http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-23973105

A91 between Gateside and Strathmiglo. I’ve ridden that stretch of toad a few times. Sight lines are reasonable and the road is fairly wide. Local riders are saying the victim was wearing blue Lycra and riding a road bike. Dunfermline CC guys wear blue.

Sad news. Thinking of those who will not see their loved one tonight.

Sad news indeed. The deceased has been named on FB.

Oh no. Tragic.

That’s just around the corner from my house. Wide road, good visibility. But, people drive mega fast. If it was at rush hour they’d have been trying to get to work, and in my experience here people are morons and brash at that time.

Heart goes out to the family.

The crash happened on the A91 between Strathmiglo and Gateside at 11:30 when a Vauxhall Corsa travelling west hit a cyclist going in the same direction.

We were already on a record year for cyclist killed on the Scottish roads. I’d like to see some figures to see if cycling is on a similar increase.

They’re We’re dropping like flies just now.

It really is **** shit how little car drivers value the lives of cyclists.

Very sad. Makes me even more angry about the Scottish Government’s failure to take serious action to support cycling, and wasting money on stuff like the “Nice Way Code” “mutual respect” campaign

Deeply sad news 🙁 . Has it been confirmed as one of the DCC boys? Made me feel really sick when i heard as its relatively local. My wife has to commute right along that road daily (Dollar->St Andrews), and says the drivers are mental on that road, for both speed an impatience (she gets beeped/flashed constantly for waiting till its safe to overtake cyclists). Thoughts are with the victims family.

Very sad.

Rickon I thought you lived in Perthshire? Also “in my experience here people are morons and brash”. Is that Perth, Fife or Scotland in general?

. Has it been confirmed as one of the DCC

He wasn’t a DCC rider but a well known local time trialist and club rider.

i regularly drive that road in the morning (stagecoach bus) and can confirm what others have said above ^^^^
some drivers are very impatient, use excessive speed and will drive in a (IMO) dangerous manner to get past other traffic.
it seems to me to be worse than other parts of fife and scotland.
the road itself is excellent, good visibilty with lots of long straights, hence drivers feel its ok to use excessive speed.
my thoughts are with the family of the person who died, i live in dunfermline but afaik i dont know anyone in dcc.

Wonny J – Yes I do, but if I ride over the hill from my house I end up on that road. It’s about a 20 minute ride.

You go in and out of Fife and Perthshire all the time where I am, the border is wobbly.

There is talk of a memorial ride fairly soon to coincide with the Fife Century reliability run. It would be good if there were a lot of Fifers out there to celebrate his life. It might raise some more awareness of how vulnerable we are as cyclists here in the Kingdom.

sad news. dont know what to say really, we’ve all voiced the same kind of opinions on this kind of thing over and over again,
..are we really getting anywhere in protecting cyclists..
its a depressing though

does anyone else get a wee thought in the head of, “is it worth the risk to ride” when you read things like this…i am more and more.

Nope. I base my decisions on what I experience and it’s rarely I have any issues with other traffic. That’s why I’d like to see some decent data on whether or not the number of miles cycled in a year has been rising (the stuff we occasionally get, like % of journeys, doesn’t really help)

Been trying to find out who it is to no avail so will wait til it’s in the news. I’m worried it could be one of my old customers or someone from Spokes RT but can’t be sure. RIP whoever it is, I did find the roads in Fife especially dangerous, even the quieter ones in the East Neuk and sadly I doubt this will be a wakeup call to those drivers that take risks out there.

My thoughts are with his family and friends.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/fife-cycling-community-pays-tribute-to-gentleman-alistair-speed-1.128080

My thoughts are with his family and friends.

He has been named as Alistair Speed of Fife Century. on Facebook 🙁

11 cycling deaths in Scotland this year.

and a 12 year old bmx biker rode into a bus in liverpool this week and sadly died the next day, and a cyclist was killed again in london this week.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/woman-cyclist-killed-on-day-boris-reveals-plan-to-fine-hgvs-not-fitted-with-safety-gear-8797656.html

so tragic for all concerned.

Here is a list of cyclists and the story of how they died in 2013.

http://icycleliverpool.co.uk/2013/05/21/cyclist-fatalities-2013/

and there may well be more that arent on the list,all we can do is report dangerous and aggressive driving and hopefully take the threats off the road.

That’s why I’d like to see some decent data on whether or not the number of miles cycled in a year has been rising (the stuff we occasionally get, like % of journeys, doesn’t really help)

Some govt stats at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/tra04-pedal-cycle-traffic

Total UK cycling miles increased by around 10% in the last 5 years. Obviously may vary region to region. When dealing with small numbers like cyclist fatalities random variation may be as big as any change in risk.

In the region of 120 cyclists killed each year on UK roads. So that’s more than 2 a week.

Each time these threads appear I think “yeah but this is not an exceptional event, it’s normal and there is part of the problem”.

Project’s link up there is heart breaking, in particular the photos, they’re all so mundane and normal. Like us.

Likely someone in the next few days will say “just off out on the bike dear”, or “off to college now mum” and never come home again. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Just catching up after finding out it was Ally Speed that tragically got killed. Spoke to him and had a good laugh at a few Fife CA TTs last year. Such a character, thoughts with Mhairi and his family.

Sadly, I doubt that most people will even hear about it. This stuff is small potatoes news. Over 6 people die every day, day in day out, on UK roads. It is so commonplace, the news doesn’t report it, only the bad ones with multiple deaths.

Likely someone in the next few days will say “just off out on the bike dear”, or “off to college now mum” and never come home again. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

From the Braveheart forum:

Alistair and I have spent our whole life around cycling due to the fact that my father (Archie) competed for 60 years. I always knew that my brother was one in a million but it is so nice and comforting to hear that so many other people obviously felt the same about him. Alistair would have chatted about cycling until the cows came home and he was more than happy to give advice/help to anybody new or from outwith the area. I have also known him to take his number of his back when there has been a problem with a timekeeper being unavailable and he would give up his ride so the rest of the field could get to race.

He lived for his bike and when I spoke to him at 10.30 yesterday morning he told me that he was heading out for a run as the weather was so nice. I have never ever told him to take care out on his bike as he was such a competent cyclist, was not known to take risks or do anything stupid (except the occasional sprint for the 30 signs). I just told him to have a good ride and said that I hoped that the weather would stay nice for him. It never crossed my mind that it would be the last conversation that we would have and that an hour later he would no longer be alive. The road he was on was one that he has cycled many times every year for the past 40 years and I am sure he was having a practice run for the FCA 50 TT on that road that he was entered for next week.

As Sandy said at the moment we do not have a date for the funeral as the procurator fiscal is involved and a PM has to be carried out. It would however, mean a lot to me if anybody planning to attend his funeral would wear their club colours.

The pain that we are all feeling at the moment I cannot put into words and my hands are shaking as I write this. My son Gavin is absolutely distraught as his Uncle Ali was everything to him. Over the summer they attended all the FCA Midweek events together and every weekend they were at some TT somewhere in Scotland. During the winter Wednesday was turbo night and Sunday Ali would come in from his night shift and he and Gavin would go out for a couple of hours.

I would like to say that everybody’s kind and heartfelt comments are much appreciated and are helping.

Ali would like the fact of always having a tailwind.

Mhairi

It is worth writing to your MSP or MP if you feel strongly about this, to try and keep cycling on their agenda:
http://www.writetothem.com/