WHAT could have been one of Dublin's biggest demonstrations by cyclists campaigning for better facilities was diluted yesterday by delays and lack of communication with their counterparts in Belfast.
Cyclists from Britain and Northern Ireland, who are on a "Trail Blazing Cycle Ride" from Belfast to Land's End in Cornwall, via Dublin, were late arriving for a reception in the Mansion House and pedalled off to their hostels instead of taking part in the protest.
The cycle ride was organised to promote the development of a 6,500 mile UK cycle network, which was awarded £42.5 million by Britain's Millennium Commission last October. It was seen off from the City Hall in Belfast last Monday and is expected to take a month.
Coincidentally, the Dublin Cycling Campaign was running the latest of its "critical mass" bike rides in the city centre to highlight cycling as a viable form of transport. But the 150 strong Belfast group took off, depleting the massed ranks of cyclists to a hard core of around 60.
Undeterred by the July drizzle they headed down Dawson Street blowing whistles and wearing T-shirts with slogans saying "One Car Less". Traffic congestion was already so great in the peak evening rush that the colourful cycle demonstration hardly added to the problem.
"Critical Mass" is a strategy used by cycling lobbyists worldwide. Numbers of participants are typically small to begin with, but grow over time in London last year, one such protest attracted 3,000 cyclists. In Dublin, they are planned for the last Thursday of every month.
