TWO BY TWO OR SINGLE FILE……..
There are strong views on this issue and I can only ever remember it coming up once in all my time in the club as a discussion.

Here’s my view and you can debate it if you wish.

Again, there is no hard and fast on this one! Its like “Should I have another pint? Or not!!”
Some people say we should be courteous road users and I agree! EXCEPT!! …..WHEN ITS MY BODY ON THE LINE!!! Are we more concerned for the car driver?

A driver takes as much risk pulling out to pass one cyclist or a two-x-two. He still has to slow, still has to judge when to pull out etc. A two-x-two
makes him think more! And he tends to give us more room when we are two-up . There are lots of slow vehicles on the roads ,,, tractors,combines,horse boxes…. that’s a fact of life.

We as cyclists have a right to be there as long as we are safe road users we should be always on guard for our own safety.

Lets say we have 15 guys out on a Sunday morning heading for Clane (a notorious narrow road) but its not too long… the bad bit I mean!

We are cycling along (with me at the back), in a nice tight peleton.(Ill come to that later)! Driver come up behind wants to pass.

we are 8 groups of 2, long, lets say its about 30 yards back to front. Car can pass, if he see a gap, quite easily. Someone calls CAR BACK! SINGLE OUT!!

Suddenly we are 60 yards long!!! Driver still has to pull out to pass! But now his risk (and ours!) is twice as great.

ANYWAY!! He pulls out to pass,gets half way along, a car appears ahead, he has to pull in….. see where he is going?? Into the middle of us! And we have NOWHERE TO GO!!
IN MY VIEW…… we should ride two-x-two. If we slow the traffic behind then so be it…. its not usually for long and if it is a distance we should break up the line, leave a gap for a get out!

At all times it should be OUR SAFETY WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT.

Being a REAR ADMIRAL…… I see the mess we can get into sometimes. Guys all over the road. Two-x-twos taking up the whole carriageway.
There is nothing going to annoy a following driver more than to see a peleton making no effort to stay tight on the road.

That’s part of the skill we NEED to learn to be good cyclists…..WE SHOULD PRACTICE IT!!

We get a lot of respect if people see we can handle our bikes and can ride in CLOSE FORMATION!{jcomments on}