An awful lot of cyclists are jealous of triathletes. We established this tenet a couple of months ago, right? My experiences since have given me no cause to review my assertions. In fact, I recently came across a cycle club that won’t even let a triathlete get near. “But I’ll do the whole ride on my base bars...” SHHH! “But, I’m an experienced group rider who often” ZZZZZZPPP! “But my tri bike is the only bike I ha...” GETOUTTTTTT!
At this point, I must emphasise that this isn’t the case here in Dubai. Both Dubai Roadsters and Cycle Safe are extremely welcome to all kinds of cyclists – turn up on a Penny-farthing as long as you can keep up.
Long solo rides (something I’m trying to add a bit more of for future Ironman glory!) give you a lot of thinking time and while doing a couple of laps around the Arabian Ranches development last weekend in order to watch my Garmin tick over the 100k mark for the day, I realised something else....sure, triathletes are nicer than cyclists, but we’re also way more intelligent.
Why? What could possibly have led me to such a sweeping generalisation? Well, I have never, ever, not once, not a single time, seen a triathlete riding along in an aero tuck and not wearing a helmet. And yet I lose count of the number of times I see cyclists taking to the roads with their bonces unadorned. I guess they’re relying on the old ‘no sense where there’s no feeling’ adage to protect them. Probably some truth to it - there's definitely no sense in those noggins!
Back in the UK, I saw them hurtling down mountain passes without a lid on. In the UAE, they jet around busy developments helmet free. Spend tens of thousands of dirhams on state-of-the-art, carbon fibre Pinarellos and BMCs..? No problem! Wear a relatively cheap, nicely-vented, weighs-almost-nothing helmet that can save your life..? Are you a moron – it’ll mess up my expensive haircut!
The argument you always hear is that, in the unfortunate event of an accident, a helmet ‘won’t do much good’ anyway. Hmmm, James Cracknell would disagree:
Still not convinced that a helmet can protect you from even the most unexpected of accidents..? Ask this guy:
A final note: not only are Dubai Roadsters and Cycle SafeDubai welcoming to triathletes and populated by the kinds of riders that wave to other riders when out on the road no matter what type of handlebars they have, they also both operate a strict ‘no helmet no ride’ policy. Top stuff.
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