Will tougher laws prevent dangerous cycling?

0:04Hi, I'm Julie Banks. Welcome back to The Standard Podcast. If you're new here, hit follow and leave a review. Coming up. As much as it's about kind of racing a home race, one of my dream races to do growing up and as a child, it's also to be better as an athlete and as a human being. Olympic and world triathlon champion Alex Yee will be one of the runners making his marathon debut at Sunday's London Marathon. As the event celebrates its 45th anniversary, the London Standard sports writer Malik Uzia will be here with all you need to know.

0:43But first, cyclists who kill pedestrians by dangerous cycling could now face life imprisonment in England and Wales under proposed changes to the law, which are currently going through Parliament. The London Standard's Melanie McDonagh is here to explain more. Melanie, first of all, can you tell us exactly how the law is being amended? It means that cyclists who seriously injure or kill someone because of dangerous cycling or careless cycling will face the same penalties as drivers and motorcyclists already do. That was brought in as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that was brought forward by Ian Duncan Smith.

1:21And it's an offence of causing death by dangerous, careless or inconsiderate cycling and causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate cycling. So that means that cyclists will be put on the same footing as motorcyclists and motorists. Well, the change has come about in part due to years of campaigning by families who've had loved ones killed by reckless cyclists. They must be feeling a great sense of victory at this change to the law. Well, absolutely, because I think one of the problems has been that cyclists, because they are themselves so vulnerable to motorists on the road, have a kind of sense of impunity at the moment.

1:58So because of the fact that you feel that you could be run over and legitimately you might fear you'd be run over by a car or a van or a lorry, you feel that on that account that there are liberties that you could take, which a motorist can't. I was knocked down, for instance, at the bottom of Ludgate Hill a few months ago, and they had a fractured rib. And it was the usual sort of scenario whereby it was a pedestrian crossing. There was still time for me to make the crossing, but the cyclist was in a hurry. He wanted to get ahead of the traffic. And so he simply careered straight into me and knocked me over.

2:32I mean, in all fairness, he did stay to help me up. But it is that sense of impunity, I think, that the law only seeks to address. Well, there have been criticisms in some circles. Chris Boardman, for example, former Olympic cyclist and National Active Travel Commissioner for England, has suggested the new laws could prevent people from cycling. Do you think that's a valid concern, especially in shared spaces, such as parks, where there might not be such clear and obvious paths set out to separate pedestrians and cyclists? Yes, I think there are some parks where it's quite clearly marked. I think Hyde Park is probably a pretty good example of marking where cyclists can go and where are pedestrian-only routes.

3:12So I think that it's incumbent on the parks authorities to make sure that that's done. But I think it would be a great pity if it stopped people from cycling. I mean, I've been a cyclist in the past and my son is a cyclist and my daughter. And so I'm keenly conscious of the vulnerability of cyclists. but it simply means that they've got to obey the proper rules of the road. They've got to obey the law. They've got to be conscious of the fact that they can cause serious injury. And it's particularly the problem when a number of cyclists actually upgrade their cycles to make it an electric vehicle.

3:44And that means that the weight of the cycle as well as the speed can be greatly increased. It's not what Zipris has in mind, of course. But I think that it's salutary in two senses. One, that it brings offenders to justice in a way that they haven't been in the past. But secondly, it sends the message that cyclists do have to obey the rules of the road as well as everybody else. They are vulnerable and one's very conscious that they're vulnerable. And of course, every effort must be made to ensure their safety. But at the same time, they can't simply go through red lights at will. And every day they do.

4:15But this law, I think, will be good in that it initiates conversation about cycling safety and the courtesy and civility that cyclists must extend to pedestrians. Yeah, that brings me nicely on to the next point I wanted to raise actually about road safety in general. The Labour government has promised what it says are unprecedented levels of funding to encourage more cycling, which most people would agree is a good thing to get people active and out and about. And some of that money, of course, will be spent on more cycle paths and networks. But should some of the funding also go into education on the safety of riding a bike, do you think?

4:52I mean, when I was younger, everybody seemed to take part in a cycling proficiency course at school, but that's not something I hear about anymore. Yes, exactly. I think that when you get a bike, then you should be encouraged to take part in a cycling proficiency course for your own safety as much as anybody else's. Obviously, one element of that is going to be taking care on those junctions where cyclists are particularly vulnerable. But it's also going to be a matter of reminding cyclists of their duties in terms of respecting pedestrian crossings and respecting traffic lights. And I think that it's absolutely right that we should try and put more resources into education.

5:29I suppose that some of it could be done online, but I think it's more important that you have, in schools in particular, some means of physically to demonstrate what all this entails. And it is fairly simple, but it does need teaching. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a really interesting topic, particularly given the rise in the use of e-bikes around the city, which is something we talked about on yesterday's podcast. At the moment, anyone can pick up an e-bike and cycle around the city without having to prove any road safety awareness or knowledge. Do you feel like that's something that should change?

6:03Yeah, I think that that's actually a very valid point that different rules should apply to electric bikes because you have got with a battery an increased weight, as I say, as well as increased speed. And so I think that they're particularly dangerous to pedestrians. So you're absolutely right. We do need to take that into account.

6:24let's go to a break coming up the london marathon turns 45 this weekend and it hopes to celebrate by breaking a new world record find out more in just a moment as the london standards malik joins us with all the latest

6:45Welcome back. This Sunday we'll see the 45th anniversary of the London Marathon as thousands take to the streets to complete the 26.2 mile course and hundreds of thousands more turn up to cheer them on. The London Standard sports writer Malik Uzia joins us now. Malik, the London event already holds the world record for being the most popular marathon after 840 ,318 people applied through the public ballot for 2025. But it's also hoping to take the crown as the actual largest marathon in the world for the first time. What needs to happen on Sunday in order for that record to be claimed? Well, a couple of things, really.

7:26I mean, so New York has the record at the moment. It's done in terms of how many people cross the finish line rather than the start line. So New York has the record 55 ,646. Paris actually came very close to beating it a couple of weeks ago, almost accidentally. I think a surprising proportion of runners finished that race and they're only, I think, 150 odd away. But yeah, in terms of London, it's going to have enough starters, so long as a decent proportion of those who've signed up, kind of do this last bit, go and get their race pack from the Expo and turn up on the start line on Sunday. You do obviously get some late dropouts with injuries and stuff.

8:00So that's step one. And then, yeah, step two, they need to get more than that, 55 ,646 across the finish line at the end of 26.2 miles in what might be some difficult conditions, as I think we're going to talk a little bit about later. Yeah, absolutely. We'll come on to that. So there'll be a whole array of runners, of course, taking part this year. What will likely be some of the fastest times that we see? Yeah, so on the men's side, the course record was set a couple of years ago by Kelvin Kipton, who's the world record holder, is sadly no longer with us, but he ran 2.0125. I mean, anything down below 2.02 would be incredible, but it is a stacked men's field.

8:36I think probably the most interesting runner is Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda. He's running his first ever marathon. He absolutely smashed the half marathon world record in Barcelona a couple of months ago. So a few unknowns with his first marathon, but if he gets it right, he could go very quick indeed. On the women's side, Peris Jep Chercher, she won it last year. I was actually at an event that she was at last night and she was talking about it. She set the women's only world record, which have been Paula Radcliffe's, I think, that she broke that last year, two hours, 16. I mean, the world record for women is more than six minutes quicker than that.

9:09It got knocked off in Chicago last year and just one of the most staggering world records we've seen. So I don't think we'll see anything close to that. But maybe that women's only mark could be in trouble again. And in amongst the mix, there's always a healthy dose of celebrities taking part. Which names can we look out for this year? Yeah, a bit of a mixture. I've been plenty of ex-sportsmen. I think Sir Jason Kenney's doing it. Andrew Strauss has done it before for the Ruth Strauss Foundation, named after his late wife, but he's roped in Alistair Cook, his fellow former England opener, to do it this year as well.

9:39I noticed that Jack Wilshere, the former Arsenal midfielder, was on the entrance list. But this week he was named interim manager of Norwich, who've got a couple of games left in the championship. So whether he's going to be able to get away from duties there to run, I'm not sure. Away from sport, Romesh Ranganathan did it last year. He's back. Alexandra Burke's doing it again. And then one that I suppose is sort of crosses the divide between celebrity and elite runner is Alex Yee, the Olympic triathlon champion, who's doing his first ever marathon. But of course, being the Olympic triathlon champion, and he's got quite a good background in running, he's hoping to run kind of down near the 208, 209 sort of mark.

10:16Like he's in the elite field. Yeah, we interviewed him this week for the print edition and he was on great form. Looking forward to it. One aspect of the marathon that lots of people quite enjoy are the novelty costumes that people also run in. Have you got any inside information on what we might see this year? I don't know about inside information, but I was over on Hampstead Heath a couple of nights ago and there were one or two people. There was someone dressed in sort of a combination of a postbox and a parrot. I'm not quite sure what it was, but they were obviously trying out the costume before the big day.

10:44But there'll be all sorts out there and plenty of them going for world records as well. The most interesting bit might be there are three different people who are all trying to set the world record for the fastest marathon dressed as a knight. So I don't know whether they know each other or they're running together, but that could get pretty tasty if a couple of them are close to each other heading into the last few miles. We mustn't forget, of course, it is a massive fundraising event as well. How much money will likely be raised for charities and good causes? Yeah, I mean, in terms of estimating this year's, it's difficult because obviously a huge amount of the donations that people asked for end up coming in on the day of the race and in the aftermath as well.

11:19I mean, last year,£73.5 million was raised. That was a new record breaking the mark set back in 2019. So the biggest since the pandemic as well. But historically, it's raised over£1.3 billion for charity since it was launched in 1981. And that's particularly impressive given I don't think the charity aspect was kind of a massive part of it when the race first launched. It was more kind of an amateur runner pursuit, but it's obviously grown in that side of things. And yeah, you can definitely expect a massive total again this year. Well, we mentioned it slightly earlier on, but the weather forecast is looking pretty warm for Sunday.

11:53That'll be great for the crowds, of course, watching along the route, but it might present a few challenges for the runners. What sort of precautions will they be needing to take? Yeah, I mean, it's cruel the way this works out, isn't it? Because the elite runners who are the ones best designed to cope with it, and they've probably all been off warm weather training. They start the earliest and are out there the least amount of time. And meanwhile, it's the everyman who's out there for five hours as it gets hotter and hotter through the day. I did it a few years ago and it was pouring with rain the whole time.

12:21We were soaked before we started. So I've not got that much sympathy, I'd say. But you're right, they'll get great support from the crowd. And yeah, I mean, the hydration is obviously the number one thing of huge amount of water stations every few miles on the way around. So they certainly won't want for it on that front. I think what's probably good is that sometimes in the past, you've had people doing their training all through the spring in cold weather and then suddenly there's a hot weekend. Whereas at least we have had, you know, we had that period a few weeks ago, probably when a lot of people were out doing their longest runs when it was warm.

12:50So maybe it's not going to come as a complete shock to people. But yeah, I think just go easy through the first few miles and see how you go, I think. And finally, Malik, what time do proceedings kick off on Sunday? Yeah, so stuff gets underway. Early doors, the elite wheelchair races go out first. 10 to 9 they start followed by the elite woman at 9.05 and then it's the elite men who kick off right at the front of the mass start so 9.35 they start and yeah the mass event it takes as you can imagine a good hour and a half two hours to get that many people across the start line so a long stagger and yeah people are running pretty much all day into the early evening from there.

13:26Well if this year's event inspires you to put your trainers on the public ballot for the 2026 London Marathon opens today.

13:37And that's The Standard. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. And if you'd like to get in touch, drop us a line at podcasts at standard.co.uk. This podcast will be back on Monday. Until then, have a great weekend.