I'm a road cyclist. But I've not been out for over a year, as we got a WattBike Atom to use at home and we hook it up to Strava and Zwift. It's brilliant. Super safe, no risk of aggressive or dangerous drivers (a minority, I know but enough to put me off) and can cycle whenever I like as it's super time-efficient.
I'm hoping to go back out onto the real roads soon but I've lost my confidence a little. We live in the city suburbs, so it's about 10 miles before we can get to the quieter lanes.
My hubby goes out a lot and is training hard for a mountain trip next month. As I'm not on the same level, it wouldn't be fair to go out with him right now. Once he's back home, I'll probably do a few road cycles in October...to get back into it.
He got the bug 10 years ago from his Dad. His Dad used to ride competitively, so taught both of us everything he knows about cycling. Bikes, bike maintenance, training and best of all, how to be safe on the road and use it properly. I.e. Be respectful of everyone else, drivers included. But keep in mind those times when we might need to put our own safety first.
Riding side by side is often very necessary. It forces drivers to see cyclists as they would another vehicle and thus give them more room and courtesy when overtaking. I appreciate how annoying it can be. As I'm a driver myself, but patience is key in these situations.
Another thing I've been taught is to not ride in the gutter of the road. It's where potholes tend to be. Debris. Leaves and branches etc. So I've been told it's safer to just ride out a little bit from the pavement. Not be so close. I can see why drivers who don't cycle might get frustrated with this. But it also smartly makes them automatically give me more room. Safety, you see. Both for me and the driver.
Thing is, we tend to go out early on Saturday or (ideally) Sunday mornings. When there are fewer cars on the road and it's safer. (And we're less likely to annoy anyone!!) But even so, I get so anxious before I leave the house.
I've experienced a combination of mainly courteous drivers with just the odd disappointment. Sadly, those bad experiences do shake me to the core.
It began when I was a teen. When a man got out of his car and screamed at me and a friend on a narrow country lane as we were riding side by side (we do this for safety). He was shouting how dangerous it was. He went to his boot and got out a baseball bat and started waving it at me and my friend. As a teen, I calmly said, "If you cared about our safety so much, why are you waving a bat in my face?" It worked and he left without saying a word. It still haunts me to this day.
This was my first experience of the bad eggs who drive cars. And like other people have said, it's a minority, not the majority. Most people are great.
Amongst the usual abuse (I've been called some nasty things, once whilst they were driving along next to me on a busy road) and dangerous manoeuvres (driving too close behind or overtaking too close), more recently, I had an old gentleman go crazy angry at me, my hubby and father-in-law for cycling side-by-side on a narrow road. Guess where? In a private country park with a 10mph limit. We were doing 18mph, I think. He deliberately kept putting his foot on the accelerator, jerking his car forward in an aggressive manner – as if he implied to run us over. I know there are always two sides to every story but this all happened very fast. I can assure you we were not being a pain and moved safely over to let him pass.
It's scary out there. I'm telling you. In France, where I've enjoyed road cycling once, I couldn't believe the difference in attitudes. The respect you get is unbelievable. The roads are quieter, in better shape and motorists just give you such a wide berth and are really friendly.
One of the reasons we got the VW Cali is so we can leave the UK as much as possible to enjoy safer cycling in France and beyond. I really can't wait.
One last point, there are some terrible drivers out there who don't understand the rules of cycling or how to share the road. That is true.
But there are some horrendous cyclists, too. Who give the rest of us a very bad name. I think both sides should be reminded of a few rules, so we can all use the road safely together. I'm not sure how we'd go about doing this – but it could start in schools and then why not make every driver, as part of their driving test/lessons, learn about cycling, too?
Maybe they'll have a little more compassion for cyclists and remember they're human flesh and bones. A daughter, a sister, a wife... Instead of just an inconvenience that's getting in the way?
