johnr
Über Member
- Location
- Grand depart 2014 county (east)
Beat this one.
Yesterday I'm pootling towards Mount South Cave in a freezing gale - so not feeling on top of the world. I come up behind a couple of ponies and traps. They're trotting along about 10 mph or so, and discretion being the better part of valour, I decide to follow them up the hill rather than overtake and have panting steeds up my bum all the way.
All's going well, I leave about 10 yards or so, and on the lower slopes maintaining that distance is not a problem. HOWEVER, then the traffic gets involved.
As we all know, it is the first rule of the road that if there is space in front of a cyclist it's imperative that any self respecting driver pull into it. Now, once they're in between me and the horses schizophrenia hits.
The poor dears can see me right behind them... so (rule 2) they hit the accelerator; but, five yards later... there's a nice horsey! So they slow... but, oh my g*d, the cyclist is still there!
Each of four cars went through the same dodgem manoever before deciding, 'stuff road safety' and zooming round said animals.
SO, about halfway up the hill (just at the steepest part) the rearmost horse decides its had enough - either that, or the fresh shoots on the far bank looked too tempting - so it does a sharp right and clambers onto a steep bank, pulling trap and passengers on as well.
The two blokes in it jumped for safety and the trap turned over... much swearing and waving of sticks etc. I decided that rather than watch the rest of the drama unfold, I'd get my Wiggins shoes on and start the breakaway early.
That's all very well in theory, but by the time I was up to the lead trap, it was being brought home to me again that Bradley Wiggins, I'm not. I got by them, but it took me a good 5 minutes to start getting cross with those drivers!
They've got 'horses, good', 'cyclists, bad' pretty much down round here. But, 'horse-cyclist! horse-cyclist' clearly doesn't compute.
Yesterday I'm pootling towards Mount South Cave in a freezing gale - so not feeling on top of the world. I come up behind a couple of ponies and traps. They're trotting along about 10 mph or so, and discretion being the better part of valour, I decide to follow them up the hill rather than overtake and have panting steeds up my bum all the way.
All's going well, I leave about 10 yards or so, and on the lower slopes maintaining that distance is not a problem. HOWEVER, then the traffic gets involved.
As we all know, it is the first rule of the road that if there is space in front of a cyclist it's imperative that any self respecting driver pull into it. Now, once they're in between me and the horses schizophrenia hits.
The poor dears can see me right behind them... so (rule 2) they hit the accelerator; but, five yards later... there's a nice horsey! So they slow... but, oh my g*d, the cyclist is still there!
Each of four cars went through the same dodgem manoever before deciding, 'stuff road safety' and zooming round said animals.
SO, about halfway up the hill (just at the steepest part) the rearmost horse decides its had enough - either that, or the fresh shoots on the far bank looked too tempting - so it does a sharp right and clambers onto a steep bank, pulling trap and passengers on as well.
The two blokes in it jumped for safety and the trap turned over... much swearing and waving of sticks etc. I decided that rather than watch the rest of the drama unfold, I'd get my Wiggins shoes on and start the breakaway early.
That's all very well in theory, but by the time I was up to the lead trap, it was being brought home to me again that Bradley Wiggins, I'm not. I got by them, but it took me a good 5 minutes to start getting cross with those drivers!
They've got 'horses, good', 'cyclists, bad' pretty much down round here. But, 'horse-cyclist! horse-cyclist' clearly doesn't compute.