Should cycling websites leave results out of their Tour de France reports?; Councillor claims cycle network is “at risk of collapse”, but locals say “it’s long dead”; Should Jonas have worked for Wout?; When drivers block your PB + more on the live blog

No, I haven’t gone mad (especially after a morning writing almost solely about the Tour de France) – that is a genuine debate currently taking place on the road.cc forum.

“I, like many people who also have full time jobs and busy lives, watch most of my TDF on highlights shows or on catch up and it really takes the edge off when I know how the stage is going to end,” the OP says.

“Journalists will often make the reader get to the end of an article to discover which tyre lever is the best on the latest consumer test but are falling over themselves to tell you the outcome of a sporting event. This is arguably one of the few headlines where clickbait is genuinely justified.

“I don’t want to have to avoid road.cc during the racing season so please stop giving the result away in the headline.”

What do you reckon? Does the ‘Result Spoiler Alert’ poster have a point? Should websites about cycling refrain from mentioning things that happened in a cycle race – the biggest one of the lot, too – on their cycling website? Should we adopt more ambiguous headlines for people who aim to avoid all mention of the results but don’t mind scrolling on cycling websites as they wait?

Probably need to blur these faces out next time…

Could headlines like ‘These twins are both racing the Tour de France together… You won’t believe what happened next’ catch on?

Well, until then, I suppose we better figure out a way to avoid finding out the results of bike races, published on cycling websites. There must be a way, surely…

In the same week that a report into the state of shared and zero-emission mobility in European cities ranked Manchester as the 'worst in Europe for clean and green transport', Mancunian cyclists have found one of their cycle lanes under attack from vandals removing segregation cones to turn the bike lane into a third motor vehicle lane.

Photos shared on social media show the A56 in Trafford reopened to three lanes again, the lane that was a dedicated cycle lane, formerly separated from traffic with cones, once again filled with queueing vehicles, and the removed cones stacked at the side of the road.

Read more: > Cyclists call out latest bike lane vandalism as Manchester named ‘worst in Europe for green transport’

It's really a bit pretty isn't it? 🥺💛 #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/wC5hVnoEt4

— Katy M, Tour Edition (@writebikerepeat) July 3, 2023

Well, at least the first two stages were exciting…

🏁 Longo Borghini 🥇🇮🇹

🇮🇹 Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl - Trek) wins the sprint, 🇺🇸 Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) is 2nd, 🇳🇱 Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) 3th#UCIWWT#GiroDonne23
📸@GettySport pic.twitter.com/4UmLbA2RUz

— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) July 3, 2023

There aren’t too many better sights in cycling than the Tricolore crossing the line first at the Giro… (Ooops, spoiler alert!)

Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini took her second career stage win at the Giro Donne this afternoon, outsprinting Veronica Ewers and Annemiek van Vleuten in Borgo Val di Taro, after putting the pink jersey under pressure on a descent towards the finish.

EF Education’s 28-year-old American Ewers was the first of the favourites to strike out on today’s hilly stage, attacking solo with 35km to go, a move that would ultimately move her up to third on GC. After brief bursts from Marta Cavalli and Silvia Persico, Van Vleuten finally jumped across on the final climb of the Strela, with Longo Borghini in tow.

After the duo had bridged up to Ewers, Longo Borghini attempted to put Van Vleuten under pressure on the twisty descent. But with the Dutchwoman refusing to budge, the Italian champion had to settle for easily outsprinting the pink jersey – and taking some valuable bonus seconds, cutting the gap to 49 seconds before tomorrow’s decisive mountain stage – and second placed Ewers for a popular home win.

As the first weekday stage of the Tour gets underway (with polka dot-clad Neilson Powless and Laurent Pichon already up the road on a hiding to nothing), it’s time to pull out a road.cc classic guide: How to get away with watching the race at work…

> Watching the Tour de France at work: a stealthy cycling fan's guide 

It’s not been a bad start to the Tour for Bury’s finest bike-racing twins…

How it started… How it’s going@AdamYates7 💛 @SimonYatess 💚#UAETeamEmirates #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/Ng6Hhqpm50

— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) July 2, 2023

The Basque crowds, hills, the Yates twins 1-2, Adam in the yellow jersey, the GC battle already bursting into life, more hills, idiots with tacks trying to ruin the race, UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogačar racing like there’s no tomorrow, Cofidis ending their 15-year win drought at the Tour, Victor Lafay stealing all our hearts…

It’s been quite the start to the Tour de France, hasn’t it?

And even after one of the race’s greatest, and hardest, opening weekends ever, one storyline – which we all scoffed at when it was hammered at us relentlessly during the recent Netflix Tour series – has dominated discussion between cycling fans: What is going on between Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert?

It’s certainly been a frustrating start to the Tour for Jumbo-Visma. While their big rivals, UAE, have grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck (a bit too ferociously at times, eh Mikkel Bjerg?) and seem to be enjoying themselves while doing so, frustration seems to be the name of the game so far for the Dutch super team.

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

Despite, as usual, boasting numerical superiority in the run-in to Bilbao on Saturday, they were outdone by the might of the Yates twins up ahead, with a lacklustre Van Aert forced to settle for 11th after having his eyes originally set on the first yellow jersey of the race.

Things got even more frustrating for the Belgian star yesterday in San Sebastián, where – despite those yellow and black jerseys dominating the small bunch that survived the Jaizkibel – Cofidis’ Victor Lafay timed his attack to perfection amidst the chaos to once again thwart the Jumbo-Visma numbers, and prompt an angry second-placed Van Aert to throw his arms around as he crossed the line.

The frustration didn’t end there for the Belgian all-rounder. He threw his bottle to the ground before riding on past reporters, refusing to speak to them. At the team bus, he banged his bike down with a thud before letting out an exasperated shout. The 28-year-old was then filmed sulkily getting into a team car for the trip back to the hotel, away from his teammates on the bus.

I bet they were having a cozy dinner at the Jumbo table last night. #TDF2023 https://t.co/hYzvwvQhlj

— Michael Rasmussen (@MRasmussen1974) July 3, 2023

According to the Belgian press, anyway, Van Aert’s post-stage actions were entirely justified – because, they say, he would have won both opening stages if Jonas Vingegaard had decided to pull on the front just for once.

While that charge against last year’s Tour winner was perhaps unfounded on stage one – the uphill drag to the finish in Bilbao would have left him open to shipping valuable seconds if he’d wasted energy in the wind – the Dane’s decision to sit tight and focus solely on GC yesterday, as teammate Wilco Kelderman floundered at the front, creating the opening for Lafay to strike, certainly raised eyebrows, considering one turn from Vingegaard towards the end would have likely granted Van Aert and the team a morale-boosting win.

Instead, Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma’s tendency towards conservatism – a trait, it seems, not shared by UAE Team Emirates – has opened a can of worms when it comes to internal team dynamics and sparked a Twitter debate between the squad’s two fan factions: Team Wout and Team Jonas.

Wout van Aert's lead out train if Belgian Press had it their way:#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/orEpdfU4GF

— Ryan Duff (@RyanDuff99) July 2, 2023

If Pogacar can sprint everytime, Vingegard can surely ride 500meters for Van Aert...

— Elias 🇧🇪 (@Red_Devil333) July 2, 2023

Jonas Vingegaard literally gifted Wout a stagewin last year. Cry me a river, Belgium. #TdF2023 pic.twitter.com/7nElhtUhgR

— Andreas Kastbjerg (@a_kastbjerg) July 2, 2023

Should Vingegaard have pulled, just a bit, to ensure Van Aert secured his stage win, knowing that the Belgian will soon be working for him in the mountains? Or is last year’s Tour winner right to conserve his energy and focus purely on the yellow jersey, which is the team’s main aim, anyway?

Zac Williams/SWpix.com

The Dane, it seems, is unimpressed with the accusations in the Belgian press that he’s not helping out Van Aert enough.

“I think it’s also not fair,” he said at the finish yesterday. “I think I already did something for Wout. I could have been selfish and pulled with Pogačar, so in that case I was also kind of helping in that I didn’t pull.

“For me, I only have to focus on the GC. Of course, we have different goals. I think we’re all super disappointed, me as well, and we all wanted Wout to win today.”

All that Jumbo-Visma drama, meanwhile, proved perfect comic fodder for Tadej Pogačar, who was filmed reenacting Van Aert’s angry bottle throw for the amusement of yellow jersey-wearing teammate Adam Yates, while the two-time winner was also heard commenting that Van Aert was acting “like a child” after his defeat.

👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/QSll8uRtM7

— Eurosport (@eurosport) July 2, 2023

Netflix must be licking their lips…

As the Basque Country treated us to a weekend of joyous, infectious bike-loving scenes at the Tour de France (tack-throwing idiots aside, of course), another city with its eye on hosting the race’s Grand Départ in a few years’ time – Belfast – was busy getting skewered once again for what seems like a lack of any kind of enthusiasm or direction when it comes to cycling infrastructure.

As we’ve noted in the past on the live blog, Belfast’s 10-year Cycle Network Plan, unveiled in 2021 by then-infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon, has been slow in getting off the ground (unlike the parked cars that tend to litter the few cycle lanes the city currently has).

> “This is the reality of cycling in Belfast”: Cyclists blast ‘protected’ bike lane packed with parked cars and bins

However, at the weekend, one local councillor claimed that the Cycle Network Plan was “already at risk of collapse” and about to be superseded by a new travel plan, a final draft of which won’t be submitted until late next year.

“Whilst the Belfast Cycle Network Plan is a deeply flawed plan by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), it has the potential to lay the groundwork for a better cycling network across the city than currently exists, which is something that we absolutely must strive for,” Micky Murray, a Belfast City Councillor for the Alliance Party, told Belfast Live.

““The main arterial routes of Lisburn Road and Malone Road aren’t due to have cycling infrastructure in place until 2028-31, and the Upper Malone Road, Upper Lisburn Road, and Finaghy Road South have all been completely ignored in the plan.

“Now it emerges that the Department’s new Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan, which won’t have a final draft until late 2024, may take priority.”

> Government says Belfast bike lanes are “advisory” – after local cyclists claim they are “completely unusable” due to parked cars

He continued: “Despite there being a huge need and want for safe cycling infrastructure across our city, and the Department stating that walking, wheeling, and cycling, are above public transport in their priorities, the Cycle Network Plan is already at risk of collapse. It’s so incredibly frustrating.

“There has been next to no delivery on the plan to date, and with 10 percent of the overall transport budget to be spent on active travel, it really makes you question just how serious DfI are about prioritising active travel and achieving net zero.”

> Sinn Féin minister “neglecting Northern Ireland’s future” and “locking us all into a fossil-fuelled dark age”, says Cycling UK

While Murray claims that Belfast’s cycle plan is doomed under the new proposals, many local cyclists are convinced it’s already dead, anyway.

“There has been zero metres of new cycling infrastructure in the last two years, Micky Murray. It’s long dead,” tweeted Brian Shannon.

Mark Rafferty agreed: “No drive towards net zero. Welcoming cars into the city centre. No parking enforcement. Public transport is patchy at best. A right shambles.”

That “right shambles” was perhaps underlined this weekend by the latest piece of cycling infra to get a fresh lick of paint in Belfast. Though not that we’d ever call ‘murder strips’ like this one on the Cregagh Road a proper cycle lane…

Can't believe @deptinfra are building "cycle infrastructure" like this in 2023. Lethally dangerous to use and a total waste of time and money to install cc @BelfastCycle pic.twitter.com/sNAI80GzHo

— movingturtle (@movingturtle) July 2, 2023

“I seriously cannot understand the point,” wrote Patrick. “Anyone not feeling confident heading off on a bike is not going to try and tackle that. The Department for Infrastructure should not have bothered spending the money, but sadly will tout this as part of a huge investment in active travel.”

“Putting people in lethal danger for a box ticking exercise. Madness,” said political commentator Newton Emerson.

“Honestly, the DfI just take the piss don’t they?” added Dominic Bryan. “They are to cycle lane construction what Spinal Tap are to rock and roll tours.”

11/10 for the Spinal Tap reference, Dom, great work.

@DfIPermSec @AndrewMuirNI https://t.co/k9tRlQzenq pic.twitter.com/XWx9rzub2z

— CircleLineBelfast (@CircleLineBT) July 2, 2023

Responding to the claims that the travel plans would put the city’s current, ahem, focus on cycling in jeopardy, a DfI spokesperson: “The Belfast Metropolitan Transport Plan is at an early stage of development and will prioritise journeys made by walking and wheeling, cycling and public transport.

“It aims to incorporate the Belfast Cycling Network (BCN) while considering how we best utilise our existing road space to retain a functioning transport network that serves the needs of the Belfast community. Whilst this may ultimately involve some changes from those outlined within the BCN, should this be required the Department will seek to identify additional segregated cycling routes.

“The Department remains committed to improving our cycling and public transport infrastructure as this is a crucial way in which we help to bring about a reduction in car traffic.”

> Cycling UK slams Northern Ireland's "baffling" Tour de France bid when active travel strategy puts cyclists "at risk"

The backlash against Belfast’s admittedly rudimentary attempts at making the city safer for cyclists echoes the disbelief expressed by some campaigners at the news that Northern Ireland appears very keen to host the Tour de France later this decade.

Back in November, the news that Northern Ireland is preparing a joint bid with the Irish government to host the Tour around 2027 or so was described by Cycling UK as “baffling”, especially when everyday safety policy in the region is still putting cyclists “at risk” and omits recent Highway Code changes.

Cycling UK’s spokesperson in Northern Ireland, Andrew McClean, stressed that whilst the charity would “love” to see the race return to the island of Ireland, “a real lasting legacy for cycling would be for Northern Ireland to stop ignoring the essential work required to help people travel cheaply, sustainably, and safely by bike”.