THERE would seem to be immaculate timing at hand with news of calls for tougher anticycling event laws coming in the countdown to the start of this year’s Tour de France in the UK.

As this paper reports (page 11), National Park chiefs in the New Forest are using the threat of a call on government to bring in sanctions to curb mass cycling events as a way to bring organisers to the table for meaningful discussions.

What is obvious is that talk of a voluntary charter agreed by both sides has failed to ease the concerns of residents and local politicians.

Some claim the charter is toothless and will fail to bring a halt to confrontations between cyclists, residents and those visiting the New Forest.

Central to the debate would appear to be the so-called ‘sportives’ organised by UK Cycling Events who point to the fact they have already agreed to cut numbers taking part in mass gatherings by 20 per cent.

What the French would make of all this we can only surmise. Certainly Hampshire might struggle to attract the Tour de France to the area if it wished for a similar economic boost now visited upon Yorkshire.

But that may be just what some in the park would wish.