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When tweets go wrong: Halfords’ “fuel-efficient” question backfires; 2024 Tour de France to end in Nice?; “Not all car drivers are bad”; Cycling UK tells employers to encourage riding to work; Julio Jiménez dies in car crash + more on the live blog

The middle of the week, TT day at the Dauphiné… Ugh. But don’t worry as Ryan Mallon is here, channelling his inner Filippo Ganna, to keep you up to date on Wednesday’s live blog…
Wed, Jun 08, 2022 09:17
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When tweets go wrong: Halfords’ “fuel-efficient” question backfires; 2024 Tour de France to end in Nice?; “Not all car drivers are bad”; Cycling UK tells employers to encourage riding to work; Julio Jiménez dies in car crash + more on the live blogHalfords cycle repair
08 June 2022, 16:28
Tour de France poll result – Vive la Paris!
Tour de France finish poll

Ah, you bunch of traditionalists…

With the 2024 Tour de France rumoured to be finishing in Nice to avoid clashing with the Olympics, over half of those who voted in our poll this morning (quite surprisingly) believe that the final celebratory stage into Paris should remain untouched.

Perhaps you all agree with cycling writer Ed Pickering, that a bike race – and particularly one as important and historic as the Tour – is really only ten to twenty percent about the actual racing (and isn’t that why we love it so much?).

In the comments, however, our readers were rather divided about the future of the Tour’s final stage (what’s new?):

With Paris transforming itself from car park to cycling city, I'd say the final stage on the Champs-Élysées is more relevant than ever before!

I'm in two minds about the TdF finish. I saw it on the big screen at Canary Wharf a few years ago and it looked fabulous: dusk, the City of Light, the aerial display... glorious. But why not mix it up a bit?

Keep the Tour finish in Paris but change the parcours, half a dozen laps up the steep cobbled climbs in Montmartre then down to the Bois de Vincennes and back along the cobbled quais by the river, left up to the Pantheon, back down across the front of Notre Dame and then left to finish on the Champs. Logistical nightmare but it would make for some damned good racing.

mdavidford, on the other hand, went all 1903 on us and argued that the race should finish “where it started – make it a proper tour and get rid of all these transfers”.

Alright, Henri Desgrange, next you’ll be calling for 400-kilometre stages, banning derailleurs, and making the riders fix their own punctures…

08 June 2022, 09:05
Jumbo-Visma at 2020 Tour de France presentation picture credit-A.S.O. Pauline Ballet
2024 Tour de France to end in Nice? Reports suggest race’s traditional Paris finale will be moved to avoid clashing with Olympics

There may be exciting news on the way for those cycling fans who spend the third week of every July grumbling about the Tour de France’s processional final stage into Paris.

“Why don’t they have a proper race? None of this champagne toasting nonsense…”

Well grumble no more, as according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Tour’s 2024 edition will end around 1,000km south of Paris, in Nice.

The Gazzetta says that this ground-breaking final stage – which, if true, would mark the first time ever that the Grande Boucle has not concluded in France’s capital city – will take place on the Côte d'Azur to avoid clashing with the build-up to the Olympic Games in Paris, which begin on 26 July, just five days after the Tour is set to end.

If Nice does make history by hosting the Tour’s finale in two years’ time, it will go a long way to making up for the city’s subdued 2020 Grand Départ, shunted to late August and held under tight Covid restrictions.

The sports paper also claims that the 2024 Tour will mark another historic first – a Grand Départ in Italy, paying homage to the country’s greatest cycling names, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Marco Pantani and Ottavio Bottecchia, the first Italian winner of the Tour in 1924.

The race will reportedly kick off in Florence before three full stages in Italy (including a potentially tricky trek through the Apennines), finally crossing over the border on the fourth day after starting in Pinerolo, the scene of Coppi’s era-defining escape at the 1949 Giro.

All eyes this morning, however, seem to be on the tantalising prospect of a thrilling finale over the Col d'Èze, more akin to what we’re used to seeing in early March at Paris-Nice than during the annual parade up and down the Champs-Élysées…

What do you think?

Could the reported 2024 finale in Nice spell the end of Paris’ 110 year hegemony at the Tour?

Could we also see the end of the now-traditional end-of-term procession on the Tour's final stage? (I know what Bernard Hinault would say...)

Should ASO follow the lead of the Giro and Vuelta and spread the race-ending love around France?

Or is the yearly bunch gallop on the Champs-Élysées (and its lack of GC intrigue) an untouchable tradition?

Let us know!

08 June 2022, 15:34
Councillor brands segregated cycle lane “biggest waste of money I’ve seen”

Ah local councillors, they’re the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to cycling infrastructure related fury.

This time, an independent politician in Sutton-in-Ashfield has colourfully described a new segregated cycle lane as “the biggest waste of money I've seen in all my time”.

Presumably he remembers Fernando Torres’ spell at Chelsea, so I highly doubt that’s true…

“I was very clear with the County Council that they should fix the broken roads and pavements in Leamington and Sutton first,” Ashfield District Council leader Jason Zadrozny told Nottinghamshire Live. “Residents are going nuts. I don’t blame them.”

“This is has actually made it worse for cyclists. Nobody asked for this work to be done.

“Ask any cyclist the biggest obstacle they have face – they’ll tell you it’s the potholes.

“It doesn’t matter whether this has been paid for by your council tax or general taxation. It’s an insult to residents.”

Hold on, back it up a minute. Is Jason right? Are potholes the biggest barrier to cycling safely on the roads? I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head, so maybe he’s right…

Councillor Neil Clarke, cabinet member for transport and environment, has defended the new two-way segregated bike lane, which was supported by the Active Travel Fund.

“High Pavement is a key cycle route in Sutton in Ashfield as it connects existing routes together to link them to the town centre,” Clarke said.

“The road carried around 10,500 vehicles a day and can be intimidating for cyclists.

“We carried out surveys in 2021 and found that many cyclists were cycling on the pavement, which is illegal, and so the new cycle lane on High Pavement gives cyclists a safe route into and out of Sutton-in-Ashfield.

“This new route has been created thanks to funding from the Government. This funding cannot be used for roads maintenance and is ringfenced for schemes like the one on High Pavement.”

08 June 2022, 14:57
Top Ganna pips Van Aert to Dauphiné time trial

The finish of today’s 31.9 kilometre time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné was an eerily familiar one for Wout van Aert.

With David Gaudu just ahead of him, Jumbo-Visma’s Belgian star was once again relegated to second place right at the death.

This time, however, it wasn’t Gaudu who was responsible for Van Aert’s defeat (in fact, the French climber was almost caught by his two-minute man at the line), but world TT champion Filippo Ganna, who pipped the Belgian by two seconds.

That the monstrous Ganna – contractually obliged to win in his first TT outing since the Top Gun sequel was released – only managed to win by such a narrow margin after spending the last three stages envisioning his descent from the start ramp, underlines the outrageous all-round ability of Van Aert, who is yet to place outside the top six during this year’s Dauphiné (and that sixth, if we’re honest, was a bit of a blip).

Of his 18 race days so far this year, Van Aert has only finished off the podium five times. Five times.

Unsurprisingly then, he extends his lead in yellow, followed on GC by Mattia Cattaneo, teammates Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, and Ineos rider Ethan Hayter, who’s underlining his reputation as something of a mini-Van Aert after an impressive third place today, 17 seconds down on teammate Ganna.

With the next two stages suiting both riders, I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this emerging duel between the sorcerer and his apprentice…

08 June 2022, 14:19
08 June 2022, 16:51
What Twitter was made for...
08 June 2022, 13:58
“Not all car drivers are bad”: Motorists come to aid of road.cc reader after crash

Here at road.cc we often get stick – some warranted, some not – from people who say that we’re too one-sided and all about bashing drivers.

That’s not our intention. Many of our stories, such as those featured in the Near Miss of the Day series, are simply written to highlight bad driving practices, especially those which endanger other road users.

Not all motorists are terrible of course (some are even great), as this story sent to us by road.cc reader Nigel proves.

Nigel told us that he had been riding home from work in Billingham when he suffered a nasty crash which broke his femur.

It was during this traumatic incident that he “discovered not all car drivers are bad” and that most people – even when behind the wheel of a car – are decent human beings after all.

Nigel said: “The lady behind me in her car stopped to check I was okay, then rang an ambulance and waited with me for the two hours it took the ambulance to arrive.

“Two other drivers helped me get to the pavement. They also took my bike home and got my wife from work.

“Another driver stopped and gave me an emergency blanket. Also, a lovely lady from a house nearby brought a seat out for my wife and gave everyone hot drinks. One of her neighbours rang his girlfriend as she is a paramedic.

“I honestly can't fault the drivers and passers-by who stopped to help.”

More of this please… though maybe not the leg-break aspect of it all, that sounds rough. Get well soon Nigel!

08 June 2022, 13:29
Wiebes doubles up at Women’s Tour

Another day, another win for Lorena Wiebes.

Today’s typically dominant sprint victory – Wiebes’ ninth of an astonishing season – was arguably even more impressive than her win on stage two, however, coming as it did after a tough, grippy day in the rain to Gloucester.

Despite Kasia Niewiadoma’s probing moves on the climb to Speech House, which managed to drag a small group clear containing Elisa Longo Borghini, Wiebes was able to regain contact on the flat run-in to the line.

In the final two kilometres her DSM teammate, British champion Pfeiffer Georgi, delivered a superb show of strength on the front of the peloton, delivering the Dutch rider perfectly into place to unleash her devastating sprint.

And when Wiebes goes, there’s not much anyone else can do these days…

08 June 2022, 12:53
Benelux Tour cancelled for 2022 due to overcrowded calendar

The Benelux Tour has been cancelled for 2022, with race organisers blaming the “overcrowded cycling calendar” for the race’s hopefully temporary demise.

Founded in 2005 and – like football’s League Cup – formerly named after its lead sponsors Eneco an BinckBank, the once-derided stage race has developed into an entertaining summer blast over spring classics terrain, and boasts an impressive winners’ list which includes Niki Terpstra, Tom Dumoulin, Mathieu van der Poel and Sonny Colbrelli.

However, with this year’s race set to clash with Vuelta a España, the tour’s organisers have cited logistical and safety difficulties, such as clashes with other races’ finishing times and a lack of police assistance on certain stages, as part of the decision to cancel the 2022 event.

Officials say they have already started working to find an appropriate date for 2023.

A statement from the Benelux Tour reads: “For the organisation, relocating the event is the only solution to avoid the problems caused by the overcrowded cycling calendar, especially in the logistics and media field.

“The pressure on that international cycling calendar causes several conflicts for which, despite frantic efforts, there is no other solution than this postponement.

“The times of broadcast of the other races at the same time would have forced the organization to plan arrival times which would become uninteresting for the supporters and guests on-site, as well as for the television viewers. It would also result in impossible departure times and travel for the teams.”

But it’s not all bad news (at least for British cycling fans, anyway) – as Dan Martin pointed out today, the Tour of Britain’s status as the ideal world champs preparation race has been strengthened yet again…

08 June 2022, 11:41
Cycling UK says employers must do more to encourage active travel to work

Cycling UK is marking Bike Week by telling employers that they must do more to encourage active travel.

According to research published this week by YouGov on behalf of the cycling charity, 43 percent of young people (that’s anyone aged between 18 and 24, unfortunately for me) are considering changing their method of travel due to expected increases in transport costs.

And Cycling UK thinks that removing barriers which currently prevent people cycling to work will benefit both employers and their staff.

Of those 18 to 24 year olds surveyed who don’t currently ride to work, 37 percent said that they would be more likely to do so if their workplace offered improved facilities, such as bike storage and lockers.

36 percent said they’d be more likely to cycle to work if their employer offered financial help to purchase a bike, while 29 percent would be persuaded by a cycle to work scheme.

“People should be considering cycling as a cost-effective way to commute shorter journeys,” says Cycling UK’s chief executive Sarah Mitchell.

“The upfront investment, even with e-cycles, soon pays for itself when you consider how much you are saving at the petrol pump.

“However, there are still lingering perceived barriers to cycling, and employers can play a key role in making it a realistic and practical option for their staff.

“It’s a win-win solution; companies can attract the best young talent while enjoying better staff retention and productivity. At the same time, it eases the financial burden on workers, who no longer need to pay to go to the gym yet will feel happier and healthier.”

08 June 2022, 10:57
Spanish great Julio Jiménez dies in car crash

Julio Jiménez, one of the great climbers of the 1960s, died this morning after the vehicle he was in crashed into a wall. He was 87.

Known as the ‘The Watchmaker of Avila’, Jiménez – who along with Federico Bahamontes defined an era of world-class Spanish climbers – won the mountains classification at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España three times each, as well as five Tour stages.

One of his stage wins in France, on the Puy de Dôme in 1964, was the scene of Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor’s legendary shoulder-to-shoulder battle further down the climb’s savage slopes.

Jiménez, who rode for the likes of Bic and KAS during his decade-long career, was also a consistent winner at the Giro d’Italia and his home Vuelta, and in 1967 he finished second overall at the Tour de France behind Frenchman Roger Pingeon.

During that year’s ill-fated Tour, Jiménez led a small group containing Poulidor and Britain’s Tom Simpson onto the wooded lower slopes of Mont Ventoux, where Simpson would tragically collapse and die near the mountain’s barren summit.

Carlos Garcia, the President of the Provincial Council of Avila, said in a statement: “His record speaks for itself to classify him as one of the greats of cycling in a few years in which cycling was forged as a heroic and exciting sport.

“The memory of Julio Jimenez, training and competing in the mountain passes of the province of Avila will be perpetual and will be an example for current and future generations of cyclists that this land has always given.”

08 June 2022, 10:46
Pro cycling graffiti

I wonder if RCS will be taking any notes for next year’s Giro train…

08 June 2022, 10:05
POLL – Should the Tour de France move its final stage from Paris?

SuperSurvey

08 June 2022, 07:58
When tweets go wrong: Halfords’ “what’s more fuel-efficient” question backfires dramatically

As avid readers of the live blog (I’m sure they exist somewhere) will know, Cycling Twitter can be a pretty unforgiving place for the unsuspecting social media admin.

One slip of the finger or dodgy victim-blaming road safety campaign, and you’ll be hearing about in the comments and QTs for a few weeks at least.

But surely Halfords – a retailer involved in the cycling industry for over a century – would know better than to poke the online bear with an ill-judged tweet about cars… during Bike Week as well?

Apparently not…

The replies – and there were a lot of them – were predictably and brilliantly to the point:

But, of course, there’s always one (or two):

 Ah, the joys and perils of social media…

Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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59 comments

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
2 likes

d) and get rid of the team cars too. Make them fix their own punctures. With patches (glue-on ones, obviously).

Avatar
HoarseMann | 2 years ago
1 like

I suspect Halfords next move will be to recommend you come in for an AirCon re-gas to ensure maximum efficiency.

Replacing all that ozone damaging gas that has leaked out.

Avatar
IanMK | 2 years ago
3 likes

Why didn't Halfords just find out the answer from a more conventional source? You'd like to think they know people/experts. Then they could advise the great unwashed that actually use Twitter. 

......oh, that's not the way Twitter works?

Avatar
IanMSpencer replied to IanMK | 2 years ago
3 likes

We've had enough of experts?

(Unfortunately one of the few honest observations Gove has ever made).

Avatar
Pyro Tim | 2 years ago
2 likes

Think it's open window up to 30, aircon any faster than that. Bike is much less however, unless you've eaten cabbage, sprouts and baked beans the night before

Avatar
Awavey replied to Pyro Tim | 2 years ago
7 likes

Ah that used to be the general consensus, but the completely non controversial point Halfords were making in an era where people might be thinking of fuel efficiency in their cars is that most AC now has negligible difference to fuel consumption vs open windows and it's better to leave AC just on all the time for maintenance/servicing concerns.

But there you go not every darn tweet needs a must respond with some messianic devotion to cycling angle to it, gawd knows why Musk wants to buy the thing, unless it's to rid us of it.

Avatar
AlsoSomniloquism replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
2 likes

Quote:

gawd knows why Musk wants to buy the thing,

He didn't, but now has managed to get loads of capital out of the overpriced Tesla stock to do with what he wants. 

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
3 likes

Awavey wrote:

But there you go not every darn tweet needs a must respond with some messianic devotion to cycling angle to it ...

To be fair, many of the posters did point out the massive discrepancy between the number of tweets Halfords makes about cars vs how many they make about bike (when they are supposedly committed to both) and the fact that this one was made during Bike Week. 

Avatar
Awavey replied to Jetmans Dad | 2 years ago
1 like

Be interesting to know how many of said Twitter posters would even set foot in a Halfords store to buy anything cycling related...but maybe we can hold onto that thought for another week till they release their prelim results for the last financial year.

Avatar
ktache replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
0 likes

Their reflective and fluorescent slap bands are a pound each.

Avatar
mdavidford | 2 years ago
11 likes

Quote:

Why can't folk just answer the question? Personally, l have no idea which is more efficient, but l do know that comparing a car to a bike is not the answer. 'Horses for courses' springs to mind.

Yes, that's also an option. But most people don't have the space to keep a horse, so a bike is a more practical answer...

Avatar
vthejk replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
2 likes

Entrenched in that tweet is the preconception (misconception?) that a bicycle cannot be a horse for every course, travel everywhere and do all the things that are possible in a car. 

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
7 likes

Plus if you think vehicle emissions are bad you should see Horses.  Was literally a massive issue in Victorian times.

Avatar
nosferatu1001 replied to Secret_squirrel | 2 years ago
1 like

A boon for anyone growing veg however 😊

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to nosferatu1001 | 2 years ago
7 likes

This was actually "city transport / climate emergency 1.0".  A global conference in New York broke up early because the problem was considered insoluble.  You need horses to cart in all the horse feed, and also to cart away all the poo.  Dead horses were an issue since people would run them until they broke.

An unexpected technical saviour appeared and made the problem irrelevant.  However we are now dealing with the spider we swallowed to catch that fly.

Avatar
eburtthebike replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
2 likes

And I'm sure that if you pointed out that the answer isn't always a car for the particular course, you'd either get abuse or incomprehension.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
11 likes

mdavidford wrote:

Quote:

Why can't folk just answer the question? Personally, l have no idea which is more efficient, but l do know that comparing a car to a bike is not the answer. 'Horses for courses' springs to mind.

Yes, that's also an option. But most people don't have the space to keep a horse, so a bike is a more practical answer...

Instead of privately owned horses, we should have public owned free roaming horses. It'd be like the dream of autonomous vehicles, but a lot more chaotic.

Avatar
Global Nomad replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
6 likes

the problem is the horses are too autonomous...and calling them on an app is a problem....ziphorse or ubernag....

Avatar
mark1a replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
2 likes

Only one horsepower too.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
1 like

Won't it be called shugalump?

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mdavidford replied to chrisonabike | 2 years ago
5 likes

I thought it would be called Hey!

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to Global Nomad | 2 years ago
1 like

Hackneigh.

Avatar
Bmblbzzz replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
6 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

mdavidford wrote:

Quote:

Why can't folk just answer the question? Personally, l have no idea which is more efficient, but l do know that comparing a car to a bike is not the answer. 'Horses for courses' springs to mind.

Yes, that's also an option. But most people don't have the space to keep a horse, so a bike is a more practical answer...

Instead of privately owned horses, we should have public owned free roaming horses. It'd be like the dream of autonomous vehicles, but a lot more chaotic.

e-horses that can be hired by anyone, but first you have to download a bridle. At the end of the ride, make sure to tether your e-horse in an approved e-hitching location. Oh, and bring your own oats.

Avatar
Grahamd replied to Bmblbzzz | 2 years ago
3 likes

Bmblbzzz wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

mdavidford wrote:

Quote:

Why can't folk just answer the question? Personally, l have no idea which is more efficient, but l do know that comparing a car to a bike is not the answer. 'Horses for courses' springs to mind.

Yes, that's also an option. But most people don't have the space to keep a horse, so a bike is a more practical answer...

Instead of privately owned horses, we should have public owned free roaming horses. It'd be like the dream of autonomous vehicles, but a lot more chaotic.

e-horses that can be hired by anyone, but first you have to download a bridle. At the end of the ride, make sure to tether your e-horse in an approved e-hitching location. Oh, and bring your own oats.

Just remember never look an e-horse in the mouth.

Avatar
nniff replied to Grahamd | 2 years ago
4 likes

Grahamd wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

mdavidford wrote:

Quote:

Why can't folk just answer the question? Personally, l have no idea which is more efficient, but l do know that comparing a car to a bike is not the answer. 'Horses for courses' springs to mind.

Yes, that's also an option. But most people don't have the space to keep a horse, so a bike is a more practical answer...

Instead of privately owned horses, we should have public owned free roaming horses. It'd be like the dream of autonomous vehicles, but a lot more chaotic.

e-horses that can be hired by anyone, but first you have to download a bridle. At the end of the ride, make sure to tether your e-horse in an approved e-hitching location. Oh, and bring your own oats.

Just remember never look an e-horse in the mouth.

Isn't an e-horse a donkey?

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to nniff | 2 years ago
5 likes

I'm just concerned about the policing of e-horse use.  I'm worried it might lead to some kind of robo-cop.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to nniff | 2 years ago
1 like

Good point - will cities be providing e-cargohorses for rental?  Few people have the space to keep one at home.

Avatar
Sriracha replied to Bmblbzzz | 2 years ago
3 likes
Bmblbzzz wrote:

At the end of the ride, make sure to tether your e-horse

But many service providers do not permit tethering, especially whilst roaming.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to hawkinspeter | 2 years ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

Instead of privately owned horses, we should have public owned free roaming horses. It'd be like the dream of autonomous vehicles, but a lot more chaotic.

Also known as the Republic of Ireland. 3

I shall never forget the first weekend after I moved there to an apartment a mile outside of Dublin city center.  Was woken up on the Sunday morning by the sounds of hundreds of hooves clip clopping past my window.

After a couple of hours of WTF-ery with my English cultural assumptions in full flow I found out that there was a regular horse market just down the road. 

Smithfield Square for anyone who knows Dublin.

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