101 wankers

Hello! Interesting reading, and thanks for your comments. I will come to drinks! Not this Tuesday, but maybe next Tuesday. I'm not a shit cyclist, and I tend to avoid confrontation.

Dawn, good on you for getting so much attention for your blog. I hope very much that you'll get your bike back or a new one soon, and obviously that your source of inspiration will run dry before long, ideally before you get anywhere near 101 (here's hoping, although of course not very hopefully).

I don't doubt your experiences for one moment--I've heard plenty of similar stories from women over the years. I think what people are thinking about when speculating (on the basis of no evidence) about your cycling are the questions that they have about anyone's cycling, male or female. You write in your article on why you started the blog:

What are you doing to make people so angry?

Honestly, nothing. I’m a good cyclist, I wear a helmet, always stop at traffic lights, indicate and I don’t take up much space on the road.

Curiously enough, and I hasten to stress that I say this without actually having seen you ride, it is often precisely not 'taking up space on the road' that invites people to pass you closely or otherwise victimise you--it's often the (seemingly) timid cyclist who rides with an 'I'm not really here' body language and road positioning who looks the most like a potential victim to cowards who want to abuse someone to feel better about themselves.

Quite irrespective of any specific issues, it's always worth doing cycle training if you haven't already done so. It will be tailored to your abilities, which are assessed at the start of the training. Have a look--there's a whole sub-forum devoted to cycle training:

http://www.lfgss.com/forum49.html

Enjoy your riding in spite of the subjects of the blog!