Paul Lapeira stayed calm amongst the chaos of the crash-marred finale to stage 2 of the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country, sprinting from a reduced bunch to his first World Tour win. "The level in the WorldTour is so high, so I'm very happy to win," reflected the Frenchman of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Te...

It's not exactly a secret that the INEOS Grenadiers are looking for a superstar, Grand Tour leader of the future with rumours in the past about their interest in Tadej Pogacar. Although no transfer has ever occurred, the Slovenian has recently been spotted training alongside INEOS in the Sierra Neva...

Ridden to Paris-Roubaix victory in 1995, the C40 was one of the key bikes in the rise of carbon fibre – both in the pro peloton and beyond. Take a look at this very special version from 2000…

Grand Prix de Denain 2024 looked to be heading for an incredible dramatic finale but Groupama - FDJ's Stefan Kung has just wiped out the entirety of the chase group!Like a perfect strike in ten-pin bowling, Kung slipping out on the wet cobblestones set off a domino effect for those in his wheel with...

Dutch bicycle brand Babboe, working with the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, has narrowed down the models of cargo bicycles subject to recall, and is recommending inspection of others. An official investigation was laucned in the Netherlands after Dutch news outlet RTL reported extensively on the safity issues relating the the bicycles’ frames. One Babboe employee told RTL: “I have often seen emails from customers stating that there has been an accident.” Another is quoted as stating: “I’m surprised there have been no deaths yet.” Babboe is a budget cargo bike brand owned by the Accell Group, which owns a range of well-known brands including Raleigh, Batavus, Lapierre, Haibike, Winora, Ghost, and Koga. The warning and recall do not affect cargo bikes made by the other brands or by other manufacturers, and now many of the Babboe models which were thought to be affected by the recall notice are now covered by only an inspection warning. As reported last month, Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) asked owners of Babboe bikes to register at checkyourframe.co.uk. An update was posted on its website in Dutch, and IrishCycle.com is also aware that a cargo bicycle owner who registered with the company’s English language recall website has also been contacted by the company to arrange the recall of the bike. In a statement today in Dutch — the following is a machine translation — Babboe said: “Today we can finally give you clarity about your cargo bike. We are happy about that. In mid-February we had to ask you not to use the cargo bike for the time being. We have asked for a lot of patience from you. Babboe, in coordination with the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), is in the final phase of research into the safety of all its models.” Regarding the bicycles which should be inspected, the company said: “The research shows that in the Netherlands the models City Mountain (production from 2020), Max-E, Carve-E, Carve Mountain Curve-E, Curve Mountain, Big (E), Dog (E), Go (E), Go Mountain, Flow E, Flow Mountain, Pro Bike (E), Pro Bike Midmotor, Mini Mountain and Curve may be used again after an inspection/repair. If you have one of these models, you can register via the website www.controljebakfiets.nl from April 10. An appointment will then be made with a mechanic who will visit your home to check/repair your cargo bike. This may take some time. After the inspection/repair you can get back on the road.” On the bikes to be replaced, Babboe said: “The safety of City Mountain (production before January 2020), Slim Mountain & Transporter and the Pro Trike (E), Trike-E, Pro Trike XL Motor cannot be guaranteed. These models are being replaced in a recall. This has already been decided previously for the City (E) and MINI (E). We expect that from April 10 you will be able to see what this means for you at www.controljebakfiets.nl.” The Dutch website, controljebakfiets.nl, currently only has the text “From April 10 you can visit this website to see what the arrangement is for your cargo bike.” As far as IrishCycle.com can tell at this point, cargo bike owners in Ireland should still use checkyourframe.co.uk to check if their bicycle is affected. The CCPC said last month that consumers can contact Babboe directly by email at service.uk@babboe.com and that it would provide further information when available. It is unclear if the exact same terms will be offered to custmers in Ireland or elsewhere but the company said that if owners the Netherlands have owned a cargo bike in “up to 5 years old” they “will be offered a new, higher-quality cargo bike as partial compensation” with a possibility an electric cargo bike. For bicycles older than five years the company said that “the current value is taken into account” and “you can use this current value when purchasing a new cargo bike. We ensure that you are always offered a new regular bicycle.” Babboe said that the returned cargo bikes will be “collected by a certified party and dismantled in a sustainable manner.” There will also be compensation, including for owners who will not need the bikes replaced. The company said: “All Babboe owners, whether your cargo bike needs to be checked/repaired or is recalled, will receive compensation for the inconvenience in the form of free maintenance and/or accessories.” It is expecting to start collecting the cargo bikes in mid-April. It added: “It is a huge logistical operation. We ask for your understanding and thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation.”

On a day full of incident and crashes, Jonas Vingegaard was thankfully able to escape unscathed as he keeps up his hopes of overall victory at Itzulia Basque Country 2024."I am relieved that we survived this stage unscathed," reflected Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director Frans Maassen to the t...

Ireland’s Road Safety Authority is to adopt the new “Be seen, grab a brick!” campaign to promote pedestrian safety at crossings and other locations where motorists might not see brick-less pedestrians. At the time of writing this article, 18 pedestrians have been killed in collisions involving motorists in just the first three months of the year. Road safety bodies in North America have, in recent years, encouraged members of the public to pick up a high-visibility flag before crossing roads, but a trial by Vision Zero Vancouver, a campaign group, seems to indicate that red bricks are possibly more effective than flags. Be seen, grab a brick!1. GRAB2. LOOK3. WAVE4. CROSS pic.twitter.com/EEWJvNrUui— VisionZeroVancouver (@VisionZeroYVR) March 31, 2024 The Road Safety Authority, which is headquartered in Ballina in Co Mayo, is to trial the idea to assess the effectiveness of pedestrians carrying bright red bricks. A source who is familiar with the plan has outlined how the pilot project will start with bricks being made available to in Ballina on the road where there is a missing section of footpath between the town centre and the RSA’s HQ. “It fits in with the RSA’s focus on being seen and being safe, but motorists acting better around bricks than high-vis suggests that motorists can see more than they let on or that visibility is less of an issue than some motorists having little or no respect for people outside of cars,” the source said. Bricks will be placed in baskets at both ends of the section of the road where the footpath ends. The current “footpath ends” signs are to be replaced with signs aimed at motorists with the text: “Caution pedestrians have bricks”. A smaller sign aimed at pedestrians will explain that waving the brick around will help brick holders to be seen by motorists. The same setup will be applied at the entrance to the industrial estate where the RSA is based — the pedestrian gates are currently a mix of locked and welded shut. Because there is apparently no way to open the gates, pedestrians will be given bricks as they have to walk on the roadway around the closed gates. The source added: “Pedestrians who get startled and accidentally drop their bricks on cars that come too close to them will be indemnified — if anything the legal liability will fall on motorists.” VIDEO: A HGV passes by the blocked pedestrian gates outside the RSA’s HQ in Ballina. For clarity: Because it’s hard to tell the difference between parody and real life sometimes: IrishCycle.com would like to highlight that this article was published on April 1st. It’s clearly an April Fool’s Day article. The story about the RSA planning to trial bricks as a safety measure is not real and none of the quotes are real. Unfortunately part of the reason why it’s so hard to tell the difference is because the part of the article that outlines the lack of footpath to the RSA’s headquarters is real.  The locked and welded pedestrian gate is also real, this website really did cover the issue last October. This situation at and near the RSA’s HQ has persisted for over a decade. IrishCycle.com covered it last year, but there has been no change since then. Both the section of footpath missing and the locked gate are located where RSA employees working at the HQ have to pass every day. Unfortunately, it’s not the only location in the town or in other towns and cities where random sections of footpaths are missing, and there is no urgency to address the issues. Of course, missing sections of footpaths are also just very obvious flaws in a system built to favour driving — the issues at the doorstep of the RSA include a lack of safe crossings, no high-quality cycle routes, and little to no traffic calming, including to use razed crossing platforms at zebra and other crossings when such rased designs are standard even in other parts of Co Mayo.

UAE Team Emirates has unveiled its final '7' for Milano-Sanremo, which includes a last-minute change. The presence of the young Mexican talent Isaac del Toro to replace  Brandon McNulty. Thus, as he did in Strade Bianche, del Toro will try to support Tadej Pogacar to try to win the first monument of...

The UCI has announced in a statement the sanctioning of Patrick Lefevere for "derogatory comments towards women". The Soudal Quick-Step boss will be forced to make a public statement acknowledging his mistake or pay a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs.UCI statement on Lefevere:Following a report concernin...

Mathieu van der Poel's dominant showing at Tour of Flanders left many cycling fans impressed and Roxane Knetemann, guest of Today Inside talk show, with Johan Derksen were no exceptions. "I can't get enough of Van der Poel, I think it's so wonderful what he does," said 75-year-old Derksen, a big fan...