Local activist slams “selfish” parents for allowing their children to cycle on the pavement, and says riding on the road is “safer” for primary school pupils; Remco Evenepoel: “I’m not a robot”; Matt Page calls off NC500 attempt + more on the live blog

An older people’s campaigner has called on his local council to clamp down on young people riding their bikes on the pavement, and has criticised parents for teaching their primary school-aged children to cycle on footpaths, potentially endangering pedestrians.

Chris Pickett, a former Older People’s Champion in Melksham, says that Wiltshire Council should make it clear that pavements are “primarily for pedestrians” – and despite what he views as the Highway Code’s “strong bias towards cyclists”, pedestrians and motorists “have a right to safe passage”.

“I am sure many of our older generation who wish to walk safely around our towns for exercise, shopping, social contact etc, will have similar complaints that the pavements are being made more and more unsafe, due to the increase in cyclist riding (often too fast) along what is a narrow pedestrian footway, in very close proximity to traffic that travels at 30mph – which we all know can kill should we step into the road,” the 75-year-old told the Wiltshire Times.

“This complaint is levelled at both adults and children, for which parental guidance must be improved.”

> “In the middle of the road!” Motorist berates children cycling “harmlessly home from school” on empty cul-de-sac

The campaigner’s criticism comes after he saw a man, aged between 18 and 20, doing wheelies along a pavement in the centre of Melksham on Saturday.

“I guess he thought he was clever but it was downright stupidity,” he said. “Anyone could have walked out of the shops and he would have ploughed straight into them.”

The 75-year-old also criticised the number of children riding their bikes home from the local primary school on what he claims is a “particularly narrow” footpath – and says that children should be taught by their parents from a young age to ride safely on the road.

“Some parents are either on a bike themselves or walking some distance behind. In both cases oblivious of what they are teaching their children,” Mr Pickett said.

“I make an apology to a mother who, though riding on the road, felt that her son was safer on the pavement, but was unable to see that had she taught the child to ride on the road alongside her he would be both safe, as would the pedestrians.”

> Viral video of driver refusing to stop for five-year-old cyclist debated on Jeremy Vine's Channel 5 show

He continued: “My reason is to enlist the support of Wiltshire Council, and its elected members, to instigate a method that will make it clear to all, that the pavements in our towns are primarily for pedestrians and only when legally designated, can they be use as a ‘dual footpath’ for cyclist and pedestrians.

“We currently have a new Highway Code which has been written with a strong bias towards cyclists. This I have no problem with, provided the pedestrian (and motorists) have a right to a safe passage and not to be at risk of being either, involved in an accident or personally injured by selfish cyclists.”

Of course, despite Mr Pickett’s claims that the Highway Code is biased towards cyclists, pedestrians are, in fact, placed at the top of the hierarchy of vulnerable road users.

> Over half of UK drivers still confused by Highway Code change, shows survey

And the Melksham campaigner certainly isn’t the first person to make an appearance on the live blog because they’re unhappy with schoolchildren cycling on the pavement.

> “You couldn’t make it up”: Driver – in untaxed, SORN-registered car with expired MOT – mounts pavement on wrong side of the road… then chastises six-year-old for cycling on same footpath

Last October, we featured a video of a motorist parking his car by mounting the pavement on the wrong side of the road on a School Street in Lewisham – before immediately chastising a young cyclist and his father for riding their bikes on the same footpath.

And it’s not just children riding on footpaths that people get angry about – it’s when the kids ride on the roads too.

A month after our irony-deficient driver in Lewisham made the live blog, a clip of a motorist failing to stop to let a five-year-old cyclist past, before narrowly passing the youngster, went viral, causing an almighty stir online and even ending up on Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid’s Twitter feed.

And earlier this month, another driver was criticised online for scolding a group of schoolchildren for riding their bikes “in the middle” of an empty residential street.

A clip of the incident, filmed by Limerick-based cyclist Aidan Hogan, showed a group of young cyclists riding home from school when a motorist exits her car after appearing to park it on the street. The driver then gesticulates towards the children and calls out: “The middle of the road, in the middle of the road”.

Just goes to show, you can’t please everybody…

While all the build-up to today’s penultimate sprint stage of the Giro may have been about Mark Cavendish and his farewell tour of Italy’s bunch kicks (at least on this live blog), it was a sprinter at the other end of his career, Alberto Dainese, who took his second stage win at the Giro by outgunning Jonathan Milan and Michael Matthews, just, in a thrilling dragstrip finale in Caorle.

🔥 DAINO!

Yes, you made it! #Giro #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/T8zsfbg6L0

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 24, 2023

After his DSM team bossed the crucial final turn, the 25-year-old Italian leapt onto the fast-moving Jayco-AlUla train as it teed up Michael Matthews.

Despite taking a thrilling comeback win on the draggy stage three, Matthews’ participations in flat and fast bunch sprints are few and far between these days, and the Australian even attempted to sneak into today’s early breakaway, only to be foiled by a vigilant Bahrain-Victorious team, keeping a vice-like grip on the points jersey for Jonathan Milan.

But the man they call Bling proved there are still a few pure sprinting diamonds left in his legs, bursting off his lead-out on the long finishing straight.

However, Matthews’ hopes for a stage win – one he told Bahrain-Victorious he had no chance of taking, according to GCN’s moto-riding Adam Blythe – were ultimately dashed in the dying metres by a pincer movement consisting of the fast-finishing Milan and Dainese.

In the battle of the Italians, Dainese had just enough speed to deservedly take his career tally of Giro stage wins to two, a day after struggling through the mountains ahead of the broomwagon. 

😱🍿 What a sprint!
Watch the last kilometre of stage 1️⃣7️⃣ of the Giro d'Italia! 🔻
.
😱🍿 Che volata!
Guarda l’ultimo km della tappa 1️⃣7️⃣ del Giro d’Italia! 🔻@Expo2030Roma #Giro #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/Uk7o9UWoN5

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 24, 2023

Meanwhile, the rider with 16 stages at the Cora Rosa under his belt, Mark Cavendish was left angry and frustrated after being caught out of position in the final two kilometres, and left unable to take part in the sprint.

Moved up by Astana teammate Luis León Sánchez with two kilometres to go, the British champion then almost immediately found himself on the wrong end of a sudden rush to the front, and with an increasingly fast and strung-out line of 30 riders now ahead of him saw his chances swiftly evaporate.

It may be his final Giro, but Cavendish still managed to showcase some of the volatile emotions synonymous with his heyday, as he argued with a Green Project-Bardiani rider after the finish line.

The fight’s still there, no doubt. The positioning and lead out just needs worked on. But there’s always Rome, eh?

Matt Page, who this morning pulled the plug on his attempt to beat Mark Beaumont’s NC500 record, has explained the reasons behind his decision, citing safety concerns after a sudden drop in temperature and strong crosswinds, factors which he says contributed to him feeling “like I fell of a cliff”.

Despite being nine miles ahead of Beaumont’s record 16 hours into his attempt, the 38-year-old endurance cyclist stepped off the bike just before 4am this morning.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Matt Page (@mattpage24)

“I don’t know what happened or what went wrong. I think it all stemmed from getting very, very cold. The temperature plunged and I had a really strong crosswind. That was the start of things,” a clearly drained Page said in a video posted to social media this afternoon.

“I just felt like I fell off a cliff soon after that. I wasn’t able to pedal, I wasn’t able to ride in a straight line. For safety more than anything I just had to stop.

“I’m gutted because before that everything was going well, I was feeling good, I didn’t feel like I was pushing it too hard. It’s just one of those things.

“Mark’s record [28 hours, 35 minutes] is one hell of a record. Good luck to anyone trying to beat. I’m not sure this is the right time to ask me, but I don’t think I’ll have another go at it.”

> Leak all but confirms wireless Campagnolo Super Record groupset is coming with prices quoted

> Public-spirited local fills in pothole... council arrives an hour later to fix it

Having finished the latest edition of Private Eye this morning, road.cc reader Richard got in touch to express his surprise at the content of the magazine’s Rotten Borough’s column, which he says “heavily featured anti-cycling and anti-LTN rhetoric, and used most of the bingo card words”, arguing that Private Eye had “gone petrolhead”.

So, what was it about Rotten Borough’s active travel analysis which prompted Richard to “not quite believe what I was reading”?

Well, in its review of the recent local elections, the column noted the Brighton Green Party’s “obsession with cycling” and claimed that, in Bath, the “unpopular Upper Bristol Road cycle lane has narrowed a main arterial route into the city, making it harder for cars to move over to make way for emergency vehicles”.

It then pointed out that Bath and Nort East Somerset Council “didn’t consult the ambulance service about cycle lanes, low-traffic neighbourhoods, floating bus stops or ‘modal filters’ that were being installed.”

> Pedestrian safety fears raised over floating bus stops on new cycle lane in Bath

“Perhaps the council was in a bit of a hurry to trouser juicy ‘active travel’ funds from Whitehall in time to get the work finished before the May elections,” it added.

“The restrictions on the Upper Bristol Road have now created gridlock during rush hour with nowhere for cards to pull over to let emergency vehicles pass. Residents can no longer park their cars anywhere near their homes or take in groceries and deliveries. Meanwhile, the spanking new cycle lane remains woefully underused, possible because there are two other parallel cycle lanes barely 150 metres to the north and south of the new one.”

Continuing the theme, the column also claimed that the “disastrous imposition of low traffic neighbourhoods” in the Jesmond area of Newcastle have resulted in “longer journey times, gridlocked traffic, discriminations against the poor, the elderly, and the disabled, more rather than less pollution…”

Hmm… What do you make of Private Eye’s latest, rather scathing, take on local active travel policies across the UK?

Smart to carry your own rack so you always have one right? pic.twitter.com/Cij3tlckKM

— Beff Jezos (@humansonbikes) May 23, 2023

 

 

 

 

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He gave it a right good go, but unfortunately early this morning endurance cyclist (and road.cc contributor) Matt Page was forced to pull the plug on his attempt to break Mark Beaumont’s daunting North Coast 500 record.

The 38-year-old’s live tracker came to a halt at 3.50am, 21 hours and five minutes into the epic ride, just north of the east coast village of Berriedale.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Matt Page (@mattpage24)

A post on Matt’s Instagram account simply said he “could no longer carry on”. We’ll make sure to keep you updated when we get more info.