Rant, rant & rant. I have to do it!!

This morning cycling to work I had a strange encounter with a Dutchie cyclist.
Outside of Amsterdam on my way to Aalsmeer, there's a long straight fietspad that's perfect for going fast, and many racing cyclists use this route for their training. Now, I like riding fast especially in the mornings and my bike is a decent racing one.
There's this guy who rides the same route and I see occasionally, he also rides fast, usually a bit faster than me, but this morning I felt like going for it, full of energy, I overtook him a couple of times and after a while he caught up with me and said the most bizarre remark in the usual nasty Dutch way, "oh, I think it's very childish when someone overtakes me and I don't like it because I only have to catch up again, really, I hate it, it's so childish, I don't like it and don't want it because I always have to be in front"

WTF!
I replied, sorry mate that's the way it goes, anyway it's good for you to catch up with me, sorry for hurting your ego, but now when I see you next I'm going to race you for sure! and laughed, he then started to make some curses in Dutch and went away.
The guy was really rude & arrogant for no reason, I was really startled because once in the country you see a different kind of rider than the city, usually the enthusiast type and the quality of bikes are much better.

This may not sound like much but I have to vent my annoyance, to hear such a remark when I'm riding to work is strange and just sums up perfectly the stupid egoistic, weird Dutch mentality. I genuinely thought he was going to start chatting about bikes or something interesting, but no, when a Dutchie makes a remark it's always negative, and had to be of a nasty & competitive nature.

A stupid dickhead if you ask me and I'll say again like I've said before, Dutchies are strange & weird, just look at the typical Amsterdamer!

Why is there no solidarity between cyclists here? It's like they all go around with cardboard boxes on their heads and only think of themselves. it's a real shame though, the fietspad could be more fun.



Next week I'm changing my tyres for even better racing ones and should be able to squeeze out a few more Kph and always be in front!

stuff the lot of 'em.

Amazing how one person and one event is extrapolated into 'the stupid egoistic, weird Dutch mentality', meaning all the Dutch. And goes on to 'Dutchies are strange & weird people!! '

Is that method of one person's action being representative of the whole unique to you or is it a trait of all from the UK?

Thats the spirit.....tit for tat.....Dutchies are just talking heroes.

Cheers,

Ok, 'many' Dutchies are strange. I was venting my annoyance, I was actually very angry when I arrived at work.
Truth is I've never met a friendly nice one.

Are you actually going to write something constructive or be awkward?

Very well generalised indeed Illuminatus.
Maybe tomorrow you can take a metal rod with you and ram it in his spokes when he's at full speed! :o)

Ben Hur style!

Quote: Is that method of one person's action being representative of the whole unique to you or is it a trait of all from the UK?

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If someone said something like this in the UK I think they would get the deer in the eye stare from most English people because they would assume that something was clearly wrong with the person, weird would be an understatement. Or more likely be laughed at.

But just for a bit of un , cause thats what lifes about , If I was you illuminus I'd ride reallly fast and overtake him every morning with your new tires. Then let him nearly catch up and zip off again. Stick a little English flag on the back of your bike and he will probably have a nervous breakdown before he arrives at his destination áfter you '

Reminds me of a time a Dutchie passed me on the bike in a very narrow path and started cursing me and doing that banging on his head with his finger thing, even though I had done nothing wrong I got wound up, so I biked fast and caught up with him and said in Dutch "I'm very sorry. Excuse me!" (not too sarcastically) and biked past him. Next thing I know he's caught up with me and while we're both biking, he GRABS me and starts dribbling and muttering like some psychopath. I pushed him off and let him continue his journey, sort of in shock at the sheer ludicrousness of his behaviour. I thought he might have been mentally handicapped, but I often think that of certain types of cloggies who mutter.

The problem is the Dutch appear to be utterly respectless of other people when they bike, walk or drive (among other things). It's all about them. My friend just ran off the road because a bicyclist didn't look where she was going nor indicate she was turning- he swerved to avoid hitting her and got 2 broken teeth, a broken wrist, beat up nose, etc (3 hours in hospital) - the woman did not once say "Sorry are you OK??" - she just started squawking about how everything was HIS fault (even if it was, which it wasn't, not even a shred of empathy??). Also saw a Dutchie cross a red light by foot by Central Station - a taxi came around the corner on his green light and barely missed her - her reaction?? To swear at him and yell if he knows how to drive!!??? I see this crap all the time. <Diplomacy>Yes, there are exceptions</Diplomacy) but from my experiences I would certainly generalize that the Dutch behaviour is very strange, childish, and lacks respect and empathy.

By the way, I left a couch downstairs in the storage area 2 nights ago - last night I discovered someone from my building had urinated on it - well they usually urinate on the storage door so I guess it was exciting there was a different target. I used to think Europe was so civilized....

This morning I really thought this guy had mental problems because it was so bizarre.

I see every day some kind of selfishness in cyclists, from those who swerve all over the place because there too busy on the mobile phone (that does annoy me!) to 3 riding side by side and taking all the space and not moving out of the way to oncoming cyclists (Amstelveenseweg is bad for this) I also dislike the slow ones who just hover around the middle of the bike path and don't get out of the way when trying to overtake.

There are some unbelievably stupid bike riders around who are potentially very dangerous, and I really really hate those typical Amsterdam bikes & omafiets. Should be banned.

Check out this site, an amusing insight into lots of selfish people:
http://www.ski-epic.com/amsterdam_bicycles/


Below, we have a fine example of an Amsterdam 'Attitude' machine. ding ding, ding ding, get out of my way!
It takes a certain kind of person to ride one of these things, just look at that ghastly colour.

Sigh !
There she goes again,generalising about people who generalise.
Typical woman!

I bet you're american as well ! :o)

It's the "Jamaica syndrome"

Illuminati, sounds like that cyclist you 'met' has some kind of obsessive disorder? A bit like people who won't stand on cracks in the pavement, etc

Thanks for the link to that blog though - a very entertaining read.

Illuminati, sounds like that cyclist you 'met' has some kind of obsessive disorder? A bit like people who won't stand on cracks in the pavement, etc

Thanks for the link to that blog though - a very entertaining read.

Oh no ! You're not one of those weirdos who purposely stand on cracks in the pavement are you?

Yeah, the guy was 'anal retentive' like many Dutchies.

That link is really funny & true.

Um, in a roundabout way, this reminds me of the time I stalled my car at the traffic lights. I have a car we bought last year that works completely keyless, entry including starting the car, it only has a push button and to start the car you have to push the clutch all the way down, then a green light comes up and then you push the button. Well, when I first got the car I was frequently confused, as I seem to be much more these days with all this modern technology, and so, while waiting in the second lane at the traffic lights, they changed to green and I went to go and stalled the car. In my confusion/panic I forgot to push the clutch all the way down and got a bit stressed knowing that there were all these cars waiting behind me in the rush hour, and the fact that I was in the faster lane and the slower lane by which time had cleared. No one tooted me but I was so annoyed/embarrassed that when I did manage to start the car I really put my foot down in anger leaving all the cars behind me just standing there. As I looked in the mirror I noticed the car behind me also suddenly put his foot down and just as I was about to pull over to the right lane he also did so over taking me on the right side and levelling with me I saw this old man all steamed up shaking his fist at me through the window saying something like, what was I doing, am I crazy, pointing his hand to his head. Now, if a person can act so crazy over something so petty like me stalling the car and then zooming off, then indeed that certainly is crazy. An old man prepared to give himself a heart attack over something so petty... that is strange. As it was, after he over took me on the right side, he then caught up with the traffic that side, pulled back over to the left side and put his foot down only to get a very short distance ahead catching up with the traffic in that lane too. I later over took him at the next set of traffic lights as he waited at the red to turn right and while I went straight on through a green light, I saw him lowering his head looking in the opposite direction. What a true asshole that was... I do see a different kind of mentality here that makes me think that some here really are a bit stupidly mental to be honest. Just the other day I was in a hurry to go some place. Some woman was standing in the middle of the road to cross it as I pulled up and stopped. She was already half way across a zebra type bit of the road, stopped for some reason looking at me, so I moved my hand for her to cross then she seemed to flip muttering something or other and moving her hands all over the place like a mad woman. Anyway, she crossed, I passed her and looked back at her thinking I thought I'd left all the mental people back in my home country. I'm not sure but I think perhaps she was a bit angry that she was crossing the road on this zebra type crossing and cars were still not bothering to stop to let her cross. I just didn't think it a reason to go mental over though. May be she was having a PMT moment or something...

Generalising or not ... I have found that the pent up anger is quite frightening. I have seen many many incidents where the aggression far outweighs the act. I have been on the other end of many bizarre incidents - far too many to recall involving car owners, bike owners, shop keepers etc.

The one that comes to mind is when I parked my bike on a small bridge and lent it against a plant box fixed to the side of the railings. The handle bars disturbed a plant slightly and before I knew it a woman came out of one of the houses screaming in my face about the plant.

I said sorry (though I didn't know why I was apologising) and a few minutes later her red faced hysterial husband came out, again screaming at me about the plant. At this point I thought I was going to be attacked (really)! and offered them money to replace the slightly moved plant - and then I lost my temper and told them to F8ck off - it was just ridiculous.

That is just one of many out of proportion angry people I have encounted. I haven't got the time not energy to tell the story about the so called professional biker and that sorry debacle ....

Is it because they are so pent up having to follow rule after rule that dictates they live their lives in an orderly manner - of course being looked after from cradle to grave by the government does dicitate you have to sacrifice personal freedom and conform, which is why everything seems so dull and boring, down to the working environment to social lives (who has ever enjoyed a circle party or a deadly dull dinner 'party' where the main topic of conversation is a new piece of furniture somebody has purchased ....)

I suppose the best thing to do with stupid 'uppity' people is to just laugh at them in their face, that would hurt them more than being aggressive towards them.

Does anyone else have any stories like this, whether it be on the tram, train, bus, bike, going to work etc?

I've just remembered one, a couple of years back when I was taking the horrible bus to work, it was the middle of summer & roasting one morning, the bus was very crowded and was going to a business park (mostly American companies) anyway, the driver decided to have the heating on full for the whole bus, many people were complaining asking him to turn it off, his reply was 'it's my bus and I can have the heating as I like' I heard this because I was standing by the driver & front door, still many continued to ask him to turn it off and he was ignoring the people, one guy really yelled at him, and then the driver decided to stop the bus in between stops and he got out and smoked a cigarette and did nothing for 15 minutes, the heating was still on!! A really crazy situation.

Anyway, this idiot driver drove the rest of the journey very slowly with the heating on.
What an asshole, that I'll never forget.

I don't care anymore, I refuse to use public transport as much as possible and I'll happily cycle anywhere, I even rode from Amsterdam to Den Haag & back by bike, it only took slightly longer than what public transport would have been & much more satisfying I can tell you!