Unofficially organised cycle races up Box Hill

Thanks for the video, points which occur watching it are:

- It's a total false equivalence to talk about car racing on the M58 and two bikes racing at Boxhill, just for starters obviously two cars racing on the M58 would be going over the speed limit whereas even a pro cyclist isn't going to get close to the 30 mph limit on Zigzag Road going uphill;

- Where Ashley says the cyclists go round a blind hairpin where they can't have any idea of the oncoming traffic, there are clear sight lines through the trees to see what's coming, even in high summer (I've been riding up Box Hill for nearly 40 years, God help me, so I do know a bit about it);

- Another assumption is made about the fatigue level of the cyclists, Ashley says that they are knackering themselves to the point where they will be dangerous, but in fact they are only going from the first hairpin up the straight and stopping before the third, probably about 500 m, so one doubts this is enough to make them as dangerously fatigued as Ashley claims;

- Where Ashley fusses about the second challenger taking the inside line on the hairpin, the only car present has clearly been allowed to pass before the overtake is made and it's made with a clear view up the road showing there's no traffic coming;

- Fair point on the overtake near the finish line for the second challenger, that was foolish;

- Desperate overreach criticising the riders for not having lights on their bikes on a clear sunny day and linking that to the DoT statistics showing how many serious incidents involve cyclists not having lights, that's really jumping the shark;

- Again, Ashley says the cyclists were travelling too fast for the conditions, they were well within the speed limit on dry pavement on a sunny day, climbing at 17-20 mph is not too fast for those conditions;

- Claims the risky overtake shows loss of control, it doesn't, as above, I agree it was risky but at no point does the cyclist appear to lose control, in fact if they did they would've crashed;

- Ashley goes on to criticise the cyclists for wearing dark clothing (even though as he admits the main rider is wearing a white helmet): again, this is on a bright sunny day!

- Ashley finishes up by lumping the last three most risky conditions from the DoT statistics together and saying all of them were clearly displayed, but he doesn't actually provide any evidence that they were.

In short, in my opinion all of Ashley's criticisms apart from the one of the second challenger making an overtake near the line are desperately overreaching and trying to find fault where there is none. If this video hadn't included the race element and was just two mates going up Box Hill I don't think he would even have bothered, he's latched onto the fact that they were racing and constructed a whole narrative of unsafe behaviour around that which simply doesn't hold up.

The Box Hill climb via the switchbacks is on a private road owned by the National Trust but I'm not sure if that makes any difference.

I think the key fact would be that although ZigZag Road is privately owned by the National Trust, it's also a public highway, so road law would definitely apply in a way that it wouldn't on a completely private road on a closed estate that did not have public access.

The Cycle Racing on Highways Regulations,1960

Private roads are usually not Highways*, so the above law probably doesn't apply. It is a road though, so the laws on dangerous cycling, etc would apply.

* for a private road to be a highway the public must have 20 years' uninterrupted use of it, usually the owner will close the road one day per year to prevent this.

Bungle_52 wrote:

I disgree with any type of racing on public roads. Racing leads to risk taking which is fine if the racers are the only ones who will suffer, they have chosen to take part, but not fine for other road users.

Public roads should be for getting from A to B as safely as possible minimising risk for other road users.

Tracks or closed roads can be used for racing.

Nicely done, sir - criticising bad behaviour in a non transport mode specific manner.
Now, if only the rest of the internet could get their head around that idea...