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news
Chris Hoy in the post-Olympic parade in Glasgow (CC licensed image by William Newman:Flickr)Chris Hoy hits out at “stupid” cyclists
Multiple Olympic gold medal winner Chris Hoy has emerged as one of Britain’s most vocal advocates for cycling. But he believes that some cyclists are doing the cause no good by their behaviour on the roads.
“When I’m out on a bike and I see someone doing something stupid I will absolutely have a word with them at the next set of lights,” he told the Telegraph’s Theo Merz in an interview.
Hoy gave a recent example, of a rider he’d chastised while in his home town of Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago.
He said: “There was a guy who was riding like an idiot, jumping lights, cutting up the pavement, and I just said: ‘You’re not helping matters here. If you want respect you have to earn it.’”
The response was stunned silence, perhaps at being told off by Scotland’s most famous cyclist, perhaps in amazement that someone had nothing better to do than police the behaviour of other cyclists.
Since retiring in 2013, Hoy has been developing his own bike brand with Evans Cycles, promoting family cycling, confusing football fans on Twitter who think he's a referee, and recently announced plans to get into car racing.
But he says cycling still matters to him and that’s why he gets annoyed with behaviour that, as he sees it, affects the perception of cyclists. He still wants to see more people on bikes.
“There are so many benefits to cycling,” he said. “It eases congestion, there are social benefits if you do it with someone else and of course there are the health benefits. It improves your cardiovascular system and you lose body fat.
“It’s particularly good if you haven’t exercised for a number of years. If you’re trying to run for the first time it puts strain on your joints, or people can have injuries that prevent them from doing that. But cycling is low impact, it’s easy for anyone at any level and it doesn’t have to be expensive.”
Hoy says he still gets out on the bike too.
“I still go cycling at least four times a week though,” he said. “Sometimes it’s to test models for my range and sometimes it’s purely for my own well-being. If I’m preaching about the benefits of exercise I can’t let myself go – and I wouldn’t want to.”
And of course, if he doesn’t ride, he doesn’t get to tell off those naughty red-light-jumpers.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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134 comments
get fucked chris mate. fuck right off.
Wow, well that was really constructive. Did you register just to say that? I have a funny feeling the title of this article refers to you buddy.
Personally I agree with Chris 100% and would have loved to have witnessed the look on that guys face when he realised who he was being chastised by.
I'm stupid because I expect to be shown respect on the roads regardless of how other people ride their bikes?
Sure.
Yes, you are. For the following reason.
Rider A rides like a git, driver B sees rider A and assumes all riders are gits. Driver B sees you and carves you up, or maybe even sides swipes you because, you know, all riders are gits, right?
Riders who act as if the laws of the road don't apply to them do a lot more harm for the perception of cyclists in general than they realize. If you don't see that then you're a fool, mate.
Exactly right Gordy, when I see shit riding on the same stretch of road as myself it pisses me off because immediately some motorists will show me less respect and leave less space.
Cyclists are a minority on the road, so it's easy to become tarred with the same brush, as minorities also suffer in many situations.
Doesn't make it right, but let's face it, don't many on here generalise with drivers of taxi's and rigid body HGV's to the point that if you drive one you must be a potential murderer?
the problem there is the driver who sideswiped a cyclist. are you fucking dense.
Yes, you are. For the following reason.
Rider A rides like a git, driver B sees rider A and assumes all riders are gits. Driver B sees you and carves you up, or maybe even sides swipes you because, you know, all riders are gits, right?
Riders who act as if the laws of the road don't apply to them do a lot more harm for the perception of cyclists in general than they realize. If you don't see that then you're a fool, mate.
In the tone of the above post - what a total fucking bellend
I second that.
I do not want anyone thinking that the cycling majority agrees with the childish comments of one bellend.
Cyclists that do not follow the rules only give motorists an excuse to demonstrate bad behaviour on the road, which in turn costs cyclists their lives. If one cyclist shows disregard, motorists put us all in the same category.
The only way that cyclists will win the right to be on the road is if we all follow the rules.
Nothing gives motorists an excuse to behave in a manner that endangers the lives of others. fucking listen to yourself.
Cyclists have the right to be on the road - we don't need to 'win' such a right.
Should car drivers earn our respect as well then? What a load of crap. Let's start policing everyone and telling people off. I want to go out and enjoy my ride, not play policeman... There will always be idiots who decide to break the law. It's not up to us to make sure that these people behave so that motorists respect the rest of us.
Hmmm.
He's racing in British GT at Rockingham on Monday. He's not bad at it.
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