Chris Froome rammed "on purpose" - bike destroyed - by hit and run driver in France

handlebarcam wrote:

I've been seriously hassled by drivers in France three times in total, although never resulting in injury or damage, and two of those the car had UK licence plates.

Yes, the British - worst drivers in Europe....except we're not by a long shot.

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

handlebarcam wrote:

I've been seriously hassled by drivers in France three times in total, although never resulting in injury or damage, and two of those the car had UK licence plates.

Yes, the British - worst drivers in Europe....except we're not by a long shot.

British roads are certainly safer for motorists than, say, Italy's. Indeed, our roads are some of the safest in the world in that regard. It would be interesting to see how our stats for cyclists compare to the continent, however.

daturaman wrote:

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

handlebarcam wrote:

I've been seriously hassled by drivers in France three times in total, although never resulting in injury or damage, and two of those the car had UK licence plates.

Yes, the British - worst drivers in Europe....except we're not by a long shot.

British roads are certainly safer for motorists than, say, Italy's. Indeed, our roads are some of the safest in the world in that regard. It would be interesting to see how our stats for cyclists compare to the continent, however.

Yep, Italy and the UK have similar population sizes (around 60 mill - plus or minus a few mill) but Italy has around twice the level of fatalities on its road network/year that the UK does. In the UK the road fatality rate has been around 1750 or so/year for the last five years or so. Yes we do have a slightly higher percentage of cycling deaths, but still fewer than Italy.

Bear in mind that Thailand also has, broadly speaking, a similar population size to the UK and Italy (around 60 mill, plus or minuse a few mill). It has 11 times the road fatality rate/year that the UK does.

Anyone who says we have the worst drivers in the world in the UK is basically talking out of their arse.

One fun fact to know - in Western Europe Belgium has the worst drivers, without doubt. the country has twice the level of fatalities/year of Holland next door, and about 1 1/2 times that of France.

OldRidgeback wrote:

One fun fact to know - in Western Europe Belgium has the worst drivers, without doubt. the country has twice the level of fatalities/year of Holland next door, and about 1 1/2 times that of France.

Amazing! Whenever I make may way over to the continent, I do genuinely always think that the Belgians are by far the most cretinously careless and unskilled drivers. I'm allowing myself a wry smile that my experience is backed up by facts.

Christopher TR1 wrote:

Fame and fortune are no protection from these idiots in cars.

That's it isn't it. Doesn't matter who you are, as soon as you hit the road on a bike, you're a vulnerable target playing the odds of being done in by some scumf*ck.

steviemarco wrote:

Sabotage! Just because he'll probably win the TdF this year and  a French rider won't. Sad really. I always get told by friends who ride abroad that the car drivers in France and Spain are a lot more tollerant of cyclists and will wait behind for a safe place to pass and even wave them on as they're passing, the driver was probably British?

or Australian 

steviemarco wrote:

Sabotage! Just because he'll probably win the TdF this year and  a French rider won't. Sad really. I always get told by friends who ride abroad that the car drivers in France and Spain are a lot more tollerant of cyclists and will wait behind for a safe place to pass and even wave them on as they're passing, the driver was probably British?

sorry but your assumption that the driver is British is simply BS.

Having visited/cycled in France many times over the last 27 years the standard of driving over there varies as widely as it does here. Only last week (in france) I had a WVM try to scrape DNA off my elbow instead of using the completely empty lane to his left and more than a few mickey poor passes and drivers pulling out of side roads in town centres. then there was the woman who decided a roundabout wasn't worth going around in a village and the motorcyclist who thought he could bully his way in front of my car when there was a red light ahead.

yes the vast majority are okay but I wouldn't say fantastic, the cycling death toll in france is much worse than the UK and is on the increase not going down as per for all road incidents.

2015 final results Incidents 56, 603 Killed 3,461 Injuries 70, 802 hospitalisations 26, 595
2016 estimates 57, 251/3.469/72,199/27, 214

since 2010 cycling deaths have gone up by 8% and other modes have gone down (except pedestrians), so please stop with the BS speculation about it being a British driver hitting Froome and how great drivers the french are, they simply aren't.