THE WRIGHT STUFF

 

Can the new British road race champion Fred Wright now make Tour headlines?

“I’d like to win a stage of the Tour,” said Wright, after winning the British title in Cleveland last Sunday, his first ever pro win!

The 24-year-old powered away from his breakaway companions in the final kilometres for a decisive victory.

And crossing the line,  raised his arm in salute to the late Gino Madèr, his Bahrein – Victorious teammate who was killed after crashing in the Tour du Suisse recently.

So why should Wright not win stage of Le Tour, which starts from Bilbao in the Basque Country on Saturday?  He’ll surely be given his chance by his team, which rides in support of their GC hopeful, Mikel Landa.

Wright is listed as a “puncheur” – a rider who can stay away over rolling terrain, take short steep climbs in his stride. As he has often demonstrated in daring breakaways.

Afterall the six-foot Londoner showed his potential in taking 4^th on a stage of the 2020 Vuelta.

In last year’s Tour de France he twice made the top 10 on stages, including a second place and 8^th in the penultimate trial.

He’s also finished inside the top 10 in the two last editions of the Tour des Flandres. So he’s in the ball park.

In 2022 Wright was 7^th in F1anders, only 11 seconds behind winner Mathieu Van Per Poel. This year he was 8^th, in a small elite group 1-12 behind winner Tadej Pogacar.

Here is a rider we have seen so many times getting in the day’s big break, only for the peloton to claw them back. Undeterred, he looks to escape again and again in the big races.

The question is will taking the British title lift him to the next level.

The answer is surely, YES.

Now he knows all that suffering can lead to victory.  Whereas before it was a dream.

His time will come.

*I had no commentary and only sketchy on-screen information during the men’s championship shown on the Discovery Channel watched on my laptop.

So it was difficult to figure out which group was which. I guessed it was the lead group simply because Wright was in it and they were all riding full on, whereas other groups didn’t display quite the same drive.

Very occasionally, the graphics showed kilometres to go. But mostly viewers were left guessing as to who was in front and the order of the chase behind.

But the top left of the screen did display the logo of British Cycling!

Didn’t see any road signage depicting distance to go, either.

At one point a motorcyclist flew past in the opposite direction to the race – so much for security!

As luck would have it, Wright’s group avoided a brush with death because they were riding

 on the left of the road at the time. Didn’t see much of the police escort. Was there one?

All very confusing.  

 

Countdown to LE TOUR

 

With the Tour de France  due to start next weekend, I know some fans who will be hoping for a more exciting GC battle than they considered was served up in Giro in Italy in May. 

Riders in Le Tour blasting through the streets of Paris

I couldn’t possibly comment on that, being unable to watch every pedal stroke on the box.  But I reckon I caught some key moments on what was a brutal route. Will Le Tour match it?

For the Giro did provide the fireworks in the end, when Slovenian Primos Roglic relieved Wales’ Geraint Thomas of the pink jersey in that stunning penultimate stage, the brutal mountain time trial.

Permitting riders to change machines from tt bike to road bike at the foot of the climb led to some unexpected drama.

First Roglic unshipped his chain and we thought here we go; he’s capitulated just like in the Tour de France he lost in 2020 – but no. He pulled himself together and rocketed the final kilometres.

It was Thomas whom fate sacrificed, his strength suddenly leaching out of him, and with it, the dream of victory as Roglic took the honours by a handsome margin.

Earlier, the race suffered torrential rain which led to shortening of one key mountain stage, and also the loss of two top performers, former winner Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart, and the Belgian world champion Remco Evenepoele when in the overall lead.

Geoghegan Hart crashed out and broke his pelvis on stage 11 when lying third overall to teammate Thomas.  Thomas had stepped up to take the leader’s pink jersey only the day before when overall leader  Remco Evenepoele relinquished it, forced to abandon with Covid.

With those two talented guys out the GC race lost some sparkle. The same couldn’t be said in the battle for daily stage honours.  No lack of excitement there.  Notably there was Irishman Ben Healy’s heroic 50km break to a lone stage victory and Mark Cavendish’s thrilling sprint victory on the final day in Rome.

The battle for top overall positions eventually came down to three men, Thomas, Roglic and eventual third Joao Almeida, each stalking the other.

Thomas valiantly defended his position through the big mountains in the remaining stages until that unforgettable dramatic time trial on the last but one day. 

After the Giro came the traditional succession of three smaller stage races ideal for preparation for Le Tour. In each of them a host of other names got to work - in the Criterium du Dauphine, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of Belgium.

The Criterium was dominated by 2022 Tour champion the Dane Jonas Vingegard who seemed to do as he pleased. “Oh, gawd, I’m clear again! Oh, well, might as well keep on going….”

Clearly he is on form to defend his Tour title with this display, winning two stages and cruising to the overall win with studied indifference.

Sadly for the armchair fan, no one else got a look in as Adam Yates took second overall.  Probably reasoned it was no use busting a gut.  Save that for next month! “See you in the Puy du Dom in July, Jonas!”

Afterall, they are playing the long game in these shorter stage races, looking for form rather than to keep me entertained by flogging themselves daft.

We must always read between the lines.

And now here is another Dane on the rise, Mattiias Jensen Skjelmose of Trek, 22, winner of the Suisse tour. It is his first World Tour race win. Second overall was Juan Ayuso of UAE, winner of the final stage time trial.

Evenepoele was second in the TT taking third overall, while Skjelmose placed third in the TT.

Evenpoele also won the previous day’s road stage with a lone breakaway.

And let’s not forget another top Belgian, Wout Van Aert, who took the points jersey in the Suisse Tour.

The Suisse tour, however, will be remembered for the tragic death of a national hero, Gino Mäder who crashed on a mountain descent on stage five and who died from his injuries the day after.

Finally, the Tour of Belgium, providing another Tour contender with a work out, Holland’s Mathieu Van der Poel who took overall victory.

The Belgian race provided the usual cut and thrust attacking and for added tension, the cross winds played havoc and split the peloton asunder, always great TV.

Last but not least there is Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, unbeatable when on form.

Will he bid for his third Tour de France victory after losing last year to Vingegard?

That may be a big ask, for he was been out of racing for a  long time since breaking his wrist in the spring classic Liege Bastogne Liege and will have raced only twice before Le Tour.

The tragedy of Gino Mäder

 

The tragic death of Swiss star Gino Mäder on stage five of the Tour de Suisse has driven all other cycling matters out of mind. It strips back the joy we take from the sport.  Thrilling action which, in a trice, turns into disaster.

For his family, for his team mates, for his compatriots.

It serves as a stark reminder of the risks riders often face when taking mountain descents at speed.   

Mäder 26, (Team Bahrain-Victorious) and American Magnus Sheffield , 21, (INEOS) crashed on the descent of Albula Pass 14 kilometres from the finish of the stage.

We learn how both riders fell into a ravine. Mäder was initially found to be motionless. Sheffield suffered a concussion and soft tissue damage.

Both were flown to hospital where the Swiss died from his injuries the following day. 

 The 6th stage of the Tour de Suisse did not take place.  Instead, the pro field rode the final 19 kilometres of the stage, as a “gruppetto” in honour of their former compatriot.

A day of reflection. 

Gino Mäder won the final stage of the 2021 Tour de Suisse. He also won a stage of the Giro and the young riders’ classification of La Vuelta.

RIP Gino Mäder.

They give money only to take it away

 

Confusion reigns over the government’s Active Travel Policy – or inactive, it seems to me - following the £200m cut to the £3.8bn budget a few months ago.

Because the government has since curiously decided to invest another £100m funding.

And so the saga rolls on – giving out and then taking away. Been going on for decades, and as a result there ain’t much to show for it.

 

This lack of proper funding, says Cycling UK, means, “there is no way the English Government can meet its own target that 50% of journeys in towns and cities should be walked or cycled by 2030.”

 

Which convinces me more than ever that England – the UK in fact - will never have anything approaching a nationwide cycle network.

 

And yet as the years roll by cycle lanes have been put down here and there by local authorities and this  begs the question, just how many miles are there, albeit not in the desired network form but rather bits and pieces here and there, some of it quite decent but a lot of it dangerous rubbish.

 

They are mostly rubbish because transport planners have little idea how to build a road infrastructure for cycling. The excellent design guides produced by people in the know some 30 years ago and accepted by the government are largely ignored by chief planning boffins who think they know better.

And those who would like to follow the guidelines find they haven’t the budget to do so.

 

 

 

One engineer I recently shared correspondence with – a UK Cycling member in fact - told me that his profession remains largely ignorant of how to design roads for cycling. And they don’t care to find out. Half a century of telling them what is wanted and they still mostly do not know.

This largely came about during the 60s era, probably, when car ownership began to shoot up and government of the day saw fit to do everything it could to allow drivers to go where they want when they want.

And providing for walking and cycling became an afterthought,

 

The difficulty then became how to provide for peds and cycs without

taking space from the car, space which should not have so readily been given up in the first place.

Very often this means ripping entire junctions out and rebuilding them. Expensive and not the preferred option. Although Manchester has bucked the trend with their Royce Road junction. Although I’m not sure how much ripping out was necessary here. But whatever, this is one smart junction.

 

Active Travel England has set out to do is teach local authorities how to go about building routes for cycling.

 

But as a matter of interest, and perhaps as a measure of how shit this country is at enabling cycling to play is part in staving off climate change, how many

cycle lanes – the good, the bad and the ugly – are there?

We don’t know, that’s the answer.

I asked Cycling UK policy Director Roger Geffen if he knew. He told me.

 

 

“The people best able to make an informed guess at how much cycle provision we have in England would be https://www.cyclestreets.net/. They have been getting volunteers to upload data on cycle provision onto Open Street Map, as this helps improve their cycle journey planner.”

 

He said that he hoped that a few years tie Active Travel England might have a better answer.

 

He hopes they will have data not just on how much cycle provision there is (and where), but how much of that is good provision…. “how much of it is white paint (i.e. OK for reasonably confident cyclists but no good for children etc) and how much of it is actually worse than useless.”

 

Geffen says Active Travel England are currently setting up a process for all local authorities to upload data on what exists for cycling and walking, both on the road network and off-road routes, classified by the type of provision that has been made. The idea is to enable councils and others to make better-informed decisions about where improvements are most needed.

 

“Then we may know how much more provision is needed before we can say we’ve got the ‘World class cycling network for England’ promised in the Government’s ‘Transport Decarbonisation Plan’?”

 

“Well, the Dutch network of protected cycle lanes is almost exactly a quarter of the length of the Dutch road network,” says Geffen.  “If we want to have something equivalent for England, we have a long way to go!”

 

I contacted CycleStreets to ask them if their data extended to showing

how miles of cycle lanes have been created over the past few decades

 

I said that Manchester’s grand scheme had given me hope but I have no idea how much of their proposed 1,500 mile network has been built. Not much, I imagine, given it is costed a £1.5bn.

 

CycleStreets replied to say that information remains had to come by and quite complex to determine.
For instance, cycle infrastructure often does not involve cycle lanes.
For instance, they explained, low-traffic neighbourhood schemes create large areas of
much-improved cycling conditions but have no actual 'cycle lanes' at all.

 

Nevertheless, CycleStreets has amassed a lot of interesting statistics.

CycleStreets is a UK-wide cycle journey planner system, which lets you plan routes from A to B by bike. It is designed by cyclists, for cyclists, and caters for the needs of both confident and less confident cyclists.

 

 

THE SMART LIFE

 

 

The smart life

 

The EDF engineer came to install Smart meters. All good, he said, when finished.

Just one thing, he said.  Because of a glitch at HQ no readings will be taken until next week probably. So I’ve booked it in for an engineer to come out and make the necessary adjustments to your meters so they link up.

If you don’t hear anything call this number and he indicated a number on the document he left me.

After two weeks I called EDF to enquire when an engineer would come out.

EDF advisor said OK, first though I need the account number.

Now your full name and address and post code

And email.

Now, I need you to give me the GU number.

What is that? I say.

It’s the oojarkerpiff registration nonsense ref:

It’s on the meter he says.

OK, I’m looking at the electric meter which is in our cellar office but I can’t see the GU number.

It could me on the gas meter, he says.  Can you go the gas meter?
It’s outside the house I say.

I’m on my mobile so I can take you with me, I say.  Mind your head on that beam.

OK, we are now going across the lounge. I am opening the front door.

Oh, bother, I’ve no shoes on.

Buggar, stocking feet on the patio.

Right, I’m at the gas meter now, I say, treading on something slippery.

But there are folded garden chairs leaning on the gas meter cupboard. Bear with me while I remove them.

 OK, he says.

Right, I say, I am now opening the hatch to the gas meter. It is has lots of numbers on it.

But no GU number, I say.

I need the GU number, he says.

How about one of the numbers on the bar code, I say…

Can you take a photo of the meter and send it to me, he asks.

No, I say. That means I’d disconnect from you and lose you, I say.

I can’t handle these devices.

I know he says, they are too clever by half.

Give me the bar code, he says.

Here it is, I say. 00-07-81-D7-00-04-90-22.

He reads it back: 00-08-….

No, I say.

It’s 00-07.

Thanks, he says. Then it goes 09-66…

No, I say.

It takes us three more goes to get it right.

OK, says. 00-07-81-D7-00-04-90-22.

Correct, I say.

Do we have to do all this, I say. You have my account number…my address, all the info; you know the new meters were installed, why you need GU number.

I need it to authorise the authority for them to authorise the request for an engineer, he says.

It makes no sense, I say.

Can you now do the same from the electricity meter, he says.

OK, we are now going all the way back into the house.

Across lounge,

Down the steps into the cellar.

Mind that beam, I say.

I remember, he says.

We’re here, I say.

Here is the bar code. There are in fact two bar codes.

Which one do you want?

Doesn’t matter, he says.

OK, here’s one of them, I say.

00-09-44-87-D9-00-60009-24.

He reads it back.

Is that it, I say.

~That’s it, he says.

I will send you an email today with the booking details.

I say, Well, let me tell you what you need to do now.  Go and make yourself a cup of tea and sit yourself down in a quiet corner.

Cos that’s what I need to do.

He laughs.

I laugh.

We hang up and I go outside of the house.

I open my mouth TO SCREAM…………..    but nothing comes out.

Three days later still no email from EDF!

I phone them up………………….