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Mon 14 Sep, 4:30 pm UTC

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TV chef James Martin cooks up a storm with anti-cycling remarks

By James Costley-White

Top riders have hit out at TV chef James Martin after he proclaimed his hatred of cyclists and described how he caused a group to crash after sneaking up behind them in an electric sportscar.

In his column in the Mail on Sunday, Martin, star of the BBC's Saturday Kitchen, complained about London cyclists who have a holier-than-thou attitude, saying: "God, I hate those cyclists. Every last herbal tea-drinking, Harriet Harman-voting one of them.

"That's one of the reasons I live in the countryside, where birds tweet, horses roam, pigs grunt and Lycra-clad buttocks are miles away."

He went on to review the Tesla Roadstar, an all-electric supercar, but soon returned to the anti-cycling theme, saying: "Twenty minutes into my test drive I pulled round a leafy bend, enjoying the birdsong – and spotted those damned Spider-Man cyclists.

"Knowing they wouldn't hear me coming, I stepped on the gas, waited until the split second before I overtook them, then gave them an almighty blast on the horn at the exact same time I passed them at speed.

"The look of sheer terror as they tottered into the hedge was the best thing I've ever seen in my rear-view mirror. I think this could be the car for me."

Professional cyclists were quick to respond, with Bradley Wiggins and Robbie McEwen posting (unprintable) comments on their Twitter pages.

Meanwhile, Cycling Plus editor Rob Spedding accused him of "third-rate, me-too Clarksonism". A Facebook page called "I hate James Martin" has been set up and his Wikipedia page was sabotaged.

User Comments

There are 77 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 30 of 77 comments

  • please feel free to join this group on face book

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31768344319&ref=ss spreda the James Hate

  • Oh look, his blog is unmoderated..

    http://www.jamesmartinchef.co.uk/pcc.asp?xpath=&xpathid=&lang=eng

  • He's nothing but a fat petrol head who writes for a nasty right wing newspaper and has nothing of note to say about anything. Just like Clarkson (another man who seems to be going through a perpetual mid-life crisis).

  • Punchability has a new face.

  • man... I said to myself when I saw his face on the home page, "what's this c*ck doing on bikeradar" - now I know! explains it all !!!

  • Lets hope now the"spiderman clad" cyclists know their attacker, they will report him to the police for dangerous and inconsiderate driving. There's a full admission in his poorly written report

  • What a cock

  • not sure about anyone else but at this precise moment his website http://www.jamesmartinchef.co.uk/ is a tad slow!!!!

  • Looks like we have managed to crash his website, probably the most hits he has ever had. Sad little Clarkson wannabe he is. A good chef and human being he is not!

  • Slightly annoyingly his website/blog appear to be down at the moment. Can't imagine why.

  • Just spoke to a cyclist from North Yorkshire, he's ashamed to be from the same county as Martin.

  • Perhaps a Pro rider say Wiggins should invite Martin to join him on a ride. It might give him an appreciation of what is like to be on a bike with knobs in cars driving dangerously right behind his rear wheel as well as show Martin up as lardy assed ignorant slob.

    As a businessman and chef his remarks aren't the best, nothing like damaging your brand/image. Gerald Ratner springs to mind. SrAllan would not be impressed being a cyclist himself "Martin your fired."

  • He could do with clocking a few miles as he looks a bit lardy in the picture, is that 3 or 4 chins?

  • Looks like this campaign against him is getting bigger :-)

  • Martin is a weapons grade fool. I had the bad judgement to sit through his quest to complete the mille miglia in an £800k Maserati. His treatment of his (female) pro racing driver was cringeworthy, he actually wondered out loud if he should let a woman loose on his precious car (despite having no racing experience himself). Thankfully he failed to complete the race and wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process!

    Clarkson is mostly a liberal baiting parody of a car worshipping tool - Martin it seems didn't get the joke and is aiming to be the real thing.

  • I've never been more insulted in my life - I hate herbal tea.

  • what a twat, no wonder his website is now saying 'bad request' when you go on it!

  • come to think of it i saw this guy a week ago at the Hampshire Pageant of Motoring (yes i'm a responsible driver and cyclist) i should have smacked him one there and then!

  • Nob

  • Haha! He's right, roadies FTL.

  • As Croxted A mentioned, since the Mille Miglia documentary I haven't liked him for his attitude - how he could choose a woman racing driver then humiliate her in front of the cameras is beyond belief. I suspect if he had chosen a male driver he'd most probably have been punched in the face. He's a coward.

  • Please Digg the story here : http://digg.com/autos/JAMES_MARTIN_Terrorising_cyclists_is_cool

  • According to Cath Wiggins, Martin's appearing at a food festival in Nottingham on Wednesday. Anyone free? http://tinyurl.com/km85bl

  • Join the Facebook group here:

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31768344319&ref=mf

  • I didn't think he could be much more of a to55er, but he's done it!!

    The picture on his website has midlife crisis written all over it.

    He is quite a sad man i think, and apparently a dangerous driver to boot.

    Has he ever done anything of worth?

  • Since Tesla Motors is the company who's car was used, let them know what you think about it.

    http://www.teslamotors.com/customer_care/contact_us.php

    REMEMBER: Tesla is a generally good, positive company. Let them know what you think but don't go down to Martin's level and act like a complete jerk!!!! I used the "Member Of The Press" form, myself. ;)

  • Never mind facebook, try here

    http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/process.html

  • Emathy +1.

    I too transmogrified into a cycling journalist for the day.

  • real shame...his facebook hate page as now crashed as too many people are trying to get on it.....hopefully it'll come back soon!...what a tw@t

  • think its back on i just joined, the to55er!!

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