Friday 27 March 2009

The battle of the sexes - alive and well on the Uxbridge Road

This morning a woman overtook me on the Uxbridge Road, it was a fairly unusual occurrence as the people who generally overtake me, and there are many of them, are boys.

In fact, many of the men who overtake me are clearly audible as they squeak up behind me at the lights and plant themselves in front of me. They've only caught up with me because I've stopped at a junction and many of them take forever to get going when the green light appears. Then they weave around for the next mile at a snail's pace, blocking me and leaving me unable to overtake, but perfectly able, and willing, to swear.

There are many lycra-clad men who overtake me but I'm happy to let those significantly faster than me whiz past. What bothers me is that many of the squeaky wheelers seem to feel honour bound to overtake me because there's a ponytail sticking out of my helmet. And despite the fact I ride a man's bike with large wheels and they're on a foldable with a wheel diameter equivalent to a yo-yo they still think they'll go faster than I do.*

Perhaps it's because I'm not the typical cyclists' build. I don't see many other people on the road who are of 'traditional build', nor do I see many who continue to jiggle for a fair distance after hitting a pot hole, but it's still unfair.

I almost hope one of them does it again soon, I may be a girl but my language shows I'm no lady.

* Obviously not experienced foldable riders with nice ones, just squeaky-wheeled weirdy ones.....

No comments:

Post a Comment