What MONKEY thought this was a good idea?

Brian B

Just spent the whole weekend cycling in one of my favourite area's around Ullapool and Applecross (story for another time) and the weather was phenomenal.

On driving home was stuck for ages behind scores of cyclists which were being herded down the only A road in the area - in fact the whole cycling event whatever it was being on main roads for at least 100miles. What idiot thought sending hundreds of cyclists down the A82(Inverness to Fort William and then through Glen Coe)at the height of the tourist season. Buses and artic lorries could not pass the swaths of cyclists spread out and some groups were over 50 strong.

This was very frustrating even for a cyclist like myself who participates in sportives but at least any event I do stays mostly on quiet roads. God knows what the coach and lorry driver were thinking - events like this do nothing to promote awareness and courtesy from other roads users towards cyclists

I would not like to be the organiser who has to apologise to somebody's family in the event of an accident and to be fair who would want to do an event as dangerous as this? I saw some pretty frustrated drivers today - not good at all.

Omar Little

Sounds like the Deloitte Ride Across Britain.

Generally speaking never really seen the attraction of doing a LEJOG or JOGLE as the route that most people seem to take is very uninspiring and a waste of good cycling time.

Kieran_Burns

There, there, there

Look at a nice image of Applecross to calm down :

markhewitt1978

Omar Little wrote:

Sounds like the Deloitte Ride Across Britain.

Generally speaking never really seen the attraction of doing a LEJOG or JOGLE as the route that most people seem to take is very uninspiring and a waste of good cycling time.

I would never call Rannoch Moor and Glen Coe a waste of time, whatever the means of transport!

smidsy

Remember Brian you are not stuck in traffic - you are the traffic!.

Articulated lorries trapsing around the highlands - now that needs banning.

bompington

Kieran_Burns wrote:

There, there, there

Look at a nice image of Applecross to calm down :

In what way is a picture of the Bealach supposed to calm any cyclist down????

Kieran_Burns

Good point. Well made.

simon_e

I didn't think early June was the height of the tourist season in the Highlands.

Is a crash the cyclist's fault because he/she was riding with a large group? I don't understand how you come to that conclusion.

After the experience of riding in the wilds of Sutherland you could always turn this on its head and see it as a lesson in tolerance and patience (we all need reminding now and again).

AchillesLeftKnee

smidsy wrote:

Remember Brian you are not stuck in traffic - you are the traffic!.

Articulated lorries trapsing around the highlands - now that needs banning.

Yeah. How dare anyone attempt to use the only viable means of transport in the area for something as frivolous as transport. It's a play park, and to suggest otherwise is clearly selfish.

mikenetic

Omar Little wrote:

...generally speaking never really seen the attraction of doing a LEJOG or JOGLE as the route that most people seem to take is very uninspiring and a waste of good cycling time.

Then those people are doing it wrong. Apart from the pretty much unavoidable post-industrial wasteland of the North West, you can easily plot a route through some of the most scenic parts of the UK.

Brian B

As I said what MONKEY thought this was a good idea.

I can imagine the planning what went into this event:-

Let do LEJOG with a lot of cyclists who do not ride often and lets send them down the busiest road's in Scotland to make it easy for us to organise and bugger the safety side. There is safety in numbers and let them go in big bunches.

Seriously I am going to ignore any trolls but you had to be there to see how bad it was. My rant was about safety and not about myself but f*ck me I saw some pretty bad examples for what not to do in car or a bike on the road and if there was not any accidents then I am amazed. At one point we were snarled up and the cyclists were passing the traffic on both sides of the vehicles and getting abuse from the oncoming traffic -Chaos.

I organise and manage a lot of things and if I did something is half *rsed as this then I would hang my head in shame.

smidsy

But the busiest road in the highlands is probably still a lot quieter than most roads in England isn't it. So in the grand scheme of things it may well be safer than most roads that we ride on.

Now large gangs of riders down the lanes in Cornwall is where the real problems lies.

Omar Little

smidsy wrote:

But the busiest road in the highlands is probably still a lot quieter than most roads in England isn't it. So in the grand scheme of things it may well be safer than most roads that we ride on.

Now large gangs of riders down the lanes in Cornwall is where the real problems lies.

It is a spectacular road in terms of the scenary but when its busy it is not pleasant to ride on (this is relatively speaking - i say this as someone who rides in Glasgow so used to riding on much busier roads). With the A82 however there is alot of fast moving traffic and because it is single carriageway the caravans, tourist coaches, lorries etc can cause holdups and there is then idiots doing really risky and dangerous overtaking.

Brian B

Spot on Omar - I would love to cycle Glen Coe but never have felt its worth the risk with the narrow roads and heavy traffic.

I have cycled over just about every moor and high road from Macclesfield to Cape Wrath and there are so many quiet roads that this event could have taken. Granted it may have taken longer but would have been worth it.

alan_a

This weekend just gone is by far the Great Glen's busiest weekend of the year.

I was at RockNess with 20,000 others. I had my bike with me for doing some pre lunch laps of the hills on the Sth Loch Ness side and I passed them by near the festival site... dozens upon dozens of them with no hint of an ability to ride in packs.

I saw them on what is usually a quiet B road, however this weekend it was filled with lots of buses and taxis taking people to the site... and lot sand lots of tankers taking portaloo effluent away from the site.

At the other end of the Great Glen is the Fort William leg of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, an event that attracted over 10,000.

Not clever planning by the Deloitte people and I understand Brian's annoyance, however there really is no alternative route for getting from Inverness - Fort William - Crainlarich.

meursault

mikenetic wrote:

Omar Little wrote:

...generally speaking never really seen the attraction of doing a LEJOG or JOGLE as the route that most people seem to take is very uninspiring and a waste of good cycling time.

Then those people are doing it wrong. Apart from the pretty much unavoidable post-industrial wasteland of the North West, you can easily plot a route through some of the most scenic parts of the UK.

A couple of work colleagues and I are doing a lejog next june, can anyone point me to a gps link with the most scenic route? Only other consideration is we are looking to do it in audax time.

Pumpkin Positive

masses of info here http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f ... 8633627b58 if you're prepared to trawl

meursault

Pumpkin Positive wrote:

masses of info here http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f ... 8633627b58 if you're prepared to trawl

Nice one ty, will get out the nets.