Rubbish driver gets owned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
As mentioned in a previous blog, cyclists can be a militant bunch. Sideswipe, the New Zealand Herald’s daily light relief column, last week published a photo of a group of cyclists riding up a hill and according to the submitter, blocking the road.

The submitter was a Jo from some faceless suburb in auckland and her gripe was that she couldn’t get pay the cyclists. Boy, did she get owned!

Sideswipe published a couple of responces the next day which highlighted the stupidity of Jo’s whinge. One brilliantly pointed out that her statement about having to slow from 100km/h to 40km/h was interesting since the speed limit was 80km/h along that whole road, and not to mention thar snap was taken opposite a school where you’d hope she would slow down anyway.

By this time, Sideswipe columnist Ana Samways was probably sick of receiving angry emails from cyclists, yours truly being one of them.

However, to her great credit she included one more item on the subject in Monday’s Sideswipe, this time from one of the riders in question.

He pointed out that he was actually trying to get out of the driver’s way since she was signalling to go left anyway.

So there you go Jo, you’re obviously a rubbish driver, perhaps consider the full story next time you get all smug and submit something to the paper.

Judge makes crap decision in road rage case

What the hell was going through this judge’s mind when she failed to convict the driver in this case?

The cyclist’s, Lee Evans’, reaction was over the top and unnecessary, but that’s not the point. In her summing up Judge Carrie Wainright said the driver, Jeremy Glubb was “intimidated” by the cyclist’s reaction. So intimidated he slammed on the brakes and reversed his car over Evans’ bike.

Wainright also said he’d “succumbed” to road rage, like it was an affliction or disease.

What bollocks. How many other criminals get let off by saying “I was so intimidated by the victim that I robbed his house because I suffer from stealingitis.”

Worst of all, Glubb did not get a conviction because it would wreck his career. Shouldn’t he have thought of that earlier? I’m pretty sure convictions for crimes have meant plenty of other people lost their jobs. Does this mean that if the bloke wasn’t an IT specialist with Government contracts, but some bogan working for the Warehouse he would have been convicted? One rule for some…

PS. A tip for Evans: when I was a bike courier I occasionally used the water-dump-in-car-window technique. But I made sure I had a getaway route because, unsurprisingly, it made the driver really fu#king mad! Doing it on an isolated road was a dumb move.

Bunch Ride Banter: Can Wiggo do it?

It’s been the talk of the bunch rides, or at least the one I was on yesterday over the beautiful Korokoro and Moonshine Road anyway:

Can Bradley Wiggins win the Tour de France?

Lanky lamp-chopped “Wiggo” has the form at the moment to be considered the number one favourite, but, as they say, it’s a long race. Consensus is he can, provided he stays upright. And when I say consensus, I mean me and the bloke next to me as we rode down Hutt Valley.

Of course, just because he has won the Tour of Romandie and dominated the Dauphine, that doesn’t mean he’ll trounce everyone at the Tour. Not many riders who have won the Dauphine have gone on to win the Yellow Jersey so it’s actually quite a shitty indicator. But then Wiggo is battling against countless other statistics, most obviously that no Brit has ever won the Tour before.

Can he? Can’t he? Who knows. As we passed Petone, our bunch agreed that we wanted him to be able to give it his best shot and that we’ll be cheering for him. Go Brad!

PS. I met Wiggo a few times on the track in the UK and he’s a thoroughly nice guy. He had a slightly camp way of standing on podiums and it would be good to see that on display in Paris.

New Speed League to Revolutionise Wellington’s Track Racing Scene

Disclaimer: I have a massive interest in this since I’m one of the organisers, but seriously, it will be awsome!

Wellington’s local cycling scene is about to get a blast of fresh air with a new track racing programme launched for the 2012/13 season.

The Speed League promises to be an exciting new season-long, points-based competition that we hope will attract trackies in their droves. Racing at the Hataitai velodrome has become a bit limp in recent years and it’s hoped this will revitalise interest in track racing.

Racing will be on Sundays from 4-6pm and will run from November through to April 2013. A full concept is available for download here.

It pains me to see that track not being used enough, and this is a driving motivator behind all this. It may not be the smoothest velodrome, but I’ve ridden many that are far worse and anyway track surface has nothing to do with racing quality! The design of Hataitai is excellent. The transitions are perfect and the banking nice and steep.

It’s a huge asset for cyclists in Wellington. Use it or lose it folks, book the Speed League into your calendar.