Could cycling number plates break up Britain?; “Some cyclists cycle at 45mph”; If cyclists behaved like motorists; Brompton vs law-breaking drivers; “Why don’t you guys use the bike paths?”; Wright goes close; Jay Vine’s Zwift ad + more on the live blog

Wait until our Near Miss of the Day pen pals find out about this…

Bloody cyclists! Who do they think they are, riding around in lycra uninsured, not using the cycle path, thinking they're in the Tour de bloody France, not paying any road tax etc etc. #LaVuelta22 pic.twitter.com/iFfs3x9Rap

— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) August 26, 2022

This entire Twitter thread – featuring wise and not so wise takes on cycling, filtering and helmet cams from the likes of Jeremy Vine and GB News’ Paula London – is a bit too much for anyone to properly take in on a Friday afternoon (or ever), but I’ll leave you with this gem from ‘political commentator’ London, whose speed perception seems concerning, to say the least:

Some cyclists cycle at 45 mph though

— Paula London 🇬🇧 (@misspaulalondon) August 26, 2022

https://t.co/ceUKJmis6q pic.twitter.com/ML8gEtVGYJ

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) August 26, 2022

Tell me you know nothing about cycling without saying you know nothing about cycling https://t.co/wZ06q1HRGK

— Chris Gerhard 🇪🇺 (@chrisgerhard) August 26, 2022

I presume she’s mistaking them for motorcyclists https://t.co/6uVEbAWYq7

— Cycling in London (@Cycling_In_LDN) August 26, 2022

Some people can run 100 metres quicker than 10 seconds. https://t.co/X2GPt7DP9D

— Katie (@PlutoPuppy) August 26, 2022

My TT results would be considerably better if this was actually true... https://t.co/5z2CqQD78l

— Alex Ballinger (@alexballi_) August 26, 2022

Oi, peloton, have you not read the memo tho? It’s Fred Wright’s day today, right?

— Hola Chennaoui 🇪🇸 🚲 (@SportsOrla) August 26, 2022

Today’s unusual route at the Vuelta – a day for the sprinters, except for a massive Cat One climb in the middle – has provided us with a classic example of the ‘bunch versus break nail-biter’ genre of grand tour stages.

While Mads Pedersen set his Trek-Segafredo team to work on the Puerto de San Glorio, it wasn’t enough to definitely distance all of the big-name fast men such as green jersey Sam Bennett, nor was it enough to keep a dangerous-looking break – including the on-fire Fred Wright – in check.

With 13km left, the break is currently 1.17 ahead of the bunch. It’s coming down to the wire…

Yesterday’s edition of Near Miss of the Day – featuring a close pass from a lorry driver despite the presence of double solid white lines and an oncoming motorist – has seemed to annoy a few drivers out there, who have kindly emailed us here at road.cc to express their concerns.

> Near Miss of the Day 815: “Again and again, drivers don't seem to get the message”

Nicholas wrote in to tell us that the cyclist “is to blame” for the near miss, because he was ignoring the shared use path to his left (which, as one road.cc reader pointed out in the comments, was coming to an end shortly after the close pass, which may provide an explanation – if it were needed – for why the cyclist declined to use it at that point).

> Monday moaning: Why don't cyclists use cycle lanes?

“The video shows a cycle lane was clear and available, he was not using it,” says Nicholas.

“Therefore the cyclist is to blame. What is the point of a cycle lane if ignored? This video only supports motorists’ view of many cyclists attitude and makes cyclists more susceptible to accidents.”

Adrianjayne also believes that riding on the shared use path would have kept the cyclist safe from “idiot” drivers, explaining to us in this almost completely punctuation-less email: “I’ve just watched the bit on van overtaking cyclist and my first question is why wasn’t the cyclist using the cycle lane these have been put in all over the country at great cost to the public to help with the safety of cyclist and with idiots on the road like the van driver why do cyclists still take more of a risk by not cycling in them.”

Alan agreed too, but was a touch blunter, writing: “Why don’t you guys use the cycle paths?”

 “Cyclist reporting a near miss when he was not affected and clearly not using a designated cycle lane,” John informs us, clearly failing to understand that our series focuses on ‘near misses’ and not collisions (and of course, bad driving only really matters when somebody gets hurt…).

“The oncoming car did not flash or sound his horn so he did not complain and as you can see the cyclist was totally unaffected by the overtaking of the truck. Camera steady on the road proof of no effect on the cyclist.”

Despite the arguments of our email correspondents, it is of course not against the law for a cyclist to ignore an available shared use path, or cycle lane for that matter.

It is, however, against the law for a motorist to overtake on double solid white lines towards an oncoming vehicle, a fact which none of our emailers happened to mention…

Staggering stats from Surrey Police’s new signing:

The little #VanguardRST e-bike from @BromptonBicycle has had a busy couple of hours.

In two hours:

5x Drivers on their phone
1x Disqualified Driver
1x Drug Driver
1x Vehicle in Dangerous Condition
1x Illegal plates

Longest time between stops: 7 minutes.#Fatal5 pic.twitter.com/KZwLPKKwEk

— Roads Policing - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops) August 25, 2022

And a cheap one too: 

The bike was also kindly donated by @BromptonBicycle themselves, so the only cost is about 5p in electricity to charge the battery pack.

Big thanks to @Will_Brompton and team. 👏

— Roads Policing - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops) August 25, 2022

There’s always one ‘but cyclists’ complainer in the comments of course (it is Twitter after all), though Surrey’s roads policing unit are certainly well drilled in virtually slapping down pro-car whingers:

Nope, we’d pick up any road offenders, but the vast vast majority are drivers.

— Roads Policing - Surrey Police - UK (@SurreyRoadCops) August 26, 2022

This one felt good! Especially after the news that I won’t be at my home world championships this year. To be honest I don’t have much to say on the matter other than Im heartbroken I won’t be there to represent my country & that I believe I deserved to be there. Sob story over👌 pic.twitter.com/4ceFVWNdhY

— Caleb Ewan (@CalebEwan) August 25, 2022

Lotto-Soudal’s Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan responded to the news that he wouldn’t be riding for his country at next month’s home world championships in Wollongong by emphatically winning the first road stage of the Tour of Germany, the 28-year-old’s first victory in four months.

“To be honest I don’t have much to say on the matter other than I’m heartbroken I won’t be there to represent my country and that I believe I deserved to be there. Sob story over,” the diminutive quick man tweeted after his win yesterday.

Our team.
Our home.
Our time.@AusCyclingAus · #AusCyclingTeam · @wollongong2022 pic.twitter.com/yqbLbEpW3r

— AusCyclingTeam (@AusCyclingTeam) August 26, 2022

Australian Cycling confirmed this morning that Michael Matthews (fresh from taking an impressive win on Mende at the Tour de France) will be one of the team’s leaders on home soil, alongside other potential prospects Jai Hindley, Ben O’Connor and Luke Plapp, after coming to the conclusion that the hilly Wollongong circuit would prove too difficult for pure sprinter Ewan.

Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge, Heinrich Haussler and Nick Schultz complete the Australian men’s line up for the road race on Sunday 25 September.

Just when you thought we’d covered every possible angle on Grant Shapps’ hastily withdrawn (if he ever meant it at all) pledge to introduce number plates for bike riders as part of a crackdown on cycling offences, Scottish author Ian Mitchell has popped up with perhaps the most extreme take yet on the issue du jour: that bike registration plates “could help destroy the United Kingdom”.

For some reason, I’m not convinced that Tom Nairn is now leaping towards the keyboard in a desperate rush to cite this latest compelling argument in favour of what some view as the ever-quickening disintegration of Britain’s constitutional fabric.

> Grant Shapps: Cyclists should have number plates, be insured and subject to speed limits

Of course, Mitchell isn’t up in arms over Shapps’ comments from a purely pro-cycling point of view (though he does argue that point as well in his piece for online newspaper CapX).

Instead, the author appears to have approached the subject from an ideological stance that seems to have been largely washed away in the recent ‘Ulsterisation’ of Scottish politics – ‘unionist-nationalism’, as historian Graeme Morton coined it.

> “No plans to introduce registration plates” for cyclists, insists Grant Shapps

Some context (don’t worry, we’ll get back to bikes in a minute): in the mid-nineteenth century, an increasing number of Scots believed that Scottish social, political and religious concerns were being neglected down in London at the English-dominated British parliament, where decisions were nonetheless being made that affected the daily lives of those north of the border.

Far from being fully-fledged advocates for Scottish independence – in fact, they weren’t even that keen on devolution, despite threatening it as a last resort if the mob at Westminster didn’t pull their finger out – these unionist-nationalists advocated that Scotland should be properly treated as an equal partner in the union and criticised the apparent apathy and ignorance of anglo-centric English politicians and administrators towards distinctly Scottish issues.

One of these proto-nationalists, the churchman James Begg expressed his dismay in 1843 at ‘the ignorance which prevailed among multitudes of English people in regard to the state of Scotland… there are many English people who scarcely know that the Scotch speak the English tongue, and who imagine that there is no dress seen but the kilt after crossing the Tweed.’

In opposition to the London parliament’s anglo-centric and unitarian instincts, in the mid-1850s a short-lived and unruly but pioneering nationalist pressure group, the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights (NAVSR), was formed, whose protest against administrative neglect later inspired the campaign to establish a Scottish Office.

> "Grant Shapps should be congratulated": Frothing talk shows and Mr Loophole discuss number plates for cyclists

It’s of this long and broadly-based political tradition that Mitchell gleans his protest against the Transport Secretary’s hints last week at future “pointless, draconian measures”.

“I refuse to be subjected to rules like those proposed on cyclists,” he writes, with the stubborn defiance of a bearded Victorian Presbyterian.

“I refuse to be micro-managed by pale-fingered control freaks in airless offices. Londoners are welcome to destroy the freedom of physical movement in their city in any way they think beneficial. It is their manor. But this is my country.

“Cyclists may or may not be a problem in the south-east of England – I do not know, not having visited for more than a decade. But they are certainly not here in seaward Argyll.

“Every day I cycle about 11 kms along the shore here for a breath of fresh air and some exercise. Almost the whole route is on single-track roads where everyone travels slowly. Though I am sure I break the speed limit on some of the downhill sections, I have never found myself in conflict with a driver, pedestrian or sheep.

“I don’t use protective gear; I don’t wear cycling clothes. When the mood takes me, I simply put on a rain jacket or a sun hat, depending on the season, and hop on my bike.

“Without that kind of freedom, cycling becomes another aspect of the national conspiracy to chain everyone to chairs and smartphones. Why should I be forced to cramp my lifestyle because of rude humans (allegedly) five hundred miles away? It can hardly be said too loudly: This is not London.”

> Department for Transport assures MP it has no intention to make cyclists carry number plates and insurance

Railing against this ‘anglo-centric Sovietism’, Mitchell concludes: “I would rather deal with the screaming barbarian hordes that we saw on display outside the Tory hustings in Perth last week (which can also provide useful exercise) than with the po-faced British bureaucracy when it is in a mood to destroy the freedom of simple cycling in the fresh air in a beautiful country like Scotland.

“This is not London, as I have said. This will not be Britain either unless this sort of repression stops.”

Now, back to close passes and Jeremy Vine…

'Just getting a sandwich, be right back!'

If cyclists would act like car drivers...
(by @PhilmerPhiI) pic.twitter.com/hf9iG6ZJ6T

— MonkeyWrenchGang (@M_WrenchGang) August 25, 2022

I’m not sure what the BMW driver was planning to do right at the end of the clip…