Hello,
Last year i attended the Wales velothon event as it passes clkose to my house, i had a new camera lens and wanted to take some photos of the event. I upoladed these to facebok in a group called photos of the velothon 2017. I am not affilitated with the velothon orginzation in any way however i still receive comments from people who dont like cyclists or the event or both. I always try to share these peoples views with the community so here is an excchange i have receoved latley from a Cardiff business owner who doesnt like cylclists.
If youhave a comment for him then perhaps share it via his tripadvisor feedback for as his shop i https://uk.local.yahoo.com/info-2053304658-cafe-du-chat-noir-ltd-cardiff...
If you are in Cardiff it is best avoided unless you hide your cycling interest.
here is the exchange from facebook:
Stuart J. Bolter to Photos of the Velothon July 2017
Yesterday at 12:23am ·
So you will be destroying small businesses best day of the week by wrecking havoc over the streets of cardiff yet again but this year on a Sunday’s
Photos of the Velothon July 2017 repied :
I should think that small businesses which have selfish, grumpy owners will be ruining their businesses all year round and won't need any help from me.
· Yesterday at 9:28am
Manage
[Stuart J. Bolter]
Stuart J. Bolter Ha ha ha ! Your so funny, I’m actually talking about myself and ten other small independent traders who have a community spirit like no other in cardiff we have little old ladies and gentlemen along with young mums and students who are all happy to have us work and live and thrive in our community then suddenly fit one day several days a year we get huge events in Carfiff such as the Velethon come and destroy our businesses with Rd closures and diversions stopping us get to work or stopping our lovely customers get to us , in 2016 Cardiff closed Rd’s in and around the city 17 times at weekends one of them being Easter Saturday then in 2017 cardiff closed Rd’s 23 times for different events such as Velethon.
If you Lycra clad cyclists cared about the environment as much you proclaimed then you would be concerned about the entire environment including small businesses like us and all our he good work we do in the community and in only using organic produce with s lowest carbon footprint as possible but in reality you are not interested in community or environment your all only interested in your selves.
You are the ones who are sad for we shall rejoice take a day off and go away from cardiff to avoid the lot of you.
So i would reccomended avoiding him and his shop for 365 days a year and not just on the velothon
Thanks
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28 comments
Kill him with kindness. Patronise his cafe in full kit or just wearing a shirt with a bike on it and do it regularly. He'll soon realise how much we spend in cafes, look at the till reciepts and change his mind.
Banter?
Sad to see all the 'us and them' hatred here - it just reinforces entrenched attitudes and he'll have another negative story to tell his mates.
I thought social cycling was about spreading the happy and learning to getting along ?
His cafe looks a nice little place down a side street but not getting much trade. So wouldn't it be better to volunteer to advertise it? Hand out leaflets for example? I'd happily do that if this was my home town.
Who knows, he might even say a good word about us afterwards ...
Part of business is learning to spot opportunities, to market yourself, to evolve to cope with trends. I'd have thought that even the most dimwitted cafe owner could see that having an extra 30,000 people in and around Cardiff on that weekend would be good for business and advertise accordingly? Imean it's not as if it happens as a complete surprise, the date (July 8th) is online now so even if business is a complete no-no on that day he's got plenty of time to plan a weekend off.
Do you reckon he moans about the vest-clad runners at the Cardiff Marathon or maybe the bearskin-clad Welsh Guards in the St David's Day Parade or perhaps the football-shirt-clad supporters of the numerous matches at Cardiff Stadium which usually result in road closures to get traffic in and out as quickly as possible...?
You're right, I'm sorry Don Simon, didn't mean it, some of my best friends are welsh etc
Oh, you meant the cafe owner ... the only negativity I saw here was in the OP's exchange with him and OP's suggestion that we leave poor reviews. All the responses since are either (a) can't be bothered or (b) anglo-welsh banter.
As I understand it, it's the cafe owner that's spreading all the hate and the us/them dichotomy.
Why should we offer to advertise a business that's openly hostile to cyclists? It doesn't make any sense when there's plenty of businesses that welcome cyclist trade.
If the cafe owner hasn't recognised the relationship that cyclists have with coffee, then that's his lookout. As Lord Sugartits would say "he's not following the money" and cyclists will pay well over the odds if they think that they're getting some kind of niche coffee.
This guy deserves to lose his business if he doesn't know how to do business.
This is an opportunity and not a threat.
^^ Great quote, superb!
I like a coffee and some cake so I'll not be giving him any grief.
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Has he also written similar whingeing comments regarding whatever closed HIS road on the other 22 days in 2017?
I'm going to write him a shitty review just for being Welsh!
Go for it! This sort of thing I support.
Yeah er bloody Welsh, pretend they don't understand you in a gift shop, erm interfere with sheep, all miners, shit at rugby etc. Oh and jump red lights and don't wear a helmet...
You started so well then your imagination just let you down... Gone to 1/10 as you're not even trying now. I'd rather be any of those things that you mention than a xenophobe.
With regards to the Welsh pretending not to understand, when I lived near Chirk I would often be asked for directions to Langolen. I'd never heard of it until I Googled it and found it's in France. I wish thick cunts would learn to speak properly as I often wondered whether they wanted Llangollen which is only a few miles further down the A5.
You could start with spelling it properly: Clangothlen would do. What you're doing with Ll just isn't cricket.
Try Thlangothlen and I'd put you in the right area and wouldn't send you through Rhosllanerchrugog or Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog!![](/sites/all/themes/rcc/images/smilies/21.gif)
I'd settle for 'the town at the bottom of horseshoe pass'![1](https://cdn.road.cc/sites/all/modules/contrib/smiley/packs/smilies/1.gif)
Blackadder: Have you ever been to Wales, Baldrick?
Baldrick: No, but I've often thought I'd like to.
Blackadder: Well don't. It's a ghastly place. Huge gangs of tough, sinewy men roam the Valleys, terrorizing people with their close-harmony singing. You need half a pint of phlegm in your throat just to pronounce the place names. Never ask for directions in Wales, Baldrick. You'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight.
I hate Xmas, but you don't see me complaining about all the closed businesses on December 25th do you?
(You might well hear me complaining about Xmas music being played since October, though).
Only since October? Here (Bristol), there's been Xmas music in some shops since September.
The record, was a couple of years ago when a dedicated Xmas shop affiliated to a garden centre opened in the Galleries in August...![surprise surprise](/sites/all/themes/rcc/images/smilies/14.gif)
I'm in Bristol too, but my memory doesn't stretch back as far as September.
Yeah, I remember that! I think it was my second year of uni, I started back at uni in Septemeber and remember going to the galleries and coming across a bloody xmas shop!
Bit of empathy on both sides is required (as well as access to a dictionary). The guy runs a small business that potentially loses a day of revenue - that can be a big deal for a one man band. Rather than childishly encourage people to leave one star reviews of his business, how about making a sensible argument why lots of people lining the route might actually be good for his business? And if genuinely it screws up his day, then perhaps back off a little and avoid inflaming the situation?
Pft, it's not worth the effort... Just ignore and carry on riding.
Well having been dragged in by the clickbait forum topic, having a miraculously meeting free morning, and curious as Cardiff is my alma mater, I finally figured out where this cafe is located.
Its in a tiny arcade of shops on Welfield Rd that I didn't realise existed - and I used to cycle past there daily in my freshers year, and passed on foot or bike at least once a week the rest of my time there.
A boycott by 'lycra louts' is going to have minimal impact, and writing negative reviews is just going to harden any negative sentiment the owner has.
Fabulous spelling by all parties so far.
Is the Velothon happening next year?