UTRECHT MOVE SCHOOL TO BUILD CYCLE PATH...TORQUAY BUILD STEPS INTO A CYCLE PATH PUTTING RIDER IN A&E

 

BRITAIN probably leads the way in creating folly cycle lanes. One of the best –or worst - must be Torquay’s cycle route down a 60-metre flight of steps.

Did you get that? A cycle way down/up steps. Steep steps.

This bizarre feature is now six years old. For sheer stupidity it ranks alongside the Kingston upon Thames cycle lane which runs through a bus stop.

The thinking that leads some councils in the UK to authorise such dangerous infrastructure is alien to the Dutch way of thinking, and Utrecht’s approach is a beautiful lesson in creativity.

In the Torquay bollocks, cyclists reaching the steps must of course  dismount and walk, with the wheels in a gulley or narrow ramp provided at the side.  Mid Devon RC’s Ron Keagan, 83 years young, was doing just this last month. He was in his cycling shoes with cleats which aren’t best designed for tackling steps and he lost his footing, somersaulting three times to the bottom.

Luckily, he got away with cuts and bruises. Nothing was broken; they told him in the hospital. Keegan described the stairs as “absolute folly”.

Riders on electric bikes will find them next to impossible to use, given the weight of their machines, as will riders towing trailers and people with prams.

It’s absolutely mind boggling.

The cycle path links Shipway and Chelston and cost £350,000.  The original design showed the path coming down a gentle slope through woods. But a dick head took the decision to build a 60 metre staircase instead. 

Not the Torquay staircase, but similar.

The Torquay beauty has set the bar so high for stupidity it deserves some sort of award.

It is an idea unlikely to catch on in Holland.

 The Dutch cycle route network criss-crossing town and country is the envy of cycling campaigners everywhere.  The fact there are still very few decent cycle paths in Britain is evidence that many council highway planners, not to mention the treasury which funds them,  simply cannot grasp the concept; or don't want to.

In Holland,, for instance, they recently demolished a school to make room for a cycle route, rebuilding the school nearby.

Yes, did you get that? They demolished a school and rebuilt it somewhere else to make room for the cycle path!

If you are still unsure what you have just read, pause, then read it again.

Or move on, because the story gets even better.

 There were two schools. You’ll laugh when I tell you what they did with the second one. This school stayed where it was and the cycle route was directed up a ramp onto the  school roof.

Will someone share this story with the Torquay councillors, bless them.

In Holland they have a saying:  “Enabling cycling is all about removing barriers.”

And so, to this end, with the opening of a major cycle bridge over the Rhine canal a few years ago it became possible to cycle directly from Utrecht city centre to a huge residential development.  

Here’s the history to this ambitious project.

For over 50 years, the west edge of Utrecht was clearly marked by the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal and the A2 Motorway to the west of it.

When in the 1990s, Utrecht was extended over the canal with the new housing area Leidsche Rijn it was clear that these barriers had to be removed.

So between 2007 and 2012 the A2 motorway was buried underground. That was one barrier removed.

Plans had been in discussion about a cycle bridge over the canal but at the most logical location for a cycle bridge two schools were in the way. Whereas in the UK the cycle route would have been diverted a longer way around, in Utrecht - holding to the belief that cycle routes must be direct -  the city council simply decided to relocate one of the schools and integrate the one which remained into the structure of the bridge – so cyclists ride over the school roof.

The cycle lane approaches the school on a gradually ascending winding path easy to cycle up and over the roof and thence to the bridge, which boasts a four metre wide cycle lane – the pedestrian path is two metres wide.

All work was completed by 2016. Today there are 7000 cycling journeys a day on this route. Total cost of all the work, 25 million Euros. The cycle bridge cost 7 million Euros.

Will Cav be called up for Le Tour? Here's hoping.

He needs no introduction - Mark Cavendish, newly crowned British road race champion.

I seldom overtake other riders on the road these days. I’ve got used to be passed at speed, by solitary riders and groups. Not bothered any more. I know my place. So when six riders hammered past me on Sunday morning, imagine my surprise when I found I had the legs to get on the back. 

They’d come by in a whirr of free wheels and murmur of voices. Big guys, big gears. For a moment I imagined they were Belgian roadies. And the last man in the string was going away from me, was a good three lengths ahead when I thought…. GET ON. 

So I upped the revs, gears up a notch, and went after them; now four bike lengths up at which point they went no further ahead. I was holding them. I held that for about 20 seconds before raising my game again – bigger effort this time. And I was on to the tail. Immediately there was that relief from having gained the shelter of the group, for we had a cross head wind. I hadn’t done for this years! 

But soon the higher speed began to tell. They didn’t appear to know they had a passenger. I didn’t let on. The wind covered the sound of my pump rattling on this rough stretch of tarmac, which I know well and hate. It’s all pitted and eaten away, making for rough going especially as it also begins to rise a bit at this point. They didn’t slow, the pace didn’t lessen. They were on a mission. 

My man let a gap open, which he quickly moved to close, requiring me to do the same and I felt that! Hmm, oh dear me. I had visions of the old days in my first big senior road race, when after two hours at a fast tempo I could no longer hold the pace, began slipping ever so slowly to the back, then off the back at a few feet at a time, powerless to do anything about it. Hard graft. I recall it took a few more outings before I had the legs to stay in contact. 

That was half a century ago!  So I wisely let my recently acquired friends go before my inevitable demise and before anyone came back down line for fares. How long had I stayed with them? Er. Not long! There was a fork in the road coming up and I figured they would take the left while my route was to the right. And so ended my flight of fancy. 

I enjoyed that. Took me back, I can tell you. 

Later, back home, I searched the TV channels for the elite men’s national road race championship in Scotland. Eurosport were showing the Spanish and French title races, but not the British races. Fear not, they were showing it on Discovery Plus which I take on my laptop £6.99 a month – lots of different sports and films, and a lot of bike races. 

Means I don’t selfishly clog up the TV all day. Not that I watch hours of racing at every sitting. I’ve got too much to do around the house. But it means I can keep an eye on race progress through the day, and when time permits watch a chunk of it, especially the last 30 minutes. Great race, go all the way, and as we know, Quickstep’s sprinting ace Mark Cavendish (pictured above) won in a three man sprint after being in the leading break for most of the day. 

The race information left a bit to be desired. They would provide time gaps on the screen, but often omit to give the distance, so making it hard to work out the odds. Reminded me of the old days covering British races when officials relaying info on race radio seldom gave out the exact distance the timing was taken, or if it was a sprint, give names and not numbers, So making it difficult to keep a log. Unlike on Continental races where information is always preceded by the exact location – either distance covered or distance to race – then numbers. Great race, all the same. Great winner. I was so pleased I treated myself by promptly ordering a Quickstep racing jersey on Ebay! Pity Cav is not picked for the Tour which starts this coming weekend. Here’s hoping………

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THE GIRO - WHEN BOOTS WENT GOTHIC 

 

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Eurosport TV’s top cycling presenter Orla ‘Boots’ Chennaoui dressed in all black for the final day of the Giro d’Italia.

But she was far from sad, she was her usual  smiling cheerful self. This was her latest outfit for her daily appearance on Breakaway, which follows each day’s stage. It has become a cycling commentator’s fashion show.

In our house we have become as keen to see who wins the stage as we are to see what she has plucked from her extensive wardrobe.

She dazzled us with a different colourful outfit for each stage of the three week race – wearing pinks, reds, green, blue; trainers, crazy high heels or boots. Then on the final day of reckoning – she cracked and dressed head to toe in Gothic black! It was a complete and shocking contrast. She may even have been wearing black lipstick.

Clearly, she’s an attention seeker. I enjoy her commentary – she’s very knowledgeable on cycle racing, sitting comfortably with her fellow pundits on the sofa, the former pros Robbie McEwan, Dan Lloyd and Adam Blythe who provide fascinating insight into the racing – but Orla’s outfits can be a tad distracting.

It’s not about you, Boots!

Boots! That’s what a friend has taken to calling Orla, impressed by her choice of chunky footwear one day.

When I think of the Giro that’s what I see now,   Orla’s blackout for Eurosport’s

final wrap of this season’s marvellous Giro. And what a great outcome it was for Jai Hindley who became the first Aussie to win the pink jersey as victor of the Giro d’Italia, taking the lead on the penultimate very tough mountain stage from Richard Carapaz.

Italy's Vincenzo Nibali, winner of all three Grand Tours, 

                                             finished fourth overall in his final appearance in the 2022 Giro.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the Ride London Classic was back on the roads at the weekend, after an absence of two years due to Covid.

But not in Surrey where it has been based since 2013, but in Essex.

Surrey decided they no longer wished to host what had become a huge annual event in the county. I don’t why, exactly, for the event drew huge crowds and was a big draw in my home town.  But I do know that the lengthy road closures for both the charity event and pro race were considered by some to be an inconvenience.

Pity, for I’ll miss seeing the top pros rocket past the end of my road on the Surrey circular out and back to London.

Be interesting to see how well the three events held over three days were received by Essex.

They consisted of the  RideLondon-Essex charity ride, the RideLondon Classique UCI Women’s World Tour road race held over three days, and FreeCycle, a short route for people of all ages.

 

On the campaigning front I turn to a feature written by Laura Laker in Cycle, the magazine of Cycling UK.

In this Laker acknowledges that the UK is decades behind the Dutch in providing for cycling. She looks back on the local elections last month and asks if “A new golden age for cycling is realistic”.

She turns to cycling figureheads from the UKs four nations and asks can we really transform transport cycling’s fortunes?

I gleaned from this that the battle of minds has been won but the pace of change remains slow. Cycling UK's aim to get election candidates to commit to supporting Active Travel was successful in that a great many councillors agreed to back cycling as transport. But we've been here before. The question now is, will we see some practical action?

Which takes me back perhaps 30 years when the CTC, as Cycling UK was back then, declared the very same thing; the battle of minds had been won!

This slow pace of change is crazy, given the rising levels of traffic pollution contributing to climate change and the vital role cycling can play to address this. We do need to reduce the need to drive everywhere, especially the local trips which make up some 70 percent of journeys made.

This should be declared a national emergency.

We need the government to take charge and order local authorities to get to grips with this. Currently the local authorities can decide for themselves and government can only advise.

This needs to change. If the Prime Minister can rewrite the rules concerning the ministerial code of conduct, to suit him, as he did recently, they can take over local authorities to prioritise cycling as transport.

The fuckers won’t, of  course.

And finally, the cover story of Cycle gives us heart – announcing the Cantii Way, inviting us to experience Kent’s new 145-mile route, the UK’s latest long-distance cycling route.

It begins in Wye, a village in the Kent Downs. It meanders alongside the River Stour, past Canterbury to Whitstable and circles the coast all the way down to Dungeness.

It “dips a toe” into East Sussex, tempting you to pop into medieval town of Rye, and then the Cantii Way heads inland, away from the sea.

The Cantii Way is named after the Iron Age Celtic tribe that lived in the area.

Further information: cyclinguk.org/cantii-way

 

 

 

Two British winners in Hungarian Giro start

The Giro stage two time trial passed in front of The Parliament Building in Budapest

 

It’s Grand Tour time again, and the Giro d’Italia made a spectacular start from Hungary at the weekend, presenting us with two British winners.

Mind you, if the tele listings on screen were to be believed, only the first hour of Sunday’s stage was to be televised on Eurosport, before both Euro 1 and 2 switched to blanket coverage of some motor sport event.

But the bodge didn’t end there, there was final stage of the Dunkirk 4-day being shown that evening. But instead, the listings had the British Bennett’s motor something or other.

Which was another lie, because the motor event was in fact the Dunkirk race?

Are you still with me?

As it happened, this was a glitch. Wrong write up.  We did indeed get the full coverage of stage three.

But boring, wasn’t it. Even former pro Robbie McEwan on the sofa said so, until those final electrifying kilometres and that dazzling sprint win by Cav.

Terrible thing to say, but earlier in the afternoon I had switched to watch the Badminton Horse trials for a few minutes before going back to the race rolling along, in chat mode.

There was nothing to tempt the GC contenders, no hills or difficulties to make an attack stick, and the sprinters teams were only interested in the finish. It was just a case of staying safe and getting it done.

That’s not to take anything away from the three breakaways that went from the start of this 201 kilometre stage, gaining some five minutes before being reeled in inside the final25km.

During which time Matthia Boiis, Filippo Tagliani and Sam Rivi enjoyed the limelight, with Rivi  attacking the other two to take a sprint, drawing Boois with him.

 

 

 

 

And so, while the first stage fell to Dutch star Van de Poel in his maiden Giro, the next two went to Brits: Simon Yates winning the short time trial through the streets of beautiful Budapest.  Thousands of spectators to see the spectacle.  It was his fifth stage in the Giro, and his first time trial victory in a grand tour.

Completing the Hungarian festival of speed none other than ace sprinter Mark Cavendish was in scintillating sprinting form to win a long scary gallop to take the third stage – his 16^th victory in the Italian Tour,   nine years after his last appearance.

 

Meanwhile, we also had a stellar line up of former pros providing expert analysis on Breakaway on the Eurosport Television sofa, hosted by Orla Chennaoui. She was wowing viewers yet again with the first of many colourful  outfits – one for each stage - more suitable for the Oscars than a bike race, if you ask me and you won’t.

But we’ll let her off cos she knows her bike race onions, as do

her fellow pundits on the sofa including former Tour de France point’s winner Aussie Robbie McEwan, Dan Lloyd and Adam Blyth wearing a cardigan that might have belonged to his grandmother.

Orla – have a word.

Day three ended with what surely was the longest transfer ever, over 1,300 miles by road from Hungary to Sicily! The riders went by air.

The longest transfer I did when covering Le Tour was 400 miles across Northern France, and that was quite far enough.

The riders endured one hiccup, when one of the two planes to fly them from Lille to Brittany was withdrawn from service at the last moment.

No problem. This was Le Tour, and another plane was conjured up pronto.

I remember we speculated on how another plane was found so quickly.   and wondered if the airline had simply snatched it from another service, telling passengers that regrettably their flight was cancelled! Very likely!

But we never found out.

Vive le Grand Tours. 

 

 

 

Boardman has £2billion to play with, to take back the roads for cycling

 

Former Olympic champion Chris Boardman is determined to take the streets back from motor traffic in his new role as the government's commissioner of Active Travel Policy to promote walking and cycling.

And he has a £2billion budget to play with.

But will it be enough?

We know that Cycling UK have been banging their heads against brick walls year in year out trying to extract decent funding from government to build a safe cycling infrastructure. And £2bn, as good as it sounds, is still short of what it will take.

In 2015 Cycling UK Policy Director Roger Geffen was awarded an MBE for his work lobbying for cycling. He said at the time that as pleased as he was to receive the award, he'd much rather the government gave cycling more money than give him a gong.  

And he here is, still at it seven years later as Cycling UK once again swing into action for the local elections next month in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Local elections are key because it is the local authorities who will build most of the cycling infrastructure and it is up to them to bid for the pot of gold offered them under the Active Travel Policy for walking and cycling. Even though this money never goes far enough. It's the Treasury who decide what how much money the Department for Transport has to play with. And they have always been tight.

Each year government has edged closer and closer to coming up with the money, but only providing  £millions when really they should  be paying out about £5 billion annually over, I think, five years or so. Funding has never been enough to make a real difference.

It will cost somewhere in the region of between £5 and £7billion a year to begin to do a decent job across the country.

So it follows that the government’s latest announcement, a £2billion as part of their Active Travel Policy ain’t enough as impressive as it may sound.  For it is to be spread out over the life of this parliament.

To put it into perspective, Manchester’s 1800 miles of cycling and walking routes was costed to need £1.5billion!

Divide the £2bn between 145 local authorities in England alone works at a shade under £14m each. Then factor in Wales, Ireland and Scotland, and logic declares it won’t go very far - couple of 100 metres of cycle lane in each town, probably!  But not all towns will bid, and if they do, they'll have to convince Boardman they know their onions. 

So if he plays his cards right and is  selective in choices, limits the number of towns who can be trusted to a do a decent job and we might see some half-decent work.

                    Segregated cycle lane on The Embankment, London, one of the few really good cycle                                                                                             lanes in the country.

Why not throw £2bn at one city and build a decent network there?

I can’t for the life of me figure out why they can’t pick one major city and throw all the money at that, build a super network. And show what can be achieved.

Give a £billion of it to Manchester. They have a city network plan ready to go.

Creating such an example would surely mean other cities demanding the same. As it is the funding is spread far too thinly.

It is what it is. 

Best to make a start and hope that more funding will become available if enough local councils come to recognize how providing for safe cycling and walking improves the quality of life.

I was fishing about on the internet and found a detailed report on the costs involved in building cycling infrastructure, presented to the Department for Transport. They published it but added their own get out clause, by saying they may not necessarily agree with it. You can see why, the costs are much higher than the DfT is prepared to accept.

 The report, entitled Cycling City Ambition, is written by the sustainable transport research group Transport for Quality of Life.

Key lessons

It makes fascinating reading.

In a section headed: Key lessons for policy-makers and practitioners, the costs involved become clear.

“Ambitious cycle infrastructure requires significant investment. The cost of the most effective types of scheme was about £1-3 million per km for cycle superhighways, and £0.2 million per kilometre for traffic-free towpath routes. To build comprehensive networks of cycle routes in towns and cities will require substantial investment over a considerable period of time. This in turn requires local authorities to prepare a pipeline of schemes that are ready to go as soon as funding is available.”

Those figures alone make it clear that if a huge number of towns/cities apply for funding, only a small number of roads can be a given a decent cycling make-over from that £2bn. 

This has been the story for decades. The funding provided is never enough.

I sometime wonder why I bother to write about this  state of affairs. Maybe I imagine I am still working for a magazine.

And who cares? I’ve never seen much, if indeed any, discussion on the state of the roads among Facebook cycling groups who generally prefer to share nicer stories. Who can blame them when the news is mostly doom and gloom? Generally they prefer nostalgia, posting personal photographs and stories of epic bike rides and seeing how many likes they get, posting pictures of themselves and even of meals!

That said, they often share concerns about the current affairs, including the war in Ukraine, and Prime Minister Johnson gets a kicking from time to time.

Anyway, I can’t let go of the roads stuff.

Can’t reach Boardman

What I would like to do is to speak to the man behind the proposed Manchester Network, former Manchester Cycling Tsar, and the 1992 Olympic Champion Chris Boardman,  now Commissioner  of the government’s Active Travel Policy, with instructions to get a grip of local authorities.

I can think of no better man for the job.

His task now is to encourage and advise/ cajole local authorities on implementing cycling routes and to threaten them with withdrawing funding if they mess it up. 

If we know anything it is that  Local Authorities are capable of producing crap cycling facilities.  

He'll be having none of it. When Boardman was at the peak of his racing career, the French  dubbed him the "professor" because of his scientific approach to training and racing. I imagine that's how he approaches many tasks, calmly appraising a council's targets and assessing whether or not their plans for implementing cycling infrastructure are realistic. And either giving them the thumbs up or down. No messing about. And if they fuck up, taking their funding away. 

 I’ve given up trying to get a comment from Boardman because I've never been able to make contact.  Everyone wants a piece of an Olympic champion so to preserve their sanity they  tend to go off the radar.  

I was there waiting for him in1992 when he stepped off the plane from Barcelona with that Olympic gold medal. And I was there at Manchester to report his fantastic victory in the world individual pursuit championship in 1996, and in 2000 I reported on his Athletes Hour record also at Manchester.

The last time I saw him was at a Cycling Weekly sportive in Surrey about eight or 10 years ago. Always he was a cheerful and chatty guy.

What’s happened to him? Too busy, probably.

The closest I got to him last year was when his PA gave me his home address to enable me to send him a brilliant book I thought he would appreciate. I couldn't believe his PA did that - she must have asked for his permission!

It was entitled "Are Trams Socialist? - why Britain has no transport policy", written by Christian Wolmar.  No idea if he received it.

Never heard? Perhaps I should doorstep him!

I'd like to know if Manchester got their £1.5bn. When I asked their transport people if they got their £1.5bn, they managed to avoid answering the question.

I think I’m safe in saying they never did get that sum. They did get funding for the government’s pop up cycle lanes in 2020, and also received £16m towards the permanent network, to work has been underway. But that won't be enough to complete would be the first proper cycle nework in the UK.  

Anyhow, I've  swerved off the main topic here, which is the forthcoming local elections when for the umpteenth time of asking, Cycling UK are imploring its members to lobby their councillors ahead of the local elections in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. 

The aim is to get councilors to commit to supporting Active Travel and persuade their councils to do so.

 

I was reminded of how poor most  cycling facilities are in the UK when I was watching the Amstel Gold classic from Holland on Eurosport recently.

You couldn’t fail to notice the beautifully laid out roads and junctions, with cycle lanes distinguished by light reddish tarmac and a broken white line. And at each junction the cycle route was clearly laid out, unlike the vast majority of junctions in these sceptic isles.

As we are well aware good cycle lanes in the UK are few and far between. Here and there they include good examples such as the segregated cycle route down the Embankment in London, also across Blackfriars  Bridge. Cities around the country, including Manchester, have good work to show off,  but nothing you can yet call a network.

 Over the past few decades we have seen funding gradually increasing to millions of pounds and although this sounds impressive to you and me, it is well short of the billions required.

And so it is that the funding provided has so far made very little difference and numbers of people using the bike for utility trips – not to be confused with the increase in leisure cycling – hardly lifts utility bike use above two percent, where it has remained for decades. In Holland the figure is around 28 per cent.

So here we are in 2022, with the latest campaign to get government at all levels off their arses and put flesh on this Active Travel Policy. Will it just be another white elephant?  Not if Boardman has anything to say it won't.

Here's Cycling UK:

 “With elections just around the corner we are calling on candidates to be bold and actively support building more cycling infrastructure that will help millions more people to cycle. Cycling UK’s new report is a sales pitch for cycle lanes, providing evidence to candidates and governments of the many proven benefits that cycling infrastructure provides.”

And to underline their case there is yet another thoroughly well-presented report, presented thus. 

“A new report, published by Cycling UK, clearly sets out the significant benefits of creating cycle lanes and other cycling infrastructure.

‘Getting there with cycling’ amasses a mountain of evidence from scores of research studies, reports and real-life examples to back up the claim that now is the time for governments and councils to rapidly build cycling infrastructure across the UK.”

With local elections in Wales, Scotland and parts of England, and Assembly elections in Northern Ireland on 5 May, the document aims to convince candidates that people want cycle lanes, they will use them when they are created, and they can help to solve many of today's challenges.”

 

"WHEELS OF CONFUSION"*

 

ENDING FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT AFTER BREXIT STYMIES RIDERS HOPES TO LIVE AND RACE ON THE CONTINENT

The Dave Rayner Foundation which funds British riders to live and race abroad has been thrown into disarray since Britain quit the European Union in 2020, ending freedom of movement (BREXIT).

Before Brexhit you just packed a case, took your bike, showed you passport, and off you went.

No longer.

The Brexhit effect didn’t immediately become apparent because the impact of Covid pandemic closed borders anyway.

But now, with covid restrictions eased, the end of free movement has swung into place with the rules only allowing riders to stay in Europe visa-free for 90 days in a rolling 180-day period. It means riders having to travel back and forth, to calculate time away so as to stretch the 90-day period across the season.

The Rayner fund is battling to make sense of the bureaucracy to allow them to continue their work.  The fund is famous for launching Tao Geoghegan on the road to stardom – he won  the 2020 Giro d’Italia - one of a number to make the top grade.

Tao Geoghegan, former Rayner rider,  winner of the 2020 Giro d'Italia.
Here he takes part in the 2021 Paris - Nice.

At present 12 Rayner funded riders are having to travel back and forth between races instead of living and racing and training abroad full time with their new teams.

The story made a full page in a recent edition of The New European by Tom Epton.

His story recalled how the untimely death of British star Dave Rayner in 1994 led to the creation of the fund to pay the way for youngsters to race live and abroad, to give them the chance to emulate young Rayner before he was cruelly denied.

It has been a major success story for British cycling ever since, established before the Lottery funded program in 1996.

The Fund’s annual dinner and auction to raise funds soon became the biggest social occasion on the home cycling calendar, rivalling British Cycling Federation’s annual bash.

Few can have foreseen how ending of free movement would lead to so much strife.

Many who voted to leave the EU saw the ending of free movement as a means of controlling the flow of foreigners coming here and “taking our jobs”.  The irony is that low paid agricultural work, such as flower and fruit picking, has always traditionally been done by migrants. 

(As many as 50,000 to 70,000 seasonal workers, according to the National Farmers Union because home labour shunned such jobs. Brexit and Covid, saw migrants return home. Britain has since made attempts to remedy the situation by making available 30,000 visas for 2022, possibly increasing this by another 10,000).

However,  ending free movement was a double edged sword for it applies also to many Britons seeking to work in the EU post Brexhit, including riders travelling to live and race in EU countries.

 The New European article recalled how last  year top British Tour winners Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas and inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix winner Lizzie Deignan signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – Oliver Dowden – to argue that the travel restrictions presented a serious obstacle to the development of British talent.

What was needed, they said, was a visa to allow them unrestricted travel.

The whole issue became side lined by Covid, which halted all movement at home and abroad.

So how do matters stand now?  I called Dave Rayner Foundation Trustee Keith Lambert to find out.

He gave me the general outline of how the Fund has really struggled and referred me to rider liaison Joscelin Ryan who explained how they are working to best overcome the problems, hoping matters will improve. In the meantime, she gave me the current situation concerning the 31 funded riders for 2022.

Ryan:

 “10 have Residency in an EU country – this was restricted to anyone who was living there before Brexit. Normally lasts for a few years. Not available to anyone moving there in future (not low or non-earners anyway).

“Five have a VISA for an EU country – this has to be applied for in the UK before they go to EU. Has to be applied for every year.

“2 have DUAL nationality

“2 have a work permit for the Netherlands. (Unique to the Netherlands, it seems)  Has to be arranged by their Dutch team. Has to be applied for each year.

“12 are still trying to arrange something – if not successful they are restricted to 90 days.”

Ryan explained that those who are sorted are all abroad and should be ok to stay for the season. Those with visas are still restricted to a maximum six months stay abroad. Applications have to made each time. Riders can however, use their 90 days in addition each year.

 “The 12 that are not sorted are finding it very stressful, says Ryan. “They must try to save days and only travel when they have races. Returning to the UK  out of a **Schengen country.

“This is costly in terms of time, effort and money. Also not beneficial in terms of team integration. This is not something we would have countenanced before Brexit. The point of the RF was to encourage riders to fully integrate into a community and team abroad.”

 The success of the Fund cannot be denied. This year there are 11 former RF supported riders in World tour, Pro tour and Women’s World Tour teams.

*Wheels of Confusion is a Black Sabbath song; track one on the album Volume 4 (1972).

** The Schengen Area comprises 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.