Recent comments

at this moment all i can say is fuck you pro cycling. theres a dirty shit in every team seemingly.

lance being busted was one thing but the entire peletons old guard who are nurturing the youth.

utter shits, thats right, shits

The incident happened on 22 July. Why has this only emerged now? Surely there should have been some sort of urgency to prevent the nutter who did this from targeting someone else?

they would only do that if it was a cyclist doing this to a motorist, then the daily wail would be up in arms about the lycra louts

nothing less than attempted murder in my opinion too. F*****g scum

When oh when will the authorities see this kind of attack as nothing short of attempted murder?

He talks about ordinary human behaviour as if it's quantum physics (reasons for aggression being 'unknown'). If you talk to people, with a bit of imagination and empathy, you might understand some of the variety of reasons people in cars express aggression towards people on bikes. For instance, variations of 'I'm driving my expensive car and here's some little jerk on a bit of cheap junk taking up space on the road I've paid for'. Perceived variation in social class, perceived difference in degree of rights with an associated moral superiority if you want to put it into jargon to make yourself and what you're saying sound more important.

From an evolutionary psychology perspective, each group is a tribe, with tribal hostilities. A primitive part of the brain wants war. This part of the brain simplifies, sees all cyclists as the same and wants to stomp on them. Some people are closer to, and more inflenced by, the primitive parts of the brain. Some appear not to have developed much of the more advanced regions of the cortex, and all they can do is issue ape grunts like 'you don't pay no road tax you shouldn't be here roads are for cars'. One we had today was 'f****ng ride in single file' when three of us were overtaking another cyclist.

There are obviously many personal factors which magnify aggression in any given situation. A build up of frustration from previous events, from life in general, right down to what happened at the last two sets of lights. The next cyclist you see doing something irritating gets the outcome of the build-up. They are a 'legitimate' target, they've been the cause of annoyance so many times before.

It doesn't take a psychologist to realise the obviousness of a contrast between figure and ground is more visible than white-on-white or whatever. And how does he know that 'wider audiences' find it difficult to swallow that high vis clothing isn't always the best thing? That sounds like an unscientific generalisation borne of an unfounded, prejudiced assumption. It is also vaguely insulting: if they didn't already know, then as soon as you pointed it out to anyone that contrasting clothing stands out more than clothing of a similar colour to the background, they are going to get it. Saying that they don't or won't is like saying most people are stupid, whereas 'psychologists' know, they are the superior tribe.

Anyway, higher visibility clothing, whether he means trade team tops or fluo vests, are going to be more visible most of the time than, say, grey and black, or camo outfits, because they DO contrast with more backgrounds than dull clothes. Most backgrounds are on the dull side most of the time. We are not cycling against a background of fluo yellow, or even white houses, for much of the time.

There's so much wrong with this article. The analogy with vegatarians is another example. Veggies are not perceived to be infringing on people in/on their own property (i.e their vehicles - getting in their way, getting away with things drivers would get fined for (red lights etc), freeloading on 'their' roads, startling them, going faster than them in traffic etc etc.

13 Nov11 : 1 point 102.3km : Totals 1 point / 102.3km
03 Dec11 : 1 point 102.7km : Totals 2 points / 205.0km
01 Jan12 : 1 point 100.3km : Totals 3 points / 305.3km
19 Feb12 : 1 point 100.2km : Totals 4 points / 405.5km
11 Mar12 : 1 point 105.8km : Totals 5 points / 511.3km
22 Apr12 : 1 point 102km : Totals 6 points / 613km
13 May12 : 1 point 102km : Totals 7 points / 715km
30 May12 : 1 point 103km : Totals 8 points / 818km
17 Jun12 : 1 point 100km : Totals 9 points / 918km
01 Jul12 : 2 points 210km : Totals 11 points / 1128km
26 Aug12 : 1 point 119km : Totals 12 points / 1247km
02 Sept12 : 1 point 128km : Totals 13 points / 1375km
13 Oct12 : 1 point 104km : Totals 14 points / 1479km

Not exactly the kilometer-munching year I was hoping for, but very pleased to have completed the challenge

"It’s easy to identify other minority outgroups whose behaviour similarly challenges social norms but who do not get verbally and physically attacked like cyclists do: vegetarians, for example.

This may be just a poor analogy, Vegetarians and cyclist may be one of the same, a minority (deviant in the sociological sense of the word) outgroup. However, treatment of vegetarians vs cyclist by a socially dominant group will be different,the following factors could all play a part.

1. Competition for a resource(s).

2. Proximity.

3. Perception of a goal impediment.

4. Perception of personal and others safety/vulnerability & responsibility for personal choice.

Any outgroup will therefore come into conflict to a lesser or greater degree with a dominant cultural norm dependent on these and other factors such as awareness.

I would agree that if awareness is an issue then

"Compulsory cycling as part of driver training would be an ideal solution."

Yet being aware does not always modify behaviour to a socially significant level or for those who would benefit most from the greater awareness. A prime candidate as an example could be the five a day campaign or should that now be seven following recent research.

Can we start the 2013 season now??? I am missing it already.

As long as it doesnt become too easy to pick the top nine riders , and few peopled pick similar squads it will be good.

I liked the way this season it helped if you picked the random riders who won a stage or broke away and just picking the top six in the gc was not always best.

i don't think you're quite understanding how it would work. for a start the values will be based on a year of form to the date of the race, not just last year's race. And although the prices will be weighted according to what kind of stages are in the race, neither that nor the year's form will be a perfect indicator of race form. there'll still be bargains, and expensive flops.

Also, i'm not sure why you think that the riders most likely to win shouldn't be the most expensive? yes you could do okay just picking favourites, but it's not going to get you the win, and anyway you won't be able to just pick all the favourites because you'll run out of cash. the four most expensive stars for a race would likely use up all your budget.

I do want to see a change. I like the flexiblity of using them when you want to, after they've been earmed. I do like the way we accrue them, I just think once you earn them, they should be used at will...

I'd be ok with removing this rule. I mean, you have to deal with the consequences of having them in your roster later... Why not go up to 3 per team?...

I do think it's the rule... I think there comes a point in every Grand Tour when your Stars won't be the guys scoring the most points and to have to choose 4 Stars hampers you and may prevent you from catching up to the competition leaders, who may be playing it safe at that point in the Tour...

Sometimes you have to resort to picking someone who will provide you with the certainty of GC points, for example, because you have to have 4 Stars... but as TER says above, you'd have gladly put in a DS...

I wish, again, that if it's going to be a requirement to have Stars, that the requirement be brought down to 3 Stars or even 2, but I still prefer the flexibility of having the Star restriction be an upper limit and not a requirement...

Dave, what are your thoughts on the number of Stars for next year? Are you inclined to keep the 4 Star requirement? Can you drop it down to 3 Star Riders, if they're going to be required to be filled? ...

Not nearly as corny as DaBrim.

Easside da bes.