Tony Kornheiser does a James Martin

He's an ex-banker. That's all you need to know.

My nephew cycles to school, he's eight year's old. He rides with his dad. They obey all the rules, take the lane safely like the two cyclists in this disgusting article. They don't ride on the pavement, they don't jump red lights. A minority of drivers take absurd risks around my nephew. the carry out absurd overtakes, pass much too closely. Sometimes it's malicious, usually it's simple thoughtlessness on the driver's part. This article encourages the malicious drivers. This article is really quite shocking, it's as if Frankel is boasting about being an impatient, intolerant driver. Calm down. Don't blame other people, real, flesh and blood people like my nephew, for your own terrible driving. Very disappointed, this tawdry, grubby and sleazy kind of journalism is gutter tabloid material and may well make my nephew's bicycle ride more dangerous.

Shame on you.

Hasn't appeared. The pages whited out when i posted that.

Article's gone!

Good.

Here's the cached page if you still want a Wednesday rage;

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LuEEx8x6gx4J:http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/road-cars/opinions/the-problem-with-cyclists/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

Jesus what a cock.
He mentions children in the article.
Presumably when they are of an age when they might want to cycle through country lanes he'll tell them it's dangerous.
Because of cunts like him.

I'm quite gutted he didn't have the balls to stand by his article. Terrible as it was.

As f_j says, google cache remembers, but only for the moment. Here's Mr Frankel's text in case anyone actually wants to read it.

I wouldn't.

The problem with cyclists

By Andrew Frankel on 6 May 2014 @Andrew_Frankel

How many of you are familiar with these circumstances, or similar? You are on a fast country road, trying to enjoy your drive, despite all those militating factors life throws at you: traffic, pot-holes, the children on the back seat and so on.

For the avoidance of doubt you are not driving like Ronnie Peterson on qualifiers, oversteering everywhere at triple the speed limit, you’re driving sensibly, but enjoying all those aspects of driving available entirely legally to anyone with a shred of sensitivity and a half decent car: finding the natural line through each curve, making imperceptible gear changes, listening to the engine, noting the loads build in the suspension and reading the road through the feel of the steering.

You crest a hill at, say, 50mph, and discover two cyclists travelling at one tenth of your speed, side by side in the middle of the road, having a nice chat. They can or at least should be able to hear you approach but despite the clear and present danger to their continuing existence, they exhibit not even a desire to pull over, let alone any kind of duty. You are the maniac in the one tonne metal projectile, they are the poor, innocent keep fit enthusiasts doing their bit to save the planet.

They believe that if you hit them there’s not a court in the land that’s going to find them culpable for the appalling accident that will ensue. The fact damages may well be paid to their estate rather than themselves appears not to register. They know that when faced with a choice of slamming on the brakes and/or swerving around them, or running into the back of them, you’re going to do whatever you can to prevent an accident entirely of their creation.

And yet when once you’ve shed the speed or found the gap between them and the truck coming the other way, when you look in the mirror, you find yourself in receipt of a single digit, black gloved salute. You find this an unworthy reward for saving their life.

I like cycling. I believe cyclists have as much right to use the roads as cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks. I have no problem at all with those who stay in single file and, like the rest of us, use no more space than they need; and, to be fair, most do. But in a sizeable minority of cases there is something about climbing aboard a device fashioned from metal, rubber and carbon fibre that trips the survival instinct switch in their brain to the off position.

None of these people would dream of walking in the middle of a busy A-road any more than would you and I, but put him or her on a bicycle and despite the fact that on many hills they can manage no better than walking pace, it’s apparently absolutely fine.

The problems cyclists now present motorists are many and manifest. Drivers must be 17 years old, trained and insured before they can take to the road: cyclists, like horse riders, remain untroubled by such inconveniences. Moreover they wield their weakness as a strength, believing their vulnerability somehow confers upon them the right to the moral high ground and upon you the obligation to do anything to accommodate their perceived right to travel on any part of the road at any speed they see fit, regardless of the inconvenience and danger to others as a result.

Measures to deal specifically with the hazards presented by two such incompatible devices as bicycles and vehicles occupying the same stretches of road will surely come but because the explosion of interest in cycling is a recent thing, they’re not here yet. Locally there is one road which has a simple cycle lane painted along its edges and I can’t remember when I last had a problem on it. As a measure it is neither expensive nor draconian and, so far as I can see, it works.

More fundamentally however cyclists need to realise that while their pastime is to be encouraged for all the obvious reasons, it should not be seen as a postmodern alternative to going to the pub: essentially a social occasion with the added benefit of keeping fit. Until this education is complete, people who ride bicycles very slowly in the middle of busy roads will continue to lose their lives, and people who drive cars in a manner that in any other circumstances would be regarded as entirely sensible, will continue to be unfairly blamed.

Worth a re-post: Carlton Reid: Why do cyclists ride in the middle of the road

Remember, motorists ride two abreast all the time, even when driving solo.
Meanwhile we spotted this in Somerset at easter

never mind, the speed limit reverts to 60mph at the next junction before the 300 metre climb over the Quantocks.

That's the ridiculous nanny state in action again.

I'm quite gutted he didn't have the balls to stand by his article. Terrible as it was.

Both he and the magazine are better than this, and they realised it.
How the fuck that tripe ever made it into Motor Sport, I don't know.

"Some of you are wondering why we have removed our article on cycling. It is no longer there because what began as a reasonable debate, with sensible arguments on both sides, had spiraled into a torrent of aggression and abuse which was no longer of any value. We apologise if it caused any offence; it is a subject we will be staying well clear of in the future."

From https://www.facebook.com/pages/Motor-Sport-Magazine/96482896515

They're probably lovely blokes but spending inheritance on petrol for Astons and pretending to be journalists is a comfy bubble. They forgot about not being dicks.

I love the bit that seems upset that cycling could be sociable! Stop that talking!

"Some of you are wondering why we have removed our article on cycling. It is no longer there because what began as a reasonable debate, with sensible arguments on both sides, had spiraled into a torrent of aggression and abuse which was no longer of any value. We apologise if it caused any offence; it is a subject we will be staying well clear of in the future."

What a load of bollocks.

Stroppy bollocks, at that.

"How dare you criticise our terrible article!"

The irony is that the comments on the article were all unusually reasonable and considered.

The irony is that the comments on the article were all unusually reasonable and considered.

That sounds like a challenge!

there were 175 comments when I tried to post something, nearly all were reasonable and calm and polite. Someone called him a knobber, that was about it.

On the plus side, you can now post snarky or witty one liners on their facebook page.

oh dear. I like A Frankel's car review articles. This though is pretty embarrassing.

Surprised Motorsport have reacted like that on fbook too. They should give him a copy of the highway code and tell him to not write such shit again.

I think they need to revisit the OED for definition of Reasonable & Debate.

A one-sided misinformed tirade about cyclists is neither reasonable nor a debate.

They should give him a copy of the highway code and tell him to not write such shit again.

So true. Instead they published it.

The graun putting forward James Martin as a possible James Bond, without mentioning (and deleting my comments stating) that he is actually a cunt:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/20/keoghan-madden-james-martin-who-should-be-james-bond-if-aaron-taylor-johnson-is-out

And mastermind would know to have their lair somewhere hot as James is 90% butter.

I feel that others should do, what he takes pleasure from, to his loved ones.

Only fair