Preview. The spring classics not only offer opportunities to the specialists but also the sprinters! The Classic Brugge-De Panne is designed for the fast men and is one of the few World Tour races where a sprinter is bound to win. The 2024 edition features Jasper Philipsen, Tim Merlier, Sam Welsford...

One of the most iconic moments of early 2000's cycling, if not ever, has to be 'The Look' from Lance Armstrong. Back in 2001, the Tour de France was still completely open after nine days of racing with two main pre-race favourites, Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, sitting within 30 seconds of each other.A...

Comment & Analysis: South Dublin County Council deserves a lot of credit for the fast rollout of cycle routes. If it continues at this rate, it might see itself pulling ahead of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which is widely seen as the front-runner. The progress that is being made in the Tallaght and wider Dublin 24 area is so impressive that I want to highlight it positively and leave it at that. The speed and scale of some of the changes should be the envy of people living in most areas of the country. But it pains me to say that there’s a major issue — far more attention to detail is needed. It’d be a disservice to readers and the general public to just give what the council are doing a glowing review. We need to be moving fast because of climate action, road safety, the inactivity crisis and pollution. So when I say attention to detail, I’m not saying every project has to be as polished-looking at the best Dutch cycle path. But a bit more attention to detail is needed. Moving fast and continuing to move fast requires a level of detail so that councils don’t have to revisit projects in the next few years to address issues of safety, accessibility, and comfort for people cycling or walking. If you’re building faster, some level of tweaking of details will be needed, but this should be minimised. For example, there needs to be a massive cutback on the use of shared footpath-like spaces at junctions and bus stops. There also needs to be a review of having shared greenways on main urban routes. Please note: Work was still ongoing along some of these routes. So, while the final markings etc might not be in place, I’m trying to restrict my comments to issues which are clear. I will also revisit these routes in the future. It really puts comments in context when you hear people complaining about a lack of people using the routes when you visit the sites and see how much work has still to be done on the parts of the projects which are under construction (there are even signs up saying cycle tracks not in use). Then you also think about the connections yet to be built and the kissing gates still to be removed. Many people won’t use routes until those connections and access points are open to them. There’s some huge improvement, but it is still a bit too higgledy-piggledy, added onto some very higgledy-piggledy cycle track designs in the area. This is the route I cycled, plus some extra connections. This is a sample of the work in progress on the Killinarden Way/Whitestown Way/Firhouse Rd route: For a bit of context, I cycled into the area using the Greenhills Road over the M50 (marked here in black because there’s nothing but pained lanes, mostly painted within lanes in a way where cars cannot keep out of the cycle lane) and went back to the city using the Luas. Don’t ask what the grey part of my route represents — it’s so higgledy-piggledy that I just cycled down the cycle lane on the N81. There’s a huge traffic-calming effect on a lot of the SDCC quick-build routes — motorists are complaining because it feels uncomfortable because it was an overly wide road, but this likely has a huge safety advantage vs the old layout, which was just too wide an encouraged speeding (see Street View below): In terms of junction treatment, for example, there’s no reason for this section of the Firhouse Road route to be a shared crossing, and it’s also just way too convoluted for cycling: Detailing like this on the Castletymon Road on a generally good project is just unacceptable — the narrowing of the cycle track towards the road is bad enough, but then also having a drain grate right at the narrowing pushes up risk even further. The narrowing alone shouldn’t get past a road safety audit. I’ve had a pedestrian walk out on me when they had a red man, and I was cycling by a green light; with this design, there’s no space to manoeuvre. It’s especially a problem for cycles designed for people with disabilities. It’s unclear why this feature exists here, but it is a feature of BusConnects plans in locations ahead of bus stops. It’s sad to see somebody building it for whatever reason. The design of this bus stop is preferable to a fully shared bus stop, and especially preferable to the examples where people cycling go right through the boarding area. However, the tactical paving here is a bit of a box-ticking exercise. Somebody with full blindness or a high level of sight loss will not be able to tell the difference between the level cycling area and the pedestrian areas. There’s also a surprising number of situations where the cycle path and footpath drop for private entrances — this shouldn’t be happening. This kind of detailing was advised against in the old Cycle Manual, so it’s nothing new. Just to note: It is also something that’s not fully right in larger schemes too — even the Clontarf to City Centre route, which is now famed for its continuous side streets. At some locations, for example, on the Clontarf Road across from the train station, there are places where the cycle path and footpath dips for driveways. It might not be as extreme as some dips on older projects, but it shouldn’t be happening at all, especially when the driveways or entrances are above the roadway surface. This is a great design with clear yield marking clearly placed for motorists — it’s fantastic to see. But the design just next that extra push and have the cycle path red asphalt continue through the crossing — remove the kerb and continue the same red asphalt: The lack of red breaks the visual clarity of the continuation of the cycle path: Some difficult decisions will be needed, including cutting down some trees so that there is separate space for bus users and people cycling at bus stops: There seems to be a general tendency to paint yield markings across cycle paths where people might be crossing (as if cycle paths were mini-roads) but, at the same time, painting nothing at crossing points where motorists are: In many cases, especially in Killinarden Heights, there’s no apparent reason why the cycle path was not routed behind bus stops rather than through the bus platform area, which is the worst of all worlds in terms of bus stop designs: An interesting thing about some of the stops on the road is that if the cycle path were to be put behind the bus stop, bus users would still have to cross the road unaided but would have no interaction with cycle path users. Still, it’s an improvement over crossing a wide road and an inaccessible bus stop. But why get it wrong twice? Why put extra concrete around the back of the stop when that could have been a cycle path? My mental image of cycling in the area is switching from cycling on the N81 to the new higher-quality routes around Killinarden Heights: Extra bonus photos Including some very old cycle routes in the area for context:

Tadej Pogacar has, as expected, taken control of the Volta a Catalunya. The UAE Team Emirates has dominated the first summit finish of the race and is the ultimate favourite to win atop Port Ainé on stage 3.The third day of racing in Catalunya is quite hard and it goes through some ascents that are...

Although Tadej Pogacar was unable to win Milano-Sanremo last weekend, finishing third behind Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews, the Slovenian's bike was adorned with a very curious strip of information that was designed to help him during the race.The strip shows thirteen different sections of t...

The young wave of talent at Soudal - Quick-Step has taken the cycling world by a storm, and among them shines Luke Lamperti. The 21-year-old American was in the spotlight in Oman, where he finished second three times. But now he's discovering the world of Classics with the Wolfpack."You kind of go o...

Pascal Ackermann's career wasn't exactly on the upward trajectory ahead of joining Israel - Premier Tech this winter, but the 30-year-old German is confident there's still some more left in his legs as he prepares to carry his team's ambitions in selected Belgian classics, the Classic Brugge-De Pann...

Another dramatic week of cycling in the books has seen a major shakeup at the top of the men's individual PCS Rankings, including a new overall leader!For those unaware, the PCS rider rankings are a points-based system based on a rolling 12-month + 2 weeks overlap period. All races on the calendar a...

Moving from top ProConti formation such as Israel - Premier Tech to 'average' team of that level such as Caja Rural-Seguros RGA has its pros and cons, as the Spanish team's late addition Sebastian Berwick knows first hand. But regardless, they 24-year-old Australian is confident he'll be able to shi...

David Dekker is in his second year at Arkéa - B&B Hotels, yet the Dutch sprinter is still waiting for a big victory after a handful of second places, most notably in last year's Giro d'Italia stage 2 when he lost to (then unknown) Jonathan Milan."I'm doing very well. I feel good about myself and hav...