Me: "Hi, how's it going - you OK?"
Australian Cyclist: "Er yeah, why shouldn't I be? Why do you want to ask me that?"
For real. This was my brief conversation with an Australian cyclist coming back through Melbourne after riding up 1:20 in the Dandenongs.
Maybe I'd caught him at a bad moment? But sharing the roads with cyclists in Australia didn't seem that friendly an experience. For a start, no-one waves. No-one. I got a sly nod off one guy and that was it. It wasn't just in Melbourne, but in Sydney too. I quickly stopped waving to people when I realised that wasn't how things were done down under.
Back in the UK, acknowledging other cyclists is part of being a cyclist - its part of the rules. So why not in Australia? To be fair, I did have one or two chats with cyclists out on their own, and the guys I rode with at Rapha in Sydney were magnificent. But so many of the cyclists in Australia were in big groups. Maybe once in a group people feel there's less of a need to acknowledge others? But even guys out on their own ignored me. Was it just me? Or does this happen to everyone? Either way, it wasn't cycling as I know it.
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