“This is what we’ve been waiting for”: Peter Sagan jives to Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog, and the results are as glorious as you’d expect; 9-year-old cycles up the 8.8% gradient Muur with trainers; Philipsen rides seatless e-bike + more on the live blog

A cycling campaign has blasted the police force and declared that they have “no confidence” in their ability to protect cyclists after they judged a driver to be “showing consideration” just because they moved slightly to their right across the white line in what appears to be a shocking close pass.

Colchester Cycling Campaign, sharing pictures of the incident, wrote on social media: “According to Essex Police, ‘The driver is clearly showing consideration by moving out, across the centre white line.’

“Sadly, we have no confidence in Essex Police or Safer Essex Roads in protecting cyclists from careless and dangerous drivers. Extra Eyes has no vision.”

According to @essexpoliceuk.bsky.social "The driver is clearly showing consideration by moving out, across the centre white line". Sadly, we have no confidence in @essexpoliceuk.bsky.social or Safer Essex Roads Partnership in protecting cyclists from careless and dangerous drivers.

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— Colchester Cycling Campaign (@colchestercycling.bsky.social) 2 March 2025 at 20:23

Extra Eyes is a road safety campaign launched by Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP), a joint initiative between various departments within the county, aimed at encouraging road users to capture footage and submit it to the team.

> “We must avoid encouraging risk taking or deliberate incitement for others to offend”: Heavily criticised road safety campaign stands by message to cyclists “proactively” seeking bad driving

On its website, the team says: “The increasing availability of mass market ‘on the go’ cameras mean more irresponsible, dangerous, and illegal road behaviour is being recorded in video form than ever before. Through ‘Extra Eyes’, this footage can be sent to us for review by an investigator within Road Policing at Essex Police.

“In appropriate cases, we will have no hesitation in taking positive action against offenders, using the evidence that you supply, providing it meets the criteria.

“Where appropriate, offenders will be offered a driver improvement course at their expense to educate them and ultimately improve their attitude towards driving. Where the criteria for one of these courses is not met, a fixed penalty notice or escalation to court proceedings may follow.”

Colchester Cycling Campaign shared another picture of a close passing driver and wrote: “Apparently the Mercedes driver is showing consideration but the driver of the Ford merited a course or conditional offer. Does this make sense to anyone?”

The news hasn’t been taken well by cyclists on social media, who have condemned the police’s actions. One person wrote: “Essex is my least favourite place to cycle. Roads are totally lawless and Essex Police are completely ineffectual. The Met area or Herts is better.”

Another person said: “It’s Essex. Neither Essex Highways nor Essex Police really give a shite about the safety of anyone cycling on their roads.”

> Near Miss of the Day 910: Cyclist "let down" by police response to shocking close pass by speeding driver

Yet another Bluesky user added: “That's not good enough, moving out slightly is not a consideration. Whoever makes these decisions and supports them is not fit to do the job and should resign. I’ve not reported anything for months, they are only interested in making excuses for dangerous drivers.”

The cyclist who goes by the online persona of ‘Chaponabike’ replied: “It’s a resource issue. Cheaper to send out a warning letter and hope the offending driver behaves themselves in future. The police don’t have the resource to pass all of this to the CPS,” to which Colchester Cycling Campaign responded saying: “We don't accept that. Changing the behaviour of drivers is far cheaper than dealing with the consequences.”

This isn’t the first time cyclists have been left disappointed with Essex Police’s decision-making in judging a close pass. In June last year, we featured one such rider on our Near Miss of the Day series, who was left “shaken” when a speeding driver overtook him before a traffic island.

He criticised the police for offering the offending driver the choice of points or a fine as punishment, saying: “I reported it to Essex Police as soon as I got home. After chasing for the result, they stated the driver will be offered the choice of a driving course or points and fine. 

“I felt let down by this and did write to them to complain about the outcome, but to date have not received a response.”

The Extra Eyes initiative also came under heavy criticism in April 2023, when SERP’s Twitter account replying to a question asking why one example of a cyclist's footage of a mobile phone-using driver would not be accepted, saying: “We accept these if they are reported by cyclists who record it in passing while on their commute but not from those who proactively seek out examples of poor driving.”

Spare a thought for all the Pro and Conti teams looking for a good result at Le Samyn tomorrow, because the surprise announcement that Mathieu van der Poel will be racing as well is certain to knock the wind out of a couple of riders or more.

At least, Dutch ProTeam Unibet Tietema Rockets have resorted to humour in the face of the Van der Poel-shaped adversity, and attempted to humour us fans with this video…

We’re cooked. 😨

🇧🇪 #GPSamyn #EnzameSamynClassic pic.twitter.com/gxNDWa4Pr7

— Unibet Tietema Rockets (@rockets_cycling) March 3, 2025

A year after giving fans one of the coolest pro cycling videos of escorting last year’s winner Wout van Aert after the race while riding his e-scooter with the suave and nonchalance that’d put James Bond to shame, everyone’s favourite Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne steward is back!

And would you believe it, he’s swapped (read: upgraded) his e-scooter to an e-bike… a seatless one too, for some reason. And just like last year, he was the steward responsible for escorting the winner, recreating the same video.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Eurosport Italia (@eurosportitalia)

But wait, there’s more! Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen, who won the race thanks to a superb leadout from Kaden Groves who was controversially relegated by the UCI for celebrating before finishing the race, seems to have taken a liking to the contraption, even taking it out for a spin.

Vervangt @JasperPhilipsen volgende editie onze steward Rik Bossuyt? 🤣#Wherelegendsareborn pic.twitter.com/xIHaF1ogbF

— KuurneBrusselKuurne (@KuurneBxlKuurne) March 2, 2025

I know we often joke about riders getting younger and better a lot here, but this is just flat out impressive, brave… and so wholesome!

9-year-old Gioia has really put most of us cyclists to shame, climbing the Muur van Geraardsbergen, the penultimate climb in Saturday’s Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, before her idols would scale the famous steep, narrow road with cobblestones in Belgium — while wearing trainers!

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UCI Women’s WorldTour (@uci_wwt)

As someone said, “These are the memories from your childhood you’ll cherish for the rest for your life…” For all we know, she could be climbing the Muur with the actual rainbow stripes, in little over a decade.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Chris Gioia Coessens (@chris_gioia_coessens)

You might remember that in January, it was reported that the UCI would be introducing a new rule that would see riders decelerating during a sprint and celebrating their teammates’ victory before crossing the line being slapped with a fine.

It hasn’t taken too long for such a scenario to unfold, and the sport’s governing body has responded with a yellow card, a relegation for Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Kaden Groves, and a fine of 500 Swiss francs.

The Australian sprinter and two-time points classification winner at the Vuelta was tasked with being the leadout man for Jasper Philipsen — a task he performed perfectly, sticking to the barriers and moving aside to help Philipsen get his first win of the season.

However, after the race, it was revealed that Groves was not only shown a yellow card, but also relegated form 10th position to 57th — a decision that has divided fans, with some calling it “ridiculous”, while others saying that the ultimate purpose of this rule is to ensure the peloton’s safety.

Poisson-pilote de Jasper Philipsen sur Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, Kaden Groves a été déclassé et a écopé d'un carton jaune. Un nouveau point de règlement sanctionne un coéquipier qui "célèbre dans le peloton" en "retirant les mains du guidon". #KBK25pic.twitter.com/HWhiUH6GQk

— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) March 2, 2025

One person said: “It’s ridiculous, he’s not doing anything dangerous. If we do that, we might as well downgrade the winners to raise their arms in the sprints too,” but another fan thought: “When he raises his hand, he weaves slightly. The day when a guy impales himself at 60km/h in it, we will be very happy that the yellow card exists.”

The official wording for the new regulation from the UCI was: “Rider decelerating during a sprint and endangering other riders (knowingly staying within the line of other riders, celebrating in the bunch, talking on the radio or taking hands off handlebars while in the bunch).”

Another cycling fan said: “It is a difficult one to learn for riders as you’re on your limit and there’s a lot of emotion.” So maybe we can expect a few more of these as riders come to grips with the new rules…