Jason MacIntyre - Cyclist Killed
I just saw on the BBC News an article about a road cyclist who has been killed on the A82 in Scotland, near Fort William.
This makes me rather sad. Different things affect people in different ways. Hearing about cyclists being killed in accidents on the road is something which makes me most sad by reading it in the news.
I had never heard of this man before now. He was apparently a very promising racer, having broken Graeme Obree’s 10 mile record time and the won the British time trial Circuit among other titles. He was 34 and had a wife and two young daughters.
There aren’t any details of the accident, beyond that it involved a van. Motor vehicles have their uses, but they do also make the roads they share with cyclists potentially dangerous for the latter (which, of course, is a reason to do more cycling on roads and less driving on them - not to stop cycling on roads). Terrible events like this make that so sad.
The photo above was from our Land’s End to John o’Groats cycle tour in 2005, showing me unicycling on the same A82, near Glencoe south of Fort William. In much of rural Scotland there is only one road going between places, so there is no choice but to cycle on some busy ones.
Edit: I realise that this photo doesn’t illustrate how busy it can be - it was a well-timed Jonathan Greenaway photograph to show pretty things like mountains more than cars.
