“Cycling madness” – Highland road safety campaigners warn of chaos due to event clash

intherain wrote:

"“People get frustrated when they get caught behind large numbers of cyclists and start to take risks by trying to overtake in all sorts of daft places.

“This is cycling madness,” he went on."

So drivers taking risks is not 'driving madness' then?

Brian Murphy all but wrote:

Now, don't get smart with me, young man! Kids toys don't belong on the roads, roads are for cars!

That'll be the 'South' side from Fort Augustus through Whitebridge and Foyers I assume?

They'd be daft not to use that route, it's far more pleasant and the views are better too! Like others have said it sounds like the A82 partnership are stirring things up unnecessarily.

IHphoto wrote:

"It's not a massive peloton, it's no different to a Sportive.

I guess you've made my point for me. The idea of doing a mandatory-helmet sportive is horrifying enough ... but doing it for 9 days ... and then paying nearly £2K for the 'privilege', including travel, is my worst nightmare. It's as if imagination (not to mention the internet) had never been invented. I was doing 100-mile per day trips between Youth Hostels, with a mate or two, when I was 15 in the mid-70's. It's not difficult, it is lots of fun and it can easily be done at a tiny fraction of the cost of the £200-per day RAB.

Joeinpoole wrote:

IHphoto wrote:

"It's not a massive peloton, it's no different to a Sportive.

I guess you've made my point for me. The idea of doing a mandatory-helmet sportive is horrifying enough ... but doing it for 9 days ... and then paying nearly £2K for the 'privilege', including travel, is my worst nightmare. It's as if imagination (not to mention the internet) had never been invented. I was doing 100-mile per day trips between Youth Hostels, with a mate or two, when I was 15 in the mid-70's. It's not difficult, it is lots of fun and it can easily be done at a tiny fraction of the cost of the £200-per day RAB.

But then these guys who have enough to pay £2000 for this probably have enough brain cells to have gone through that thought process and thought 'sod it , I want to do it in some comfort with someone looking after all the practicalities so I can just turn up and ride'.

Of course bikes are normal traffic, so are horses, but if I turned up in your neighbour hood and held a mass pony ride event I dont imagine that you would be holding quite the same opinion if that then meant you couldnt ride your bike.
Having the legal ablity to do a certain thing should not preclude a level of general concideration for others sharing your enviroment. If you can get on with other road users and find a way where we can share that valuable space that we both use then I think that we can only expect a back lash.
Many conficts exist because both sides believe firmly in their rights. Most are solved long after the conflict is over by talk and compromise.
We should start now and concider if we couldnt manage our use of shared space on a less confrontational way.

farrell wrote:

Is Cycling Madness the little known sequel to Reefer Madness?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azf320JDdqU

I thought you meant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oBg3Wf2Vs4

Some Fella wrote:

This is nowt to do with nowt but does anyone know the location of the photograph that accompanies this story?
It looks heavenly

Ironically I think it's on the A82 alternative on the east side of Loch Ness

Some Fella wrote:

This is nowt to do with nowt but does anyone know the location of the photograph that accompanies this story?
It looks heavenly

Possibly the east Loch Ness road, passing Loch Tarff? (incidently the road I believe the marathon uses, avoiding impacting the A82)

Joeinpoole wrote:

I'm amazed that 800 cyclists are prepared to stump up £1600 for a "fully supported package" to ride LEJOG. I'd have thought that planning your own route, accommodation, etc was half the fun of doing it. Trundling along in a massive peloton, with support wagons fore and aft, doesn't sound terribly adventurous to me. Cycling is about freedom and self-sufficiency surely?

I'd imagine for a sort of corporate sponsorship gig like this you'd be getting a pretty specific subset of cyclists taking part.

Joeinpoole wrote:

I'm amazed that 800 cyclists are prepared to stump up £1600 for a "fully supported package" to ride LEJOG. I'd have thought that planning your own route, accommodation, etc was half the fun of doing it. Trundling along in a massive peloton, with support wagons fore and aft, doesn't sound terribly adventurous to me. Cycling is about freedom and self-sufficiency surely?

Cycling is about whatever you want it to be about surely?

The ride serves a purpose - plenty of people have neither the time, experience, ability* to plan such a trip on their own or they don't have any cycling friends who are up for joining them at a particular time or they can't make the logistics work for them or whatever. So this is a way round that. Not everyone wants to ride it with a tent, making it up as they go; equally, not everyone wants to do it with 800 other riders. But the option exists and that's great.

*delete as applicable

It's not a massive peloton, it's no different to a Sportive. 800 riders set off over about 2-3hrs, riding 100 miles. The route goes up the eastern (not the main road) side of the loch and the Rat Race does the same but travelling south. Meanwhile, all the traffic uses the A82 on the western side of the loch.

This reads like another of those doom-mongering articles with people determined to be upset, very much like New Forest residents who are determined to make sure that they will be as angry as possible.

crazy-legs wrote:

Joeinpoole wrote:

I'm amazed that 800 cyclists are prepared to stump up £1600 for a "fully supported package" to ride LEJOG. I'd have thought that planning your own route, accommodation, etc was half the fun of doing it. Trundling along in a massive peloton, with support wagons fore and aft, doesn't sound terribly adventurous to me. Cycling is about freedom and self-sufficiency surely?

Cycling is about whatever you want it to be about surely?

The ride serves a purpose - plenty of people have neither the time, experience, ability* to plan such a trip on their own or they don't have any cycling friends who are up for joining them at a particular time or they can't make the logistics work for them or whatever. So this is a way round that. Not everyone wants to ride it with a tent, making it up as they go; equally, not everyone wants to do it with 800 other riders. But the option exists and that's great.

*delete as applicable

It's not a massive peloton, it's no different to a Sportive. 800 riders set off over about 2-3hrs, riding 100 miles. The route goes up the eastern (not the main road) side of the loch and the Rat Race does the same but travelling south. Meanwhile, all the traffic uses the A82 on the western side of the loch.

This reads like another of those doom-mongering articles with people determined to be upset, very much like New Forest residents who are determined to make sure that they will be as angry as possible.

Except that the residents in that location are few and far between . The roads are relatively remote and nothing like as overpopulated by arrogant 4x4 drivers of the south east.

I agree cycling is about what you want it to be. Personally the whole corporate organisation thing isn't appealing to me. It smacks of self-serving charity rather than true altruism. If I had donated a £1 for every Facebook post of someone. completing their amazing 'life changing' 50k charity ride blah blah blah......