Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins spent the night in hospital last night after a collision with a van. The driver of the van was spoken to by police but no action is being taken. Cycle safety being a popular topic round these parts, we've been asking readers what they think. Here's the first response...

 

You can sense the hand wringing self satisfaction of certain sections of the public already today.

“Bradley Wiggins knocked off his bike?” “At night?” “Going too fast no doubt.” “On the pavement, probably.” “Bet he didn’t use his bell!” “Bet he didn’t even have a bell fitted!” “Doesn’t even pay road tax.” “Blah, blah, blah.”

It was an inevitable accident waiting to happen.

“Probably on performance enhancing drugs!”

Oh, stop it already!

2012 has seen a huge uptake in cycling. Wiggins, Cavendish, Hoy, Froome, Clancy, Kenny, Pendleton, Rowsell, Thomas, Trott, Varnish, Armitstead, Tiernan-Locke.

“Who?”

Exactly. Keep up!

Wiggins winning The Tour De France, the success of Team GB in the Olympics and Jonathon Tiernan-Locke winning the Tour of Britain has resulted in more people riding faster bikes.

This summer has seen a massive increase in the number of road bikes out there. Lycra has never been more fashionable. Cycling is Cool.

The people you see on racing bikes are experienced, street wise and fit. You won’t see us riding on pavements without lights (Don’t let me down here Brad!).

You won’t see us wobbling around, dangerously close to the kerb in a cycle lane. You won’t see us ignoring red lights.

What you will see however is us keeping up with you, maybe even overtaking you, making eye contact with you so that you know what our intentions are. Being assertive. Being in control.

These bikes are fast. These bikes are increasing in popularity. These bikes are here to stay.

Initial reports suggest Wiggins has a broken rib or two. After breaking his collarbone in The Tour in 2011 he was apparently back on a bike within days. The lesser reported hand injury concerns me more. If he has broken his scaphoid (a common injury) he could be laid up for a while.

Get well soon Bradley. Vive Le Tour!

 

A note about comments

We thought quite hard before asking for people to write something for us on the topic of Bradley Wiggins' accident - comments on cycling and road safety have a habit of getting out of hand on our site.

But. We consider the topic an important one - after all, if it can happen to the winner of the TdF, it could happen to anyone.  So we'll be posting a series of pieces today submitted by readers.

The idea is to generate a healthy debate, not encourage trolling, so some rules about commenting, if you'd be so kind.

1. No personal attacks or belittling of someone else's honestly held opinion.

2. No posting of comments designed to bait "the other side". That includes comments that berate "all cyclists" or "all drivers". We will decide if comments reported to us breach this rule, and we will brook no argument.

3. Be constructive. Don't say "all cyclists should be banned from the roads." Say "The council should build cycle lanes alongside all pavements". We don't mind if your solutions to this issue run contrary to the highway code, because maybe solving the problem will require a change to the higgway code. Please don't tell people their ideas are stupid because they would currently be against the law. Tell them they are impractical (if they are) and say why.

4. Above all, please try and be polite!

4. If you want to write a post in response to this one, email me at sam.shepherd@bournemouthecho.co.uk.