“Everybody hates you!” Fuming phone driver abandons car in traffic and confronts Cycling Mikey; Aggressive car culture putting women off cycling, report finds; Stop peeing in bottles, Giro warns riders; Mallet’s mechanical mayhem + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“Everybody hates you!” Fuming phone driver abandons car in traffic and confronts Cycling Mikey for “picking on people”
Anyone who’s ever heard of Cycling Mikey will know that he’s had his fair share of hostile confrontations with fuming motorists over the years.
So you’d have to clear a pretty high road rage bar for Britain’s most infamous camera cyclist to describe you as the “nastiest” and “most unpleasant” driver he’s come across all year.
But that’s the rather inglorious accolade Mike bestowed upon this particular female motorist – caught using her phone in traffic – after she leaped out of her car to have it out with the famous online figure:
“F*** you,” she told Mikey, real name Mike van Erp, after he tapped on her window while she sat in traffic looking at her phone (which she said she was doing to check on her ill child).
“I was stationary,” she points out while standing in the street, to which Mikey replied: “It’s still illegal.”
“What is wrong with you, picking on people?” the woman, who appears to be aware of Van Erp’s online notoriety, continued.
“What have I done? Have I caused any harm to anyone? You’re a horrible person. Everyone here hates you. Who hates this guy? Everybody hates this guy. We know who you are. You’re a horrible, horrible man.”
“I couldn’t give a damn about your opinion,” Mike replied.
After a bit of back and forth about the legality of the motorist’s actions (she claimed that her engine was turned off and the car was stationary), the driver asks Mike: “Do you get a better sleep at night doing this to people?”
This whole thing – it’s hard to describe it as a debate – lasts for over three minutes, before the motorist returns to her car, which has been left in the road blocking the traffic the entire time.
“This was quite the most unpleasant and nasty driver behaviour that I caught in 2025. I thought her behaviour was really shocking,” Mike posted today.
And the result? The motorist was sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution, with Van Erp noting that she likely ended up with six penalty points and a £200 fine.
“Drivers don’t know what it’s like to be a cyclist”: Aggressive car culture, speeding, unsafe roads, and bigger vehicles putting women off cycling, new report finds
A lack of safe, protected cycling infrastructure – combined with the increased size of vehicles and an “aggressive” car culture – are putting women off riding bikes in Ireland, a new government report has found.
The ‘Empowering Women to Cycle’ report, published by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, is the first of its kind in the country to be commissioned by the state, questioning why women do or don’t cycle, and what would encourage them to ride a bike more.
The researchers surveyed over 1,000 women from urban, suburban and rural areas, while also carrying out workshops, interviews, and inviting them to record ‘travel diaries’.
The report found that most women in Ireland can cycle and have access to a bike, but are only half as likely to choose cycling compared to men. Only three per cent of women surveyed had never cycled and almost 70 per cent considered themselves “confident” cyclists, according to the report.
Nevertheless, the researchers found that women complete just 1.3 per cent of their trips by bike, while for men it’s three per cent.
Notably, 76 per cent of the women surveyed also agreed that cycling is “enjoyable”, while over a third believe that cycling is for transport, and not just for sport.
However, just 22 per cent agreed that carrying out everyday journeys by bike is the norm where they live (compared to 52 per cent who disagreed), while almost half (47 per cent) stated that cycling is dangerous.
“Women in the workshop observed how urban sprawl and car-based land-use planning has left many with little practical option but to travel by car,” the report noted.
Workshop participants told the researchers that the “characteristics of road traffic in Ireland are changing”, thanks to an increasing “car culture” and “aggressive” driver behaviour. “
Women’s concerns revolve around high traffic speeds and volume, as well as the increasing size of vehicles,” the report said.
One women was quoted in the report as saying: “I think the majority of Irish drivers do not know what it’s like to be a cyclist in Ireland. I believe if they cycled Irish roads for even just a week, they would understand cyclists much more.”
Another interviewee said she lives a mile from the nearest town, but said the road was unsafe to cycle on due to the “huge volume” of traffic.
“The cars just fly along, and people pull into the hard shoulder to let somebody overtake them. So it’s not safe, really,” she said.
So, how can we make things safer? By building better, well-protected cycling infrastructure.
Just under 30 per cent of survey respondents said protected cycle lanes would encourage them to cycle more, 27 per cent called for well-lit routes, 25 per cent said they want better-connected bike routes, and 22 per cent called for better protection at junctions.
“We have lanes that are supposed to be for cyclists and instead people park their car there,” one respondent said.
As we’ve seen in other reports into women and cycling, potential abuse also emerged as a key factor in deterring women from riding bikes.
“Sometimes I just get unpleasant interactions with groups of men or groups of teenage boys that’ll yell something at me as I’m going past,” one female cyclist, based in a city, said.
“I once had some teenage lads try and step in front of me while I was cycling, and made to grab my bike, and I just had to yell at them and go round them.”
However, others noted that cycling can prove safer for women than walking.
“If I’m out and I’m passing a bunch of young lads and they’re menacing or fooling or whatever, I find if I’m walking it takes a while to get past them, but if I’m cycling I’m past them fairly quickly. So, it kind of increases the safety in those situations,” one said.
Another city-based female cyclist said: “I actually never felt unsafe because I felt that I was on a getaway vehicle.”
Giro d’Italia organisers warn riders to stop taking the piss… by peeing in bottles and throwing them away
Looks like it’s time for every cycling outlet in the world to update their ‘how do riders pee during races’ feature, then.
Because the Giro d’Italia’s organisers have explicitly warned the peloton against relieving themselves into their water bottles, before tossing them to the side of the road.
(Mostly because some eager kid might pick it up as a souvenir and be intrigued by the magical contents hidden inside, and be put off bike racing for good, I imagine.)
Normally, of course, riders either stop at the side of the road to take a nature break, or pee on the move (sometimes aided by an unfortunate teammate), usually on a quieter, rural stretch of the route, where there won’t be too many spectators in the splashback zone.
> How do Tour de France cyclists pee on the bike? Your comprehensive guide to in-race relief
But it seems that the frenetic nature of modern racing and the lack of abandoned roadside have forced the peloton to reach for their bottles, as a sort of on-the-go urinal.
In a message attached to the bottom of yesterday’s jury report, the organisers told the peloton: “To respect the image of cycling and the Giro d’Italia, the Organiser and the Commissaires’ Panel inform all riders that urinating into a bottle and subsequently discarding it is strictly prohibited.”
While no riders were named and shamed in the report, Lotto’s Lennert Van Eetvelt was fined 200 Swiss Francs for “urinating in front of the public during the race at km 33” during yesterday’s stage.
Meanwhile, Jayco AlUla’s Christopher Juul Jensen was handed 200 CHF fine and docked 25 UCI points for “disposing of waste or other objects outside of litter zones, while David De La Cruz was fined 500 CHF for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour and damage to the image of sport”, an incident apparently related to a bottle, his Pinarello Q36.5 team has said.
Urinating in bottles may be the new marginal gain for the 2026 peloton, but at least it’s not as bad as Tom Simpson’s ‘number two in a cycling cap’ trick from the 1967 Tour, eh?
“Disqualify any moron that does that”
It looks like a few of you aren’t overly impressed with the peloton’s latest toilet hack (though, as one fan noted on Facebook, sports directors and mechanics have been utilising that particular technique in the team car for years).
“Pissing in bottles and throwing them to the side of the road is forking disgusting, and the UCI fine for that should be a *lot* more punitive than CHF 500,” Paul said in the live blog comments.
“First saw this in the Tour a year or two ago, with Campenaerts doing it. And it’s just incredible behaviour. Littering bottles is one thing, littering them with pee inside so anyone who finds one gets a disgusting surprise is just mind-boggling. Disqualify any moron who does that.”
“I’ve been racking my brains to try and think of what the point is, are they somehow claiming that they are not breaking the urinating in public rules if they use a bottle?” asked Rendel, who then took the topic into quite graphic territory.
“We probably don’t want to go too far into the logistics but I’m struggling to see how anyone could manage it without at least partially displaying the crown jewels to any spectators, so they would surely be breaking that rule anyway?”
After having a stab at explaining the logistics of it all (I’ll leave you to browse the comments section for the finer details), poor Paul continued: “They’re doing it cause using the bottle saves them peeing over themselves and the bike.
“It has all the same public urination issues as without (which are generally ignored), except it adds this really ferking disgusting piss bottle thrown into the verge issue to it all. Disqualify them I say.”
Don’t sit on the fence now Paul – or else you’ll probably be pelted with a pro cyclist’s pissy water bottle if you do.
Mallet’s madcap mechanical misadventures
It was quite the weekend out on the bike for live blog stalwart – and children’s entertainment legend – Timmy Mallett.
Mallett, known around these parts for riding his Giant e-bike around the British Isles, was cycling in Shetland on Saturday – as part of a trip in memory of his late brother Martin – when his chainring snapped off, leaving him stranded by the side of a blustery road:
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Nice overshoe look you got there, Timmy.
Fortunately for our favourite nattily attired e-biker, following his social media call for help a local marine engineer (oddly enough) came to the rescue, and was able to come up with a temporary fix, welding the crankset back together… only for the rear mech to come apart in his hands:
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“That’s not normal,” Mallett helpfully pointed out on social media. Ouch.
But Shetland salvation was on hand once again, in the form of local cyclist Robin Atkinson (a veteran of the Island Games), who met with Timmy before breakfast yesterday morning, fitted a replacement derailleur, and sent him back out on the road.
“I’m back in action on my Timmeeee bike (2022 Giant Explore 1 model with the coast of Britain and Ireland under its wheels)… which I didn’t expect so soon,” Mallett posted yesterday.
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“New Giant bike parts are coming from my good friends Lewis at AW Cycles Reading on Monday and will be with me this week in the northern Isles.
“There is kindness and generosity in the DNA in these islands. Everyone knows everyone and they have all come out to help me, with smiles, equipment, and reassurance. I’m so touched and there is a special place in my heart for the lovely people here.
“Thank you. Every Shetland mile on my wheels is treasured.”
Stealthy saddles, sleek Rapha sunnies, and a new Brompton are all the rage on this week’s Five Cool Things
Reims to host 2028 Tour de France Grand Départ, as race set to move forward a week to accommodate LA Olympics
I know, I know. We haven’t even had Barcelona yet, never mind Edinburgh.
But the first details concerning the Grand Départ of the 2028 Tour de France have been announced this afternoon and, drum roll please… it’s going to be in France! And here was you thinking home Grands Départs were an endangered species.
Starting in Reims, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s home city, the Tour’s first four stages will take place within France’s northeastern Grand Est region. No stage routes have been unveiled just yet, but ASO has confirmed that, alongside Reims, Charleville-Mézières, Épernay, Metz, Thionville, and Verdun will host the race’s opening phase.
By the time Reims ’28 rolls around, it will have been three long years since a French city last kicked of the Tour, since Lille in 2025. Reims hosted the Grand Départ way back in 1956, when sprint supremo André Darrigade won the stage and pulled on his first ever yellow jersey.
The Tour has visited Reims on 20 occasions, the last time in 2019, when it served as the start of a stage to Nancy, won by Elia Viviani (though stage three of the 2022 Tour de France Femmes started in the city). Andre Greipel won the last time the Tour finished there, in 2014.
Metz, meanwhile, also has a long history with the Tour, offering an insight into his politico-cultural influence. It was first visited back in 1906, the race’s fourth edition, back when Metz was still a German city, becoming the Tour’s first ever foreign destination.
The other big news from today’s announcement is that the 2028 Tour de France will start about a week earlier than usual, on Saturday 24 June, in order to let the race finish in time for the start of that year’s LA Olympics.
It’ll all be here quicker than you know it.
Do cyclists have any business doing triathlons? Alex Dowsett isn’t so sure
Nothing makes you question your life choices more than a series of increasingly grim-looking race photos, as Alex Dowsett – who took on his second ever triathlon at the weekend in Maldon – can now attest:
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Remind to never even think about doing a triathlon, okay?
Ready kids? It’s time for counting with Jonas Vingegaard
Jonas remembers everything that’s ever happened to him – even that year when he won nothing:
I’ve seen the future of urban planning and its name is… err, bike-throughs
So Oatly – you know, them from the EF kit – have opened what they’re calling the world’s first ever ‘bike-thru’ in Amsterdam. And it looks pretty cool:
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Just give it a few weeks though, it’ll be full of teenagers desperately trying to avoid revising for their exams.
Proper rest day vibes
I’m a big fan of the e-bike photobombers behind Picnic here:
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“What was in the past can’t be really measured against what we’ve currently got today. It’s not up to me decide if something is good value or not”
If you were wondering why Callum was missing from the live blog on Friday (and you were forced to put up with me instead), that’s because he spent the afternoon down at TNT Sports HQ, where he watched that day’s Giro stage with The Breakaway™… and asked one of the channel’s top execs about the future of cycling on the telly:
Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lane? #254,892
There’s hundreds of spaces in the underground car park at Aldi Sandyford, but there’s always one git who insists on blocking the cycle lane outside instead.
— Rob O’Mhantain (@mhantain.bsky.social) May 16, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Giro d’Italia round-up: Dominant Vingegaard strikes again with 50th career win on mountain-top finish, as pink jersey Eulálio impresses but says his “perfect” race is “done”
Well, that was a fun weekend of sport (except for the FA Cup final, which was rubbish of course).
On Saturday (or part one of our Giro weekender), we were treated to a few hours of flat-out, junior-style racing, dodgy tactics, stupidly steep hills, and another UAE masterclass on the road to Fermo, as Jhonatan Narváez soloed clear from the break to win his second stage of this year’s race.
The Ecuadorian champion took advantage of UAE’s numerical superiority in the break (and the diesel that is Mikkel Bjerg) to dispatch Uno-X’s Andreas Leknessund on the many brutal kickers that littered the finale, as the massive group of chasers failed to sort it out and stop bickering to close the gap in time to the leading trio.
Narváez’s double means that UAE Team Emirates already have three wins at this year’s Giro – despite losing three key riders in that mass crash on the second day. Scary to think what they’d be like with a full team…
And you may remember that I got a bit excited on Friday’s live blog about the prospect that Jonas Vingegaard wasn’t quite on top, top, top form, despite the Dane smashing the climbing record for Blockhaus that afternoon (we live in hope, eh?).
Well, any doubts – as overly optimistic as they were – were firmly banished yesterday on the Corno alle Scale, as Vingegaard secured the 50th win of his career with another very impressive summit finish display.
The stage was mostly controlled by Decathlon, after Felix Gall’s promising showing on Blockhaus saw him emerge as the Giro’s pretender to Vingegaard’s throne. Gall did launch an attack, as expected, one the final climb, dashing Giulio Ciccone’s hopes of an epic breakaway win.
But Vingegaard easily matched it and then dropped the Austrian with a kilometre to go, putting 12 seconds into his biggest rival for pink. In fact, the Dane’s only wobble on the climb was his slightly shaky victory celebration, that’s how dominant he is (and why we still don’t fully trust him riding no-handed).
Davide Piganzoli’s third place ahead of a resurgent Thymen Arensman underlined Visma’s superiority at the race, while former winner Jai Hindley took a hit, losing 50 seconds. His Red Bull teammate Giulio Pellizzari fared even worse, getting dropped early and shipping 1.28 after suffering from stomach problems.
One rider who wasn’t struggling, however, was pink jersey Afonso Eúlalio, who fought valiantly to finish fifth on the stage, losing just 41 seconds to Vingegaard. That means he now holds a 2.24 lead over the Dane heading into the second week – but with a 42km time trial on the cards tomorrow, Eúlalio’s approach to the race is very much ‘mission accomplished’.
“It’s perfect, my Giro is done,” he said after the stage. “I’ve made it to the rest day in the maglia rosa. I don’t know what my limits are, but to finish in the top five is crazy for me.”
Fair play.
Late drama at Itzulia Women as Mischa Bredewold pulls off heroic downhill chase to win overall title
Meanwhile, over in the Basque Country, the Itzulia Women went right down to the wire, as SD Worx’s Mischa Bredewold descended like a demon to hold onto her overall lead in a frantic final 10km in Donostia.
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Bredewold had led the race from start to finish, but was dropped on the Mendizorrotz climb, falling 30 seconds behind a leading group of seven. But after flying down the last descent, the SD Worx rider made her way back to the front in the last kilometre, sealing an enthralling GC victory as Dominika Włodarczyk won her second stage of the race.
Yara Kastelijn finished second overall, as Britain’s Lauren Dickson took third on GC, arguably the best performance of her career so far.
Time for your Monday morning cycling history lesson… Oi, no messing around at the back!
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The spirit of this ride is that a superhuman rider pedals every bit of the route. She did that.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head- mountain bikes are now mainstream, with brands relying on their sales volume for the profit of the company as a whole and consumers knowing what they want. We also expect more from our bikes and constant failures would be unacceptable, I remember when head tubes snapping was a semi regular occurrence to hear about. We have had incremental improvement- geometries are longer and slacker, suspension is more responsive, tubeless tyres are great, disc brakes work, derailleurs don’t break and gear ratios are now appropriate for application. I wouldn’t drop £6k on an out there bike that might not last and might not work well, and I don’t think many people would or could. It’s the price of mountain biking being many stream. If you want something wacky buy a tt bike
Not to be a negative Nelly but is swapping between a Road and TT bike in the spirit of this ride?
It’s American English. Nice-looking bike, a shame about the harsh ride.
who don’t want disc brakes or tubeless tyres I DO want disc brakes because they're better, and I DON'T want tubeless tyres because they're a right faff.
Very pleasant to read such a positive article. A rare treat here.
Regardless of whether such a test would be workable, Carera's remarks are stupid and naive. Of course there might be doping. That spectre will never go away. Some of Pogaçar's performances are just insane, they beggar belief. Is he doping? I don't think so. Can I be 100% sure? Of course not.
I'm predominantly a roadie, and I might be wrong so please don't shoot me down, but I think the article is as much about innovation and creativity in the bike industry (plus the debate about, if it ain't broke, stop trying to fix it!). I'm sure innovations in road have crossed to MTB but in recent decades a lot of innovations in MTB appear to have made there way to Road - disc brakes, tubeless tyres, groupset & derailleur designs including bigger cassette ratios etc. - which again I appreciate there's plenty of road purists out there who don't want disc brakes or tubeless tyres, but love them or hate them, these features are now the standard when you buy a road bike. Cheers, Andy
Caravaggio let you use his picture? If not then be careful as from what I’ve heard he’s got quite a temper.
How dare you road.cc. Now I'm back to "0 days without seeing a MTB" and my Friday evening biscuit is a total write-off.
42 thoughts on ““Everybody hates you!” Fuming phone driver abandons car in traffic and confronts Cycling Mikey; Aggressive car culture putting women off cycling, report finds; Stop peeing in bottles, Giro warns riders; Mallet’s mechanical mayhem + more on the live blog”
Sharing a thought here, as many non-cyclist friends don’t believe me. I cycle around a variety of urban, semi-urban and rural roads in the north of England. I reckon that about once per hour or so of riding, I get someone in a vehicle – almost exclusively male – winding down their window to randomly shout abuse at me, telling me to get a car, get off the f-ing road, or something like that. Mostly it is people overtaking, sometimes people travelling the other direction. And completely unprovoked, not reacting to anything I may have done, other than existing as a cyclist.
Am I unique here? Does this chime with other people’s experiences?
@the little onion Unfortunately it isnt just you. South of England here, I’d say just as common, especially if beeping of horns and finger gestures are included.
Not including fingers and horn beeps here. They are lower effort abuse than winding down windows to shout abuse.
@the little onion yep – twice in the last 6 months I’ve been making my way along a quiet two lane road. No vehicles behind me and no drama. Until. On each occasion the driver of a vehicle coming the other way, and in no way affected by me minding my own business on the other side of the road, decided to roll down the window as they passed, to drop a C-bomb on me.
No need for any conflict or interaction of any kind in that situation, it’s just pure narrow minded abuse.
@the little onion A friend and I had one of each between us – I was waiting at the top of a long-ish climb and had a wa@*ker sign directed at me. When my mate got to the top he said that the same passenger had shouted at him as they passed him!!!
I’m sure they thought they were hilarious.
@the little onion less often than every hour, but at least once per week.
Another benefit of separate cycle infra: I can’t remember a time when motorists have abused me for cycling on cycle paths *.
On the roads – well, I’m an “other” and “in the way”!
Abuse – maybe not every hour but on a long enough ride some combination of abuse (horn, revving engine, shouting) is not unlikely.
And of course poor / threatening driving – close pass, being cut up, failure to look or respect cyclist priority etc.
Breaking the law but “not crime we’re interested in” – speeding, occupying ASL, driving and then parking on footway / cycle infra – ubiquitous.
I think it’s all part of the same picture. I think we could police it a little (better), I don’t believe we can “police it better”. I think that only comes from longer-term changes (moving away from motoring transport dominance; people making a greater fraction of journeys by walking and cycling).
* Exceptions: a couple of (occasional?) pedestrians angry / fearful at having to share with cyclists; the dodgy types occasionally driving motorbikes (possibly stolen) there. But I wouldn’t expect consideration from the latter!
Where policing can help maybe – the last couple of months in North Edinburgh there has been a spate of (really quite young) yoof shouting at cyclists, playing chicken, throwing things (sometimes from bridges which could be serious), blocking paths with things etc. TBF this kind of thing seems to be cyclical. I wonder whether they’ll grow out of it before they get cars (if they’re ever able to afford them)?
Hi. Thanks for sharing this and your experiences chime with me. Perhaps not quite as frequent as yourself though I do experience hostility and aggression, both verbal and non-verbal (e.g.rapid acceleration and harsh braking close behind me or close proximity pushing past or through, for example) from many motorists.
The level of anger and impatience is truly appalling from some motorists, along with the endemic incompetence on display within the motorist community generally. It is a sad state of affairs and it seems that many road users have forgotten how to share space that we are all entitled to on our roads.
@the little onion Hmm, it’s not quite as often as that for me as a regular London cyclist, but it does happen. Close passes in London are very common.
I’m on vacation at the moment in France. Cycling here is very different. Ok, so I’m in a fairly rural area where holidaymakers are common and there are loads of cycle lanes, but even on the road, it’s of note how drivers give cyclists space. We rented bikes for a few days and gave them back yesterday but had no issues at all with any drivers, despite racking up some distances. If anything, we had more issues with other cyclists, many of whom are clearly very inexperienced or very rusty at being on two wheels.
@the little onion I live in the south east and most drivers are OK. The usual shit driving is obviously prevalent so people overtaking on blind corners and some people overtaking too close but I think I have only ever had 2-3 people shout anything any me. Unfortunately with the wind noise and someone shouting out of a moving car, its hard to tell if they were being nice or nasty but I can probably guess.
I cycle outside probably 150 times a year and have been doing so for 3-4 years now if that gives you an idea how rare it is.
@the little onion Riding in to work this morning, a Defender passed me just before a corner, so I shouted and waved. A pick up came the other way, if it had been 5 seconds earlier there would have been either a collision between the two vehicles, or yours truly would have gone off the road to avoid the Defender cutting back in to not collide with the oncomig car. Further shouting from me saw the Defender slowing, on another corner, passenger window coming down and the two of us having a “discussion”. His final words when I had finished asking him if he thought he was a good driver were “wanker in lycra”. All I have done is shout after him.
Similar incident the week before, an Audi passed me on another corner, another car was coming the other way which would have been far worse if it had been a few seconds earlier. Again I shout, this time the Audi brake checks me but I manage to miss it, and the driver says “What’s your problem?” after I complimented him on his brilliant driving.
I justify the shouting and waving because I think there is a chance it will make them think the next time they are about to pass a cyclist badly. I can not just suffere in silence, but I’m not a fighter by any stretch.
I reckon I get a close pass every 15 minutes or so, and this is on quiet rural roads in Sussex. I’m increasingly avoiding tarmac roads because it just isn’t worth the stress.
@the little onion
My guess is that You, on Your bike, makes the male driver (it is almost always men drivers being abusive I assume) feel emasculated as they aren’t “tough” enough to be on a bike themselves.
Thus they feel the need to lash out.
The same reason so many of them hate seeing cyclists on the roads, moving at a reasonable speed whilst they can be delayed in rush hour traffic.
When they see adverts for cars showing them being used on empty roads, but the reality doesn’t match that.
So they’ve spent, usually, £thousands but still can have the same or lower average speed as a cyclist.
@the little onion on my LEJoG, I got a horrible close pass in northern Scotland, but I only recall one instance of being shouted at from a vehicle. It was a couple of teenagers on a busy road near Glastonbury. No idea what they were shouting, though.
Out of 100, I’d say 15 % unattentive or distracted behind the wheel, 5% reckless drivers, 1% complete nutters, 0.1% potential murderers.
Roads where I used to cycle 3 or 5 years ago are now off-limit due to over-sized cars, high speed and aggressive driving. Also noticed that, when I tell a motorist they commit an infraction, they jump out of their car, eager to punch an old cyclist in the face. Theese people are violent inside and outside their vehicles.
@the little onion-
Cycling in London barely at all. Even out in the Surrey/Kent countryside the odd overly aggresive pass, but haven’t experienced much random abuse like that.
@the little onion no, its not just you, its not just the north and its not just the UK. Seems to be common in all the English speaking countries of the world. Fairly common here in Aus.
Memorably, I once spent six weeks cycle touring in Spain & Portugal without a hassle, caught the ferry back to the UK and was just about forced off the road while being sworn at within the first half hour in the UK
I wouldn’t say unprovoked abuse was an hourly occurrence when riding around London (although plenty of “provoked” abuse for doing terrible things such as taking priority when the Highway Code says I have it and so forth) but yes, certainly at least once a day; out in the countryside (Kent, Sussex and Surrey, mainly) at weekends it’s a very rare ride when it doesn’t happen two or three times, with groups of young men in “hot hatches” the worst culprits (think Inbetweeners and “bus wankers!”), always worse in the afternoons when the passengers and quite possibly the drivers as well have been enjoying a liquid lunch down the pub.
Pissing in bottles and throwing them to the side of the road is forking disgusting, and the UCI fine for that should be a *lot* more punitive than CHF 500.
First saw this in the Tour a year or two ago, with Campenaerts doing it. And it’s just incredible behaviour. Littering bottles is one thing, littering them with pee inside so anyone who finds one gets a disgusting surprise is just mind-boggling.
Disqualify any moron who does that.
@Paul J I’ve been racking my brains to try and think of what the point is, are they somehow claiming that they are not breaking the urinating in public rules if they use a bottle? We probably don’t want to go too far into the logistics but I’m struggling to see how anyone could manage it without at least partially displaying the crown jewels to any spectators so they would surely be breaking that rule anyway?
@Rendel Harris I think they just put their knob in the bottle? As opposed to just holding it out and peeing – which is what they traditionally have done (if they don’t want to stop at a bush). They’re doing it cause using the bottle saves them peeing over themselves and the bike. It has all the same public urination issues as without (which are generally ignored), except it adds this really ferking disgusting piss bottle thrown into the verge issue to it all.
Disqualify them I say.
“I believe if they cycled Irish roads for even just a week, they would understand cyclists much more.”
This is why anyone wanting a drivers’ licence should be made to cycle for a set period of months/miles to experience what the roads are like for us and to hopefully instill some respect.
It would also help them realise that they could cycle relatively short distances in reasonable time, thus saving fuel costs and potential delays.
Almost everyone could do it, with very few people having exemptions for mobility issues.
And even most of those, I assume, could use some sort of adapted bike.
That would probably be a good way to reduce the number of people driving!
Was thinking: “but … many people already *have* cycled… as kids”
BUT of course a) I was a kid a long time ago and there’s even less cycling now and b) even then some parents were restricting if / where their kids could go on a bike. Because “it’s not safe”.
No doubt there’s also more or less of a drop off around teenage years everywhere, because it’s not cool. Partly because many (young) adults they know drive – and certainly don’t cycle?
(Or at least the ones online in videos / adverts…)
@mitsky Really good idea, but it would be even better if there was some value in encouraging them continuing to cycle even once they have passed their driving test. Perhaps if we ever end up with ‘pay-per-mile’ to drive on the roads it could be offset by number of miles cycled – maybe for every 10 miles cycled you get 25 miles free to drive, or some other calculation. Even if they chose not to cycle, it could create a black market where I could sell some of my cycling miles to them and turn a little profit?
I am 71 and need to take Furosemide. It can be very painful if I can’t pee. I have a pee bottle which I empty re-use and clean at home. I also need to measure and record the volume. If I could not do this I could not cycle or go out at all and my health would quickly deteriorate. There are very few public toilets and even if I could find one it would mean leaving my bike and possessions unattended on the Street. In the Netherlands, Belgium and France there are many Street Urinals. What are people to do if facilities are not provided.?
@mikeclarke We’re talking about professional cyclists in the middle of a race with cameras on them and spectators at the side of the road who have been relieving themselves in front of said spectators and then throwing their piss-filled bottles onto the verge, nobody is having a go at you or anyone who has your problems.
Re the driving – i’ve drove for a year now, no big deal imo, took me 30yrs to get past the pathetic driving test, it’s just soo wrong, soo much of it – most of the time I wish I was cycling which I do daily, an hour orso a day but I know I’m a better driver for cycling since a child, it totally should be incorporated to the driving test etc on some way – their still a Clarkson’esque atmosphere around driving and it needs to go!
I usually defend Cycling Mikey against accusations of looking for clickbait, and the woman was certainly bang to rights and deserves her sanction (at the start you can see the classic WhatsApp gap and sudden acceleration when she realises); she’s also quite obviously a completely entitled arse. However, he keeps telling her he doesn’t want to talk to her and that she should get back in her car; why couldn’t he, having captured the evidence, simply have turned around and walked away? I’m afraid standing there and arguing looks very much to me like someone gathering extra footage for an entertaining YouTube video, it doesn’t have any relevance to the driving offence.
Well, perhaps. Even for the more shy and retiring types among us it’s hard not to want to defend / explain yourself sometimes.
Doesn’t it come down to whether you go with (what i think is) his belief that both immediate feedback to drivers AND publicity of this issue helps (overall)?
Isn’t what seems a personality trait of his – of not backing down under challenge when he believes wrong has been done – consistent with that? And indeed why he’s known?
Nobody’s heard of the campaign of Cycling Meekie, who doesn’t tell anyone they’re on camera, just films stuff and passes it to the police without any further comment for them to do or do not (as recommended by many, including Nigel-types)…
@chrisonabike Yes, it’s fine to tell drivers what they’ve done wrong etc, but just standing there saying “I don’t care what you say get back in your car” while she tells him how much everyone hates him is reminiscent of nothing so much as a pair of kids arguing in the playground. I’ve got plenty of form on this sort of thing myself having been in numerous pointless arguments with drivers, but as time has gone on I’ve realised it’s a waste of my own time as much as anything and I try to confine myself to telling them what they’ve done wrong (if it’s something I want them to stop, like phone use or parking in a cycle lane) and riding away.
@Rendel Harris oh I agree, I am more with the Bike Snob that the worst time to attempt education is when you’ve just caught someone doing wrong. (Plus if it’s you and them there’s even less chance they won’t get defensive than with a “neutral” 3rd party like the law).
On the other hand “immediate feedback” is a far more powerful training tool than the (at best) delayed and indirect response of the legal system.
It’s a challenge to reconcile both truths given that a) when a road user does something wrong it’s very unlikely it’s the first time and not already habit and b) they probably believe they’re doing nothing wrong (or at least – not *really* wrong).
@chrisonabike perhaps a tech solution? The smart car can detect bad driving and will revoke your entertainment privileges for say 10 minutes. Repeated offenses mean that you start getting redirected to driving training content.
Or just electric shocks via the seat?
@Rendel Harris I don’t engage with drivers any more, I just submit the footage, but in some cases these exchanges have allowed the driver to incriminate themselves and they have been punished when if they had kept quiet they may have got away with their poor driving. A good example is the 44 driving convictions driver in the story below :
So while I wouldn’t engage myself I can fully understand and support those who are brave enough to do it.
Hatred of people using bicycles is directly linked to the Murdoch empire and editors who join the ‘burn the cyclist’ mob, because the police, judges and CPS allow it. Ministers who read the so-called newspapers chime in to garner votes. Integrity in UK politics is a quaint false memory.
I’ve always said that if the cycling victim was replaced by any minority group term, or the ‘accident’ a HSE issue in a warehouse, the perpetrators would be in prison.
Just as sending very young children up chimneys was acceptable to the majority of the public in the 1800s, road rage towards cyclists is acceptable in the 2020s.
One can measure just how backward and ignorant a nation is by this measure.
CyclingMikey has singlehandedly soured relations between drivers and cyclists more than any other ‘boy scout vigilante’ on British roads and he has a lot of competition. In the name of ‘safety’ he has created so many conflicts. No matter how much ‘evil’ he claims to have outed all of it pales in comparsion to the danger he created leaving a driver angry and distracted. Has he actaully ever prevented an incident? No, he only creates them. The man is a menace to us all. I don’t want to be the victim of a driver he has provoked over nothing materially risky.
Regarding the attitude of drivers to cyclists it takes some supreme level of cognitive dissonance on the part of many cyclists to not see that a significant cause of their attitudes stems from cyclist behaviour and the sheer favourtism towards us and against drivers in policy and infrastructure making. Both are quite embarrasing. Why are we not calling out bad riders as drivers call out bad driving. The claim that many drivers don’t know what it’s like to be on a bike is a case of fantasy over reality. There is such a massive overlap between those who do both. I suggest though that many young adult cyclists literally have never driven. It is they who lack empathy. Cycling is suffering from hubris and a continued lack of accountability is only going to worsen it.
It’s a very good Nige impression, but whoever’s behind it should be aware that April Fools’ was weeks ago.
@mdavidford I agree – it’s difficult to believe that anybody could genuinely be that thick, so I must conclude that he’s just another of the sad git trolls who occasionally arrive on here.
I’ve always been impressed by the fluency of Dutch folks in English.
Meanwhile, over in the UK…
@PedalManiac I have no problem calling out bad cyclists. Those who don’t give way at zebra crossings, cycle on the pavement when there are pedestrians around, jump red lights etc. Unfortunately drivers are antagonised by those of us who cycle assertively as advised by the highway code and that is what I see as the problem. I’m not the sort of cyclist who will get out of the way of a bullying driver and doff my cap but I try to follow the highway code to the letter. If I am giving cyclists a bad name in your opinion then I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree.
@PedalManiac [quote=anothertroll]Regarding the attitude of drivers to cyclists it takes some supreme level of cognitive dissonance on the part of many cyclists to not see that a significant cause of their attitudes stems from cyclist behaviour[quote]
“Cognitive dissonance” means subconsciously holding conflicting opinions in one’s own mind. It doesn’t mean simply not recognising something, although many stupid people like to use it for that purpose because they think it makes them sound clever.
There might be some kind of double cognitive dissonance in making a specific effort not to see things that all evidence suggests are not the case in the first place.