Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Tombo2001 · 29-09-2020 03:50PM

Seth Brundle wrote: »

In my own experience, you don't see really people out racing. You might see them training but if they are training in a group then they are with a group who all have similar fitness levels (and therefore it doesn't look like racing).
I do my best to push myself every time I'm out for a spin. I'm not racing but I am usually doing my damnedest.
I wear clothing that suitable for what I'm doing. My shorts are padded because otherwise I wouldn't be able to stay out for as long on a modern saddle.
I wear a top that isn't going to blow about in the wind and which has pockets that I can put stuff into. It's the same as a person doing pretty much any sport. They wear gear appropriate to their chosen activity.
I found that I had to get certain tee-shirts even to go out running because I'd rip the nipples off myself otherwise. Similarly, I own a decent pair of runners because I've crap knees and hips.
People see the lycra gear on cyclists and lose rational thought. They assume that the wearer is a wannabe Sam Bennett rather than someone simply wearing clothing appropriate to a leisure activity.

Again, I know its a digression but....

Back in my athletics days, I could run a race every week of the year if I wanted....

And I dont just mean the tshirt races in the phoenix park, or the fund raiser 5ks that your local GAA club put on.

I mean proper club races with high standard, on track, on cross country, on road. Across Senior, Novice, Intermediate and Masters.

I never see this in cycling? There are heaps of Sportifs - but actual races? Where are they? When are they?

For me - are there Masters races?

breezy1985 · 29-09-2020 03:54PM

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Again, I know its a digression but....

Back in my athletics days, I could run a race every week of the year if I wanted....

And I dont just mean the tshirt races in the phoenix park, or the fund raiser 5ks that your local GAA club put on.

I mean proper club races with high standard, on track, on cross country, on road. Across Senior, Novice, Intermediate and Masters.

I never see this in cycling? There are heaps of Sportifs - but actual races? Where are they? When are they?

For me - are there Masters races?

Contact your nearest club or cycling Ireland if your interested and they will point you in the right direction.

I always assume the reason I don't see many races is they are as far away from civilization as humanly possible

Macy0161 · 29-09-2020 04:07PM

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I never see this in cycling? There are heaps of Sportifs - but actual races? Where are they? When are they?

For me - are there Masters races?

Most clubs have at least one spring and/or summer league. There's open racing Saturday and Sunday of the season (March to October), and then CX over the winter.
IVCA (the vets) do midweek races as well as the weekend during the summer I think.
That's not even including the various mtb disciplines and clubs, which I know nothing about.

I'd say you could race every weekend for most of the year, if you had the appropriate bikes/ skills/ fitness!

Tombo2001 · 29-09-2020 04:19PM

Macy0161 wrote: »

Most clubs have at least one spring and/or summer league. There's open racing Saturday and Sunday of the season (March to October), and then CX over the winter.
IVCA (the vets) do midweek races as well as the weekend during the summer I think.
That's not even including the various mtb disciplines and clubs, which I know nothing about.

I'd say you could race every weekend for most of the year, if you had the appropriate bikes/ skills/ fitness!

Thanks, I would love to get involved in this.

CramCycle · 29-09-2020 04:20PM

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I never see this in cycling? There are heaps of Sportifs - but actual races? Where are they? When are they?

For me - are there Masters races?

Yes there are, ICVA and CI do both although Masters only are not that common but you can partake in a race most weekends in Ireland nowadays (C19 aside). From level A4 upto A1

breezy1985 wrote: »

Contact your nearest club or cycling Ireland if your interested and they will point you in the right direction.

I always assume the reason I don't see many races is they are as far away from civilization as humanly possible

Pretty much, with the reaction of one Garda and one club, we made a conscious decision to move all our club league races as far away from society as possible.

Macy0161 wrote: »

Most clubs have at least one spring and/or summer league. There's open racing Saturday and Sunday of the season (March to October), and then CX over the winter.
IVCA (the vets) do midweek races as well as the weekend during the summer I think.
That's not even including the various mtb disciplines and clubs, which I know nothing about.

I'd say you could race every weekend for most of the year, if you had the appropriate bikes/ skills/ fitness!

Yep

breezy1985 · 29-09-2020 04:26PM

I assume it would be common that anyone wanting to race would also need to be a motorist at races are deep in the countryside?

CramCycle · 29-09-2020 04:51PM

breezy1985 wrote: »

I assume it would be common that anyone wanting to race would also need to be a motorist at races are deep in the countryside?

A personal thing, I used to ride to all races but have gotten lazy in recent years. Young lads still spin out to all races, win, and go home.

breezy1985 · 29-09-2020 04:53PM

CramCycle wrote: »

A personal thing, I used to ride to all races but have gotten lazy in recent years. Young lads still spin out to all races, win, and go home.

I'm usually happy with a 40/50k ride so ide be gassed just getting to the start lines from the city

Tombo2001 · 29-09-2020 07:33PM

I feel like we are speaking slightly in code here - what sort of routes do we normally see races on? What would be a typical route - say for the clubs based in Dublin and its suburbs, or other cities.

Tombo2001 · 29-09-2020 07:34PM

breezy1985 wrote: »

I'm usually happy with a 40/50k ride so ide be gassed just getting to the start lines from the city

Plus - if the start line is deep in a country bodhreen - am guessing its bad practice to park a heap of cars on a grassy verge?

Seth Brundle · 29-09-2020 07:38PM

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I feel like we are speaking slightly in code here - what sort of routes do we normally see races on? What would be a typical route - say for the clubs based in Dublin and its suburbs, or other cities.

They're all over Ireland on different roads.
See the Cycling Ireland events calendar for more info @ http://www.cyclingireland.ie/page/events/events-calendar/road-events

Thelonious Monk · 29-09-2020 07:43PM

I'm actually pretty upset by some of the sh*t I've been reading on facebook today. A girl was hit by a bus on Parnell st and rushed to hospital and people are posting under their real names that they hope the driver is ok or this one -

"Another menace on a push bike that thinks traffic laws doesn’t apply to her. Hopefully she will walk or get the bus in future rather than trying to cycle underneath it".

"Poor driver hope there ok,cyclist thinking they can just keep going straight as vehicles turn if other road users need to obey the rules and cyclists want equal rights they need to do the same but rush though city's as fast as they want,at the end of the day were only a bag of meat and dont stand a chance"

Like seriously this is dangerous stuff, and it's not helped by the media either. These are grown adults posting this under their real names. How did it come to this in a civilised society?
I can't look at this stuff again for my own sanity.

Seth Brundle · 29-09-2020 07:53PM

The cure is to stay away from the cesspool of low-iq muppets on facebook. It is a hateful site!

Thelonious Monk · 29-09-2020 07:54PM

Seth Brundle wrote: »

The cure is to stay away from the cesspool of low-iq muppets on facebook. It is a hateful site!

At least post this hate under feckin false profiles! Brazenly enjoying the fact that a woman was nearly killed.

micar · 29-09-2020 08:01PM

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I'm actually pretty upset by some of the sh*t I've been reading on facebook today. A girl was hit by a bus on Parnell st and rushed to hospital and people are posting under their real names that they hope the driver is ok or this one -

Like seriously this is dangerous stuff, and it's not helped by the media either. These are grown adults posting this under their real names. How did it come to this in a civilised society?
I can't look at this stuff again for my own sanity.

Herein lies the problem

More than half of car drivers think cyclists are not fully human

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/half-car-drivers-think-cyclists-not-fully-human-according-new-study-411816

Tombo2001 · 29-09-2020 09:24PM

Seth Brundle wrote: »

The cure is to stay away from the cesspool of low-iq muppets on facebook. It is a hateful site!

An issue with Facebook is that its beyond moderation - the scale of it means that when a comment appears such as the one above, you might report it to Facebook help page, and you will hear back three weeks later.

And if you do hear back, it will be to say the comment doesnt breach Facebook's code of conduct.

And you reply to anonymous post and say, Yes it does and here is the reason why, and they send you the same email back that you got the first time.

At least with the likes of Boards or thejournal, the moderators are real people who are responsive.

Likewise with the Guardian which has an extensive comments section

Facebook literally is out of control, its beyond control unless legislation changes - but because its so global, I dont see how legislation does change.

29-09-2020 10:24PM

I know in our place last time we were hiring checks were done on peoples online presence. Everybody posts some rubbish online but to be stupid enough to do some of the more nasty stuff under your own name or with a publicly accessible profile and picture of you? They didn't find any serial anti cycling people or racists etc or anything interesting at all really but was an eye opener as to how open people leave themselves and their profiles to a check like that.

The time and frequency of posting was also looked at too.

One man in particular you'd wonder if he ever did a tap in his current job such was the post volume during the working day. He wasn't posting anything bad just the volume during the working day, every single day. Needless to say he didn't get the job.

magicbastarder · 29-09-2020 10:40PM

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I feel like we are speaking slightly in code here - what sort of routes do we normally see races on? What would be a typical route - say for the clubs based in Dublin and its suburbs, or other cities.

one i see swords mcnally use (in normal years, i just saw them there once this year) is 6km from the western end of the main runway in dublin airport, and is an 11km circuit. so they're not necessarily going to be far from dublin, if that's where you live. there are also races on closed circuits such as corkagh park and mondello.

Mickiemcfist · 29-09-2020 11:43PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I know in our place last time we were hiring checks were done on peoples online presence. Everybody posts some rubbish online but to be stupid enough to do some of the more nasty stuff under your own name or with a publicly accessible profile and picture of you? They didn't find any serial anti cycling people or racists etc or anything interesting at all really but was an eye opener as to how open people leave themselves and their profiles to a check like that.

The time and frequency of posting was also looked at too.

One man in particular you'd wonder if he ever did a tap in his current job such was the post volume during the working day. He wasn't posting anything bad just the volume during the working day, every single day. Needless to say he didn't get the job.

Out of interest, how was that checked?

30-09-2020 12:12AM

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

Out of interest, how was that checked?

Email address and real name + google, that simple.They knew what people looked like from the interviews

No idea of the legality or morality of it but if you put yourself out there as they say.

p15574 · 30-09-2020 10:12AM

Oymyakon wrote: »

Another thing is people seem to be offended by some cyclists wearing cycling kit (the cheek of them), making it seem like an elitist hobby rather than just an efficient way to get from A to B?

They're never "wearing" it, always "clad"

tomasrojo · 30-09-2020 11:06AM

p15574 wrote: »

They're never "wearing" it, always "clad"

Good entry if they ever update the Myles na gCopaleen Catechism of Cliché

mr spuckler · 30-09-2020 11:17AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Email address and real name + google, that simple.They knew what people looked like from the interviews

No idea of the legality or morality of it but if you put yourself out there as they say.

I've always assumed this to be the case in recent years, one of the reasons why my Twitter account is in a shortened version of my name. And that's despite the fact that I'd never post anything offensive, aggressive and certainly nothing as grotesque as the quoted posts above.

Wildly Boaring · 30-09-2020 11:41AM

mr spuckler wrote: »

I've always assumed this to be the case in recent years, one of the reasons why my Twitter account is in a shortened version of my name. And that's despite the fact that I'd never post anything offensive, aggressive and certainly nothing as grotesque as the quoted posts above.

Sure even mild curiosity on behalf of the new manager would have them check out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn with a quick google search

Thelonious Monk · 30-09-2020 12:18PM

For all the flak cyclists have to take about cycling on footpaths in Irish Times letters and on radio shows, how often do we all see the likes of this? And cars have to drive on the footpath in order to park on the footpath, there are 6 cars parked on the double yellow lined footpath outside my house now!

https://twitter.com/AlanDub13/status/1310858616853979137

breezy1985 · 30-09-2020 12:39PM

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

For all the flak cyclists have to take about cycling on footpaths in Irish Times letters and on radio shows, how often do we all see the likes of this? And cars have to drive on the footpath in order to park on the footpath, there are 6 cars parked on the double yellow lined footpath outside my house now!

https://twitter.com/AlanDub13/status/1310858616853979137

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

Mickiemcfist · 30-09-2020 12:46PM

breezy1985 wrote: »

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

I watched a show a few years ago where Pro rugby players had to use a wheelchair to get from their club to Dublin City centre, Felix Jones had to go from Thomond park in Limerick. Something I hadn't considered was on bin day, he had to move wheelie bins out of his way on narrow foot paths. Ever since i make sure mine leaves room!

tomasrojo · 30-09-2020 12:49PM

breezy1985 wrote: »

I see people with buggies have to do it quite often and it must be a nightmare for wheelchair users

As someone who pushed kids around in buggies much of the day daily for about three years, I can't remember once having a problem with someone cycling on the footpath, but *every* *single* *day* I had to deal with having to find a way onto the road and then back onto the footpath to get around footpath parkers.

EDIT: Now Mickemcfist mentions it, I remember wheelie bins being a problem on some routes, but at least it was only one day a week on any given street.

EDIT: Now I think about it, it was about six years I was pushing buggies around (I had a big Chariot trailer that doubled as a stroller, and it could accommodate quite a big child, so I'd still use it when were walking more than about 3km). It only really ended when I got the cargo bike for longer journeys. Either way, it was a big sample size of observations!

p15574 · 30-09-2020 12:52PM

"Road tax". Even the national broadcaster doesn't seem to know it doesn't exist.

It is urging the Government to supplement this with increases in Vehicle Registration Tax, Road Tax, and taxes on petrol and diesel vehicles, along with regulations in order to reduce transport emissions.

breezy1985 · 30-09-2020 12:54PM

Mickiemcfist wrote: »

I watched a show a few years ago where Pro rugby players had to use a wheelchair to get from their club to Dublin City centre, Felix Jones had to go from Thomond park in Limerick. Something I hadn't considered was on bin day, he had to move wheelie bins out of his way on narrow foot paths. Ever since i make sure mine leaves room!

There's one stretch of cycle path I use where a few houses put bins in the cycle lane which I found annoying but after reading this I realize it's the much lesser of 2 evils

Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

Comments