia Dreambox - 1 (1).jpeg

Excuse my venting breaking up your live blog on this sunny Wednesday afternoon but, inspired by James May telling us on Friday that he would cast flashing front lights into Room 101 forever, I've got a cycling pet peeve of my own.

Inward facing stem bolts...impossible to torque correctly as...well, the stem's in the way. Absolute pain in the...to adjust mid-ride with a multitool. Oh, and to top it all off, the prime adjusting real estate for the lower bolts just so happens to be slap bang in the inaccessible triangle of: stem, headset, cables...never again...

What would be your cycling Room 101?

18 May 2022, 11:59
Pre-race activation like the pros...

Earlier today we heard Harry Tanfield is part of Alistair Brownlee's crack-team of aero assassins heading over to Germany to help him break the Ironman sub-7-hour record (hopefully)...

So how does a pro rider like Harry warm up for big races?

Trampolining of course...

Harry Tanfield Strava

Fasted trampolining sessions, eh? So that's the secret...

18 May 2022, 11:26
Giro d'Italia stage 11

As flat as a pancake...

But not everyone reckons it'll be a snooze fest...

We'll keep you up-to-date here on the live blog... 

18 May 2022, 11:15
18 May 2022, 10:05
Cycle like you drive? Police force schooled over 'road safety' advice

Introducing the latest police Twitter account to put their foot in it in three, two, one...

Where to begin? Can many cyclists exceed urban speed limits? Are brakes on bikes weak? (The last thing we need is the cops wading into the disc vs rim debate) Cycle like you drive? 'Curtesy'? There's no shortage of ammunition here...but just remember to always offer a curtsy to pedestrians when you stop at red lights...

Or are we talking about this?

live blog 18 May

Anyway, nitpicking aside, there are more important issues to address in the tweet which still survives on Merseyside Police's account four hours on. How much longer remains to be seen...

Cycle like you drive, eh?

Who knows how long this will still be up for? But don't worry...here's a screenshot if/when it's deleted...

18 May 2022, 10:37
Giacomo Nizzolo seeks sprinting advice from the peloton's newest lead-out man
Nizzolo Pozzovivo Giro 2022

After his lead-out heroics yesterday, was Giacomo Nizzolo making a sneaky bid for his compatriot's services now Biniam Girmay has unfortunately left the race?

18 May 2022, 10:25
Too soon, Ned, too soon 😢
18 May 2022, 09:58
18 May 2022, 09:32
Fantastic scenes as Eritrean fans celebrate Biniam Girmay's historic Giro d'Italia stage win

The news this morning is not so good...

More on that in the next few minutes... 

18 May 2022, 09:06
Avengers Assemble: Alastair Brownlee calls on Alex Dowsett and Dan Bigham for Ironman record attempt
2021 alistair brownlee clug pro ambassador

As far as pace setters go, time trial wizards Alex Dowsett and Dan Bigham are a pretty strong duo...

Two-time Olympic champion Alastair Brownlee has called on the pair to pace set his record attempt where he will try to record a sub-7-hour Ironman triathlon.

Kristian Blummenfelt, whose quite-ridiculous looking Cadex prototype bike we reported on a couple of weeks back, holds the current world record (7:21:12) and will compete against Brownlee at the Zwift-sponsored event in Germany on June 5 or 6 (depending on the weather)...

Bownlee's eight pace setters, who will need to maintain 45kp/h+ for 180km are mainly from the Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling Team, and include GB team pursuit rider Charlie Tanfield, brother Harry, Ollie Peckover and Zeb Kyfinn.

"These athletes have specialised in team time trialling and their performance coach and rider Jacob Tipper has brought these riders together," said Nigel Mitchell, Brownlee's technical manager.

"We've been very fortunate that we've got what we think are some of the best riders in the world for this type of event."

18 May 2022, 07:57
"Time to tear this ra—I mean sportive up!": Relieved RideLondon cyclists celebrate no 22mph safety car

The last 48 hours must have been quite quiet over at London Marathon Events...not. The team behind the running thing also organise RideLondon and have received something of a backlash from disgruntled entrants who received their race guide over the weekend...only to read there would be a 22mph safety car implemented at the head of the event.

 Following half a day of complaints from riders (and emails from road.cc) a quiet reply was added to one complaint, saying the decision had been made to ensure the safety of participants. Alas, that didn't go down well, but was soon deleted when yesterday RideLondon put out a statement saying it had all been one big mistake...

At least everyone who has paid £90 to enter was understanding...

Leah JoPerry wrote on Facebook: "Ha error, my...  They walked in, dropped a bombshell and then read the room and quickly tried to cover it up saying they’d ‘made an error’." 

Zac Nicholson joked at least there's no need to "pin a real number on now" in reference to the hundreds of 'it's not a race, go to a real race if you want to ride fast' comments of the past 48 hours...adding: "Time to tear this ra—I mean sportive up!"

Joe Chapman couldn't help but spot some irony in the backPEDALLING...

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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43 comments

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
6 likes

Quote:

 Think, if a child or elderly person were to unexpectedly step into your path, could you stop in time?

I never realised that reaction times and stopping distances are different depending on the age group of a hazard in one's path. Blatant attempt to reinforce the "cyclists are a danger to the most vulnerable people" narrative so beloved of velociphobes* everywhere.

*Just made that up, I rather like it. ETA dammit, Google reveals someone else had thought of it already...

Avatar
Awavey replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
2 likes

Actually that was one of the questions posed on my driving test, the answer is children/elderly are less able to judge speeds of approaching vehicles, so you are supposed to take into consideration that they might step out in front of you by mistake, which means you need to be prepared to stop at all times and not assume theyll just stay where they are on the pavement. But it applies equally to drivers so not sure why their twitter account are singling out cyclists.

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Ric_Stern_RST replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
3 likes

I'd love to know who these "many cyclists" are? I raced last night at Goodwood. We were thrashing it (closed roads) and the 3rd cat race averaged 43 km/hr (~27mph) and the elite race averaged ~46 km/hr (~29mph). Apologies I'm unsure how fast the women's or 4th cat race was (but as they were lapped I'm confident it was slower than the 3rd cat and elite race).  

I'm pretty certain average Joe and Josephine would have been spat pretty quickly. 

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OnYerBike replied to Ric_Stern_RST | 2 years ago
1 like

It's possible the police are referring to 20mph limits. Given the relationship between power and speed, going at 20mph requires far less effort than 27mph (this page, with the default assumptions, suggests 20mph requires 180W while 27mph requires 403W). Not to mention with a decent hill you can top 20mph just coasting. 

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Hirsute replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
5 likes

https://twitter.com/RoadPeace/status/1526842583917514754

RoadPeace

Today's theme - reporting road crime and the widespread use of dashcams on UK roads. A reminder to drivers to always 'drive like you're being filmed'.

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IanMSpencer replied to Hirsute | 2 years ago
2 likes

You don't even need to go further than their own tweets just for today - driver who blew 177 - legal limit 35 - amazed they were still conscious. Parent with no licence driving unrestrained children, expired MOT and no driving licence, "a hat-trick" of uninsured drivers, driver doing 103mph - the irony has blown my irony detector.

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Velovoyeur | 2 years ago
0 likes

You pay an entry, you pin on a number and you ride at a pace dictated by conditions or other participants (competitors). So it is a race, then?

In which case why doesn't this event have to abide by the Cycle racing on the Highways regulations? Just like proper races do.

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Hirsute replied to Velovoyeur | 2 years ago
2 likes

Can you expand your second paragraph for non racers ?

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mdavidford replied to Velovoyeur | 2 years ago
1 like

Velovoyeur wrote:

You pay an entry, you pin on a number and you ride at a pace dictated by conditions or other participants (competitors). So it is a race, then?

Well, no, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, that's not what they said - they made no mention of competitors, or even other participants; they said 'what is happening on the road'. That could mean (e.g.) whether they've managed to put closures in place on the road ahead, rather than what are participants doing behind them.

Secondly, that's not the definition of a race. A race implies some degree of competition between participants, not just people trying to do their own best performance. [Note that the introduction of 'competitors' was your own - RideLondon don't refer to anything to do with 'competition'.]

Velovoyeur wrote:

In which case why doesn't this event have to abide by the Cycle racing on the Highways regulations? Just like proper races do.

I'm not familiar with it, but at a glance it appears to be aimed at races on open roads. I would imagine that, even if the event was to be classed as a 'race', the road closures would involve a derogation from the regulations, just as they would from other traffic rules.

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chrisonabike replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
0 likes

mdavidford wrote:

A race implies some degree of competition between participants, not just people trying to do their own best performance.

A time trial then? *Ducks behind motoring helmet*

Avatar
Steve K replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
1 like

chrisonatrike wrote:

mdavidford wrote:

A race implies some degree of competition between participants, not just people trying to do their own best performance.

A time trial then? *Ducks behind motoring helmet*

A time trial is still a competition between participants.

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chrisonabike replied to Steve K | 2 years ago
1 like

Well it's a spectrum isn't it?  Yep - this isn't a time trial.  I also disagreed with the "stop those selfish dangerous scorchers at all costs" types.  I think goals of "It was a great ride" and "I finished!" and "I got my time down to x" can co-exist (without the strange "safety" car).

I'm sure quite a few want to finish in the top x% or go faster than some Nigel though.  So there will be competition.

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
4 likes

chrisonatrike wrote:

faster than some Nigel

Nigel won't be riding it - he only ever rides alone.

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