CYCLING: Bay cycle tour booming but needs tailoring

LET IT be known that cycling has never been my forte. For a start, in Fiji, where I was born, only well-to-do families could afford bicycles to ride for fun.
Travelling to and from school was, almost always, in dad's car or the school bus.
Consequently, I took up cycling in my 30s out of sheer necessity.
Several years ago, I cycled to work from my Hastings home - a solid five to 10-minute ride regardless of how appalling the weather was.
It kept me fit and saved money on petrol but it also gave me a great insight into how pedal pushers feel when drivers intimidate them on roads.
That knowledge also helped me equip my two daughters over the years as they ventured to school through the notorious Maraekakaho Rd-Stortford Lodge thoroughfare.
Double-band riding is always a no-no. To this day, we see cyclists with helmets dangling on their bike handlebars and we chorus: "There goes another organ donor."
Regular bike checks at The Hub Cycle Centre, bright clothing and flashing lights and reflectors remain the core ingredients of our road safety mantra.
I still vividly remember turning right into Gordon Rd, off Southland Rd, a few years ago and, more to my embarrassment than the brain-numbing pain, parting ways with "Quick Silver" before landing on the centre white line with a thud.
A bike-savvy Karamu High schoolboy, showing gentlemanly conduct far beyond his years, stopped to ask me if I was all right. He is, no doubt, a credit to his upbringing.
It still bamboozles me how I lost my perch unceremoniously. What if there were cars trying to avoid me?
I'm no wiser then the seasoned rider I saw a fortnight ago along Bridge Pa Rd, while driving back from the Flaxmere Equestrian Park. The young man in tights lost his two-wheel battle with gravity.
He was up, his face contorted as he soothed and assessed his cuts and bruises not long after motorists swerved around him in the 100km/h road.
Nevertheless, it's the roads leading to Prospect Rd in Hastings that are causing all the commotion now after three Hawke's Bay cyclists were rushed to hospital when they found themselves flipping over a driver's car bonnet last Sunday, about 500m from the finish line of the annual Caltex Tour of the Bay.
You've got to give it to those 110km species - they are tough as nails, talking about going to impending events despite broken wrists and ribs.
If it's their idea of a "fun ride" then I say knock yourselves out boys and girls although it can be at the expense of the mental anguish of drivers, especially if they are not reckless.
My preoccupation is with making the tour a safer one for all.
It appears the prospect of the cyclist-driver debate fading into obscurity is as do-able as the horse crossing along Southland Rd.
Have you braked suddenly as someone flicks on the flashing amber lights and abruptly steps across the road as you're squinting in the early morning sun? There's further frustration because they have forgotten to switch the lights off so traffic can proceed.
What about when the trainer/groomer, clad in dark clothing, a tether in each hand and several hundred metres away from the crossing, allows the animals to stray dangerously on to the road even before the sun has risen?
The skateboarders charging out in the most unexpected places also come to mind, but I digress.
While crawling through Southland Rd to Prospect Rd via Knight Rd last Sunday, it did peeve me off to see parents with 3-4 children straying almost on to the middle of the road.
Is that what police traffic officers teach children to do in their last year of primary school?
Furthermore, is the tour, boasting close to 1500 riders, the place to muster children as young as 6-years-old to ride alongside vehicles?
No doubt tour organiser Ivan Aplin and his support crew have done a splendid job in turning the event into the pride of the Bay, considering so many out-of-towners make up the field.
However, it seems the tour is in desperate need of tailoring.
Perhaps the field should be split up over two days of a weekend, with family units racing on a relaxing Sunday while the more street-savvy elite 50km to 100km types can handle Saturday.
Organisers should also approach the relevant authorities to close down the streets of some civilised circuit, in the mould of the Hastings Blossom Parade, to ensure the parent-children fields, run predominantly over 10-20km, have that added protection.
Let's face it, there's nothing worse than pain to mar glory in sporting events.
Just ask seasoned Taradale rider Daniel Warren how he felt on the podium.