23/02/2025
THE GREAT INDI-PAC WHEEL RIDE IS ON AGAIN.
HERES A MESSAGE FROM ONE TRUCK DRIVER TO THE RIDERS:
I was carrying freight east-west last year at this time. There had been floods, the rail line was shut down, this meant the volume of trucking traffic was huge. So was the volume of caravan's and so was the volume of oversized loads. And YET, what could be more important than a bike race ?
I understand that cyclists have a RIGHT to use the road, but some of these Indipac people were just asking for anihilation:
no hi-vis or even light coloured clothing
No flashing lights
No support vehicles
No flags
No signals and
No commonsense when it came to riding at night or through the mist with NO visibility.
Your organisers have persuaded participants that this is not an EVENT in order to attempt to evade liability and to eliminate the requirement to provide insurance.
Let's make 2025 the big test:
You have a registration process, a designated start point and finish point, a start date, and a system for tracking each riders' progress. Your group has a title for the activity, which is recognised nationally, riders train for it, and there is a body of organisers. Don't try and kid anyone. It's an event. And as such, there is a requirement for RISK MANAGEMENT and MINIMISATION.
This year, if I am doing a cross-continental and I encounter the same lack of decency that was demonstrated last year, I will be using my dash cam footage to pursue charges of reckless endangerment.
You people do not just create a risk to yourselves. If we happen to run you ***s over, we get charged with manslaughter and that is a life-altering tragedy.