By the grace of god no one was injured

One of these roads was a narrow single track with passing places, leading up to All Saints Church, Preston Bagot, and regular churchgoers and other road users encountered packs of cyclists, some 50-70 strong travelling at speed in the opposite direction.

It was impossible to predict when these cyclists would appear; nor was there very much “give and take” to sort out the encounters, which happened repeatedly. Car drivers were subjected to obscene verbal abuse (I was one of them, having encountered cyclists on the blind bend at the bottom of the hill) and one car driver’s vehicle was thumped by the fist of a speeding cyclist going past.

No one saw any stewards; there were no warning signs of such an event; nor have I been able to find out what organisation was responsible for its organisation. And organisation there must have been, the cyclists were all carrying competition numbers.

None of us want to be killjoys, but neither should cyclists behave as though they are the only ones on the roads. It was only by the grace of God that no one was injured and these bad tempered encounters do no one any service. I am happy to take this up with the organising group, if someone will tell me what group it was.

In the meantime, may I appeal to all responsible cyclists and cycling clubs to consider the roads that they are using and to ride in an appropriate manner? - Norrie Moore, Oakdene Crescent, Hatton, Warwick.