Alpine dirt roads... on road bikes

If this exquisitely filmed video doesn’t make you want to go cycling in Italy, nothing will. But it’s fair to say that the terrain is a little more taxing than most people would tackle on a road bike. This is why we show unpaved roads on cycle.travel’s mapping…

New bike show for Sheffield

Fresh from its starring role in last year’s Tour de France, Sheffield is to get its own cycle show. The Sheffield Cycle Show takes place on 25th May (Bank Holiday Monday) and aims to be “a celebration of cycling in the city of Sheffield and surrounding areas”. Entry will be just £5.

Small change for banks - Santander to sponsor Boris Bikes

You and I may call them ‘Boris Bikes’, but London’s cycle hire scheme has officially been known as ‘Barclays Cycle Hire’.

Barclays signalled last year that it didn’t want to renew the sponsorship contract – and now another bank, Santander, has been confirmed as the new sponsor. Santander was rumoured to be the front-runner last June, but had to beat competition from another red-themed company, Coca-Cola.

The deal is expected to bring in £6.2m a year, up from the current £5m paid by Barclays, but still a shortfall from the income forecast by Mayor Boris Johnson when the scheme was first launched.

The Green Party has called for the money to be used for a root-and-branch review of the scheme, including the potential for Oyster integration.

Cycle Superhighway 1 takes the backstreet route

East London is to get a new Cycle Superhighway – but a very different creature to the dramatic plans for the cross-London routes.

Whereas the recently approved North-South and East-West routes will be mostly segregated from motor traffic, CS1 from Tottenham to the City will mostly follow existing back streets. New cycle lanes and tracks will only be built where the route passes along busy roads, though there will be traffic-calming measures along the smaller roads.

CS1 will start at White Hart Lane and finish at Liverpool Street, some seven miles in all. It will run roughly parallel to the busy A10. Perhaps the most welcome section is a new, safe crossing of Old Street (pictured) with a light-protected route clearly marked for cyclists.

In an unusual admission, TfL appears to have conceded that the plans through Haringey are not good enough, perhaps watered down after opposition from the borough:

“We welcome suggestions for alternative route alignments through Haringey. We continue to investigate alignment options including the extension of the two-way cycle track further south along Tottenham High Road.”

However, TfL says the back-street route will still be quicker for cyclists than following the A10 would be:

“Our research shows cyclists could ride from Tottenham to the City in around 30 minutes, compared with over 40 minutes for a similar journey along the A10. Cyclists on CS1 would pass through just eight traffic signals, compared with 54 traffic signals for the equivalent journey along the A10.”

The proposals have received a mixed reaction. Danny Williams of the Cyclists in the City blog described it as “rather patchy… there are some good proposed improvements in through Hackney, but get closer to Tottenham and it falls apart”.

You can view the plans on the TfL website. Comments are open until 29th March.

Cargo bikes “the next big thing”

North American publication Grist reckons that cargo bikes are the coming thing, serving as delivery trucks, minivans, food delivery vehicles, and emergency escape bikes – while being cheaper than ever. “The recent arrival of cargo bikes from China,” it says, “is making them more commonplace and affordable.” Check out the full article.