IT'S ALL THE RAGE

 

This edition starts nicely enough. But it ends with a story about a cruel twist of fate – worthy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination – which befell a cyclist at the hands of the law after a serious altercation with a motorist.

I begin with a recent ride of my own, up a very quiet favourite climb of mine. It was a little after 8am, a lovely morning, clear skies, cold, the sun all of a sparkle, blue sky topping the downs. Not much traffic. Then as well as bird song in the air I heard voices.

Looked over my shoulder. Nothing. The voices persisted.  A casual conversation in my head. So this is madness at last?

Then they swept by, three on road bikes, moving at twice my speed of 7.8mph, all chatting amicably.

Good heavens, I thought.

And I called out – for despite my efforts I could, at this early part of the climb, still muster breath to speak:

“I must say I find that really disconcerting,” I said as the third rider hurried by, “for you to be chatting away and yet go past at that speed.”

They ignored me and disappeared around the second hairpin.

When I took the corner there was no sign of them ahead of me on the long, long straight!

Disconcerting!

Perhaps they had stopped talking and started to ride!

Only the day before, on the flat, I had been overtaken by a guy on an electric mtb. Whoosh – probably doing 30mph! This on a two-metre wide cycle path so he was too close for comfort.

Gave me quite a start.

At least I had some inkling of the threesome’s conversational approach.

 

After pausing at the summit to admire the view to the South Downs 30 miles away, I turned and retraced my route.

A rider overtook me just before the long descent and I laid off by some 10 metres. We were doing about 24mph, that’s all.

Then he inexplicably braked almost to a stop and with barely a look over this shoulder, swerved to the right, across my path to make a U-turn!

I think he’d spotted some mates going the other way! Even at 24-25mph I was closing on him rapidly.

I grabbed my brakes while this guy, unable to complete the turn, stalled and leapt off his machine in the middle of the road and I just missed running into him.

I gave him a foul piece of my mind,   *!!!!!*** I probably Breached the Peace.

“Sorry,” he called out.

Then I remembered.

It was a Saturday morning, the start of the weekend, when all the weekend cyclists get out!

Normally I avoid the honey pots at weekends.

I used to think it was good that so many more people have taken up cycling since the 2012 London Olympics.

Not any longer. There are too many unpredictable idiots among them, no road craft, going too fast into bends. Long queues in cafes – when we used to visit them!

Making U-turns!

But I also felt annoyed with myself for losing my rag.

It’s stress. Lots of stress on some roads, and in life generally, especially with the coronavirus persisting, resulting in lockdowns.

When I got home I checked my emails.  There was an awful story from Cycling UK which put my travails into perspective.  I think it’s since gone viral.

Cycling UK member David Brennan was put in fear for his life when a vehicle was suddenly driven to within inches of his back wheel. In the altercation with the driver which followed there was much shouting and swearing and he was punched in the face. 

Months later he was shocked when the police accused  him of a breach of the peace but let the driver off with a warning.

He was astounded. According to Cycling UK, the police had earlier told him they had seen the video (and I presume also heard the colourful soundtrack) - of the incident and were going to investigate ‘further criminality’.

But when they called at his house the police told him:  “We are here to give you an official warning for contravening Section 38 (Breach of the Peace).”

The warning stated:  that he: ‘Did shout and swear causing fear to others’.”

Well, it was strong stuff. But no wonder - he feared he was about to be run down.

Brennan was further shocked to learn that the driver had also been given a written warning when clearly he thought he should be investigated for dangerous driving.

The incident occurred after the rider, who had been following a slow moving line of traffic on his way to Glasgow, decided to overtake a vehicle on the inside.

There was plenty of space.

But no sooner had he cleared the vehicle, than the potentially lethal weapon changed its line towards Brennan – you can see it do so clearly on the film. It came so close as to pose a real threat.

Such threatening moves have been experienced by other cyclists,  as though the driver has taken exception to being overtaken by cyclist.

In this case, cue for the Brennan to slap the bonnet and the very angry exchange which followed.

The pair came to a halt and the driver got out. Both were loudly shouting at the other. The cyclist was shoved and then punched, leaving him with a swollen lip.  Then the driver drove off.

Another driver who witnessed the whole affair came to Brennan’s assistance.

Brennan reported the matter to the police. After a month he hadn’t heard anything so chased them up. He felt sure the footage of the film taken from his helmet camera would confirm the driver had made a dangerous manoeuvre on him.

After several more months he received a late night visit by the police to his home and his world turned upside down. It would seem that the police took no account of the dangerous incident which in itself “caused fear in others” and which had provoked the cyclist’s outburst in the first place.

Cycling UK’s lawyers are looking into matter.