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In the autobus with Neasden Postlethwaite
Oct. 5th, 2011 09:51 pmMinor excitement on the pedal in to Bath this AM. It looked like some time-trial-to-work bollix had come steaming past the pub at the near end of the canal-path and walloped right into some geezer. The blood was fresh on the path, both participants were upright and someone else was on the phone to the ambulance.
I don't particularly mind people giving it full throttle in the big ring, because I do it when I can and it's a bloody marvellous feeling while it lasts, but it really is a fucking stupid thing to do when there are pedestrians about who won't know the score. Especially on the canal path.
The main Bristol-Bath bike path is, well, a bike path. Most of the sight-lines are pretty good (apart from the chicane handy for Rose Green Road, and I've watched a couple of lycra-bollixes belt into each other there and have a swearing competition thereafter) so there's no real excuse for being a cock-end about it and steaming into anyone else.
However, the canal path in Bath is a towpath with ideas above its station and several nasty blind corners under bridges. Conceptually the South Circular to the bike-path's North Circular, if you will. Thus it's common to find people pottering quietly to work with iOS kit plugged into their ears, fishermen, tramps sampling the first brew of the day, tourists and if you're really lucky, a mob of oblivious children.
Of course, some people really are just self-righteous cocks and the only way of making them learn is to break their tri-bars off and hammer them right up their arses. I stongly suspect they're either cycling-as-the-new-golf wankers or triathletes; I would be genuinely surprised if a sensible club-cycling sort would be that shit at bike-handling.
I don't particularly mind people giving it full throttle in the big ring, because I do it when I can and it's a bloody marvellous feeling while it lasts, but it really is a fucking stupid thing to do when there are pedestrians about who won't know the score. Especially on the canal path.
The main Bristol-Bath bike path is, well, a bike path. Most of the sight-lines are pretty good (apart from the chicane handy for Rose Green Road, and I've watched a couple of lycra-bollixes belt into each other there and have a swearing competition thereafter) so there's no real excuse for being a cock-end about it and steaming into anyone else.
However, the canal path in Bath is a towpath with ideas above its station and several nasty blind corners under bridges. Conceptually the South Circular to the bike-path's North Circular, if you will. Thus it's common to find people pottering quietly to work with iOS kit plugged into their ears, fishermen, tramps sampling the first brew of the day, tourists and if you're really lucky, a mob of oblivious children.
Of course, some people really are just self-righteous cocks and the only way of making them learn is to break their tri-bars off and hammer them right up their arses. I stongly suspect they're either cycling-as-the-new-golf wankers or triathletes; I would be genuinely surprised if a sensible club-cycling sort would be that shit at bike-handling.
