Cycling in Spain getting more attention from cyclists

At the recent Olympic games in Beijing spanish cyclists came home with a clutch of gold medals that got a lot of publicity here, and probably boosted sales of bikes considerably.

In the last couple of weeks the Tour of Spain has been underway, every bit as demanding and tortuous as it's French namesake, which has been getting a decent amount of coverage on Spanish TV.

You'd think then that Spaniards would be able to use bicycles for communting, shopping etc. In fact this isn't the case, our roads are filled with cars, trucks, scooters, motorbikes, you get the picture...

In Madrid a group of cyclists are campaigning for better cycleways and bike parking spots which they say will reduce traffic congestion, improve the quality of air, and promote more community interaction, in other words people getting to know people again rather than just sit in a car and honk their horns.

La Bici Critica, which is the name of this group, plan to stage a weekly protest made up of a 1,000 cyclists in the heart of Madrid every Thursday evening until the local government actually agrees to start making Madrid a cycle friendly city.

1,000 cyclists are going to block parts of the inner city from cars, obviously causing mayhem, and will be handing out brochures and collecting signatures for their petition.

I hope they succeed, because the more cyclists we have on the roads in Spain the safer it will be for us all. Most of all I wish we had more parking spots for bikes with solid in-ground posts that we can chain them onto.