rain miles count double

There’s some exciting news from Belfast City Council (really), with a press release announcing the arrival of competitive cycling in Belfast city centre. The “Halfords Tour Series Belfast” will have some of the UK’s top cycling teams competing in a race around a city centre circuit.

So, we’re back. I’ve been motivated by myself and a couple of others to restart this blog, but this time it’ll have to be a bit different.

Is this the end of the ride? Maybe, maybe not. It’s the end of the beginning at least. Rain Miles is taking a break.

When you’re riding in traffic, do you ever feel like they’re all out to get you? You might not be too far wrong, as a number of recent studies show just how dangerous it can be to cycle on the roads in the UK.

And you know what else? It looks like the motorists are generally the ones at fault.

Facebook threw up a real eye-opener recently, in the form of an anti-cycling group set up by a young man by the name of Luke Collins. The excellently spelled “just want punch cyclest in the head when they wont move out your way” group.

The group, before it was deleted, was a litany of violent anti-cyclist comments from motorists, and showed just how aggressive, selfish and stupid many drivers can be. Not to mention semi-literate and homophobic.

Following the recent complaints about cyclists riding while listening to music, cycling news site road.cc ran a poll asking what cyclists themselves thought about the issue. The results are now in.

Today we bid farewell to a faithful, if relatively recent, friend.

It is my duty to report that the stick-on moustache that was presented to me (along with all the other riders) at the start of 2009′s Lap The Lough, finally succumbed to the Northern Ireland weather and fell off my helmet where it had lived since the event.

Alan In Belfast has uncovered something of interest to Belfast cyclists in the minutes of a council meeting held in October. In a nutshell, the council’s Development Committee discussed introducing a cycle scheme (similar to Dublin or Paris) to Belfast.

Pop quiz, hotshot. You are approaching a roundabout and a cyclist is signalling a right turn, but keeping to the left. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?

Our very own First Minister, the Right Honourable Peter Robinson MLA, took a trip to see one of my favourite stretches of cycle path recently, the award winning Comber Greenway. Here’s what he had to say.