People in cars think they can have a quick joke at the poor little cyclists expense then get away with it just by driving off; imagine this guys surprise though when i came racing up to him whilst he was stuck at the next traffic lights!! I chased him down the road for half a mile or so (yes – a man on a push bike giving a high speed pursuit to two men in a full sized van!) but was knackered from previous 35 miles of riding + a days work, so he got away. Had no idea what i’d do if i caught him anyway and didn’t even bother getting the reg as i knew Walsall police would do FA about it (although no doubt they’d prosecute me if i chose do to anything vigilante…).

Its all just indicative of the complete lack of respect that cyclists get on the road here, (even despite a summer of bringing home the gold and glory for Britain on the race course) …and of an increasingly worrying attitude, rife amongst many drivers nowadays – from tradesmen in vans to “sub-urb SUV” drivers to impatient merc slickers – that think they are entitled to get away with doing absolutely anything they want, with no regard to the safety of other road users.

personally, i’ll be carrying a blade in my saddlebag from now on and will make my presence felt on the tyres of any scumbag who tries something like this on me again.

thanks for this article.

I was cycling along a few weeks ago (one of those days when it wasn’t raining – they used to happen you know). I was in a bus lane, when all of a sudden a car shot past me. I was rather annoyed as it was totally unexpected and I could have easily been hit as the road is full of potholes.

Anyway I decided to chase after the car to give him one of my world famous withering looks. So after catching him up I looked into the car only to see the driver wearing a metropolitan Police jacket. Go figure!