Facebookers and Twitterers like to spew out so many awful images and articles they bring me close to tears sometimes.

Anything to do with animals in particular gets me going, so with recent animal abuse rife on the internet I am thankful my other love, cycling, usually produces nicer images.

However, these past few weeks have seen a barrage of reports on the behaviour of cyclists on sponsored rides, the spectators of Le Tour de France and even my own friends reporting their own pent-up outbursts after a spat with drivers who challenge their speedometers.

At times it seems like a war is being raged out there, the us and them mentality is rearing its ugly head on the daily commute, the weekend sportive and now even on the professional televised races from the fans.

Whatever happened to the comradery between cyclists? Is it a sign of the stressed times or is the recent boom in cycling turning into Frankenstein’s monster?

In recent years it was the riders of the Le Tour taking a public beating for doping, duping their teammates or cheating somehow or another, but it is now the fans who are showing themselves up.

Chris Froome, the magnificent British winner, was abused by the media, abused by spectators and had a jolly bad time during his gruelling ride, including having a bottle of urine thrown in his face.

The blame was thoroughly placed on the media for whipping up distrust in him but is everything so systematically influenced by the papers these days to the extent you leave behind your own free will and resort to violence against a poor cyclist? I hope not.

A recent article in a well-known broadsheet suggested road racers are asking for it, travelling in high speed packs, throwing their empty packets of energy gels to the ground as if littering is okay. Most disgracefully they were seen shouting at elderly audiences to get out of their way when the poor old dears only came to egg them on in the first place.

I have to admit I’ll watch the French stuff but the general public careering down the country lanes trying to break the sound barrier worries me slightly, not just for the fact of their own safety but also because the ‘sport’ of cycling seems to be rather blindsiding the simple act of getting from A to B on two wheels in a very efficient way.

Look at Formula One racing, we can watch it on television but we don’t have to go out and try it ourselves on the local A roads.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against getting some exercise on a bike and even getting really good at it but I still think most people get put off from taking up cycling when they think of it as just some other exercise fad. It has to be normalised like the Dutch strived to do and succeeded. With positive things coming from the media instead of more cycling bashing, the general feeling towards us may also improve.