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rpm
saw great example of the quintessential self-entitled oblivious cyclist last night.
had just finished playing basketball and was pootling through the backstreets from the foundry on old st down towards london wall on the last bit of the new cs1 because i thought i had a slow puncture and wanted to deal with it outside my office in case I had to bail and get the tube home because i'm too fucked to change a tube by this point.
late 30s/early 40s woman cyclist rides alongside me giving me about 1 foot of space (on a completely empty double lane road which has bollards so isn't even a main thoroughfare) then pulls across my front wheel so i have to brake to avoid contact with her back wheel. she then holds my line up to the (red) lights, which she jumps causing a motorbike to slow and go around her coming from the side with priority. I get down to eldon st behind liv. st station and having been through there the day before knew the road was completely closed half way down for crossrail works but I still only had to get off and walk 50 yds along the pavement and then i could get back on and ride around finsbury circus instead. so I ride through the line of cones blocking the entry to the road, avoiding the two big yellow "ROAD CLOSED, FOLLOW DIVERSION" signs, past the second line of cones with another "ROAD CLOSED" sign just before the closure and pull to the kerb and dismount by the pedestrian crossing just before the roadworks started to walk my way around.
at this point, the very angry (american) lady who had cut me up, emerges on foot pushing her bike back from behind the giant steamroller parked in the middle of the roadworks literally screaming at a workman having a cup of tea "WELL PUTTING UP A SIGN WOULD HAVE MADE THIS WALK A WHOLE LOT MORE COMFORTABLE" literally seething with rage.
was tempted to point out she'd ridden past numerous signs & cones and literally into a construction site and that from where she was stood the far end of the pavement she had to walk her bike along was clearly visible.
even then she puts her bike onto the pavement, immediately remounts it and rides at full tilt along the narrow pavement pinging her bell at pedestrians to get out of her way.
WAC