firstoffthebike.com - Features

Don't mess with the two wheeled crowd

In recent times there has been a a cause and effect relationship between the cycling (and tri and anyone who commutes etc etc) and those who would cross them. And it is not just your average angry, fist shaking motorist who has felt the wrath of the cycling fraternity.

We can give you four, high profile social and sporting commentators have felt the sting in the cycling tale and have left the conversation stirred and shaken.

Magda Szubanski
Magda Szubanski is a well known Australian comedian who, while doing a spot on popular satire show Good News Week, encouraged people to run over or open their car doors into cyclists. That's right, that was her way of fixing the 'problem' of cyclists on popular Beach Road, a bike riding haunt. Her list of witty complaints also extended to sweaty lycra bums, using the Beach Road bicycle path and the tip tap shoes in the cafe she frequents.

Szubanski incensed the local bike community and, as with the case of all of our faux pas artists, the social networks melted down with a stream of defence for the rights of the two wheelers. She came back a day later with this:

“I am so sorry that the skit on bikers has caused offence. There are so many safety issues surrounding cyclists. Certainly motorists need to become much more aware and considerate of cyclists on the road. My belief is that responsible cycling is to use bike paths where possible and if it?s not possible, to be extra careful on the roads.

"We all make mistakes and the point is that hopefully we learn from them. Clearly my joke was stupid and insensitive but perhaps it has brought to light that there are frustrations amongst cyclists and motorists."

Contrite and visibly shaken by her experience the retraction was accepted by some, not by all.



Tony Kornheiser
The US mega sports portal ESPN is up for two mentions. The first is sports BMOC (big man on campus) Tony Kornheiser who quipped on air:  "And they all wear...my God...with the little water bottle in the back and their stupid hats and their shiny shorts, they are the same disgusting posers that come out in the middle of a snow storm with cross country skiing on your block. Run them down."

One of the people to hear this was none other than Lance Armstrong. Lance tweeted "Listening to Tony Kornheiser's comments/rant on ESPN radio re: cyclists. Disgusting, ignorant, foolish. What a complete f-ing idiot."

The 7-time Tour De france champion was invited by Kornheiser to smooth it out on air which they did.

“The level of scrutiny I’m getting,” Kornheiser made comment ”is scary for me.” That's what happens when you get over 2.4 people on twitter and you anger their leader!

For his part Lance said “So many times, people get in their car and drive a mile. Why wouldn’t you just get on your bike? That’s good for all of us.”

“Look at the stats … 40 years ago, 40 percent of our kids rode their bikes to school and the obesity rate was 14 percent. Today, you know how many kids ride their bike to school? Three percent of our kids ride their bikes to school. You know why? Because parents are afraid to put their kids on the street, they’re afraid they’re going to ride a mile to school and get run over.”

We’ve been over this ground before. Cyclists have a right to be on the road. Some cyclists do dumb things, but most of us don’t, because almost all of us are motorists as well and we know we can’t win an altercation with an automobile. We understand you don’t like to be inconvenienced when we get in your way. What about that bus in front of you? You want to ban buses, too? Cycling is good for you. You ought to try it.

Michael Smith
At the start of this year's Tour de France a French TV car swerved into Juan Antonio Flecha, sending him to the pavement. Johnny Hoogerland, unable to avoid hitting Flecha, struck his bike, which catapulted him into a barbed wire fence on the side of the road. One of the most horrendus things you can see on the road. And both riders lucky not to be dead.

Some people, believe it or not, found this incident funny. Michael Smith, a sports reporter and writer for ESPN tweeted he found the accident was funny.

“For real, am I wrong for laughing at that Tour de France crash? Can’t get over the driver speeding off as if he didn’t know he hit someone!”

The follow up from this guy was to wind up those who responded to his post. He tweeted he still found it funny and told some people to "go play in the traffic".

He issued an apology of sorts but around the globe cyclists were furious. Even Gary Fisher, who basically invented the mountain bike, threatened to punch him in the face.

His apology was short, like his thought process on this "I apologize for my insensitive remarks re: the TdF crash. I recognize my comments were inappropriate given the serious nature of the crash."

Since then Smith has not been seen much twittering his "ideas"

Mia Freedman
In the Australia wide post Cadel Evans euphoria, Mia Freedman who is, umm not sure what she does, opened her week with this tweet.

“I'm not going to be popular when I tell @karlstefanovic on @thetodayshow that I don't care about Cadel Evans. 7:50.”

She proceeded to express an opinion that essentially stated Cadel Evans was not heroic and that people outside of the sporting world needed to be seen as heroes. The thought might have been valid but not in the wake of Evans' efforts. She then continued with her own brand of foot in mouth disease by commenting that Evans shouldn’t be classed as a hero just because “he rides a bike” and the clincher "he doesn't even live in Australia."

Since then her twitter account has melted as has her credibility (but if anyone can tell us what qualifications you need to be a social commentator we'd love the feedback).

She has since posted "....I never expected this....realise my timing was awful! " and "One last time: I think what @cadelofficial achieved is awesome. Just wishing that non-sporting achievements received similar adulation in Oz"

Sure her reference might have been a noble one, and everyone is entitled to their opinion there is no doubt on that this was ill informed and smacked of a ratings beat up given the twitter. And, what got her into hot water, was when she delivered her batch of freshly baked (or maybe only half baked) ideas, was her lack of knowledge of Cadel's work off the bike and who he was.

We'd all love to pedistool the local Red Cross guys or the CFA but there is a way to air that idea, not to the detriment of the someone else. The slam dunk came via an open letter by Aussie pro cyclist Bridie O'Donnell. It was articulate and stated directly what a lot of the cycling world was thinking.



In all of these cases these well known people were widely and correctly put back in their place after gaffs that, if they thought through what they were saying, would not have been mentioned. They also didn't really count on the numbers of cyclists out there. And yet the culture of us versus them still exists.