The amount of hate for cyclists

[Shaun]

I've removed a few posts and issued a temporarily exclusion and would ask that you get back on-topic and give the personal tit-for-tat a rest please.

Thanks,
Shaun

As to the comments and observations - does some of the poor behaviour of some cyclists come from a sense of entitlement that they've paid a fee to the Sportive organiser and therefore feel they 'own' the roads / areas for the day the event is being run - despite them not being "closed" or otherwise licensed events?

 

[ufkacbln]

I've removed a few posts and issued a temporarily exclusion and would ask that you get back on-topic and give the personal tit-for-tat a rest please.

Thanks,
Shaun

As to the comments and observations - does some of the poor behaviour of some cyclists come from a sense of entitlement that they've paid a fee to the Sportive organiser and therefore feel they 'own' the roads / areas for the day the event is being run - despite them not being "closed" or otherwise licensed events?

A bit like the Echo grinkers who have paid "Road Tax" and hence feel an entitlement?

 

[Bollo]

As to the comments and observations - does some of the poor behaviour of some cyclists come from a sense of entitlement that they've paid a fee to the Sportive organiser and therefore feel they 'own' the roads / areas for the day the event is being run - despite them not being "closed" or otherwise licensed events?

I realise I'm probably on a yellow so will keep very on topic!

One thing I think is relevant is that all sportives are not created equal, but span the range from genuine hardcore challenges, such as the London 100 and probably the Cheddar Gorge run, across to more relaxed, everyones-a-winner style fun rides. The vibe I picked up coming across yesterday's New Forest run was IMO very much the latter. I may have just crossed the path with a few tail-enders, but it didn't seem overly aggressive, intrusive or otherwise badly behaved. I can believe there are issues with the more high-profile and 'higher-end' rides, but I'd still stop short of making sweeping generalisations. It's easy to mock the stereotype of the cycling-is-the-new-golf MAMIL sportive rider, but most of the people taking part are really just trying to test themselves, keep fit and have a good day out.

 

[Cuchilo]

This comment is a new one to me:
Cyclists:
Remember you have to give way for passing motorists by ensuring an adequate space ahead of you for them to overtake and pull in to the left when they may need to.
????

Thats a cracker that one eh Time to re-sit their driving test i think !

 

[Winnershsaint]

One suspects that most of the bile in the comments below the article are from non-Forest residents. the sort that hang out at the back of the Northam on home games and constantly sing about the Blue Few down the road.

 

[fullcycle]

I take alot of articles like this with a large pinch of salt - tabloids will always twist/contort/bend the truth ( or sometimes just blatantly lie ) to create interest or a story where there isn't one.

If you scroll through the pictures on there I really can't see the people in them being the type to swear at other road users/ use the roadside as a toilet (so the article says). They just seem like normal people enjoying their hobby

As for the comments on there - god only knows what people are reading these article's a lot of them must not have their brains attached

 

[Bollo]

Here's a link to the BBC South Today report on the wiggle event and a wider safety campaign (starts 40 seconds in). As @fullcycle has just pointed out, it's not exactly the London Alleycat, is it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08l29qb/south-today-weekend-news-09042017

(Don't worry @Drago - I know it's the beeb but the segment is short enough that you're unlikely to catch socialism.)

 

[winjim]

If you scroll through the pictures on there I really can't see the people in them being the type to swear at other road users/ use the roadside as a toilet (so the article says). They just seem like normal people enjoying their hobby

Isn't weeing in a bush pretty normal behaviour? By all means try and be a bit discrete about it, but we've all done it, haven't we?

 

[Slick]

Yes, but don't tell the Donald.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...rdeenshire-staff-photographed-urinating-woman

 

[fullcycle]

Isn't weeing in a bush pretty normal behaviour? By all means try and be a bit discrete about it, but we've all done it, haven't we?

Yes done it myself many a time and will continue too. I was more referring to how the article worded it as if there was dozens of cyclists doing it in the open without abandon which as we know is not the case

 

[Winnershsaint]

Isn't weeing in a bush pretty normal behaviour? By all means try and be a bit discrete about it, but we've all done it, haven't we?

A good many years ago when road running superseded football as my sporting activity of choice I ran the London Marathon. Nothing unusual in that you might say and you would be right. Remember sticking to the pre-race advice to drink well only to find In Greenwich Park there were no trees and huge queues for the available toilets. As Terry Waite (yeah it was that long ago) waved us through the start I really needed a pee, and so did loads of other runners around me. If my memory serves me right the first few miles went through road where the houses had hedges out the front which were a like a magnet for the runners with full bladders. Residents were out in force shoo-ing runners away either at their driveways or mid leak in their garden. Remember thinking at the time how anyone would have the affront to go onto someone's property and take a leak. Never seen cyclists acting like that. For the record I joined a group around an ornamental rose planting somewhere along the B210.

 

[PK99]

[QUOTE 4754500, member: 76"]I am torn on this one. Living in Cheddar we get lots of sportives going up through the Gorge, there is one tomorrow. .[/QUOTE]

I posted her previously about riding down Box hill with a sportive going up and being almost forced off the road as the sportive riders took up the whole width

 

[youngoldbloke]

"Remember you have to give way for passing motorists by ensuring an adequate space ahead of you for them to overtake and pull in to the left when they may need to."
[QUOTE 4755644, member: 9609"]probably a few drivers could take some notice of this - if someone is coming past make a bit of space to allow them back in, even if they shouldn't be overtaking there is no point in keeping them on the wrong side of the road to make a point, if there is an accident the chances are it will be an innocent road user that suffers.[/QUOTE]
That's good policy when you are driving - even if the overtaker was in the wrong you don't want to be involved in the consequences of a head on collison. The implication of the original advice appeared to be that cyclists should slow down, drop back, stop even, every time a vehicle overtook them, that it was our responsibity to enable unhindered progress by the motor vehicle, and not the responsibilty of the driver to make a safe manoeuvre.

 

[Tiger10]

If a car wanted to pull in between cyclists it should indicate, just as you would expect it between cars surely?

 

[benb]

Do erudite people not hate cyclists, or do they just keep their anger in check?

As a general rule, irrational hatred of a group is an indicator of stupidity, or at least a lack of education.