I groaned as I popped out into Holyrood Park last night and realised there was a club run going the same way as me to Duddingston Village. I whinged to the Edinburgh RC twitter feed, as 75% of the riders had their club kit - appears it's not officially one of their rides, but hopefully 'someone' might have a word.
Basically as soon as Duddingston Village is hit they hop onto the pavement (two went the same way as me through the back of the village - aka the sensible route when the traffic is heavy). The thing is that's a particularly narrow path, with parked cars on one side, hedges and walls on the other, and a blind corner to navigate. Any pedestrian coming the other way and it's a stand-off.
Out the other end and the route is shown to be no quicker, as they're all just emerging. Jumping off the pavement into the main road no matter what cars are traveling along. One guy cuts me off completely as I seek to roll up to the junction, and he pulls out of that junction, also in front of a car passing. It was like a badly behaved swarm.
All the way down the road to the Duddingston Crossroads they were all over the road (this wasn't a drilled, perfectly reasonable side-by-side, the lack of road sense was palpable). They then positioned themselves all higgledy-piggledy amongst the cars at the lights. Some in the ASL, some to either side of parked cars, tucking into gaps shorter than the bikes.
And all of this getting them in place no quicker than a bloke with a backpack on.
Half a mile on (as they headed onto Milton Road and I carried on into Duddingston), I get a fast and close punishment pass from a driver who had been surrounded by them as they moved down the road. 2 + 2 possibly = 5, but it seemed a heck of a coincidence (not absolving the driver, but just that actions of others having an impact on my safety riles me up).
I've seen this ride, with many ERC jerseys, riding this way quite a few times in the past (hence my initial reaction groan). Just strikes as arrogant machismo for the most part.
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