“This is why cyclists ride in the middle of the road”; ‘You can’t criticise my driving, you’re riding a bike’: Strange things motorists say to cyclists; Amazon’s cargo cycles reaction; Edinburgh cyclists take over North Bridge + more on the live blog

We can debate the use of ‘road’ and ‘lane’ until the cows come home, but the below video – flagged in the comments section of yesterday’s live blog by road.cc reader IanMSpencer – neatly illustrates why, despite the views of armchair experts on Twitter (and even some police officers), it’s often best to avoid the left-hand side of the lane as a cyclist… especially when the road in question is lined with parked cars:

This is why cyclists ride IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. This happens so often here where drivers just don’t look before they pull out.#cycling in #Sheffield pic.twitter.com/GEOGg8u2I4

— CyclingInASkirt (@CyclingInASkirt) November 25, 2022

Inevitably, CyclingInASkirt’s post was almost immediately derailed by Twitter users leaping to the defence of the motorist – and, unsurprisingly, completely missing the point about anticipating hazards by riding in the middle of the lane that the cyclist, you know, was obviously making (or maybe it was just obvious to people who have actually ridden bikes on the road?):

Save your excessive use of punctuation.

That's precisely the point. This is why those of us riding bikes do so in this position. Get it yet?

— CyclingInASkirt (@CyclingInASkirt) November 26, 2022

Precisely. Which is why cyclists ride in this position. Which was the point.

— CyclingInASkirt (@CyclingInASkirt) November 26, 2022

The point is to show why cyclists sometimes ride towards the middle. Not that this driver did anything wrong, although they could have perhaps parked the other way round.

— The4Goals (@The4Goals) November 26, 2022

If they had parked in the right side of the road they would have been able to see in their wing mirror.

— Lars Fischer (@lpfischer) November 25, 2022

One Twitter user, missing the mark as spectacularly as Cristiano Ronaldo failing to connect with an incoming cross (and with the same misplaced confidence), also wrote: “Car is well lit. Sees cyclist and stops. She still whines about it. These people are radicalised anti-car extremists.”

> Monday moaning: Why don't cyclists stick to the left of the lane?

Another particularly savvy motorist – as part of some desperate attempt to excuse a stranger’s driving as ideal – even tweeted that it is the cyclist’s “responsibility to anticipate hazards”:

Nah it’s really difficult to see oncoming traffic from that parked position when parked. You have to pull out to get good view. Your responsibility to anticipate hazards.

— Jack Mason 💙 (@LegendMase) November 25, 2022

Which is what CyclingInASkirt was doing of course (I’m getting dizzy)…

It was great road positioning but it appears you are wasting your breath on those who have not ridden a bike since their school days ?

— Darren S (@Badger8882) November 26, 2022

While road.cc reader Ian and a few others astutely pointed out that, maybe, just maybe, drivers should try to avoid creating hazards – while also adhering to the Highway Code:

The driver has a responsibility not to create a hazard. For example, parking against the flow of traffic is poor driving and inevitably leads to a problem when exiting a space. HWC 239:
"do not park facing against the traffic flow"

Whose problem is it now?

— Ian Spencer (@IanMSpencer) November 27, 2022

Maybe read the Highway Code pic.twitter.com/n6vW5j90kB

— Cyclegranny 🚴‍♀️ (@anneramsey740) November 26, 2022

Ian added that it was interesting “that a commenter could think that it is reasonable for drivers to drive hazardously, and a that cyclist is responsible for dealing with it.”

Same time tomorrow, folks?

Judging by the response in the comments and on social media, it seems that most of us have been on the end of some, shall we say, interesting remarks from motorists down the years.

Here’s a selection of some of the best (and most illogical) ones from the comments section and Twitter:

This dilbert told me "If the road is too narrow for me to overtake you, you shouldn't be riding on it." pic.twitter.com/FbptA6tvGY

— Dan M ⚒ 🚲 (@SirArthurIndeed) November 29, 2022

IanMSpencer: BMW turned right from a side turning across my path and then ABS'd hard to a stop to avoid hitting a bus which had been at the stop and I took a tumble (partly self-inflicted due to not anticipating the rather obvious need to stop being fixated on avoiding his rear door and bumper). His response: "Didn't you see me pull out?"

Steve K: I turned right at a roundabout and a car coming from the left almost drove into me.  He then close passed me at a pinch point and shouted "give way to the right on a roundabout", which was exactly what he'd just failed to do.

As a group of us were riding, a vehicle approached us from behind. We waved the vehicle around as it was clear to do so. The driver passed us and then aggressively pulled over, jumped out of his car and begins yelling at us "you made me brake the law!!!". It was a double yellow🤣

— The Blind Cyclist (@Blind_Cyclist) November 29, 2022

JustTryingToGet: I think the weirdest thing a motorist has said [screamed] to me was an old boy going ballistic because I didn't have mirrors on my bike. He was puce, clearly he genuinely thought this was a legal requirement.

Funniest was a bloke who shouted at me that cyclists never stop at red lights... whilst I was stopped at a red light.

Rendel Harris: Had very similar from a police officer two weeks ago: I was riding down the Mall just as they were reopening it for traffic after the changing of the guard, I came to the lights by Saint James's Palace and stopped as they were on red.

A cycle policeman who was riding down the road telling pedestrians to get back on the pavement called out, "Cyclist, the road's still closed, you can go through that red light." I shouted back, "Thank you!"

Then as I got moving again he said, "Cyclists never bloody stop normally, why start now?"

I was overtaking cars on the same lane (interrupted lines on the floor) and a lorry driver on the opposite direction stopped to shout: YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE!
And where should I be?

— massimo amodeo (@MassimoAmodeo74) November 29, 2022

FrankH: "You're riding in the middle of the road!"

This was said to me by a man in a small, Fiesta sized van, while he was driving on the other side of the road and I was riding about a metre from the verge.

avoided injury/death by a lorry driver on phone his excuse:“my uncle has just died” i pointed out that was very sad but doesn’t allow you to use the phone while driving and nearly kill somebody else. then a threat to ‘punch your lights out you c**t’

— Gary Smith (@garysmithphoto) November 29, 2022

Awavey: Guy in a small builders’ truck driving towards me on my side of the road, I was prime in my lane, so we stopped and he said to me "you need to be on your side of the road, I just saved your life by not hitting you". Ok buddy whatever you think.

🙌 For the first time this #CXWorldCup season, @WoutvanAert, @mathieuvdpoel and @tompidcock are facing each other! 😍 Who's in for some CX fun in Antwerp on Sunday? 💪 🏆 pic.twitter.com/LuAw4lKb8N

— UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (@UCIcyclocrossWC) November 29, 2022

The World Cup clash everyone’s really been waiting for this month…

Everyone’s favourite Skye-born two wheeled trickster Danny MacAskill is back, almost two years on from his last edit, with another tea break’s worth of jaw-dropping stunts, this time around San Francisco.

While the film features all the big San Fran hitters – the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Chinatown – my favourite stunt has to be one on the tennis net, just because it feels like something a fourth year would try (and fail) to do before Double Maths on a Friday afternoon…

“Postcards from San Francisco is a true passion project of mine, it reflects pure hard riding that no practice prepares you for,” the Red Bull-sponsored trials rider, who broke his kneecap while filming five years ago, said in a statement announcing the film.

“Some of these stunts have taken over 300 tries to land perfectly, but I’m stronger than ever and will always thrive to push the boundaries of the sport to create progression.”

An absolute classic from the ITN archives here:

“I will not accept that it’s a highly dangerous road”
From ITN archives. pic.twitter.com/snILgnwvPi

— Stephen R Jones 🇺🇦 (@Meliden) November 28, 2022

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tegan Phillips (@teganphillipscomics)

South African ultra-cyclist Tegan Phillips has been forced to abandon her attempt to become the first woman to ride solo between Cairo and Cape Town after she suffered a seizure and was hospitalised two days into her epic trip.

30-year-old Phillips, whose cycling-related comic strips you may recognise, had been planning her ground-breaking cross-continent trek – the overall record for which was set by Scottish round-the-world cyclist Mark Beaumont in 2015 – for over two years, but was forced to pull the plug after experiencing a health scare after riding just over 300km.

“This was *not* the plan,” she wrote on Instagram after returning home to South Africa earlier this month.

“Last week Tuesday morning, I finally left Cairo by bike. Two years of obsessive planning and training and research and saving up and fundraising had culminated in that moment, and I couldn’t have been more excited and proud.

“Last week Wednesday night, I was rushed to ICU after losing my speech and had a seizure at the hospital doors. The next 24 hours do not exist in my memory and were a super scary time for the team, who were unwaveringly practical and wonderful and brave.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tegan Phillips (@teganphillipscomics)

Phillips says that her collapse was apparently caused by a sudden fall in her salt levels, though the reasons behind such a drop remain unclear.

“Naturally, I feel like a complete idiot,” she continued. “Everybody has been so kind, but it would be weird if I wasn’t racking my brain trying to figure out how this didn’t come up in any of my training rides, including the long hot unsupported rides in the Arizona desert, as such a *big* red flag.

“It’s possible that I had a low-grade infection, or hadn’t eaten enough, or or or — obviously I wish I could go back and change whatever it was.”

In another Instagram post from earlier this week, the South African ultra-cyclist said that she has already started to plan, by undergoing health tests as well as exploring the budget and logistical concerns, a fresh attempt at the record in 2023 or, as Phillips herself put it, “finding a responsible way to not give up”.

She continued: “With the blessings of the Adventure Gods and medical professionals, we will be back in February to start again, and to face whatever more obstacles might be on our path, with big smiles.”

360 view of winding up and slinging my partner Ryan Schilt in for the flying lap at Geneva 4day. Sub 9 seconds on a 166m tight track was petty impressive. pic.twitter.com/N5xt7G07yN

— AlecBriggs/ Pedaler (@Alec_Pedaler) November 28, 2022