The new-look Tour of Britain Men finally gets underway this morning, as a peloton featuring headline acts Remco Evenepoel, Julian Alaphilippe, and Tom Pidcock navigates both an unusually early start (I dread to think what the footballers would say about a 10.30am kick off) and a lumpy 182km route in the Scottish Borders around Kelso.
And while you’d assume that GB News, of all things, would welcome the return of a race that puts Britain on the world stage and showcases and celebrates the country’s landscape and people, it turns out that the union flag-draped website is instead concerned with much more important things: motorists.
(Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)
“Drivers have been warned to expect six days of delays as The Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain cycling tournament kicks off affecting major roads,” GB News proclaimed in their solitary article about the race – not ‘tournament’, for goodness’ sake – which for some reason was illustrated by an image of commuters using a city cycle lane.
Bemoaning the opening stage’s use of the A68, “which about 9,200 vehicles use per day”, the article painstakingly notes all the roads affected by the six-day race, while also pointing out that, ahead of Sunday’s final, relatively flat stage from Lowestoft to Felixstowe, “parking suspension signs will be positioned in areas where on-street parking restrictions will apply this include ‘no waiting’ cones being put in position on Saturday September 7”.
(Yeah, I’m not sure punctuation or grammar is a massive concern at GB News, judging by that last sentence.)
> British cyclist to miss Tour of Britain after being hit by driver who tried to "squeeze huge 4x4 past at high speed" on country lane blind bend before returning to "verbally abuse and threaten" female rider
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
In any case, the slapdash ‘cyclists are causing disruption for you poor drivers’ story has had the desired effect, stoking some good ol’ anti-cycling sentiment among the ‘news’ outlet’s readerships.
“I feel sorry for all those people trying to get around, it’s a nightmare,” wrote Sheila in the comments. “Totally agree about road tax etc, they say they pay car tax so don’t need to, hmmm, you have two cars you pay twice, so that doesn’t mean you don’t. Although apparently cyclists, like labour can do what they want.”
Yep, that’s right, straight from the Tour of Britain to road tax in one comment. Classic.
(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)
“It’s time cyclists were forced to pay road tax and insurance,” added another commenter. “They must also be forced to step off the bike to let faster vehicles pass.”
You try telling that to Remco, mate.
Meanwhile, Styggen, demonstrating some in-depth knowledge of the UCI calendar, said: “Cycling clearly isn’t fun if it doesn’t cause maximum pain for road users – timed to coincide with the end of the summer holidays and when most kids are going back to school, parents back to work etc…”
(Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)
Yeah, David Lappartient, get it sorted! Obviously forget that the lines of flag-waving schoolkids cheering the bunch on provide some of the race’s most emblematic images…
“That should do wonders for the dwindling relationship between motorists and cyclists,” concluded Bob.
Oh, he means the race, not the silly article.
I think we should leave the last word on this, as usual, to Dave Walker:
Add new comment
41 comments
You have a light aircraft I assume?
Hoverboard.
Nice. This is my stable.
I commute on the one in the middle - it contrasts well to the paint on CS7. The one at the bottom has been de-restricted (shhhhh don't tell plod...... or HMRC about my Deliveroo side hussle).
Nah but those HGVs, buses & tractors are all hard working people just trying to earn a living innit. Not sponging off society and contributing nothing like all those cyclists eh, so it's okay when they slow down the more important car drivers for a few moments. /s
Quite.
Compare that to cyclist slackers like me. I left home at 6am yesterday morning to cycle 25 miles to the office, left for home at 5.10pm, home about 6.50. (It was a pleasant evening with the sun going down over the Fens so I took it easy, I hope I can be excused for only averaging 14 mph, not the usual 52!)
It is incredible selfish of me, not only do I not pay road tax for my bike, but I also fail to contribute to the exchequer through duty and VAT on fuel.
Personally I think that it should obviously be completely related to how much tax you pay. Clearly cyclists shouldn't be on the roads because they don't pay road tax but I paid an obscene amount of tax a few years ago so I should clearly have priority over 99.9% of people on the roads whether I am on my bike or not as I contributed more to their upkeep than almost everyone else.
Sometimes I just want the system to work like these utter twats think it should, just so they can have their massive stupidity rubbed in their faces every day.
Or just casually throw out the 'EVs don't pay road tax' for diversion
And nothing to Fuel Duty, so EV drivers contribute nothing to upkeep of the roads. Ban them, ban them all (until I can afford one and then all will be ok)!
Nobody pays road tax per se.
All taxpayers contribute to the roads, which is right because we all benefit from them in various ways.
Some vehicles have a Vehicle Excise Duty.
They know. There's just an awful lot of sarcasm flying around on this thread.
May not be there for much longer, but the older ones should be grandfathered in at zero.
Pages