“It’s my town too, and I want a cycle lane”: Campaigner calls for “de-normalisation of cars” and slams anti-cycling opposition over “a handful of parking spaces” – but ex-racing cyclist says “I never liked bike lanes”; Froome 2026? + more on the live blog

A cyclist in Todmorden – the West Yorkshire town at the centre of a heated debate over a major cycle lane project, which saw a public consultation on the plans cancelled in October after police were called due to “disruptive and intimidating” behaviour” – has criticised locals who successfully campaigned to bring a halt to the scheme over “a handful of parking spaces”, arguing “it’s my town too, and I do want a cycle lane”.

Meanwhile, a Green Party councillor for the area has also claimed that the main reason residents opposed the cycle lane plans was simply because they “don’t cycle” – leading him to question “whether that’s a strong enough reason for us to be influenced by it”, in a borough that needs to see a 2,000 per cent increase in cycling numbers if it’s to hit its climate targets by 2038.

Last week, Calderdale Council’s place scrutiny board debated the future of its active travel agenda, after the petition ‘We Support Cycle Infrastructure in Todmorden and Calderdale’, organised by Hannah Dobson, was signed by over 1,000 locals.

According to Dobson, she started the petition after seeing signs erected in Todmorden opposing the town’s proposed active travel project with the slogan “Our town, our decision”.

> Residents "outraged by having to walk an extra few yards from their car" accused of "trying to stoke fear and opposition" against major cycle lane project

As we reported last autumn, the ‘Active Todmorden’ project aimed to use £3.244 million of funding from central government to “enable people to walk or cycle as part of their everyday journeys” by creating walking and cycling routes in the town. A cycle route along a main road into the town was proposed, alongside improvement to “provide an accessible, attractive, legible pedestrian environment in the town centre”.

However, while many expressed positivity at the investment in the area, there was some strong criticism from an outspoken section of the community angered at the potential loss of parking spaces and the claimed effect on business in the town.

The organiser of a fundraiser titled ‘Save Todmorden Town Carpark’, which raised £1,280, with “all funds to be spent opposing the unpopular initiatives” argued the cycle lane “will cause months of disruption to the middle of town, discouraging residents and tourists from visiting and affecting retail and hospitality businesses in town”.

However, Dobson’s petition supporting the proposals suggested there is a section of the community “outraged by having to walk an extra few yards from their car”, who she accused of “trying to stoke fear and opposition” among residents.

And in October, police were called during a public consultation in the town, after the council claimed a “small number of people were disruptive and intimidating, making it difficult for other people to participate and share their views”.

One resident described the scenes at the consultation as “appalling” and said: “There’s passion and protest and then there’s aggression and threat, this crossed the line.”

A second engagement session scheduled for a day later was subsequently cancelled by Calderdale Council to “protect members of staff involved”.

Since then, the cycle lane proposals have been dropped from the ‘Active Todmorden’ project.

> "Intimidating behaviour" sees police called to cycle lane consultation, as council cancels next event to "protect members of staff involved"

But speaking at last week’s council meeting, cyclist Dobson criticised the local authority’s decision to bow to the pressure exerted by the town’s anti-cycling campaign, arguing that “doing nothing” – the most popular response during the consultation – was not an option.

Referring to the “our town, our decision” banners opposing the cycle lane plans, Dobson told the meeting: “I thought ‘it’s my town too, and I do want a cycle lane, please’. So I started this petition to try and give a voice to those who would like more safer places in Calderdale to ride.”

“Our infrastructure is clogged, our air quality is regularly unsafe, and we can’t build more road space in our narrow valley.

“Even if we could, the evidence is clear that demand grows to fill road capacity – more space for cars is not a solution.”

According to Dobson, cycling offers a “real and impactful solution” and it was the role of the public sector to take decisions in the collective interest, the Halifax Courier reports.

“The petition calls on you to show leadership, to act as our public representatives should and to have the vision to make evidence-based decisions for our collective benefit – our towns, your decisions and our future,” the campaigner said.

After hearing councillors outlines their climate and health objectives, Dobson said she felt like she was simply hearing a lot of excuses.

“If you keep letting people stopping things happening over a handful of parking spaces, we will never have change,” she said.

“You have to de-normalise cars, you have to give space to people on bikes and people on foot and that is going to change our landscape – in our grandparents’ lifetimes we have completely reshaped our landscape around cars, so we can do it again, to make it about people.

“You just have to stop talking and planning and do it.”

The Labour-run council’s deputy leader Scott Patient responded to Dobson’s concerns by noting that, if the borough is to meet its climate and emissions targets by 2038, it needs to increase cycling numbers by 2,000 per cent.

He agreed there was a need to go “faster and further”, but admitted that consultation and engagement also needed to be better and council policy made clearer.

Meanwhile, Sarah Courtney, a cabinet member for regeneration and transport, said: “It’s important we balance the needs of all residents and businesses. We really need to be delivering the right active travel schemes in the right places.”

Green Party councillor Martin Hey also said he spent some time discussing the issue with residents on their doorsteps over the winter.

“It is true it came up on the doorstep that people didn’t want the cycle lane,” he said. “But I can tell you the main reason why that people gave was ‘I don’t cycle.’

“And we’ve got to consider whether that’s a strong enough reason for us to be influenced by it.”

However, not everyone was supportive of Dobson’s suggestions.

Conservative councillor Regan Dickenson, a former amateur racing cyclist, told the meeting that he had “never liked cycle lanes for a number of reasons” (way to play up to the racer stereotype, Regan).

“With every respect to your petition and sympathy for it, what is also recognisable is there are a lot of people who aren’t in favour of it as well,” he said.

He agreed there was a requirement to change people’s minds, arguing that promotion of and improving the canal towpaths of cycle ways could create a “green artery”.

However, Patient said the council did not own the towpath in question and, in any case, there were issues with it, due to its tendency to ice over and its location next to a body of water.

Meanwhile, Dickenson’s Tory colleague Steven Leigh claimed Calderdale had already invested in “many contentious cycle lanes”.

“I think there’s a lot of provision for infrastructure for cycling in Calderdale,” he said. “It is a subject which divides opinion – some think it’s good, some think it isn’t – but there’s cycle lanes all over the place that we have demonstrably supported.”

However, Dobson pointed out that this infrastructure was “piecemeal” and unconnected.  

“You can’t make a sensible journey using little pockets of infrastructure,” she said.

This May will mark seven years since four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome’s 46th and, as it stands, last victory as a professional cyclist, at the 2018 Giro d’Italia.

Remarkably, that winless drought has lasted longer than the period between Froome’s first pro victory, his breakthrough stage win and (eventually successful) GC challenge at the 2011 Vuelta a España, and that epic, come-from-behind triumph in Italy, his seventh grand tour victory.

The speed with which this era of cycling has left Froome, the dominant stage racer of the 2010s, behind – especially since his career-threatening training crash at the 2019 Criterium du Dauphiné – has meant that retirement has been a constant theme for the Israel-Premier Tech rider throughout the 2020s.

> “It’s a fantastic pension scheme”: Chris Froome branded “the worst signing in cycling history” and a “half-time clown” by former pro after “undignified, meagre” season; Froome admits “I’m not looking for victories”

The 39-year-old’s best result in 2024 was a 21st on stage six of the Tour du Rwanda, while his brief forays into elite European stage racing (what used to be his bread and butter during the glory years at Sky), at Tirreno-Adriatico, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Arctic Race of Norway yielded nothing higher than 70th.

In October, when a 142km stint in the morning breakaway at the Tour of Guangxi in China saw him abruptly dropped as the race hotted up with 40km to go on a Cat 3 climb, Froome was branded the “worst signing in history” and a “part-time clown” by former Rabobank climber and whereabouts deceiver Michael Rasmussen.

 (Alex Broadway/ASO/SWpix.com)

“It is undignified to look at,” Rasmussen, who was kicked off the 2007 Tour de France while on the cusp of winning the race after he was found to have lied about his whereabouts for testing, said.

“The wild thing is that it is his own decision. You can say that for five million euros a year you can probably take a few defeats along the way. Sportingly, it’s pretty meagre. It is an undignified end to a career like his.”

Of course, Rasmussen wasn’t the first to question Froome’s position at Israel-Premier Tech, the squad he joined in 2021 after his hugely successful decade-long spell at Team Sky/Ineos.

Even IPT’s co-owner Sylvan Adams publicly stated that Froome did not represent “value for money” for his team, after the British rider claimed he felt “let down” due to being omitted from the squad’s 2023 Tour de France line-up, and that his form had suffered from “frustrating” equipment issues.

But in December, it all looked like it was finally coming to an end anyway, after Froome hinted that this year’s Vuelta a España could be his swansong in the pro peloton.

 (ARN/Aurelien Vialatte)

“This is the race for me where it all began in 2011,” he said at the route unveiling in Madrid. “Next year would potentially be my last season racing and to finish at the Vuelta could be a really nice way to close the circle, having started at the Vuelta, to finish at the Vuelta as well. That could be very special.

“I think it’s time. Next year I'm going to be 40. It was always my goal to be racing until the age of 40, so I’m getting closer to that goal. I can be very happy with everything that I’ve been lucky to achieve in the sport.”

> "I'm not saying junior gears, but maybe 56 or 54 needs to be the limit": Chris Froome backs Wout van Aert's call to limit gearing in road races, with big chainrings blamed for "more serious crashes"

However, while that admission was enough for Pro Cycling Stats to stick the dreaded ‘will retire on 2025-12-31’ on Froome’s page, the four-time Tour winner – still a couple years off the 42 that Alejandro Valverde, cycling’s own Dorian Gray, was when he retired at the end of 2022 – suggested this week that it’s not beyond the possibility that he could still be pinning a number on in 2026.

Speaking to Ned Boulting and David Millar for their Never Strays Far podcast, Froome said: “I haven’t 100 per cent decided that I’ll be retiring at the end of this year.

“Chances are, yes, I’ll be calling it a day, but I’m just keeping the door open. [I’ll] see how this year goes, see how I’m feeling towards the end of it.”

(Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

Froome even admitted that, after 17 years in the bunch, he still wasn’t sick of the pro cycling lifestyle.

“Once you’re into it, you’re into it!” he said.

So… you’re saying there’s a chance I’ll still be writing these ‘Will Froome retire?’ blog stories next February?

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