[Closed] Seems like a fair outcome to me .

Yeah, bit of a dick to be sure.

I wouldn't want the death of a rider, or the horse being put down, on my conscience.

As above, but to be honest I'm a bit surprised that the fine was so low.

Prize Plumb

Why on earth was the horse on the road, Presumably road was closed for the triathlon??!?!

I don’t think the road was closed, no.

I wouldn’t want the death of a rider, or the horse being put down, on my conscience.

Yup although more selfishly I am cautious around horses on the basis they might cause me serious injury. I dread to think of this morons driving style when they are better protected.
Fine wise given the lenient sentences for killing people whilst driving seems, sadly, in balance. Banning the idiot from life from racing seems more effective. Although depends on how widespread the ban is eg just one race or a organising body.

Why on earth was the horse on the road, Presumably road was closed for the triathlon??!?!

When I was doing the Windsor Triathlon only a little bit of the cycle ride was on closed roads, so my guess is no.

Why on earth was the horse on the road, Presumably road was closed for the triathlon??!?!

It wasn't all closed roads, the triathlons around my way use a section of the A3 which is the main road between Portsmouth and London!!!!! with most cars doing 70+mph past them

Guy was a complete dick, i think he undertook as he couldn't overtake due to other riders alongside so instead of dabbing the brakes and dropping back to a clear gap to overtake he decided to undertake the horse rider

Personally id of fined him more and sent him on a horse riding course

Pass plenty of horse riders in the Southdowns on my road bike and always slow right down, politely warn them im there and wait for a response before passing, even if im on a STRAVA!!!! segment or racing with mates, if we see a horse rider it all stops and we pass slowly and politely

I think of he had stopped and apologized or tried to see if everything was ok he might have got off with a fine. Keeping on racing sealed his fate

Prize Plumb

Yeah always give horses room, except once when two horses suddenly appeared out of a field with a huge hedge and swore at me and my mate for not warning then we were there.

What about the rest of the riders? The ones overtaking didn't give any more room?

The punishment seems lenient, but it seems harsh if his only crime was being on the left when the group split arround the horse? Group riding etiquette relies on the person infront feeding you information (car, pothole, grave, car, runner, speed bumps all get called out with hand gestures pointing them out or telling you which way to avoid them). Not legally, but really the whole group should be accountable.

Although in the same week a woman who drove over a cyclist at a mini roundabout causing life changing injuries for six points and a £200 fine.

That horse reacted fairly calmly to a bike up its backside, many would have spooked and caused carnage as the first cyclist passed so closely. You should always give horses at least a 6ft gap and slow down below 30mph and if you can't pass safely then wait, the rider will pull over when they can.
It wasn't just the one who undertook who acted like a eijit, the whole group followed the leader without consideration. There was also another cyclist who was attempting undertake the horse as a it was bolting. I take my hat off to the horse rider for bringing her horse back under control without injury to the cyclists.
Horses have a 6ft blindspot behind them and you risk being double-barrelled into oblivion if you enter it. As an ex groom and jockey I used to try and desensitise my charges, even to idiots but they are still animals with a mind of their own

Best to shout 'Rider' on approach , a good 50m back. The horse will appreciate it and the ears tell the rider 'Theres something in my blind spot , am I about to taken down by a sabre tooth tiger?' Then a nice wide pass same as you would expect from a car , if the horse and rider know your overtaking its alot less of an issue , its the sudden appearance in the horses peripheral that usually causes issues.

Group riding etiquette

I thought that kind of stuff wasn't allowed in tris? 😉 Every plum for himself, and all that.

slow down below 30mph

No worries for me there then. 🙂 (Unless downhill with a tailwind!)

Joking apart I slow right down , talk to rider from behind, and pass wide and slow, 10mph at most. Whats the rush anyway?

I thought that kind of stuff wasn’t allowed in tris? 😉 Every plum for himself, and all that.

It is now. They tried to stop it but couldn't so it's now allowed. There is an exception for certain, usually championship, races, but it is clearly stated in the entry conditions If you can or cannot.

Whenever these triathlon are on,they put up loads of signs. I wouldn't ride a horse where I know there's gonna be loads of cyclists doing 40mph silently. 🙄

Whenever these triathlon are on,they put up loads of signs. I wouldn’t ride a horse where I know there’s gonna be loads of cyclists doing 40mph silently. 🙄

So user groups should just ceed their rights to faster and scarier users, and you're saying this as a cyclist?

They allow E-bikes in triathlons now , amazballs .- hang on i have learnt to do th quoty thingy

Whenever these triathlon are on,they put up loads of signs. I wouldn’t ride a horse where I know there’s gonna be loads of cyclists doing 40kph silently. 🙄

ftfy

Neigh luck !

Best to shout ‘Rider’ on approach , a good 50m back. The horse will appreciate it and the ears tell the rider ‘Theres something in my blind spot , am I about to taken down by a sabre tooth tiger?’ Then a nice wide pass same as you would expect from a car , if the horse and rider know your overtaking its alot less of an issue , its the sudden appearance in the horses peripheral that usually causes issues.

Ha! It’s pretty much what I used to do coming up behind a horse and rider, instead of pinging my bell; it’s what my ex sis-in-law told me to do.
Except on one occasion I called out “hello, ok to come past” to a woman riding in front of me, she was off in a world of her own, I made her jump, she jerked the reins and made the horse shy sideways!
No harm done, I apologised for making her jump, she apologised for being away with the fairies and not paying attention to what she was doing, everything was good. 😁

It is now. They tried to stop it but couldn’t so it’s now allowed. There is an exception for certain, usually championship, races, but it is clearly stated in the entry conditions If you can or cannot.

Really? When did that happen? Admittedly I have not participated for a good few years but I had not heard that bog standard age group racing had become draft legal and can't find any reference to that being the case googling. And the couple of races I've quickly looked at still mention drafting penalties in their handbooks.

And whilst that rider was a cock and clearly had a red race mist fully engaged and his actions can't in any way be condoned......surely no one on a horse would elect to take their horse onto the course where a cycle event was going on (sportive, road race, triathlon, whatever). You'd be perfectly entitled to do so but you could guarantee it would be no fun - and riding your horse at the weekend is apparently a pleasurable pastime.

I happen to know the road and there are quite a few stables along the road, and also paths and bridleways/permissive bridleways crossing the area. Lots of horses use it and need to use bits of it to access the bridleways.

While I see the point of 'don't take the horse out when it's busy' it's not totally optional, horses need to be exercised too.

Yeah always give horses room, except once when two horses suddenly appeared out of a field with a huge hedge and swore at me and my mate for not warning then we were there.

What did they say? ** ** ***** ?

[Edit: Oops, sorry mods. Didn't realise ne1gh was swear filtered]

Guy was a complete dick, i think he undertook as he couldn’t overtake due to other riders alongside so instead of dabbing the brakes and dropping back to a clear gap to overtake he decided to undertake the horse rider

From the way he was wobbling and swerving and from the rest of the riders actions I think what happened is he was down on his aerobars being all pro and looking to his right as the faster train of riders overtook him. He's then glanced forward / up, seen the horse and more instinctively than anything he's veered sharply and only just managed to keep it under control. I doubt very much any concious thought was involved.

The guy is still a total dick because any right thinking person would have stopped, apologised profusely and checked that horse and rider were OK.

Again though, in the red mist of race mode, I doubt he was thinking clearly at all. Everyone involved had a very lucky escape, there won't have been any kind of calm "oh I think I'll go this way" thought involved.

Good - the guy was a nobber

And just to add to the above, while I think the fine is fair, I don't think its remotely proportional. If he'd have come round the corner too fast in a car, hit the horses and thrown the riders, he wouldn't be charged at all:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-40134629

In fact you ca pretty much do what you want behind the wheel of a car when it comes to cyclits and you've got about a 40% chance at most of going to jail:
https://road.cc/content/news/251244-most-drivers-fatal-collisions-cyclists-avoid-jail-says-cycling-uk-research

Thisisnotaspoon. What I'm saying is that I wouldn't ride a horse where I knew there was gonna be a load of cyclists doing 40mph . Id take a different route to keep the horse & myself safe. They put up the signs weeks before the event. Do you think it's a good idea to take a horse onto what is pretty much a race track for silent vehicles? If you shout ahead to warn the horse rider they'd say you'd spooked the horse. I've shouted " passing on the left" to warn horse riders & got a gob full on a fast downhill bridleway. Can't win either way 🙄

@nofx it's that kind of entitlement from cyclists that annoy all the other road users and local communities. It's not a race track, it's a public road. It's not always possible to avoid the race routes as they cut through communities, disrupting access to properties and inconveniencing road users. Yes, notices are put up but often only state the times of the event and not the few moments that the cyclists are going to be passing a certain point. If these events are to be held on the road then they have to abide by the rules of the road

I’ve shouted ” passing on the left” to warn horse riders & got a gob full on a fast downhill bridleway. Can’t win either way

Assuming that’s not ironic, then it suggests somewhat dick riding. Whether one likes it or not cyclists are supposed to give way to other bridleway users. Shouting at horseriders as you hammer past them doesn’t count as giving way.

Entitlement? Roadies think they're entitled to ride 5 abreast blocking traffic ( I've discussed this with roadies'& the ones I spoke to actually believe this 🤣.) Stick the middle finger up when you beep them to warn that you're overtaking in your car ( I get a lot of this every time a GB rider wins a televised event. It brings out the mamils ) . I don't feel any more entitled than other rd users. But I won't take half a ton of horse onto a rd that I knew a race was taking place on. Maybe wait until the Marshall said it was clear? I didn't say it was a race track. I said " pretty much a race track". & By as you say " sticking to the rules of the rd" does that mean not peddling as hard as you can with your head down ? Because that's not allowed. If the rider in the clip was sticking to the rules he'd have waited to pass. But no races are won by waiting.Im not saying that undertaking a horse is a good move,but if he'd been riding as I would on the rd , he'd have taken a hard right in time to overtake. Instead,winning the race was more important than the horse & riders safety 🙄

I’ve shouted ” passing on the left” to warn horse riders & got a gob full on a fast downhill bridleway. Can’t win either way 🙄

Yeah, you've got the wrong end of the stick there. I know context is everything but it does sound like you don't appreciate how you are meant to ride on a bridleway when around other users. You can't win either way because you are getting it wrong. Rolling up slowly behind until you are certain they know you are there then rolling past just barely above walking pace if you can without getting too close (the 1.5m given to bikes in the highway code would be a good starting point) or if that is not possible keeping station a respectful distance behind until given the ok to pass is how you are meant to do it. What you describe sounds a long way from that and worthy of a gobful.

And just to add to the above, while I think the fine is fair, I don’t think its remotely proportionate

I disagree, sort of. I think it's about right, it's the fines and penalties for drivers that are way disproportionate. We shouldn't use what they get as the benchmark to judge our penalties by. I could happily accept cyclists getting £1000 fines for a close pass if all the motorists got £1000 fines too.

That would have been £3k today.....and I wasn't even on a road ride, these were the linking sections!!

Entitlement? Roadies think they’re entitled to ride 5 abreast blocking traffic

They do?

Riding in a group, relying on others to warn of upcoming impediments is a shit excuse - an outdated excuse to ride three abreast in the days before horses. Oh wait.

If you're on a public road, populated by various means of transport, you're responsible for your own actions. Works with cars too.

None of this romantic, peloton, group mentality nonsense. What are you, a 'Borg?

For me chaingangs are "dangerous riding". I will never ride so close to someone that my safety is dependent on their judgement. Tailgating in a car is dangerous driving.

What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t ride a horse bike where I knew there was gonna be a load of cyclists cars doing 40mph . Id take a different route to keep the horse bike & myself safe.

Now see how stupid that looks?

Seems the race organisers should be partly responsible. Is that road suitable for large bunches of cyclists? Was there any warning signs or marshals? Did they do any risk assessment?

For me chaingangs are “dangerous riding”. I will never ride so close to someone that my safety is dependent on their judgement. Tailgating in a car is dangerous driving.

That's on the face of it a reasonable statement. Tailgating in a car is of course dangerous, and unnecessary. Riding in close formation is (arguably, and I suspect it will be argued 😉 ) necessary to get the benefits of a group ride. I wouldn't get involved in a close formation 'peloton' of randoms on a road ride, the groups I ride with I know and trust. And on rare occasions when I do ride in a group I don't know, I'm very cautious and super alert - it's why I generally don't do sportives; or when i did the Pru last year did it as a Ride Captain in a bright orange shirt and dispensed 'advice' to errant riding appropriately. Riding standards seem to be better when they know they are being watched !!

You can argue that car driving is equally dependant on their judgement. I know we're all driving gods of course, and can predict and avoid situations in our sleep, but we do rely on people not pulling out in front of us, or driving into the back of us, or suddenly drifting over the white line because they got a text. It happens but very rarely. And I'd argue that 'proper' groups of riders who know what they're doing also very rarely have a problem, you don't hear of massive pile ups of club roadies every weekend.

My club sent out 240 groups on the sunday run last year; at an average of 6-8/group, each run doing about 70-80km and around 3-4 hours, that's over 125,000 km or nearly 6000 person hours of riding, and we had 12 offs. Not one was due to a peloton error causing it - greasy roads or ice mainly, and only one was exarcebated by being in a group where a rider potholed and the rider behind came down as well.

You can argue that group riding is dangerous, I'd argue that the evidence says not as much as you'd think, and within acceptable boundaries for the fun riding in a group gives.

I seem to recall that at the time there were stories about the race route being changed from that originally advertised, so the horse riders were unaware of the potential conflict? Not sure that ties up with actual on the day signage and the regular appearance of lots of cyclists obviously racing.

Even so, we all have to share the roads and not be dicks to each other, however we get about

Thread from the time of the incident here

Riding in a group, relying on others to warn of upcoming impediments is a shit excuse – an outdated excuse to ride three abreast in the days before horses. Oh wait.

If you’re on a public road, populated by various means of transport, you’re responsible for your own actions. Works with cars too.

None of this romantic, peloton, group mentality nonsense. What are you, a ‘Borg?

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