irish Times broadside at bicycles, cyclists, the Tour etc

Inquitus

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0627/1224299634484.html

Apologies if its already been posted, only just realised its from Monday's paper

Cookie_Monster

Is there anything more smug than a puffing peleton slowly and painfully making its way up the Wicklow Gap?

yes, 85 year old drivers, who can barely see over the wheel, out in their "classics" doing the same thing even slower than the cyclists

It’s easy to see the aspirational in somebody hoicking a javelin a long way:

:pac::pac::pac:
*must try harder to see that


I can't read anymore, as a piece of journalism it belongs in the Irish Sun at best, or probably on some crazy bloggers ranting page. Badly written, badly put together and make little sense even as a satirical article

ThisRegard

Never noticed that on Monday. Ffs it's like a disease in certain elements of the media, are such stories the in-thing these days ?

ednwireland

that'd be a journo who couldnt think what else to write about deluding himself that cheating and drug taking isnt rife in other sports

must be into the slow summer news season

Dura Ace

"As a way of getting from A to B in the slowest, most painful, least elegant way, a bike takes some beating. It is fundamentally ridiculous." - I really don't know what he means by this. I thought the bicycle was considered the most efficient self powered method of travel.

"But a bike is the brainchild of a couple of Frenchman ........"
I thought it was Kirkpatrick Macmillan who invented the bicycle.

Quite a poor article in my opinion. I can't understand whether the journalist was having a go at cyclists in Ireland, the French obsession with the Tour or drugs in cycling. It just jumps all over the place.

doozerie

Yeah, saw that at the time. A journalist venting his spleen is never a pretty sight and never reflects very well on them as a journalist. Also the irony of someone complaining about the supposed smugness of cyclists while wallowing in the smugness of their car supposedly being the ultimate means of getting about is a bit hard to swallow to say the least.

Fundamentally, I think he has an inflated sense of his own self importance if he really believes that the focus of a cyclist's mind while out on the road is on the car drivers on the same road, to condescend towards them or whatever. Certainly when I'm on the bike I'm not thinking about car drivers or their cars, I've better things to occupy my mind. About the only thing the article succeeds in doing is highlighting the bizarre mindset of some people towards cycling - some people feel the need to attack cycling as if it were something to be feared and therefore needs to be destroyed before it impacts on their lives in some way. Very odd.

seamus

It's an expression of the writer's own personal guilt. I very much doubt he ever once had a cyclist go on and at him about cycling, fresh air and exercise and all that, yet he instinctively feels his pangs of guilt for his ever-swelling posterior and the fact that he cannot bring himself to leave the car at home when he needs to pop around to the shops.

By belittling those people of whom he's jealous, he feels that he can make himself feel less guilty about not partaking.

I find it quite often as a veggie. Despite never doing any kind of preaching about vegginess or ever wearing it as a badge, there are a subset of people who automatically go on the offensive about eating meat as soon as they discover that I don't.
This is a manifestation of their subconcious guilt about something related to their eating habits, and paranoia that I'm somehow "judging" them.

Someone who feels the need to write a wordy article making fun of a group of people who have not wronged him in any way, is the media equivalent of the schoolyard bully - pointing and laughing at the people who dare to be themselves in an attempt to draw attention away from his own personal shortcomings and avoid the uncomfortable truth about his own low self-esteem.

Kissy Lips

seamus wrote: »

It's an expression of the writer's own personal guilt. I very much doubt he ever once had a cyclist go on and at him about cycling, fresh air and exercise and all that, yet he instinctively feels his pangs of guilt for his ever-swelling posterior and the fact that he cannot bring himself to leave the car at home when he needs to pop around to the shops.

By belittling those people of whom he's jealous, he feels that he can make himself feel less guilty about not partaking.

I find it quite often as a veggie. Despite never doing any kind of preaching about vegginess or ever wearing it as a badge, there are a subset of people who automatically go on the offensive about eating meat as soon as they discover that I don't.
This is a manifestation of their subconcious guilt about something related to their eating habits, and paranoia that I'm somehow "judging" them.

Someone who feels the need to write a wordy article making fun of a group of people who have not wronged him in any way, is the media equivalent of the schoolyard bully - pointing and laughing at the people who dare to be themselves in an attempt to draw attention away from his own personal shortcomings and avoid the uncomfortable truth about his own low self-esteem.

You cant compare being a couch potato to being a veggie. The author doesnt love his huge arse or low energy levels, that is true. But I love meat, I would never ever feel guilty about eating meat and I take the piss out of veggies. why? Because I think eating meat is the most natural thing in the world.

Lumen

This him?

seamus

Kissy Lips wrote: »

Because I think eating meat is the most natural thing in the world.

But at the same time you're inherently self-conscious and uncomfortable around vegetarians, so feel the need to belittle them in order to make yourself feel better. Someone who was happy with themselves wouldn't bother taking the piss out of others. Ridicule is inherently a defense mechanism for one's own ego to convince yourself that you're better than others.

That's why it's a valid comparison. The author thinks that he's better than cyclists, but isn't entirely sure. Or he actually thinks that cyclists are better than him, so ridicules them to make himself feel better.

If he was happy with himself, he would ignore the existence of cyclists and let them get on with it.

Morgan

There's a letter in response in today's paper.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2011/0629/1224299729425.html

ThisRegard

That's him Lumen. He's a failed horsey set guy, couldn't make it in the industry. Makes the story even more ironic considering car drivers complain as much about horses holding up traffic as they do about cyclists. This story is why he should stick to writing about horse racing, a sport we all know is as clean and moral as a button.

This is his blog http://www.irishracing.com/blog/

Blowfish

ThisRegard wrote: »

That's him Lumen. He's a failed horsey set guy, couldn't make it in the industry. Makes the story even more ironic considering car drivers complain as much about horses holding up traffic as they do about cyclists. This story is why he should stick to writing about horse racing, a sport we all know is as clean and moral as a button.

Indeed.

Idleater

These articles remind me a lot of a song about music and society.

The Incredible PWEI vs the Moral Majority wrote:

Plato says when the music of a society changes the whole society will change. Aristotle, a contemporary of Plato’s, says when music changes there should be laws to govern the nature and the character of that music. Lenin says that the best and the quickest way to undermine any society is through its music

You can substitute sport/cycling for music in this case and see that the author effectively dismisses segments of society because they either conform to a new norm that the author is not comfortable with, or that society has moved on from what the author had expected the norm to be.

Speaking off topic, as a Pescitarian I too don't understand the need for me to explain why I don't eat meat. I just don't like it - it's like mushrooms or marmite some people do some dont

TheBlaaMan

Yeah, a very odd article indeed - strange to see the IT condoning such a biased piece of polemic when it flies in the face of a number of heavy-weight efforts to encourage people to get fit/stay fit/leave the car at home etc etc.

I wouldn't regard it as gutter-press (or anything that strong) but neither is it as well informed nor as accurate in a number of areas as you would expect from this paper. I wonder if this is suggestive of a new direction from the new editor? If so, it will be interesting to watch the letters page responses that I suspect are flooding in as we speak................anything about it in this mornings IT?

Perhaps he just got wound up by somebody on a bike that was less than polite to him.........not hard to imagine.....

ThisRegard

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Yeah, a very odd article indeed - strange to see the IT condoning such a biased piece of polemic when it flies in the face of a number of heavy-weight efforts to encourage people to get fit/stay fit/leave the car at home etc etc.

Not really strange to see it anymore, they have form as evident from an 'opinion' piece the other week that was posted here, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2011/0622/1224299374474.html

Morrisseeee

Lumen wrote: »

This him?

Ach, that's a rare sight these days, a Celtic Tiger, you can see he has fallen into dis-repair, un-shaven, dirty lookin. I thought they were almost extinct at this stage. I presume someone found him in the bushes or near some refuse bins, and he's had one last dig at humanity, one last last swipe of it's claws if-you-like, one last sad, egotistical, meaningless swipe at life.........Meowwwwwww !!!!!! :pac:


I dunno where that outburst came from

ThisRegard

Send it to the Times, they'll probably publish it.

tomasrojo

seamus wrote: »

I find it quite often as a veggie. Despite never doing any kind of preaching about vegginess or ever wearing it as a badge, there are a subset of people who automatically go on the offensive about eating meat as soon as they discover that I don't.
This is a manifestation of their subconcious guilt about something related to their eating habits, and paranoia that I'm somehow "judging" them.

I'm not even a proper vegetarian (occasional fish), and I find this. I never talk to people about it or lecture them, but I do get the odd reaction that would only be appropriate if I had just delivered a homily.

When my wife was pregnant and I told people I was going to try using cloth nappies on the baby I got a similar reaction. Somewhat angry response about how naive I was.

I can't remember who wrote it, but there was quite a funny article about these "bike-curious" journalists, who belittle and marginalise cycling in all its forms because they are afraid that in their heart they are quite attracted to it and ultimately they might end up as cyclists.

Captain Havoc

I don't think we should be discussing vegetarianism here as I believe there's a high risk someone will get upset and I'll have to swing the ban hammer.

I don't see how he feels the bicycle is the slower than a car in an urban setting. When I'm working in Kilkenny, it takes me 15 minutes plus to get to work and less than 15 cycling.

07Lapierre

I suspect the article was written knowing that it would get a response! Looks like the IT got what they wanted.

ThisRegard

I doubt it's the response he or it was looking for, I imagine they were hoping for a bunch of enraged cyclists but everyone here is still pretty mellow and can see it for what it is, or at least what it's trying to be.

doozerie

ThisRegard wrote:

I imagine they were hoping for a bunch of enraged cyclists but everyone here is still pretty mellow

My outrage is fighting hard to get out but it can't break through my thick external layer of cyclist-ey smugness.

Piercemeear

ThisRegard wrote: »

I imagine they were hoping for a bunch of enraged cyclists but everyone here is still pretty mellow...

Yeah, I want to get angry but to be honest I'm still too knackered from the fine weekend.

Hail 2 Da Thief

fixing their muffiny backsides over thong-sized saddles and making for the hills. What joy!
It’s like a multi-coloured, shaven-legged bubble of entitlement, full of the virtuous and the good, gulping down great lung-fulls of fresh Wicklow air,

Yet his sporting interest is in watching jodhpur clad grown men grabbing a whip, mounting a hoofed animal & beating said animal down a racecourse.

Errrm, OK.

Jawgap

It's formulaic and quite tepid but it ticks most of the boxes for an article about cycling.....

Drugs - YES
Armstrong - YES
Cyclists as burgeoisie - YES
France - YES
Alps - YES
Champs-Élysées - YES
Published within a week of the TdF starting - YES
Well known quote from lesser known winner - YES
Quote from lesser known French philosopher - NO
MAMILS - NO

On this las point he should fail - how can anyone write an article like this without mentioning MAMILs - huge oversight on his part and the editor's part - it wouldn't have happened on Geraldine's watch!

Give him 8/10 for effort.

Incidentally, does no one ride up hills anywhere except Wicklow? Or do certain journos not get too far beyond the Pale - forced back by the legions of cyclists clogging up the roads?

kincsem

^ +1

It was just a boring list of public opinions.

RobFowl

6/10 he missed helmets and "road Tax" as well

Jawgap wrote: »

It's formulaic and quite tepid but it ticks most of the boxes for an article about cycling.....

Drugs - YES
Armstrong - YES
Cyclists as burgeoisie - YES
France - YES
Alps - YES
Champs-Élysées - YES
Published within a week of the TdF starting - YES
Well known quote from lesser known winner - YES
Quote from lesser known French philosopher - NO
MAMILS - NO

On this las point he should fail - how can anyone write an article like this without mentioning MAMILs - huge oversight on his part and the editor's part - it wouldn't have happened on Geraldine's watch!

Give him 8/10 for effort.

Incidentally, does no one ride up hills anywhere except Wicklow? Or do certain journos not get too far beyond the Pale - forced back by the legions of cyclists clogging up the roads?

Captain Havoc

RobFowl wrote: »

6/10 he missed helmets and "road Tax" as well

I think we need to formalise this and perhaps send it into the rags, journalists (term used loosely) and Michael O'Docherty as a guideline on how to write an anti-cyclist pieces.

bikenut

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/0606/1224298468371.html

Does anyone ever read this stuff - it's all over the place - every paragraph is a completely new topic - like random thoughts thrown down on paper and never structured - he definitely wouldn't be getting 80% in Leaving Cert English for that.

Don't think you can really blame the editors past or present - there's no way an IT editor ever saw this.

DrFive

"As a way of getting from A to B in the slowest, most painful, least elegant way, a bike takes some beating. It is fundamentally ridiculous."

Dublin Bus?

Jawgap

Captain Havoc wrote: »

I think we need to formalise this and perhaps send it into the rags, journalists (term used loosely) and Michael O'Docherty as a guideline on how to write an anti-cyclist pieces.

I'm sure some of the IT bods here could come up with an app that would contain a series of stock phrases, cliches and trite observations that could be combined into a cycling article.

It would obviously need to vary with the time of the year, so in spring you get something "funny" about MAMILs emerging from hibernation; summer, drugs in pro-cycling; autumn, kids cycling to school without helmets; winter, road tax dodging ninja salmon with no lights.

Needs to vary the output according to publication - for the Irish Times, repeated references to burgeoisie, Marx, Sartre, Tuscany, Provence, the Alps (preferably some of the lesser known climbs) and Wicklow are needed.

De Paper (the Examiner) - must reference Kelly, the Southern Ring Road and Conor Pass

D'Indo - small words, cycle paths (and the lack of use), helmets, road tax, lights and lack thereof, footpads, Nico

Sun / Star - drugs, doping, podium girls, riding, Spanish beef, Wiggo, Sky

Irish Mail - cycling and testicular cancer, cycling and acquired brain injury, no road tax and testicular cancer, no lights and testicular cancer, exposure to hi-vis and testicular cancer.

Finally, it'll need an emergency button for a spot-generated article to be produced in the event of an Irish rider doing well in the Tour de France, to include lots of references to Kelly and Roche, some mention of Kimmage and an oblique reference to Shay Elliot and maybe Martin Early.

Captain Havoc

Jawgap wrote: »

Irish Mail - cycling and testicular cancer, cycling and acquired brain injury, no road tax and testicular cancer, no lights and testicular cancer, exposure to hi-vis and testicular cancer.

Pherekydes

Jawgap wrote: »

Give him 8/10 for effort.

I'd give him 8/10 for trolling, but 1/10 for effort.

And he comes from a sport which exists solely for the purposes of gambling? :rolleyes:

Wait for a few more years, a few more inches, a few more pounds. He'll be converted to cycling or jogging.

Keep_Her_Lit

Let's see now:

• Weigh the same as I did when I was 18 (currently 44).
• As fit as I was at 18 (well, there or thereabouts ).
• A year's commuting costs maybe a couple of hundred Euro. All in.*
• See that big loooooong line of cars queueing for those traffic lights up ahead? Yep, that's me that just whizzed past and went straight to the top. Byeeeeee!!
• Parking woes? Nope.
• Motor tax? Nope.
• Insurance premiums? Nope.
• Crazy garage service costs and crap workmanship? Nope.
• Rocketing fuel prices? A plate of pasta is still fairly affordable.
• Tailbacks? Yeah, they're just awful! I mean, twice last week the POB's along the canal prevented me from making it through the next green.

Clearly, I'm struggling to pick up the gist of the author's argument here. But not to worry, when my reorientation is complete I will then understand that by far the most "efficient" means of getting myself from A to B is using a 3-piece suite on wheels, all encased in a couple of tonnes of metal and plastic.

[* Clarification: I'm a cheapskate]

531

What a load of drivel. Standards have dropped in the 'newspaper of note'. I wouldn't expect that standard of writing in the Independent, and that's bad. Maybe it was written by Kevin Myers' and Jeremy Clarkson's love child.

Keep_Her_Lit

531 wrote: »

Kevin Myers' and Jeremy Clarkson's love child.

Shudder!! Jaypurs, I'm just off to the leaba now and that's stuff of nightmares! :eek:

Sundy

Haha thats a load of crap. Im not even a cyclist.

Although i will be tomorrow when i buy my first ever road bike and next summer hopefully il crawl up the wicklow gap in front of him:-)

Capt'n Midnight

Here is a good letter written in to them
https://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224299729425

Icyseanfitz

"persuaded as they are that spending hours grinding up and down hills on machines that are demonstrably the most inefficient and ill-equipped for such a job"

someone should send him some downhill videos ill equipped my ass, since when could a car jump a road at 50 feet without breaking into hundreds of little pieces

Jawgap

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Here is a good letter written in to them
https://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224299729425

Clicked your link and got this - I assume the first letter is the relevant one

michael196

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I can't read anymore, as a piece of journalism it belongs in the Irish Sun at best, or probably on some crazy bloggers ranting page. Badly written, badly put together and make little sense even as a satirical article

agree, badly written, did this journalist take english in their leaving cert ? if i was awarding a grade on that, i would give it a D.

coolbeans

I've no qualms with people hating cyclists and cycling; they see me rollin', they hatin' etc but he is quite wrong on several very simple points. To call cycling inefficient is absurd. There is no more efficient way to move people as far as I know. It really betrays a wilful and proud ignorance on his part. Well done him.

triggermortis

Let him get stuck behind me on a country road - then he'll see inefficient!

I wouldn't eat me chips out of this article (not that I eat chips....)