Just wow

[daemonoid]

Kinda FOTN but cycling related so I decided here was a good choice...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/10766062/Cycling-event-targeted-by-saboteurs-laying-nails-in-road.html

The story itself is just a bit of silliness, but the comments section! Just wow! All the hatred for such a minor bit of inconvenience...
____________________
current: ducati monster 750
past: hyosung gt250r, bajaj pulsar 180, hyosung gt 125 comet
@thomasgarrard | www.straitjkt.com | www.racingseven.com

[stinkwheel]

One concern I would voice is if the roads are genuinely 30 limits as stated in that article. At many points on a sportive, the bikes will be exceeding that speed (tour de France regularly averages in excess of 40km/h and that's including mountain stages).

I would also go so far as to suggest that it takes quite a lot for someone to get up off their arse and organise a campaign against a one-off sporting event like that. They must have really rubbed a fair number of people up the wrong way at some point in the past.

No smoke without fire, cyclists are among the most inconsiderate/ignorant road users I've come across. I do a fair bit of cycling myself and land up being tarred with thye same brush.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[UnknownStuntm...]

I'm not entering another sportive in the UK until this kind of shit disappears. Which it won't.

I got verbally abused by some fat foul mouthed farm type last year, from his ever so high vantage point in his 4x4 that "you and your gay mates can all fuck off outta my way, I got cows in that field over there". To which I responded he's not entirely making any point at all, this developed a near cardiac arrest and him trying to use his vehicle as a weapon to run me over.

Point being, the general population at large don't seem to be behind cycling. So I do it alone.

[JonB]

Yup. I don't enter these sportive events. Ridiculously priced, too many participants. I can understand why road users get irritated.

I ride a lot of Audax events, the biggest field I have known is 200, which is just about manageable.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[D O G]

The pack mentality of sportives results in some excessively wankerish behaviour from cyclists. Wiggle should be ashamed of themselves the way they have turned these events into huge cash cows. Like Jon, I don't ride sportives, they are too big, filled with nobs and they spoon feed you everything. I would like to see some sort of licencing or restriction on numbers.

[akaDAVE]

Open public roads are no place for people to be racing bikes.
'Sportive' / 'time trial', the terms avoid the fact that it is a race, arse up head down and not a fuck given.

I pass an organised 'cycle event' every now and then on my way home on a busy and fast dual carraigeway, in the evening dusk with riders tucked down in the middle of the lane, most without lights.
I am aware of it now so steer clear but have seen many slammed brakes, last minute lane swapping and near misses it makes me shudder.
____________________
GSXR600

[JonB]

A Sportive is not a race.

A Time Trial is, but IMO is safer than a sportive.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.