Are cyclists allowed to race on public roads 5617On Wed, 18 May 2005 17:34:19 GMT, "Jeremy Collins" Actually it's not quite that simple - this view confuses the transitive and intransitive meanings of danger. Motor vehicles are safe for those in them, but...
As were the idiots on the A374 last year. I don't care whether they only pbutt each other if and when they catch up, there is incentive to get around the course as quickly as possible and some (or should that be most) throw caution to the wind.
Back to those idiots: I was driving in a queue of slow-moving traffic at the time the local cycle club were having a time trial. The traffic was moving slower than the compebreastors wanted and so they rode furiously down the left-hand of the queue with some banging on the sides and roofs of vehicles to "encourage" them to pull over to the right, which the drivers could only do by moving into the path of oncoming traffic.
When I eventually reached the cause of the hold up, I found it was a lady cyclist (not dressed in lycra and her bike didn't look like one used for time trials) who was in the process of extricating herself from the hedgerow - no doubt forced there by overzealous time triallers.
IMO, there should be no sport with a timing element on open public roads - be that motor vehicles, cycles, horses, or even on foot. Such events inevitably include an incentive to go as fast as possible and can lead to compebreastive instincts displacing safety.
-- Geoff Lane Cornwall, UK
