From bryankeane.com I let myself get lost cycling around narrow back roads in Portugal with no clear path or direction, “I could turn left here, nope, let’s keep riding, three hours to do, sure you can go for longer before heading back, explore. Go further, so what if you ride longer. Enjoy the silence of quiet safe roads and the sun on my pale white winter skin”. I was at the mersey of nothing with food,money, spares in my back pocket.
This is what we dream of when out cycling on the road, cycling bliss where the only cars on the road are support vehicles filled with tasty treats when we feel energy levels dropping, where drivers give a friendly beep if you do happen to come across you, where farmers drive tractors at 50-60km and always give you a tow for at least 20km even if it is going out of their way. Where there are no such things as rush hour or heavy traffic. Where road surfaces are so smooth your average speed is always up by a few kph. Where climbs are never far. Where groups of good riders are always present for training. Where there is always a good chase from a dog but you know he never will catch you, just keep you honest. Where descents and fast hairpins and switch backs are never too far away.
Those of us who are lucky enough to travel and train or those of us who have great training locations on our doorsteps – we are the lucky ones and in the minority,
The reality is that most people don’t have this ideal cycling utopia and use what we have on our doorstep. I got some news the other day that made me sad for the cycling world and will be to the detriment of Australian and Sydney cycling at all levels and abilities.
Centennial Park (CP) in Sydney is once again is in the news for the wrong reasons and once again trying to push cyclists out of a safe cycling environment.
Centennial Park has been a steady training ground of thousands of Sydney cyclists of all levels over the years. It is a such a valuable training ground with its 4km loop in the middle of one of the most dangerous and unfriendly cycling cities that I have had the pleasure of riding in. The road network in Sydney is limited and with a population of over 4.5 million, it is congested and pretty hard to get good safe training loops. CP provides an invaluable service to every cyclist.
Back in 2003 they tried to ban cycling from the park and now nine years on there is another anti cycling initiative. The latest proposals are for pedestrian crossings and speed bumps and 20kph zones sections.These proposals have caused uproar among the cycling community who feel like they are being pushed out and treated unfairly. Sydney has grown and so has cycling, Centennial park is a shared resource. The park is a big part of a lot of people’s lives. A place to go to and unwind, exercise and relax. There are so few, if any similar places for cyclists near the city and it would be a shame for any one group to be excluded. Why are the authorities so adamant that cyclists are the problem? The proposed changes been made would kill cycling in CP when the real problem with the park is motor vehicles presenting dangers to cyclists.
There has been a lot of reaction by park users and the cycling community in Sydney both for and against the proposed changes. You can check them out here here and here
CP was where I was first introduced to real triathlon training, that whole running off the bike thing that we do, yep laps of the park, cycle run cycle run etc. From 5.30am almost every day of the year you will find groups going around the loop in the park, people getting on there training fix before work,red lights flicker and light up the darkness in winter, training is done before the sun comes up. You always have a target ahead of you, in summer the place gets even busier. An early morning cyclists dream and from 4pm most evenings you will find another training group rolling around.
Sydney has it problems with cyclists and cyclists have their problems with Sydney, it is a battle the cyclist will never win. I have witnessed the aggressive aussie driver loosing it with a group of cyclist over having to wait 30 sec behind a group. I have witnessed a driver purposely jam on his brakes in front of a group to try and knock them down. That time he succeeded, It went to court and he got away with saying his breaks failed. We fight a loosing battle, but we must fight
The shouts of abuse and bad language from car windows as they roll past you, mums and dads with kids in the back of the car getting abusive with you. The angry driver sitting on the car horn, all signals that you have just ruined their day by delaying them from that very important engagement. It was very important was it not? As a cyclist you should not have to put up with this abuse. “We are not just some cyclists slowing you down, we are somebody’s everything” slowing you down for that few very precious seconds.
Sydney has a serious problem, by banning cyclists from Cent Park it has just created a bigger problem and put the lives of cyclists in danger even more that it already is in an unfriendly cycling city with a great cycling community. I hope that this does not come to pass.
As one person commented about the whole Centennial Park issue
“This is a car problem not a bike problem”
Solving driver behavior outside CP would also encourage training to be done outside CP.
Watch a video of CP cyclists here :
This is what we dream of when out cycling on the road, cycling bliss where the only cars on the road are support vehicles filled with tasty treats when we feel energy levels dropping, where drivers give a friendly beep if you do happen to come across you, where farmers drive tractors at 50-60km and always give you a tow for at least 20km even if it is going out of their way. Where there are no such things as rush hour or heavy traffic. Where road surfaces are so smooth your average speed is always up by a few kph. Where climbs are never far. Where groups of good riders are always present for training. Where there is always a good chase from a dog but you know he never will catch you, just keep you honest. Where descents and fast hairpins and switch backs are never too far away.
Those of us who are lucky enough to travel and train or those of us who have great training locations on our doorsteps – we are the lucky ones and in the minority,
The reality is that most people don’t have this ideal cycling utopia and use what we have on our doorstep. I got some news the other day that made me sad for the cycling world and will be to the detriment of Australian and Sydney cycling at all levels and abilities.
Centennial Park (CP) in Sydney is once again is in the news for the wrong reasons and once again trying to push cyclists out of a safe cycling environment.
Centennial Park has been a steady training ground of thousands of Sydney cyclists of all levels over the years. It is a such a valuable training ground with its 4km loop in the middle of one of the most dangerous and unfriendly cycling cities that I have had the pleasure of riding in. The road network in Sydney is limited and with a population of over 4.5 million, it is congested and pretty hard to get good safe training loops. CP provides an invaluable service to every cyclist.
Back in 2003 they tried to ban cycling from the park and now nine years on there is another anti cycling initiative. The latest proposals are for pedestrian crossings and speed bumps and 20kph zones sections.These proposals have caused uproar among the cycling community who feel like they are being pushed out and treated unfairly. Sydney has grown and so has cycling, Centennial park is a shared resource. The park is a big part of a lot of people’s lives. A place to go to and unwind, exercise and relax. There are so few, if any similar places for cyclists near the city and it would be a shame for any one group to be excluded. Why are the authorities so adamant that cyclists are the problem? The proposed changes been made would kill cycling in CP when the real problem with the park is motor vehicles presenting dangers to cyclists.
There has been a lot of reaction by park users and the cycling community in Sydney both for and against the proposed changes. You can check them out here here and here
CP was where I was first introduced to real triathlon training, that whole running off the bike thing that we do, yep laps of the park, cycle run cycle run etc. From 5.30am almost every day of the year you will find groups going around the loop in the park, people getting on there training fix before work,red lights flicker and light up the darkness in winter, training is done before the sun comes up. You always have a target ahead of you, in summer the place gets even busier. An early morning cyclists dream and from 4pm most evenings you will find another training group rolling around.
Sydney has it problems with cyclists and cyclists have their problems with Sydney, it is a battle the cyclist will never win. I have witnessed the aggressive aussie driver loosing it with a group of cyclist over having to wait 30 sec behind a group. I have witnessed a driver purposely jam on his brakes in front of a group to try and knock them down. That time he succeeded, It went to court and he got away with saying his breaks failed. We fight a loosing battle, but we must fight
The shouts of abuse and bad language from car windows as they roll past you, mums and dads with kids in the back of the car getting abusive with you. The angry driver sitting on the car horn, all signals that you have just ruined their day by delaying them from that very important engagement. It was very important was it not? As a cyclist you should not have to put up with this abuse. “We are not just some cyclists slowing you down, we are somebody’s everything” slowing you down for that few very precious seconds.
Sydney has a serious problem, by banning cyclists from Cent Park it has just created a bigger problem and put the lives of cyclists in danger even more that it already is in an unfriendly cycling city with a great cycling community. I hope that this does not come to pass.
As one person commented about the whole Centennial Park issue
“This is a car problem not a bike problem”
Solving driver behavior outside CP would also encourage training to be done outside CP.
Watch a video of CP cyclists here :
