The Cycle Show Series 4

[Rooster1]

What was this weeks climb? I missed the programme but will catch it up at the weekend.

 

[martint235]

What was this weeks climb? I missed the programme but will catch it up at the weekend.

Fleet Moss

 

[AndyRM]

I've not been back since the joke that was the first series, but it does make me laugh that they've used a song about cars to advertise it.

 

[mjr]

I don't know, I think a bit less lycra and a few more women and kids going shopping and to school on their bikes would be good.

Maybe not every week, but maybe it would be fun to look at the Quaxing idiocy? Local politicians keep spouting nonsense about how cars are essential even when their deeply rural wards have 1 in 5 cycling to work, school and shop (one example I know has a large local employer and its village roads simply wouldn't work if they were all motorists).

The item on the Woking cycling club made a step towards saying that slower riders exist and are catered for, but they were all still in full cycling uniform complete with helmets.

Helmets which are mandatory for that club according to their rule sheet for new riders. Ordinary-looking people still completely invisible and minorities even more so. That was a missed opportunity to look at rides that welcome everyone, such as the Reach Ride or groups like Freewheeling Abingdon or Stourbug.

Look what happened to Top Gear when the programme makers just gave 'the public' what they thought 'the public' wanted.

Yes, that's what we want. Some racing but more fun! Fun makes all types of cycling good and that joy doesn't always come across in the tales of race crashes, broken collarbones and slogging it up steep hills... although he did well verbally to sell the view at the top of this week's climb... shame the pictures didn't really reflect it IMO.

Maybe mine is a minority view. Let's see what the viewing figures are. I've only found up to 5 July so far and it appeared after that. It'll be interesting to see if figures drop when it's not following the TDF.

 

[Rooster1]

Fleet Moss

I need to move to Yorkshire

 

[ColinJ]

What was this weeks climb? I missed the programme but will catch it up at the weekend.

Fleet Moss

Yes, Fleet Moss, last item on the show, at about 55 minutes in.

I watched a few programmes from the first series but was not impressed so I gave up on it. I started again with this series and it does seem a lot better. I put it on in the background while reading, and pay more attention when something interesting comes on.

Speaking of the Fleet Moss climb ... If anybody fancies joining me for a forum ride walk over it, come along on July 25th! (See my current signature link below.)

I am not taking us over such steep hills for 'bragging rights' (look at the photos of the ride we did in 2011 and you will see some very unflattering ones of the fat, sweaty version of me walking the top section). That is what the Yorkshire Dales are like - stunning valleys accessed via tough hills.

 

[coffeejo]

But what a pity the anchor guy opened the discussion about cyclists' safety with, 'How can cyclists and drivers share the roads without killing each other?' and no one picked up on it.

Strikes me that the question really should be "how can people share the roads with other people...?"

"A manhunt is under way for a driver who stabbed another motorist to death after a collision between their two cars."
BBC

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I'm with @mjray on this one, so what if it does become a tad niche (2% modal share of the roads, we're already niche) The sports stuff gets an airing already, albeit road racing totally dominates. I'd like to see articles with people cycling to get to the shops wearing jeans and a jumper sections now and again just to show it can be done and not to reinforce the stereotype that cycling must mean masochists slogging up stupidly steep hills or doing 10, 000 mile rides, hipsters hooning down glaciers or apparently normal people living the MTB dream from a caravan the size of a bathroom.

None of them are me or ever likely to be any more than I'm going to Mark Cavendish the last 100 yards home.

They're all facets of cycling in the same way ferraris, porsches and £300,000 supercars are facets of driving, but presented in a way that makes you realise how dull Top Gear would be if not presented by pantomime buffoons.

It won't ever appeal to a mass audience the way TG did because people don't find bikes sexy and its editorial style is not that way OTT but there's only so much World of Sport niche (cyclo) sport even most normal cyclists will go for before it all gets too dull and samey.

 

[mjr]

...how dull Top Gear would be if not presented by pantomime buffoons.

What? You didn't enjoy the bigot, the buffoon and the geek? I'm shocked to read such things on this forum

It won't ever appeal to a mass audience the way TG did because people don't find bikes sexy and ...

If that's true, then that's where @User really may be right about my viewing preferences not reflecting a mass audience. I do think some bikes are good-looking (sexy is going a bit far IMO but I'm sooooooo English ) and I do like a nice Bianchi, some vintage steel, or a bike that's flirting with the UCI minimum weight. I suspect there are actually a lot of people who are interested in a little bit about the bikes because when our compatriots do well on the velodrome, then there's too-obsessive-even-for-me features about the bikes, at least since Boardman's Lotus and Obree's Old Faithful. So far, this series and the last only seems to mention the bike tech briefly when it's really unusual - a spiked tyre fat bike and a vintage track bike - what was there on yesterday's? But compared to everything outside the racing rut, this seems like a fairly minor omission to me.

Thaaat reminds me: vintage track bike: did they really hold the ends of the bars all the time and not tuck down with the hands beside the stem once they got moving?

 

[Sandra6]

It's better than nothing, but its far from brilliant. I find the presenters incredibly annoying, and things like the feature on hill climbs are just boring.

 

[Sea of vapours]

It's better than nothing, but its far from brilliant. I find the presenters incredibly annoying, and things like the feature on hill climbs are just boring.

It's tricky for a magazine type programme to be good for everyone throughout the slot; it's just so broad. For example, I only really watch it for the hill climbs feature and wouldn't watch it if that wasn't in there.

 

[Rooster1]

Yes, Fleet Moss, last item on the show, at about 55 minutes in.

I watched a few programmes from the first series but was not impressed so I gave up on it. I started again with this series and it does seem a lot better. I put it on in the background while reading, and pay more attention when something interesting comes on.

Speaking of the Fleet Moss climb ... If anybody fancies joining me for a forum ride walk over it, come along on July 25th! (See my current signature link below.)

I am not taking us over such steep hills for 'bragging rights' (look at the photos of the ride we did in 2011 and you will see some very unflattering ones of the fat, sweaty version of me walking the top section). That is what the Yorkshire Dales are like - stunning valleys accessed via tough hills.

Would love to join you, seriously - unavailable sadly. I will add this to my wish list of rides

 

[Ron-da-Valli]

I don't know why you criticise Anna Glowinski, I thought her slot was nice

 

[ianrauk]

I don't know why you criticise Anna Glowinski, I thought her slot was nice

Her slot was nice - she was rubbish.

 

[martint235]

I don't know why you criticise Anna Glowinski, I thought her slot was nice

Yep not great at interviewing but who's listening?