First, he tried to pass me. With traffic backed up from the traffic lights, he had no chance. There was barely room for me on my cycle, but that didn’t stop him trying. And what for? I was being held up by the cars in front of me. If he had got the room to pass, he’d still be stuck in traffic. He’d be no further down the road.
The road cleared a bit and the left filter lane appeared empty before me. I’m going left, that’s quite handy. The traffic on my right starts shifting and Mr Must Overtake uses the left filter lane to pick up some speed and hopes for a gap on our right to slot into so he didn’t have to run me down. We (I) was lucky, there was just the room. He skimmed past me at around 30 to 40 mph. I wet myself a little bit.
Hen 100 yards in front of me, he stops at the lights with one car on front of him.
Worth killing me for? Probably, eggheads was about to start, he might miss the beginning.
As I draw along side him, I spot two rather chavy young men in the car. The driver is by far, the fattest of the three of us. He was heavier than the other two combined. Perhaps he should start cycling?
“What are you playing at?”
“Where’s your helmet” They spit back in unison. Wow, synchronised anti-logic. What’s that got to do with anything?
“I left it at home, is that where you left your common sense?”
“You should wear one”
“There’s no need if people don’t drive like you”
“You should have a helmet on”.
“There is no legal compulsion to wear a helmet, there is a legal compulsion to drive in a manner that won’t cause injury or death”.
“You’re an idiot”.
“OK, let’s have this discussion in front of a copper, you can tell them all about my heinous crime of cycling helmetless and how, as a good citzen you tried to bring me to justice by running me down”.
Random abuse. So I check out the registration plate. And they tell me the car is nicked. The way it was driven, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“You in a rush then?”
“Why?”
“No reason”.
I cycle past the car on front, just checking that the driver and his two kids aren’t in too much of a rush and are willing to play the game. It turns out he’s a cyclist, saw the incident and is quite a good chap.
So I get in front of him, and don’t move for a couple of light changes. We sit there waving at the car trapped behind him.
Then, as the lights change to amber, I move off (OK technically illegal, but worth it in this case) and give a thumbs up to nice Mr Driver behind me, who sits there for another light change.
So if you ever see a black Audi A8l Se Tdi Quattro Auto, with a registration plate of LX07 VTN, do the decent thing. Let his tyres down. Don’t damage the car, but take him off the road at least for a while, the roads will be safer. And you may just save someone’s life.
Keep Pedalin'
Gazza
