It was almost a month ago to the day that we brought you the latest chapter in the Spalding Business Improvement District’s attempts to ban “dangerous cycling”, despite a lack of evidence.

> “People don’t want to leave a shop feeling like somebody is about to hit them with a bike”: Businesses call for town centre cycle ban, despite “insufficient evidence” of dangerous cycling

In response to that shortfall the BID put forward a call for evidence, inviting locals to submit complaints about the menace of two-wheeled travel. Their findings, which they say consisted of many “personal stories of fear”, were submitted to Lincolnshire Police, council authorities and secondary schools in the town.

We were worried at the time that the Conservative-led South Holland District Council might sympathise with these pleas but, pleasingly, we were wrong!

LincsOnline report that the council do not think a cycling ban is the “most proportionate or effective standalone response”, adding that “a stronger case would require sustained, location-specific evidence, such as verified incidents, collisions or near misses, officer observations and evidence that less restrictive measures are inadequate.” It appears as though the BID were unable to do that. Instead the council’s Policy Development Panel (us neither) are set to recommend additional town centre signage encouraging cyclists to dismount, more police patrols at school finishing times and even the promotion of “safe cycling routes”. There’s hope after all!

Incidentally, I know last week when covering 20mph speed limits in Poole we touched upon the relatively few number of people who actually offered their opinion to the council. Well, the BID say they submitted 146 complaints of “dangerous cycling” to the council. Meanwhile, Police have also received 15 complaints of anti-social cycling in the town centre this year, three of which were children.

There are 30,000 people in Spalding itself, and 100,000 in the South Holland district, suggesting a fairly high level of engagement by local government standards in this matter, even if it’s still a paltry 0.5 percent.

Unfortunately for cyclists, the wider county’s roads have problems of their own…

> “And drivers wonder why cyclists ride in middle of the road”: Cyclists mock country roads with deep cracks by posting photos of their bikes standing in them

> “It’s a tragedy to misrepresent the council’s efforts”: Campaigners seek judicial review to stop controversial cycle lane through park – but local authority claims cyclists “have voiced their support”

One of the niches of cycling that I love is rooting for people racing their bike clearly for nothing but the love of the game. Domenico Pozzovivo is a commentator for Swiss television and a coach after a long, decorated career. Yet earlier this year he came out of retirement at the age of 43, and the results have been piling in!

2nd at the Tour of Greece, 3rd at the Giro dell’Appennino and Czech Tour, old enough to be the father of his teammates. And he’s set to carry on next season.

> Killer driver handed lifetime driving ban and minimum jail term of 25 years for murdering cyclist after dragging him under car for almost five minutes

The Giro d’Italia is hyping up tomorrow’s route presentations of the men’s and women’s races by sharing some old photos and I’m falling for it hook, line and sinker.

Admittedly, we have photos much like this every year. Here’s Christian Prudhomme a couple of weeks ago for example. But it just doesn’t hit the same

Some Italian dress sense is required I reckon…

After 15 years with the team known variously as Garmin, Cannondale and now EF, Charly Wegelius will leave the team.

The British Finn’s departure was announced the day after Matt White was announced to be joining the American team. Presumably Jonathan Vaughters decided the team only needed one native English speaking DS who also rode for an Italian team at the turn of the century.

After a distinguished career as a domestique, most notably for Mapei and Liquigas, Wegelius joined Garmin immediately after retiring from racing in 2011. He’s since directed the team at Grand Tours and monuments, including at the Tour de France where in recent years he’s supported the yellow jersey and stage hunting exploits of Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy.

If Dan Benson’s reporting is right, Wegelius looks set to join Tudor Pro Cycling in a similar role…

Hope you like brown shorts depicted in acrylic…

There’s a host of work available with some paintings currently available for around £30. My current favourite cycling-related work of the lot is No. 39…

“It would have been easy to create a bike lane on this part of the street, with metal fences and calming measures to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists were properly demarcated for safety. It’s a positive development but also a huge missed opportunity.”

> “Pedestrianisation should not come at the expense of active travel”: 600 cyclists flout Oxford Street bike ban in “mass trespass” to call for safe cycle lanes

The all conquering Slovenian joined a virtual MyWhoosh ride over the weekend joining fans and taking questions. There were also some journalists able to pitch questions although it seems as though Pogačar didn’t care too much for them.

Asked about race safety in light of his crash at the Vuelta a Espana, he said his crash “was not connected to race safety”, he said “there is a chance” he supports his teammate and new world champion Brandon McNulty at points in the season, and that he’ll definitively decide his race calendar at the team’s December training camp.

That’s despite him telling a charity audience in Slovenia he would likely target the Tour de France, World Championships and Vuelta in 2027.

Organisers of next year’s Tour de France might want to look away from the next section when asked for his opinion on the 2027 race route:

“I was not there for the announcement. Because, obviously, the tour is always three weeks long. And there is always big mountains, flat stages, tricky stages, some crosswinds, time trials.

> Tadej Pogačar filmed “recklessly” veering into oncoming traffic and overtaking cars riding in Monaco

“So, you always have sorts of everything. And I’ve done now seven tours. So, it doesn’t really matter which cities host the start or finish. It’s always more or less the same.” He added he needs to be “ready for everything” which I suppose is true.

Once the pre-arranged media questions were done, Pogačar seemed to lighten up, telling fans on MyWhoosh “some journalists always ask the same questions over and over”. I suppose that’s true, although I somehow doubt the burning questions on the minds of fans are particularly more noteworthy. I’ll let you decide:

He said he “really admires” Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, as well as “some sprinters that take risks in the finale.” Djamolidine Abdoujaporov would be delighted.

His favourite places to train are near his Monaco home, near his fiancée Urska Žigart’s home in Slovenia and on Tenerife, whilst he finds pre-Tour training camps in Sierra Nevada “a bit boring”. He wishes he could ride with the likes of Alberto Contador, Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara but doesn’t want to pick riders from “too far in the past”. Probably for the best…

> “Pogi earns his millions, while I earn my own ‘loose change’”: Urška Žigart hits back at Pogačar income ‘praise’

He likes pineapple, kiwi, mangos and blueberries, has porridge and yoghurt for breakfast, and isn’t really a morning person. At some point he wants to race gravel but doesn’t know when, esports are off the table. He dreams about winning races, advises aspiring pros to keep having fun, and warns people in colder climates against training too much indoors.

Ending his ride, which it should be noted raised £10,000 for his foundation, he signed off by telling viewers “I cannot wait for the next one that can answer some real questions, not like questions that [a] journalist asks. No offence to any journalist in the room, but it’s just more fun talking with the community.”

On behalf of journalists everywhere I am sure we will do what we can to come up with some *proper* questions…

Yes we wouldn’t normally give a second thought to the London-Brighton Veteran car run, but we’ll make an exception for the exceptionally dressed riders on the Veteran bike ride!

I think it’s a David Millar story that the veteran directeur sportif Cyrille Guimard used to insist to his riders that the most important thing his athletes did once they stopped was racing was to keep riding their bike. Now though, it seems like running is filling that void.

We covered Alexys Brunel’s 2hr26m50s Paris marathon time last week, beating Tom Dumoulin’s PB. Now, the Giro d’Italia winner has gone and run the current pro close, completing the New York marathon in 2hr27m12s. 22 seconds is the time it took me to type this sentence, adding a few words at the end for good measure to hammer home my point. Ridiculously fast…

Who knows, if he hadn’t tried to find his family and wave to them, he could have gone two, maybe three seconds quicker. He’ll have some way to go before he matches the achievements of Jimmy Whelan, the ex-EF and Q36.5 rider who ran 2:17:04 at the Melbourne Marathon last month, finishing 5th behind Eliud Kipchoge of all people!

Closer to home, Ben Swift has adjusted to formal retirement by knocking out a 1:15 half marathon. As you do…

Ineos overlords will be pleased to see him still repping the team with his bib shorts for his warm-up.

Incidentally, whilst we’re talking about David Millar, the long-retired Scot has just finished the Gravel Burn stage race in South Africa. The bike never leaves you…

Our Jo has some opinions I have a lot of sympathy towards, and I can’t even draw for toffee!

> A sight for sore AIs: Please think carefully before using AI to promote your cycling event Cycling Event Posters

The Para-cycling World Championships in the Netherlands concluded yesterday, and Kadeena Cox once again stole the show. Gold in Friday’s C4 kilo, gold and a world record in Saturday’s sprint, then silver with Fin Graham and Jody Cundy in Sunday’s team sprint.

There were also three gold medals for James Ball and pilot Aaron Pope in the tandem kilo, sprint and the mixed tandem team sprint with Lizzi Jordan and Anna Whitworth-Hay. That’s 10 world titles now for Welshman Ball.

There was also gold for Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl in the tandem sprint, and after bronzes and silvers, Fin Graham finally got his gold of the games in the men’s C3 scratch race.

With all that silverware (goldware?) it also meant GB yet again topped the medal table at the championships. Lovely stuff…

> Cyclists allegedly abused for riding through park… to get to bike parking at swimming pool