Sharing is Caring

While I don’t want to join the realms of those who constantly moan about bikes and their riders, and I clearly like them a lot, as a quick look over this blog will show you, I have seen some things that make me irritated in the last week. It just doesn’t seem good to give the anti-bike lobby ammunition when you can so easily not.

The first incident illustrates it perfectly. My ride to work is littered with roadworks these days and nearly all have traffic lights. I pulled up at one which was turning red as I approached, and would be red for a good few seconds before I got there. The rider next to me decided to blast through anyway. He then somehow rode into the back of a BMW going the same way as him as the car braked in traffic to come out of the roadworks at the other end. How little attention do you have to be paying to basically ride through a red light and onto a clear road and then straight into the car several metres in front? I fail to see that the car can have stopped so suddenly the cyclist was taken by surprise and his subsequent failure to stop doesn’t exactly endear any cyclist to drivers. I’ve said it before and will again but as cyclists we need to act responsibly and show that we deserve the equal treatment on the roads that we should get. Breaking the law and riding with that little attention just feeds the arguments.

In the second incident I want to mention I was a driver (albeit one with a bike on the roof of the car). I imagine this one risks more of a backlash from the very cyclists I support, but bear with me. I have brought up my issues with large group rides before as they create a massive block of bikes which doesn’t result in effectively sharing the road or trail. This is really my point; the infrastructure is there to be shared. Taking this to the extreme was the sportive on the roads of the Afan valley last weekend. As I drove up through the valley on the way to Glyncorrwg I came up behind large pelotons of riders filling the road and up to four abreast. The roads were open and so there was a stream of traffic trying to pass, with riders trying to benefit from the slipstreams as well (which would have had them kicked off an actual race). Coming back down the valley later this was added to by riders using the entire side of the road and some even confusedly in the middle of the road after having taken a wrong turn, seemingly unfussed by the queue building.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of road racing, especially if it’s all-out battling on closed roads, and (while it’s not really my bag) I realise that some people only feel happy riding in huge groups where they can pretend to race, or show off the expensive kit they bought last week to the rest of the gang, but there has to be some consideration. The roads were open to traffic and so should be treated in that way, not assuming right to the whole road just because you have a number on your bike. Surely that means riding in a way that allows other road users to pass and appreciates what’s going on around you? You can understand the frustration, especially from drivers who do not also ride bikes, at the self-important attitude of a large peloton on a pseudo-race. Sharing and mutual respect is the key.

I guess before you get upset by this it’s worth bearing in mind that I would share a similar attitude to any large group that dominates a space. So large organised walks taking much of what the individual hiker was looking for from the area, or a large gang of mountain bikers making a horse-rider’s life tricky as they pass would equally get me annoyed.

Anyway, enough of that. This weekend sees more mountain biking of all sorts as the World Cup Hits Val di Sole. Watch all the action on RedBull and get warmed up with your choice of bike video (or watch both), either Steve Peat’s latest webisode on life in the Syndicate,

Or a look at the transmission that keeps the downhill guys going faster:

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