To cycle or not to cycle....in Brazil!

When telling friends and family about your holiday I often get asked 'Did you cycle?'

With that I assume either they think I had a Cycling Holiday or I just couldn't live without a bike and had to hire one to get my 'kick'. This time was no different.

About eighteen months ago we decided that we wanted to do a different kind of holiday and instead of going to South Africa where we go regularly, the choice became Brazil. Brazil because of the 2014 World Cup, the 2016 Olympics and a friend who lives there.

We never planned to cycle whilst on holiday in Brazil but we were on the lookout - as always- for any type of evidence that cycling was popular. And to be honest, I don't know! There are certainly lovely cycle paths along the beaches and you can even rent bikes, but the worst thing about Rio de Janeiro (where we spent most of the time) was the traffic. Absolutely horrendous. It is overwhelming and loud with a lot of older cars which I am sure will never pass an MOT and the drivers usually follow their own set of rules. I decided after a few days that it was organised chaos!

I couldn't for one moment imagine cycling in Rio apart from along the beach on the promenade.

There were some highlights though. We ventured to a distant beach one late afternoon which is close to a National Park. All long the road were markers on the road showing caution for cyclists. Also see the yellow traffic sign above reminding drivers to allow at least 1.5m passing distance between their car and the cyclist.

We did briefly see a group of cyclists one Sunday when we went out really early around 7.30am. They were just at the bottom of one of the longest hills in Rio about to start the climb.

One of the rental bike stations along the promenade

Bike lane along the Copacabana Promenade

A rental bike station at Copacabana Beach

More cycling fun along the promenade at Copacabana

TfL and valuable advice on cycling safety

Cycling in London isn't made for the faint hearted and you need to be vigilant at all times. I follow some golden rules when I am out and about on my Brompton in London.

Transport for London (TfL) recently published a very good video aiming to make the Capital's road safer for both cyclists and drivers. I am happy to share this as it is relevant to everyday cycling wherever you are.

Silly season for pedestrians?

The amount of times that I had to either ring my bike bell frantically or slam on the brakes to avoid pedestrian collisions are endless. I have definitely stopped counting.

The counting rocketed sky high when I started cycling in London but do also tick over when cycling closer to home. Mostly pedestrians do the safe thing and look left and right and then cross the road but I have find that a large percentage just cross without looking. Whatever happened to rules taught at a young age which say look left, then right and then left again before crossing? It is almost like those are made for the young generation and now that you are older - you are invincible. Searching for this via a search engine resulted in over 8,080,000 hits.

I recently admired a brand new electric car. As thoughts go, mine wandered from me being on my bike swerving to avoid a near collision with a non-looking pedestrian to wondering what will happen to these non-looking pedestrians when the electric car becomes more familiar on our busy roads, especially the city roads where it makes a lot of sense to drive (one of those)? I know there were talk about making the electric car more 'sounding like a car' because at the moment it is very quiet!

So if a pedestrian just walks off the pavement to cross the road, he or she might want to have a bicycle approaching them rather than an electric car as I think your chances of getting less hurt are better with a bike than with a noiseless electric car!

Back to normal?

So what will cycling life after the Olympics be like in Britain? Will attitudes towards cyclists change?

I've read a number of articles over the last few weeks suggesting that the success of the GB team in cycling, will actually influence driver behaviour on the road. I'm maybe a cynic but I think that is unrealistic. There is still a massive amount of ignorance out there towards cyclists ad cycling. Taking today for instance. We had our regular Ladies ride and I lead the faster group. Cycling along an open straight road, a car came squeezing passed, nearly colliding with an oncoming car which in turn furiously started hooting at this ridiculous driver that couldn't wait until there was enough time to pass. No doubt that us cyclists will also get a tell off for just being on the road.

What does the Highway code say?

Rule 163 : give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you  would when overtaking a car (see Rules 211-215)

Surely that means a car width!? There are very few drivers that actually apply this rule. Usually they squeeze passed you compromising the oncoming car as well as the cyclist they are overtaking.

Enough negatives. Casual riding is in full swing in my household. We have even discovered the odd early morning ride when you can drag yourself out of bed at 7am as well as lovely evening rides after work. Nights are drawing in and thoughts are dwelling on good lights and hi-viz clothing. Our regular Wednesday evening club ride is getting darker and darker. Whilst it is quite exhilarating to do some night riding, it is both scary and fun!

We are already planning the next bike adventure, cycling from Santander in Spain to St.Malo in France. Mainly because we want a sunny cycling holiday and secondly because it is so glorious cycling in France. We had so much fun along the Rhine and what an adventure it was. Our picture frame in the lounge has been loaded with all the holiday snaps and they bring back so much memories. Such good memories. Even though the weather didn't always play along, it was still overall fun and spectacular.

All our routes along the Rhine have been mapped with GPS so if anyone needs them, give me a shout and I will pass them on.

Happy cycling and enjoy the last of the summer days.