Category Archives: Cycling

Tour de France withdraws lawsuit against spectator who caused crash

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  • Woman who held up large sign had been in police custody
  • ‘This story has been blown out of proportion,’ says Tour director

Tour de France officials have withdrawn a lawsuit against a spectator who caused a mass crash during the opening stage of the race.

The spectator, a 30-year-old French woman, was in custody at a police station in Landerneau, Brittany, the northwest French region where the world’s biggest cycling event held its first four stages. She was holding a cardboard sign and facing away from the cyclists towards a television camera as they passed. German Tony Martin, from the Jumbo–Visma team, was sent tumbling when he rode straight into the sign, and a large number of other riders also fell.

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Trouble in cyclists’ paradise: Amsterdam accused of favouring pedestrians

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Dutch cycling union claims city has turned on them by making centre more difficult to navigate

Its reputation is that of an idyll for cyclists, a city freed from the torment of cars. But while Amsterdam remains a model to most of the world, there are signs of trouble in paradise.

A series of developments have led the Amsterdam branch of the Fietsersbond, the Dutch cyclists’ union, to claim the municipality has turned on them, unfairly prioritising pedestrians in the city’s historic centre.

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Traffic wars: who will win the battle for city streets?

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Radical new plans to reduce traffic and limit our dependence on cars have sparked bitter conflict. As legal challenges escalate, will Britain’s great traffic experiment be shut down before we have time to see the benefits?

On an overcast Saturday afternoon in December, a convoy of 30 cars, led by a red Chevrolet pickup truck, set off from the car park of an east-London Asda with hazard lights flashing. The motorists, who formed a “festive motorcade”, wore Santa hats as they made their way slowly through the borough of Hackney before coming to a halt outside the town hall a couple of hours later.

They had gathered to register their outrage at being the victims, as they saw it, of a grand experiment that has been taking place on England’s roads since the start of the pandemic. As the national lockdown eased last summer, swathes of Hackney, stretching from Hoxton’s dense council estates at the borough’s western border with Islington to the edge of the River Lea marshland near Stratford in the east, had been closed to through traffic (with exceptions made for delivery vans, residents’ cars and emergency vehicles).

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From keep fit to sex: how Guardian readers have boosted their mood during the pandemic

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Everyone needs a release from the stresses of lockdown life. Readers share the ideas that work for them

We bought some solar-powered garden fairy lights and set them up on our garden shed. We can see them when we are having dinner or letting the dog into the garden. It means that, during the day, we have the fun of the flowers and, at night, twinkling lights. They remind me of the stars, another mood-lifter – stargazing puts everything in perspective. Nicholas Vince, actor and YouTuber, London

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Dr Richard Freeman found guilty of ordering banned testosterone for unnamed cyclist

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  • Worked for Team Sky and British Cycling between 2009 and 2017
  • Claimed he was bullied into ordering banned testosterone

The former chief doctor of British Cycling and Team Sky, Richard Freeman, has been found guilty of ordering banned testosterone “knowing or believing” it was to be given to an unnamed rider to improve their athletic performance. The verdict, announced on Friday by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester, will send shockwaves through British sport and raise questions about the decade-long success of British Cycling and Team Sky.

Announcing the verdict, the chair of the MPTS, Neil Dalton said: “The tribunal had found that you, Dr Freeman placed the order, and obtained the Testogel, knowing or believing it was to be administered to an athlete to improve their athletic performance. The motive for your action was to conceal a conduct.”

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Europe doubles down on cycling in post-Covid recovery plans

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Success of schemes during pandemic has led many cities to plan vastly expanded bike networks

When the coronavirus pandemic led to global lockdowns a year ago, hundreds of cities reconfigured their streets to make walking and cycling easier to aid social distancing and reduce air pollution. Now, with an end to the lockdowns in sight, the measures have proved so successful that cities across Europe are betting on the bicycle to lead the recovery.

According to the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the continent’s cities spent €1bn on Covid-related cycling measures in 2020, creating at least 600 miles (1,000km) of cycle lanes, traffic calming measures and car-free streets.

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Sydney cycling: has the city that ‘hates bikes’ finally turned the corner?

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Almost 7km of cycleways have been created in six months, a sign the government conflicts that have held up progress may be on the wane

When the officials charged with making cycling safer and more accessible in Sydney meet their international counterparts, they can expect to be greeted with a mixture of incredulity and sympathy.

“I don’t think anyone has a tougher time than we do,” says the City of Sydney’s executive manager of cycling strategy, Sebastian Smyth.

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GB’s Tao Geoghegan Hart sensationally claims Giro d’Italia glory after time trial

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  • Ineos rider a shock winner of one of cycling’s marquee races
  • Geoghegan Hart was level with Jai Hindley going into final stage

In the end, Tao Geoghegan Hart’s 39-second victory in the Giro d’Italia ahead of the overnight leader, Australian Jai Hindley, was not the tightest the race has ever seen. That honour remains with the Canadian Ryder Hesjedal’s win by 16sec in 2012. But none of the three Grand Tours has ever gone into its final day so tightly poised, with less than a second dividing Hindley and Geoghegan Hart as they prepared to start Sunday’s brief closing time trial into Milan, after more than 85 hours and over 2,000 miles of racing.

On paper, Geoghegan Hart was expected to have the upper hand, and so it proved over the pancake flat course through the Milanese suburbs to the majestic Piazzo Duomo. The 25-year-old Londoner gained time gradually but inexorably on the diminutive Australian, visibly churning a far larger gear as Hindley opted to pedal a smaller ratio with a higher cadence but less power. At the only time check with five kilometres remaining the Londoner had a 22sec lead, meaning the race would be won if he avoided a crash or a puncture.

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Iranian woman arrested for cycling ‘without hijab’

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Unnamed cyclist in Najafabad detained for breaking Islamic law on veils for women

A young woman has been arrested in central Iran for “insulting the Islamic hijab”, state media said on Tuesday, after a video appeared to show her cycling without a veil.

“A person who had recently violated norms and insulted the Islamic veil in this region has been arrested,” Mojataba Raei, the governor of Najafabad, told the IRNA news agency.

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The e-scooter: road menace or saviour of the commute?

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They may be a common sight, but privately owned motorised scooters are still illegal on Britain’s roads and pavements. But with rental scheme trials taking place across the country, could they be answer to getting to work in the pandemic?

Standing upright, you glide, ghostlike, along the street. You have no emissions. You are alone, outside, unlikely to catch anything or pass anything on. You are no burden to the public transport system, nor do you contribute much to congestion. You take up little space.

Now you join a busier road, one with buses. Perhaps you feel small, vulnerable. But when the traffic bunches up and stops, you can pass. Ha! This is the future of urban travel, isn’t it? Make that the present: it is here, you are here, going somewhere else quickly, with a smile. You are also breaking the law.

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‘Vigilantes’ on a mission to reunite owners with their stolen bikes

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Britain’s cyclists take matters into their own hands as criminals cash in on post-lockdown popularity of cycling

It’s the buzz he gets from reuniting the cyclists of Cambridge with their stolen bikes that has turned Omar Terywall into a self-proclaimed “vigilante”. He said: “You get really hooked on it when you start seeing major progress – and, well, it’s just nice helping people really, isn’t it?”

Like others across the country, from Portsmouth to Glasgow, Terywall runs a local Facebook group where Cambridge cyclists share details of their stolen bikes in the hope they will be spotted. Well-regarded by local police, Terywall happily spends hours each day hunting down stolen bikes via online advertisements and local tip-offs.

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E-scooters: time to take the brakes off | Letter

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The government must stop dragging its feet when it comes to encouraging the use of e-scooters, argues Hilary Saunders

Your article about e-scooters (UK rides the wave of micromobility by embracing e-scooters, 25 August) failed to raise some vital questions.

As electric scooters can cost as little as £120, they could provide the ideal transport for low-income commuters, while helping to reduce carbon emissions, especially in cities. It would not cost much to mark out a lane on arterial roads for the use of bicycles and e-scooters.

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Berlin reports rise in fatalities as new bike lanes fail to keep cyclists safe

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Campaigners demand more rules for lorries after initial hope pandemic would mean less traffic

A coronavirus-related drop in traffic and new protected bike lanes have failed to make Berlin’s roads safer for cyclists, as the German capital reports a four-year record in fatalities.

A woman run over by a right-turning articulated lorry in the district of Reinickendorf on Friday became Berlin’s 14th official cycling fatality of 2020 – more than twice as many as the six recorded in 2019.

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From giving up gambling and getting fit to coping with grief: how our lives changed in lockdown

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This year’s isolation has been painful, but in some cases it has also provided a valuable chance to pause, reflect and take decisions that seemed unthinkable before. Here, six readers describe how lockdown inspired them to turn their lives around

As soon as he heard about the impending lockdown, Alex Harrison, 34, drove to his local casino in Liverpool and asked them to ban him for life. In the manager’s office, his photograph was taken and his details were recorded on an iPad. To his surprise, the manager congratulated him.

Harrison has battled with a gambling addiction for 10 years. When he walked into the casino that day, he owed around £1,000 to friends, family and payday lenders. Occasionally, he would gamble his entire month’s salary on the day he was paid.

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Two wheels good: India falls back in love with bikes after Covid-19

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A bicycle boom has seen Indians swapping cars – the ultimate status symbol – for a more humble mode of transport

With cases of Covid-19 surging past the one million mark, Indians are shunning crowded buses and trains to travel on what has traditionally been regarded in this status-conscious society as the poor man’s mode of mobility: the bicycle.

At Bike Studio in Bhopal, owner Varun Awasthi is almost out of stock. Sales are up by 30% and he expects them to rise to 50% once he gets more bicycles.

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France bans Dutch bike TV ad for creating ‘climate of fear’ about cars

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Ad for VanMoof bike unfairly discredits automobile industry, says watchdog

A TV commercial for a Dutch-made bicycle has been banned by France’s advertising watchdog for creating a “climate of fear” about cars.

Despite being aired on Dutch and German television, the Autorité de régulation professionnelle de la publicité (ARPP) said the ad for the VanMoof bike unfairly discredited the automobile industry.

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How to solve the UK’s transport problem in the time of coronavirus – video

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Those who can, should go back to work, Boris Johnson has said. But how will people get to work safely? If we take public transport, will there be enough space to physically distance? If we take the car, will the roads cope with all the extra traffic? Josh Toussaint-Strauss tries to figure out some answers, with the help of Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor

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No guarantee Tour de France will go ahead, says French sports minister

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  • Roxana Mărăcineanu made the comments to France Television
  • Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España will overlap in October

The French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu has delivered a stark warning to cycling, declaring that there is “no guarantee” that the Tour de France will go ahead this year.

The Tour has already been rescheduled from June to a 29 August start because of the Covid-19 crisis, but the minister could offer little assurance that the race would be given the green light. With crowd-drawing events banned in France until the end of August, special arrangements might have to be made for the start of the Tour in Nice, the sports ministry said last month.

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Milan seeks to prevent post-crisis return of traffic pollution

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Coronavirus-hit Lombardy city will turn 35km of streets over to cyclists and pedestrians

Milan is to introduce one of Europe’s most ambitious schemes reallocating street space from cars to cycling and walking, in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The northern Italian city and surrounding Lombardy region are among Europe’s most polluted, and have also been especially hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.

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