Anthem Cycle Club - Escort Vehicle Clueless

[rorydewet]

Cycled in the cradle yesterday Saturday 16 October in morning.

My last stretch back to Bidons was from  Neck and Deck back up long gradual hill back to Bidons.

Came across an escort vehicle trying to escort about 30 cyclists from Anthem Cycling Club.

Close to 94.7 lots of groups cycling and lots now using escort vehicle.

Fair game. If a club can arrange some guy to ride behind them with flashing lights hats of to them.

But just because you are now driving an escort vehicle behind a group of cyclists doesn't make you entitled to drive solely focused on the guys in front of you and ignoring other cyclists behind you and other road users in vehicles.

This guys idea of escorting was to ride with left hand wheel in the cycle lane marked in yellow, thus putting him three quarters of the way into the left hand lane where cars etc. needed to pass.

So as a solo cyclist trying to pass this group my options were to venture to the right of said escort vehicle and run the risk of getting taken out by a passing vehicle, from behind or in front. This was not the option I opted for.

The other option was to sneak past said escort vehicle on the left and run the risk of the escort taking me out. I decided this was the lesser of the 2 evils.

I did this, but now after passing the escort I ended up smack bang in the middle of the Anthem riders, who were riding in some instances some 4 abreast and having a good old chatter like on a coffee ride and not a training ride. They could afford to ride like this due to the blocking of the escort vehicle behind them.

Surely if you serious about training as a group and organizing an escort you will be trying to push the pace and not riding 4 abreast and talking like on a Sunday coffee ride.

Sorry guys but in terms of escorting and cycling etiquette clearly this club needs to work on the procedure.

I know I'll get the pitch fork treatment and be lambasted but this is typical " We a group so we are entitled"  type of mentality that negates rights of other riders in the area.

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by rorydewet

[jackievs]

8 hours ago, rorydewet said:

Cycled in the cradle yesterday Saturday 16 October in morning.

My last stretch back to Bidons was from  Neck and Deck back up long gradual hill back to Bidons.

Came across an escort vehicle trying to escort about 30 cyclists from Anthem Cycling Club.

Close to 94.7 lots of groups cycling and lots now using escort vehicle.

Fair game. If a club can arrange some guy to ride behind them with flashing lights hats of to them.

But just because you are now driving an escort vehicle behind a group of cyclists doesn't make you entitled to drive solely focused on the guys in front of you and ignoring other cyclists behind you and other road users in vehicles.

This guys idea of escorting was to ride with left hand wheel in the cycle lane marked in yellow, thus putting him three quarters of the way into the left hand lane where cars etc. needed to pass.

So as a solo cyclist trying to pass this group my options were to venture to the right of said escort vehicle and run the risk of getting taken out by a passing vehicle, from behind or in front. This was not the option I opted for.

The other option was to sneak past said escort vehicle on the left and run the risk of the escort taking me out. I decided this was the lesser of the 2 evils.

I did this, but now after passing the escort I ended up smack bang in the middle of the Anthem riders, who were riding in some instances some 4 abreast and having a good old chatter like on a coffee ride and not a training ride. They could afford to ride like this due to the blocking of the escort vehicle behind them.

Surely if you serious about training as a group and organizing an escort you will be trying to push the pace and not riding 4 abreast and talking like on a Sunday coffee ride.

Sorry guys but in terms of escorting and cycling etiquette clearly this club needs to work on the procedure.

I know I'll get the pitch fork treatment and be lambasted but this is typical " We a group so we are entitled"  type of mentality that negates rights of other riders in the area.

 

 

 

Yes, this happens frequently on weekends... I had the same issues with vehicles from First for Woman Insurance driving behind and in front of 3 to 4 women walking in the cycle lane... car drives halfway into the yellow lane and rest in the road and at walking pace you have to ride past them with cars coming from behind....!

[Paul Ruinaard]

This is my pet peeve. If you look back on my posts you will see me complaining a LOT about this. It endangers everyone and then makes the people in the bunches  with follow cars ride like knobs all over the road. Never mind the runners have now taken over the cradle as well and run two abreast in the yellow line. So you get a follow car following a bunch of cyclists passing an oncoming bunch of runners and they are either passing you or you passing them? Cars and bikes all over the road.

There was an accident caused by this at caves with a truck with Club 100 a couple of years ago. Guy escaped major injury. Another rider killed when doing a u turn hit by a motorbike. There are lots of crashes. 

Now i see trail runners and walkers have taken to the MTB tracks as well.

Follow cars should be banned by clubs. Use a follow motorcycle for technicals and fix the bike on the side of the road. All else fails call an Uber and you can get home or to your car.

This is making an overcrowded cradle a lot more dangerous. It's only a matter of time before one of two events or both:

- cyclist hits an oncoming runner at speed and injuries are very bad.

- cyclist run over from behind by a follow vehicle whilst in the yellow line.

I can't wait until after the events when all the people leave and it goes back to normality. Now you know why the cradle is great in december or in winter , although TBH the amount of new people cycling has really lead to a continual large volume of traffic in the cradle. events need to be limited as well, the area is a public area so no permits to run events outside of the public land or on selected weekends should be granted.

Oh and BTW week before CTCT the running clubs took it upon themselves to put red cones around their drinks tables in the yellow line therefore cordonning them off and pushing the cyclists in to the road? Under what authority and permits etc? This is a public area and the area should be shared by all for leisure, not for the exclusive use of some riders/runners in an event because they pay an organiser for access. I get there are big events etc which can be planned but it's the small random events that are now springing up every weekend with some guy who has arranged it and then oh boy got his mates in a follow car behind them "because it will be safer". What about all the other people who you are endangering and inconveniencing with your behaviour.

never mind the driving on the way in when the guys are lats for their meetup with the club. 

 

[madmarc]

cyclists should not be complaining  about cyclists at the Cradle - its a shitshow created by cyclists for cyclists and now the cyclists are moaning - when will cyclists ever be happy, Maybe only when every cyclist becomes a self entitled box, then all cyclists will be happy

[Mojoman]

Lol...Looks like I was lucky last Friday with there being no-one around...
We did thank our lucky sausages that we dont have to ride here on weekends though!
It must be bat sht crazy!

Not sure which club it is that follows their club riders up Sterkfeontein hospital hill but thats also going to cause an accident one of these days..

 

[100Tours]

19 minutes ago, madmarc said:

cyclists should not be complaining  about cyclists at the Cradle - its a shitshow created by cyclists for cyclists and now the cyclists are moaning - when will cyclists ever be happy, Maybe only when every cyclist becomes a self entitled box, then all cyclists will be happy

Cradle is remarkably much better for cycling since the cyclists got involved, so thats good. Self-regulation of cyclists by cyclists should continue.

[jackievs]

On 10/18/2021 at 8:25 AM, Paul Ruinaard said:

This is my pet peeve. If you look back on my posts you will see me complaining a LOT about this. It endangers everyone and then makes the people in the bunches  with follow cars ride like knobs all over the road. Never mind the runners have now taken over the cradle as well and run two abreast in the yellow line. So you get a follow car following a bunch of cyclists passing an oncoming bunch of runners and they are either passing you or you passing them? Cars and bikes all over the road.

There was an accident caused by this at caves with a truck with Club 100 a couple of years ago. Guy escaped major injury. Another rider killed when doing a u turn hit by a motorbike. There are lots of crashes. 

Now i see trail runners and walkers have taken to the MTB tracks as well.

Follow cars should be banned by clubs. Use a follow motorcycle for technicals and fix the bike on the side of the road. All else fails call an Uber and you can get home or to your car.

This is making an overcrowded cradle a lot more dangerous. It's only a matter of time before one of two events or both:

- cyclist hits an oncoming runner at speed and injuries are very bad.

- cyclist run over from behind by a follow vehicle whilst in the yellow line.

I can't wait until after the events when all the people leave and it goes back to normality. Now you know why the cradle is great in december or in winter , although TBH the amount of new people cycling has really lead to a continual large volume of traffic in the cradle. events need to be limited as well, the area is a public area so no permits to run events outside of the public land or on selected weekends should be granted.

Oh and BTW week before CTCT the running clubs took it upon themselves to put red cones around their drinks tables in the yellow line therefore cordonning them off and pushing the cyclists in to the road? Under what authority and permits etc? This is a public area and the area should be shared by all for leisure, not for the exclusive use of some riders/runners in an event because they pay an organiser for access. I get there are big events etc which can be planned but it's the small random events that are now springing up every weekend with some guy who has arranged it and then oh boy got his mates in a follow car behind them "because it will be safer". What about all the other people who you are endangering and inconveniencing with your behaviour.

never mind the driving on the way in when the guys are lats for their meetup with the club. 

 

The key phrase ..."ride like knobs"!