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England fans celebrate Euros win with bike lane wand javelin; Do wands make you feel safe?; Pogačar smashes Mont Ventoux KOM (Dave B's pretty quick too); Sagan abandons; Delivery rider catches the match; Breakaway day; New kit + more on the live blog

No need to worry about football for a few days...come enjoy Thursday's live blog with Dan Alexander instead...
Thu, Jul 08, 2021 09:11
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SUMMARY

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England fans celebrate Euros win with bike lane wand javelin; Do wands make you feel safe?; Pogačar smashes Mont Ventoux KOM (Dave B's pretty quick too); Sagan abandons; Delivery rider catches the match; Breakaway day; New kit + more on the live blogEngland fans in Leicester chuck bike lane wands.PNG
08 July 2021, 15:52
BBC presenter Louise Minchin joins the club

Been there, done that. It's a good club to be in... 

08 July 2021, 15:28
The calmest day of the Tour de France so far

Cycling's a funny sport. Peter Sagan, Bora-Hansgrohe's leader, left the race this morning and lo and behold the team has its first win of the race a mere five hours later. Just a coincidence I'd say, but what a strong ride by Nils Pollit to escape his breakaway companions.

Behind, Cav won the sprint from the peloton for the final two points available on the line...you can't say he's not putting in the effort.

08 July 2021, 15:20
Do wands make you feel safe?

After last night's video of wands being ripped out and chucked about in Leciester, some have been wondering if it's proof that the pop-up cycle lane dividers don't offer cyclists enough protection. After all, if they can be easily pulled out and lobbed halfway to Coventry at closing time then what's to stop a driver ploughing through?

Brooksby also noted in the comments that some of Bristol's wands have also mysteriously disappeared over the night of one of the biggest pub drinking evenings for years...

Anyone got any thoughts on wands? Are they better than nothing? A step in the right direction? A token gesture to safe segregated cycle lanes? Let us know...

08 July 2021, 14:28
08 July 2021, 13:39
The Countess of Wessex rides tandem bike alongside visually impaired cyclists in Bushy Park

The Countess of Wessex rode on a tandem in Bushy Park, West London, yesterday to support a charity ride for visually impaired cyclists and raise awareness for the Vision Foundation's See My Skills report. The Countess is a patron of the charity whose report advocates better employment opportunities for blind and visually impaired people.

The royal rode the tandem bike in the pilot position while the Foundation's Centenary Appeal Manager, Monica Smith rode as stoker. Smith told Hello! magazine, "It was really just like going out cycling with a friend, it was really lovely. Yesterday when we had a trial run, she said I was the one that was calming her down, and she said that if I had not been calm then she would not have been able to do it."

08 July 2021, 14:29
08 July 2021, 13:31
Cav's going to have to wait for number 34...breakaway should go all the way on stage 12 to Nîmes

It seems Deceuninck-Quick-Step are content to have a day off after yesterday's all out race to beat the time cut. All of the team except Julian Alaphilippe, that is. After being in the breakaway yesterday, the world champion is having another shot today and is one of 13 riders up the road.

Pick your fighter: Julian Alaphilippe, André Greipel, Edward Theuns, Imanol Erviti, Nils Politt, Stefan Küng, Stefan Bissegger, Connor Swift, Harry Sweeny, Brent Van Moer, Luka Mezgec, Sergio Henao or Edvald Boasson Hagen.

For old times' sake I'll go Greipel, a British win for Swift would be alright too...78km to go.

08 July 2021, 10:37
Tadej Pogačar smashes Mont Ventoux KOM...but it's Dave B who caught our eye
Ventoux Strava

Despite being unable to follow Jonas Vingegaard's attack, Tadej Pogačar was still fast enough to smash the Mont Ventoux KOM by 43 seconds. Helped by the early pacing of the Ineos Grenadiers and a tailwind on the exposed upper slopes, the yellow jersey summited the 20km official segment from Bedoin in 57:16 at an average speed of 21km/h...Not bad for an eight per cent climb...

Stage winner Wout van Aert clocked the ninth fastest time on Strava with 1:00:02 at 20km/h. At the other end of the scale, a look at the grupetto's times shows that Brit Fred Wright was the slowest man brave enough to upload their ride. The 22-year-old was 24 minutes behind Pog and interestingly only two minutes faster than a certain Dave Brailsford who took on Ventoux before the stage...Could Dave B be Ineos' secret weapon for the third week?

Perhaps the Ineos team boss was chased up the mountain by someone in a Ineos Grenadier 4x4 tooting the cyclist horn for added motivation.

Ventoux Strava

 

Brailsford is back on Strava and uploading his rides out at the Tour. Earlier this week he revealed that he underwent heart surgery in March for a blocked artery.

Dave B Strava
Dave B Strava

 

08 July 2021, 12:11
Lotus announces Léger collaboration on new kit and concept bike
Lotus-and-Jenson-Button-s-Leger-announce-collaboration-6

Full story will be up on the site shortly but here's a first look at one of the new kit designs that has come out of Lotus' collab with Léger, the premium cycling clothing brand established by former F1 star Jenson Button. They've also got plans to make a range of bikes too...

08 July 2021, 12:02
08 July 2021, 11:26
Peter Sagan abandons Tour de France ahead of stage 12

Peter Sagan has pulled out of the Tour de France ahead of stage 12 due to knee pain. The seven-time green jersey winner has struggled to challenge for stage wins and is 123 points behind Mark Cavendish in the points classification. 

"It’s not very nice to be leaving," Sagan said at the start today. "The injury I had after the first stage seemed to be getting better and better but then I hit the knee against the handlebars again two days ago in the sprint and it’s swollen. I can’t bend my leg. There’s nothing I can do but take some rest and get better. If you can't move your leg, where can you go?"

It means 33 riders have now abandoned the Tour this year, the most since 2012...and we're only just past halfway...

08 July 2021, 11:10
Uber Eats rider invited in to watch the game
08 July 2021, 10:28
Stage start delayed by ten minutes due to strong winds
08 July 2021, 09:49
Is today the day Cav matches Merckx?

As you can see on Headwind's stage map, it's going to be a bit blustery out on stage 12. Mainly a tailwind which is good news for the breakaway, but also a chance of crosswinds. Will Deceuninck-Quick-Step have the energy to chase the break after yesterday's gruelling time cut mission? If it does come down to a sprint then it should be Cav's first of two chances to bag number 34 before the weekend...

TdF 2021 Stage 12 profile.jpg

 

08 July 2021, 09:01
Ventoux reaction: Parties and time cuts

There was big party on Mont Ventoux yesterday evening...no wands were harmed. One of the more dramatic stories of the day that deserves a bit of attention was Søren Kragh Andersen crossing the finish with three seconds to spare before the time cut. You'd have to be one mean-spirited commissaire to chuck the Dane out if he'd arrived a few seconds later. Luke Rowe was not so lucky and is out of the race.

Cav was content with his day's work: "We knew it was never going to be as close as Sunday, but we still had to be focused the entire day as it was really hard out there. I had my teammates with me, helping me up and down the mountains. It wasn’t easy, but I was incredibly motivated to make it and not quit. I love the Tour and I’ll keep going for as long as I can."

08 July 2021, 07:45
Leicester bike lane wands take the hit as rampaging England fans celebrate semi-final win over Denmark

This video doing the rounds on Twitter this morning shows the drunken scenes in Leicester last night after England beat Denmark in extra-time to secure their place in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. The unfortunate target of the revelry was one unlucky bike lane's wands which were thrown around like a pissed-up Olympic javelin trial...

 Major tournaments must do strange things to people...yesterday on the live blog it was kids pulling wheelies photobombing a peculiar patriotic procession...today, it is booze-induced bike lane bashing...

Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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35 comments

Avatar
youngoldbloke replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Are you joking? Have you seen the miles of footage showing last night's 'celebrating'

Avatar
Awavey replied to youngoldbloke | 3 years ago
0 likes

There are 47,000 pubs in the UK, ITV are claiming an audience share of 26million people, so I assume you visited all the pubs and peoples homes to be able to feel the footage you've seen is representative & evidence that pubs alone are responsible for a surge in Covid ?

Avatar
wycombewheeler replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Awavey wrote:

Theres been no evidence pubs are at all responsible for the surges at any stage during this whole pandemic, despite being the easy target to blame, the governments data for restricting pubs was based only on analysis of one club in South Korea I believe. They are likely the most safest place to be around other people given the rules/restrictions they follow. It will be the many millions more people mingling in each others homes that's the primary cause of virus spread

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, the vast majority of infections are from unknown source. Unless someone lives or works with someone who tested positive first, no one knows where they caught it. So every business can say no proof it is us, and yet it is happening somewhere and it isn't outside on the street generally.

My point was not about pubs in general, but specifically large groups of people watching the match together indoors which is likely to lead to raised voices which have been shown to increase viral emissions from the infected, and therefore increase spread. This tends to happen in pubs more than homes I think.

People sitting at tables in pubs acting in a very similar manner to eating in a restaurant not a massive risk. I don't think everyone watching the football at the pub stayed quietly sat at their table, talking with their group of 6 in indoor voices only.

But yes any groups watching the match in each others homes are also a  factor, and far greater numbers there than in the stadium.

The was also a significant outbreak traced to a pub where people had been watching the football. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-57678761

Avatar
check12 replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Inside = bad

outside = good

Avatar
youngoldbloke replied to check12 | 3 years ago
1 like

check12 wrote:

Inside = bad

outside = good

- must be OK then.

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