Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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With credit to Tom Lehrer:
Almost every day during the hunting season you see at least one item in the newspapers about somebody who has shot somebody else, under the impression that he was a deer with a red hat perhaps, maybe a large flesh-colored squirrel.
Road rage is widely tolerated as well. But it seems there are less fatalities in France than in UK if I believe those reported here (« only » 2 cyclists died last year in Paris)
In the 90s I lived in the Corbière region of France in a mountain biking paradise. In the end however I just stopped riding through the hunting season as I lost count of the number of times I would come round a bend to have someone swing roung pointing a loaded shotgun in my direction. I figured I was pushing my luck every time I went out. The worst time would be after lunch when they'd had a few glasses of wine. They never seemed to abide by the protocol of keeping the breech open until ready to fire.
BTW the hunting lobby in France is very strong so stories like this never seem to make it into mainstream media. However when I was there there was on average one death every weekend of the hunting season - the victims were usually other hunters.
C'est la vie!
Amazing what people will tolerate just because that's the way of things.