Don’t Exaggerate!

I had a walker seek me out online after my gravel ride, The Peaky Finder, this weekend. They emailed me through my website. It was a really good-quality rant about hundreds of ‘rude and aggressive’ cyclists forcing them off the Tissington Trail ‘racing’ 3 and 4 abreast. At best exaggerating their issue to make a point, at worst blatantly lying for the same effect notwithstanding they assumed it was riders on my ride and no one else. It’s a trait in people I hate to be honest. In my opinion, if you have an issue you want to highlight, let the issue stand on its own two feet. If you have to make shit up to ram your point home, I’m sorry I’m not really listening because the real problem you have is lost in the noise your making. My initial reaction was to go in all guns blazing and tell them to f**k off but the diplomat inside me eventually came to the fore and my years working in Customer Service took over and I responded as objectively as I could, politely highlighting the flaws in their argument and encouraging them to pursue their complaint with the authorities if they felt their safety was compromised. The stand out for me though was how they made a point of saying ‘..The trail is open to ALL users..’ yet in their closing sentence told me ‘..In future find somewhere else to go and keep off the trail…’. Nice one 🤣

I anonymised it and posted it on my Facebook page which received a broad range of reactions. Some were strong, some were more objective, some confirmed a minority of riders did ride like dicks but the general consensus seemed to be there are idiots who ride bikes causing problems for other riders and walkers and walkers that don’t like sharing. It’s a recipe for conflict and occasionally people get upset. Thats life, I agree and was the sentiment I tried to put across in my reply.

I have no doubt there were riders that passed them swiftly and maybe they were rude and aggressive too but I have no control or responsibility for them beyond being a good citizen and reminding everyone regularly to be nice, its not a race and share with care.

After more thought, it then lead me down a rabbit hole of analysing what the issue actually was and how to deal or mitigate it in the future.

Firstly, some facts. My ride didn’t have hundreds of riders, I’d estimate 80-100 which I will accept could seem like a large, disruptive group at or near the start before it naturally split up. Secondly, the trail isn’t wide enough for 3-4 riders, you can only safely ride in pairs and then single out when you pass others.

So I did some math.

Your average gravel rider is going to be 2-2.5m long. If you assume a group of 100 riders are riding in pairs, that’s 50 pairs x 2-2.5m with, lets say, a 1 metre gap in between. So the group would be 150m-200m long. At 12mph, thats approx 30-40 secs for the group to pass. I don’t think that’s a long time if you think someone walking may stop or step aside watch the first few, see more are coming and then realise its a big group and by then it’s probably already halfway past. But let’s put that time into context. It might feel like a long time and disruptive on the Tissington Trail but pedestrians are happy to wait this long at pelican crossings, or to wait for a safe space to cross a busy road. Drivers can wait longer at junctions and lights too. Those are ok and accepted delays but groups of cyclists on a designated National Cycling Network route, oh no. Get off!

Now lets look at what I can do. The original complaint mentioned signage, supervision and someone to talk to. It’s a fair point but my rides are not sanctioned official events and what do I say on signs? WARNING: CYCLE EVENT THIS SUNDAY, YOU MAY BE HELD UP FOR FEW SECONDS
Yes, I am being facetious but I stand by the underlying point here. People’s perceptions of time and space are often skewed in the heat of the moment and I think that’s why they exaggerate because it sounds daft complaining about having to share a National Cycle Route with cyclists and being held up for a few seconds. It’s like when people say I’ve been working 24/7. No you haven’t mate, you’ve probably just done a few extra hours. Nobody works 24/7.

For me there are two main issues that I can realistically address. #1. A large group at the start. #2. Rider etiquette

So for #1 there are a few options I’m considering

1. Sack the event off altogether
2. Set riders off in waves
3. Try and split riders up by asking them to use different car parks then tag on as we go
4. Take the route directly to Carsington Water over some hills to split the group up
5. Move the start so we don’t have the bottleneck on the Tissington Trail

At the moment #5 seems like the best option. Move the start to Carsington Water and maybe start a bit earlier. There are loads of parking spaces + a cafe, we can keep the big rollout everyone enjoys and the group will naturally split around the reservoir leaving the busy Tissington Trail till later in the ride. Win, win, win.

For #2, I think I can pivot my messaging slightly to emphasise more how important it is to share the trails nicely with others and promote good behaviour and bell use alongside a Gravelton code of conduct. Tell riders what’s expected of them.

Beyond that, I’m not sure what I can do apart from organising a real event and charge an extortionate entry fee for the privilege. Never going to happen.

For now it’s just one complaint and some emails from riders confirming some poor behaviour but the trend is in the wrong direction. I hope my actions will see some positive results for the rest of the year because if it persists or gets any worse I will pull the plug.

Gravelton Events is a very simple concept. I design a route, I share it and invite anyone to come and ride with me on a specific date. That’s it and where my responsibilty ends. Riders like it. Cyclists love riding in groups. It’s a social event and as long as we keep telling ourselves that, behave ourselves and enjoy it, why would we want to stop?

Adios