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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To get wound up at cycle races on public roads

192 replies

Ilovemyself · 21/05/2013 23:07

It is so annoying to me when I am on a journey and come across a gaggle of cyclists on an organised race. Quite often they are 3 or 4 abreast and all over the road.

Racing on the public highway foe motorists is a serious offence. Why are cyclists allowed to race.

OP posts:
Technotropic · 22/05/2013 12:43

So what are the events that are signposted and have large numbers of cyclists riding in a pack? The cyclists are also sometimes numbered - why if they are not racing?

Unfortunately I've seen these selfish pigs on bikes with numbers too. Often they're selfishly trying to raise money for some lost cause like Cancer Research or the British Heart Foundation. Flipping joke if you ask me Wink

ChewingOnLifesGristle · 22/05/2013 12:45

Horses do leave humungous steaming piles on the road thoughWink Don't think cyclists do thatGrin.

What concerns me most are people in control of two tonnes of car getting 'infuriated' 'irritated' and 'wound up'. Oh dear that's when accidents happen. Calm down it's not all about you and your car. They are legally allowed to time trial.

Technotropic · 22/05/2013 12:47

It can be hairy when you're driving along at 70, suddenly come up with someone doing half your speed on a bike, and have someone in your blind spot preventing you from passing

I often have this problem too but only when I'm looking as far as the tip of my bonnet when driving.

Top Gear top tip. Look a bit further ahead and you will see things approaching in the distance. If you do this you will find your anticipation will improve no end.

Is this for real or were you taking the pee?

LifeHuh · 22/05/2013 12:47

"the other is still learning and it scares him when a car comes towards him on HIS side of the road, and he wobbles. Not because he can't ride a bike, but because he is still learning how to ride safely and courteously on the road. Unfortunately motorists don't always show him the same respect"

He should not be on a public road."

So where should ne be ,Lazeyjaney? He can't legally be on the pavement.

SanityClause · 22/05/2013 12:48

You'd be surprised, Chewing. DH said in a sportive he was in last year, loads of cyclists had a Radcliffe moment. Wink

LessMissAbs · 22/05/2013 12:48

I really do find these cyclist-attacking/hating threads depressing. Its indicative of the way modern Britain is heading, almost as if we are developing into two races - one with well adjusted, reasonably tolerant people who exercise and have a balance lifestyle, and the other who behave like boors, becoming irritated at the presence of other people, who move from concrete box (house) to tin box (car), barely seeing the light of day, and who have tantrums whenever their artificial progress is disrupted, even though they are probably doing something far less important than the cyclist in question, who is probably training for a race, not simply going to the shops. Or who have no concept of fitness and ability to be competitive, who think there is no difference between cycling slowly and that there is something inherently wrong with having the gift of self-propelled speed.

Why do we see more threads about hating cyclists than hating boy racers, joy riders, drivers with no insurance or MOT, etc?

The reason time trialling developed quite well in the UK is because it was traditionally so difficult in British society to get police permission for road racing, and time trialling is not technically racing, because the riders are racing against the clock, not each other.

I have no idea why Box Hill is considered more suitable for cars than cyclists - it is a very difficult route to drive on quickly and is popular with people doing sport or activity of all kinds. Why you would want to driver fast round there in a car, I cannot comprehend, unless you have awareness only of a very limited sector of the human race and have never considered challenging yourself physically.

Chopstheduck · 22/05/2013 12:49

Grin at the horse shit!

Marathon runners have to pee sometimes don't they! I've been caught short and peed behind a tree on trail runs before now Blush I've drawn the line at doing it on the road though so far...

Ilovemyself · 22/05/2013 12:51

I feel the same about inconsiderate road users of all sorts. But when cyclists are travelling as a pack, unaware of what is going on around them that is when there is a problem.

The events I refer to are local to me - the Buckinghamshire countryside. At least they have warning signs so you know in advance, which is a positive.
And on at least one occasion I have had a pack coming down a steep hill using both sides of the road. Is that really on.

I am only too aware of being a vulnerable road user. I have ridden a motorcycle for years and people do not pay attention to other road users, be they on foot, 2 wheels, 4 wheels or on horse back.

OP posts:
LessMissAbs · 22/05/2013 12:54

Its not as if I'm never inconvenienced by other drivers. But I wouldn't dream of ranting about how little tax people in cars smaller and less powerful than mine pay, about how they have wiped 20 seconds off my best time to the shops because their small car can't accelerate as fast as my Mercedes. Why? Because that would make me an ignorant arsehole. Neither would I assume they were less important than me, or poorer, because they choose to drive a cheaper vehicle. I really do find some people who make the assumption that cyclists are somehow poverty stricken, non-tax paying sub-humans, simply because they are not at that precise moment in a car, very maladjusted.

hopingnothopping · 22/05/2013 12:57

Hmmm.. I wouldn't believe this sense of entitlement to sole ownership of the roads was real were it not for stories like these:

road.cc/content/news/84284-nofolk-bloodycyclists-twitter-story-hits-local-national-headlines-cyclists

OP, have my first ever Biscuit

Lazyjaney · 22/05/2013 12:57

"Lazyjaney - so how is he ever going to learn? He can ride a bike fine, he has been cycling on two wheels since he was 3, he has cycled miles with me, he just needs to learn the confidence to hold his road space, which he can ONLY learn by being on the road"

IMO too many people have the view that a public road is an extension of the school playground, village green, etc etc.

It's not, it is a place where metal vehicles of more than one ton in weight travel quite fast, and cannot stop dead in a step or two, it's basic physics not motorist wankerdom. Add to this all the signage, other traffic etc they are having to continually monitor, the last thing that should be on a public road is a small child that can't cycle properly

ballinacup · 22/05/2013 12:57

Chopstheduck, I'm not debating with you about whether cars are more dangerous than cars. I'm saying that cars have the potential to cause damage to property or persons. Therefore, their riders should be insured against that risk before they enter a public highway.

Poledra · 22/05/2013 12:58

Re horse-shit on the road - was anyone else ever mortified by their parents running out with a bucket to collect the deposits to put on the roses? I swear my dad used to run to the windows when he heard hooves going by to look for a raised tail!

ballinacup · 22/05/2013 12:58

And if I looked at what I was typing, I would have written BIKES have the potential to cause damage.

Technotropic · 22/05/2013 12:58

LessMissAbs

I was just talking about this today and it's sheer ignorance and stupidity that people still think we have Road Tax in the UK. It really does beggar belief that some people can be that stupid but reading these kinds of thread, doesn't surprise me one bit.

ChewingOnLifesGristle · 22/05/2013 12:59

'I really do find some people who make the assumption that cyclists are somehow poverty stricken, non-tax paying sub-humans, simply because they are not at that precise moment in a car, very maladjusted.'

Brilliantly put LessMiss. I applaud thatSmile

In France there isn't this demented fury levelled at cyclists but here they're fair game. A very worrying percentage of people are boiling with temper whilst in control of a car. Not a good combination.

Rufus20 · 22/05/2013 12:59

I had a funny incident on my bike last week. A friend and I are cycling along a road, two abreast, having a chat, when a car comes up from behind - I'm about to move over when he beeps for a good few seconds in an aggressive way, and then drives past - window down - get out of the f**king way! We must have held him up for maybe a second - it was a joy to see his little angry red, puffy face

Goldmandra · 22/05/2013 13:00

There are no cycle races on public roads. It doesn't happen.

So the three idiots racing up the dual carriageway last weekend overtaking each other without checking over their shoulders and nearly going under my wheels in the process as they fought to be first across the clearly marked "Finish Line" weren't racing then?

That will be a great consolation to their families at their funerals Hmm

It may well have been technically called a time trial but, believe me, the testosterone had taken over and those guys were racing.

Racing cars is banned on the roads because it makes people behave like idiots. It is OK for cyclists to do it because the only people they kill are themselves?

ShadeofViolet · 22/05/2013 13:00

Dont come to south Cambridgeshire/North Essex - they are here every weekend and they often ride in packs.

Rufus20 · 22/05/2013 13:04

There's confusion here - if there are races of some sort, there will be signs out - so drivers need to take care - if there are multiple cyclists on the road not racing, guess what, drivers need to take care - it really isn't difficult

LessMissAbs · 22/05/2013 13:07

IMO too many people have the view that a public road is an extension of the school playground, village green, etc etc

IMHO (I notice your opinion is not humble, Lazeyjaney), too many people have the view that country roads are motorways and seem astonished when encountering some of the normal users of country roads that drivers share their roadspace with.

There are countries in the world where things like festivals of sport happen, or where the local community supports their young sportsmen and women, such as France, or Belgium, or Germany, or The Netherlands, or many others - and where roads are closed to traffic for races to take place. Or where cycling is so common on rural roads in the evenings and at weekends you would really be frowned upon for driving at anything but the slowest, most careful speed.

Cycling is one of the most popular sports in the world, it really is quite bizarre to read the cycle-hating vitriol on here. I've only ever seen it come from Britain and the US.

Of course, there are plenty of sociopaths behind the wheel, who find it most unreasonable that other people should exist in their roadspace.

LifeHuh · 22/05/2013 13:07

But Lazeyjaney,while the public road isn't an extension of the playgound it is a place that a competent child has a perfect right to be on a bike.Not if they are riding round in circles,but if they are going from A to B with a parent and are a little wobbly faced with other traffic,why not? You can't learn to ride on the road unless you can ride on the road - you could argue that learner drivers shouldn't be on the road after all they are inexperienced drivers in charge of a vehicle capable of doing a lot of damage...

LifeHuh · 22/05/2013 13:09

As a cyclist you soon learn you can't win.Yes,overtaking a long gaggle of cyclists is difficult,the club I rode with asked us to ride two abreast in smallish groups which makes each group effectively car sized.So cars can overtake as they would a tractor,horse,slow car driver... lots of those around.

I got shouted at ,and gesticulated at,by bloke in white van as I rode my bike along a narrowish country lane recently.As far as I could work out this was simply because I had the gall to be on the road as I was in the middle of the left side of the road,saw him coming,accelerated to get to a passing place so I could pull over to make life easier....Still got rude gestures ,arm waving,and shouting indicating I needed to be riding right at the edge of the road and he hadn't even had to slow down. Twit. And the reason I don't ride at the very edge of the road (apart from the potholes,brambles that whip round your face,broken glass,roadkill etc etc) is because riding further out means people like him have to actually make the effort to overtake if they are behind you rather than just squeezing by. So there. Blush

LessMissAbs · 22/05/2013 13:09

Technotropic I was just talking about this today and it's sheer ignorance and stupidity that people still think we have Road Tax in the UK. It really does beggar belief that some people can be that stupid but reading these kinds of thread, doesn't surprise me one bit

I was on one thread once and it became apparent that several posters though the maximum speed limit on dual carriageways was 60mph.

Yes, people really are that stupid.

Technotropic · 22/05/2013 13:16

What I really don't understand is that drivers receive a reminder for their road fund licence every 6/12 months and this clearly gives a cost and classification i.e. CO2 rating, for the car. Buy a Prius and the cost is zero. Yet these halfwits still don't get it. Unbelievable.

I think it's high time there was some sort of ad campaign for the dumbasses out there. Also one could be useful for drivers that haven't twigged that the roads are for lots of different types of people.

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