“Cyclists are a menace and should be banned from the roads,” read the headline. It was 2015, and the most controversial article I had ever written had just been published on a national newspaper’s website, attacking Mamils – middle-aged men in Lycra – and anyone, as I then saw it, stupid enough to ride a bike.
The backlash was caustic. Furious hordes accused me of stirring up hate, of encouraging reckless, criminal motorists and of indirectly putting cyclists in danger. Cyclists who had been knocked off their bikes and people whose cycling relatives had been injured got in touch. I was horrified but also convinced that most motorists were careful, sensible and well-meaning, so the accidents must have been tragic, rare, isolated incidents.
