So what did I do to deserve this ( warning cycling based thread )

[fizzwheel]

Picture the scene.

Its a lovely warm evening and me my mate decide we'll take the long way home. Now alot of you after AR08 will know what the roads are like in my neck of the woods. So we get a little way round the route we decided and we're off into the country lanes, its narrow and tree lined and the surface in the gutter isnt very good and not where you want to be.

So we're cycling along in single file doing about 17 - 18mph we both hear a 4 x 4 discovery befoer we see it. I clock the driver is trying to come past and we both hold in tighish to the kerb to make it a little easier for her to get by. This is accompanied by more revving and a failed overtake due to a car coming the other way and that the road isnt wide enough to get bikes, a car and a 4 x 4 down with room to spare.

This carries on through a litle village that its not safe to overtake by, I'm doing regular over the shoulder checks to see where this 4 x 4 is and I dont like it sat behind me as it seems to me its being driven erratically.

So we get through one village and come to a bit of road where its straight and I know the 4 x 4 can get by me and my mate. I sit up in the saddle extend my hand in an open manner and wave the 4 x 4 by us both, this is accompanied by more revving and another failed overtake, now I know that the road gets narrow again and the 4 x 4 wont be able to get by either of us for a mile or so so I sit in tight to the verge and slow my pace a litte. This is then followed by another failed overtake on a blind bend.

Now I'm not very happy so to prevent being run off the road I sit a little defensively about where the left wheels of the 4 x 4 would be or maybe out a little more into the middle of my lane.

We tackle a steep rise, and then take another sharp bend into another village. again the road is narrow and I can hear more revving. Again we both tuck over tight this time accompanied by more revving, the 4 x 4 makes its overtake safely leaving us room. The overtake is accompanied by a blast on the horn and a torrent of abuse from the late 40's female driver, she seems from what I can be making out to be questioning my fatherhood and implying that I shouldnt be cycling on the road, she then pootles away at no more than 5 mph more than we were doing. We pick up the pace as I'm not very happy with the way I've been treated and I can hear her kids shreking out the wound down windows, mummy mummy they are catching us...

I'm now clocking 35mph and I cant sustain it for long so I sit up and she drives away.

So what did I do to deserve this apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Was I correct in my behaviour, was she correct in hers or was she out of order ?

I'm geniuely interested in what you guys n gals who dont cycle on the road think.

Personally I dont think I did anything wrong, I made it easy for her to overtake several times. But for whatever reason she didnt want to ( no problem with that ) but then I get abused and beeped at.

I really think the way the media make out cyclists to be the black sheep contributes to the way we get treated, I personally think that we're "fair game" as far as some people are concerned.

Cyclist's deserve room end of, I don't give a toss how they are ridden, they're the ones saving from all the pollution, obesity and all other things that can be benifitted from it.

Sounds like you did nothing wrong Fizz.

I tend to just wave my arm for them to go by, if they don't their problem really.

I'm prepared to be flamed for this, but what does annoy me on the road - Horses!

not your fault m8 i used to get it a lot as well , theres nothing worse than an impatiant driver trying to get past it can be very unnerving

[anna]

Its difficult to tell without actually having seen it but perhaps she saw your jestures of waving her past and your manoveours to the side of the road as something else.

It could be that she just saw the situation completely differently and decided that you were the one that was deliberately getting in the way ... I'm just grasping at straws here but it's the only thing i can think of.

Yup, deffo not your fault, other than stopping and stepping out of the bike you did everything you were supposed to do. Ignore it...

You didn't do anything wrong Fizz - like you said, you made it easy for her to overtake on several ocassions and she failed to do so.

Glad you got back home in one piece, sounds like she was very aggressive indeed. I would have been really scared if I was in your situation.

Maria

[anna]

Originally Posted by Filipe M.

Yup, deffo not your fault, other than stopping and stepping out of the bike you did everything you were supposed to do. Ignore it...

deffo?????????????? your english is slipping

Originally Posted by anna

deffo?????????????? your english is slipping

Must be the bad influences...

[Stu]

How open to misinterpretation was your gesture - remember Messie

[Jayneflakes]

With you on this Fizzwheel, I have been there many many times.

Many car drivers are not aware of the Highway Code or how it relates to Cyclists.

The only thing that you could have done as a slow moving vehicle would have been to pull in wait for her to pass, but if no pull in place is available, then you can not do so.

It sounds like you had a stressed out Mum in a Chelsea tractor being a grumpy old bag. Maybe you should have gobbed through her open windows as she passed you.

I had a Cycling mate years ago who (Aswell as being a local champion for BMX Racing) was cut up really dangerously by a girl in a open top sports job. She got stuck at traffic lights and he pulled up next to her and gobbed in her lap as the lights changed. He laughed for weeks over that and I told him he was a dirty git! Mind you I laughed too!