The BBC: still getting it wrong on cycling coverage

The one thing we can say, with a collective sigh of relief, was that it wasn’t as awful as The War on Britain’s Roads.

When the news came that BBC Breakfast was planning a week of items connected to cycling, my thoughts returned to that abysmal BBC1 “documentary” from two years ago, a programme which, among many sins, passed off six-year-old commercially-shot film of couriers paid to race each other through London as everyday footage of cyclists.

So hysterical and wilfully misleading was The War on Britain’s Roads, one of the few recent times that non-sport cycling has featured on the BBC’s flagship channel, it prompted the co-chair of the all-party cycling group to call it “irresponsible” and “garbage”. An achievement of sorts.

So, you can maybe understand why I had my worries on learning BBC Breakfast was planning to cover, among other issues, relative trivialities like road rage (again) and cyclists wearing headphones. Surely they couldn’t do it twice?

The good news is no. Or at least not entirely. Having finally watched all the segments (which took a while, as Breakfast isn’t on iPlayer for rights reasons) the conclusion is mixed.