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Your support makes all the difference.Continuing her winning streak?
Trott, a double gold medal winner at the Olympics, has maintained her superlative standards since the Games. But it is the 21-year-old’s straight talking that keeps her in the news. Earlier this month she claimed a petition for a women’s Tour de France hadn’t been “thought through”, and now she has hit out at cyclists who disobey the rules of the road.
A sound complaint. What did she say?
“Cyclists wonder why they get a bad name. I see cyclists jumping in and out of the buses and people wonder why they get hit,” she told the Evening Standard. “It’s not always the car’s fault. Cyclists need to help themselves and should not jump red lights. I would ride in London but I certainly wouldn’t ride like that, you just have to be careful.” Her sister Emma was cycling in 2010 when she was hit by a car. Trott believes “she wouldn’t be here today” were it not for the helmet she was wearing.
She spoke common sense.
Maybe. But in London the comments might be viewed as insensitive. Fourteen cyclists died on the streets of the capital in 2012, and already this year there have been six fatalities.
Do other Team GB stars feel the same?
Sir Bradley Wiggins claimed it should be illegal to cycle without a helmet, saying: “Ultimately, if you get knocked off and you ain’t got a helmet on, then how can you kind of argue?” And the London Cycling Campaign accused him of creating a “damaging diversion”. A cycling charity said the comments could damage public health, as helmet laws lead to a reduction in people getting on their bikes.
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