Don't know if it's the Olympics/Paralympics or what, but this seems to have flown somewhat under the radar this year, particularly given the calibre of the field.

So many reasons...

Yes, the Olympic/Paralympics, there's an interesting Vuelta going on, Eurosport don't have the rights so they won't have been promoting it, there's been all kinds of funding problems in the last couple of years which probably created a lot of uncertainty about the race even happening, it feels like there's been a general ramping-up of the bike vs car culture war here in the UK so there's probably that too.

That last point's an interesting one. Do you think so? Whilst there's an insistence in the media on depicting a 'war' between motorists and cyclists I wouldn't say it's escalating or heightened at the moment.

Quote from: njee20 on September 04, 2024, 10:31:48 AMThat last point's an interesting one. Do you think so? Whilst there's an insistence in the media on depicting a 'war' between motorists and cyclists I wouldn't say it's escalating or heightened at the moment.

And that insistence in the media is mainly there owing to certain so called "celebs" (e.g. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Vine) going round with their helmet cams on so the least transgression by anyone other than cyclists is immediately highlighted

Yeah, feels like it but it'll depend where you are and what media you're exposed to; just search for some Telegraph articles to get an idea of what I mean.
I really do need to stop reading road.cc though, their business model now seems to partly rely on highlighting everything bad that is happening to a cyclist somewhere to generate anger and engagement.

Now of course I appreciate this is very local to me but the village/region I live also appears to have a few people in community positions that appear to be quite anti-cyclist, which does get you wondering if it can be like this in a region that's renowned for it's mountain biking facilities what is it like elsewhere?

Hmmm, I don't want to start a war here on this thread but that's an interesting phrase you used there Newportnobby: "least transgression".

I appreciate we all make mistakes and we don't really want to live in a surveillance state but even as a car driver I'm shocked by what I often see. I drive less than I used to but there seems to have been a real increase in the number of people oblivious to their responsibilities when driving and willing to do dangerous/impatient overtakes of any kind of vehicle, many people still using mobile phones/texting while driving, ridiculous speeding, just general aggressive driving, red light jumping by anyone, yes cyclists included and my pet-peeve, people happy to drift way over white lines often on blind bends.

That in itself isn't anti-cyclist obviously but it doesn't make anyone any safer.

I do wonder if the rise of sat-nav has made us all less willing to accept there will often be delays, more likely to cut things to fine and get frustrated when they 'get stuck' behind a cyclist/tractor/bus/slower driver/roadworks etc.
I wonder if people drove more calmly when they didn't know for sure how long a journey 'should' take or they had to navigate as they went with maps and road signs?

Plus we're probably all driving more, further and on busier roads than we used to.