Not sure if you've heard about it but the Olympics is on at the moment. The road race was on over the weekend, racing from The Mall, over to Box Hill and back again. It's an amazing route but I watched every moment of the 6 hours men's and 4 hours women's racing (nothing better than uninterrupted, full coverage!) with not a small amount of jealousy. Tracing their route out of central London I wistfully ticked off my experiences on these roads; "Oh yes, that's where I got a can thrown out of a car window at me" and "That's the junction where I was hit by a minicab by a texting driver" etc.
Given over a million people went out to watch the racing over the weekend I wondered if racing like this really improves conditions on the roads for the rest of us. Of course that's not a reason not to do it, anything that creates closed roads and the chance to cycle is good in my book!
It made me think of Dave Barter's article in Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder about riding the route of the stage of the Tour de France and the difference of his (and our own) experience to the one that tour riders get. At least during the races as training athletes do face plenty of danger on the roads.
"The tour riders will speed through London to salutations and applause. For me it was hand gestures and expletives simply for taking my rightful place upon the road."
Maybe it won't have an immediate effect but possibly it'll go some way to helping people to dump their cars and get on a bicycle, inspired by Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish and Armitstead (and all of our TT, track, and mountain bike cyclists who at the time of writing haven't yet competed but will surely do well!). Maybe our children will see how much we've destroyed this world and will embrace the bicycle while cursing us for the damage we've done.
Maybe all we can hope is that it'll help the drivers that punish us with close passes and aggressive driving see that we are just people and that we don't deserve to have our lives endangered simply because of prejudice against us.