so, normally I'm on the end of some bad driving, and am the first to moan at the inconsiderate nature of drivers in the UK…..However, the other day we were on the receiving end of agressive behaviour from cyclists.

Missus was driving, doing 20 ish down a gentle hill after pulling away from some lights. Amubulance parked on the road so she indicates and pulls out. as shes going roudn the vehicle she gets an torrent of abuse of a couple of roadies (who were well behind her i.e. not in her blindspot) cos she's slowed them down.

Gives her a bit of a fright, and so she's pretty slow at the next roundabout where they catch up and subject her to a further verbal attack. She had to stop me getting out the car to have a word, but by now she's in tears. They ride off swearing. She didn't do anything wrong (I would have told her, and apologised the the guys on the bikes if she had).

don't get some cyclists, they seem to go out looking for an argument. Not the greatest PR for us lot!

tut. Roadies. 🙄

Had she just overtaken them when there was no need to? Ie overtakes them then slows down blocking them? I find this happens quite often and is very annoying.

Not really any excuse for rude abusive behavior

When you are on the road you are traffic though, it's a bit annoying to slow down when you are training but sometimes it just can't be helped. Personally I avoid busy roads rather than ride on them and get worked up.

And yeah, abuse not acceptable.

Yeah, what TJ said – you don't mention if she had overtaken them before this all happened.
If not, they are just dickheads. Forget em.

but by now she's in tears

1 dose of MTFU, please. Seriously why are people bothered by a bit of abuse, give it back or ignore it.

Is there any documentation regarding people becoming more agresive/assertive during exercise. Curious if raising the heart rate/blood pressure reduces your tolerance to other peoples actions leading to cyclists barating drivers. I find myself more relaxed while driving than cycling, but this is only when cycling in traffic when on trails or out in the open I feel relaxed.

I find myself more relaxed while driving than cycling, but this is only when cycling in traffic when on trails or out in the open I feel relaxed.

I don't, but I do lose it quickly when a motorist **** with me.

Was it as TJ mentioned she overtook the cyclist only to brake for the parked vehicle, causing the cyclist to brake in turn?

Sounds like their might be more to this than mentioned.

Still pretty nasty to upset someone to tears, none of us are perfect all of the time.

She should have gotten all James Martin on they ass and followed them to a secluded spot before running them off the road.

tails – Member

but by now she's in tears

1 dose of MTFU, please. Seriously why are people bothered by a bit of abuse, give it back or ignore it.

I feel that your comment is not nice as some poeple really don't like to have others shouting, swearing and general;y being agressive. If she had done nothing wrong then i feel sorry for her. When people/drivers do idiotic things aorund me i normally just shake my head in a dismisive way and only get het up when they start to have a go at me (normally telling me to ride on the pavement).

🙄

That's one of my pet hates – riding along downhill, speed rapidly building, then being overtaken by a car which then has to slow/stop for an obstruction which should have been factored into the "can I overtake safely?" calculation.

That level of abuse isn't acceptable but equally there are fairly regular threads on here from people who seem proud to have kicked cars/knocked off wing mirrors/yelled abuse/threatened violence in similar incidents.

I'm kind of guessing and extrapolating here but even at a fair distance in front, on a downhill where a roadie could easily do 40-50mph, they can get round obstacles in the blink of an eye, equally they will catch up cars very quickly which they then have to factor into their manoeuvres.

Probably less than perfect driving from your wife, probably an over-reaction from the roadies. IMHO.

gentle downhill – we hadn't overtaken them – they had coasted through the lights after us, so no, they were never in front of us in the first place – they were the ones wanting to do a risk overtaking manouevure!

tails – Member

but by now she's in tears

1 dose of MTFU, please. Seriously why are people bothered by a bit of abuse, give it back or ignore it.

err. she's female? bizarre comment!

Just a couple of w@nkers out on their bikes, obviously.

jimbobrighton – Member
tails – Member
but by now she's in tears

1 dose of MTFU, please. Seriously why are people bothered by a bit of abuse, give it back or ignore it.

err. she's female? bizarre comment!

WTFU then?

yeah, it initially sounded like she'd overtaken them and then slowed them down which is very annoying (but still not worthy of any real abuse – I usually just reserve a withering look or a **** gesuture if I feel they've been particularly unobservant/stupid) but just slowing them down because of an obstruction in the road? They sound like a couple of tossers.

What do they do about all the cars they slow down? Cocks.

gentle downhill – we hadn't overtaken them – they had coasted through the lights after us

I do apologise – in your first post it sounded like you had overtaken them then slowed.
In that case yes, over-reaction from a couple of morons. There are rude inconsiderate people in all walks of life. Sadly some of them ride bikes.

I take my comments back Jimbo, but at first, it did sound like the classic, overtake then brake manoeuvre.

What a pair of cycling prats!

They are seeing the gap and judging their speed and width and thinking we are straight through here.
Your good lady has judged the gap differantly as her vehicle is wider then a bike. So she (we can only assume) has acted correctly in judging the gap and driving through it.
Whats happend with our roadie friends is that they have failed to allow for other people and their judgement/circumstances.
This is a fairly common fault often seen by all kinds of road users.
Bottom line No1, the failed to correctly judge the whole situation.
Bottom Line No2, they were WAY out of order. Making them slow for a moment, big deal. Mouthing off, well done boys we'll all have to carry that one.

I think that it's easy to become overly defensive when you ride on the road because so often you have to preempt idiots trying to run you down.

Either that or it was just some nobbert giving it the biggun in front of his mates

Fair points by everyone, I didn't mention we hadn't overtaken them at any point.

yeah, I've been known to be a bit vocal on the road when I feel threatened, but I guess it's almost that some guys can't wait to shout at somone and jump at the first opportunity, almost like they see it as part of cycling.

she should have *accidently* slipped her foot off the clutch at the roundabout propelling the Crrogant Aunts into the path of the right turning traffic on the roundabout! its war out on there on them streets folks!

"see it as part of cycling"
i agree but would say see it as part of life. same people are likely to be aggressive antytime eg: when driving, drinking alcohol, taking part in sports etc. macho knobs

>almost like they see it as part of cycling.

Well to be fair, do enough commuting amongst crap drivers and you get into a bit of a 'some ****'s cut me up' state of mind.

If there was no overtake involved, it sounds like they're being a pair of tits – but on the other hand they must have had some (slight) reason to get ticked off – tho' it sounds like abuse was OTT.

On the mtb on road I get enough idiots overtaking just to sit at the bacl of the traffic queue 10 or 20 yards further on that I usually have a fairly filthy mutter.
When I'm riding my recumbent it's get even more annoying 'cos a) the space to the next stationary car I use to slow down in, to avoid putting a foot down and b) I'm frequently travelling at the same speed as the traffic, so it's a bit bloomin' pointless.

ON my way home a few weeks ago, I saw a cyclist in front of me, and his main rear light was hidden by his back pack. I pulled into my drive, ran across the road and waited for him to climb the hill. Initially he looked very nervously at me, and then I explained his error, and we parted company, never to meet again. But no need to break down into abuse or bottle throwing, as I have been victim to in the past, when I had just finished a sportiv, and was ambling home on the bike.

I wouldn't be surprised if they had just been on the receiving end of soem dangerous driving, and their blood was still boiling….

I would quite happily have beaten the next driver to a pulp I was so livid after the fat t–t who drove me off the road into the hedge because he was much more important and couldn't wait for space this morning….

and the guy later who didn't think I should have overtaken the parked cars when he needed to overtake me, so found it necessary to blow his horn at me….. the pedestrians got a significant amount of verbal abuse drift past them, if a car had then 'got in my way' I might have shouted generic abuse at them too…

if not of course then they should just be shot and their bikes given to people who are decent….
like me 😉

"She had to stop me getting out the car to have a word" ..couldn't you have wound down the window? 😀

"Hold me back, hold me back!"

@rseholes ride bikes?!?! wow really?!

So its OK to have a pop at a otherwise innocent party because someone crossed you?
Dosen't that make you as bad as the fat t–t?

they were the ones wanting to do a risk overtaking manouevure!

I think this is the crux of it in a way, I'm not sure they were incorrect but…

Both travelling along normally, cyclists maybe pull out to overtake car they see as going slow and probably stopping behind the bus. As they pull out to over take the car decides it wants to overtake and pulls out.

Now imagine you're in your car, theres a bus and a car in front of you, the bus goes to stop/slow and the car behind appears to be doing the same or at least not going to overtake immediately. You indicate and pull out into the opposite lane to overtake safely, but the car in front mis-judges your speed/position/intention and pulls out in front of you – you're now having to slow and pull back in. I'd be annoyed at that, but not to the point of getting abusive.

Coffeking you're right, but as the second car or bike you should be anticipating that the car in front will pull out.
On a bike you should be anticipating that the car will not use its mirrors an cut you up.
Defensive driving riding.
When it happens you should be ready for it.

If that was the problem with our two heroes then more fool them if they can't look ahead, (if they ride their bikes like that then they will drive like that as well.)

Cpl of issues with your second point/example there CK, too many people in the second car would just put their foot down and pile through and get all arsey if the first car pulled out. First car is just being cautious (or doesn't mind waiting a few seconds for the bus to pick up and move on) If you're in the second car and are too impatient to wait then overtake but you do it safely, slowly and fully expecting bus or first car to pull out at anytime and not get arsey if they do.

Sounds like these cyclists were right nobbers. I sometimes feel like having a moan at people who slow me down when I've built up some speed but you've got to remember it's road travel, you will be slowed down and you have to put up with it.

No Speshpaul, I'm not saying I did have a go at anyone innocent, I'm saying given what had just occurred, my tolerance was somewhat lower….. the normal poor driving (driving too close and cutting me up) of other cars got loud verbal abuse rather than my usual tut to myself, I 'felt' like beating someone up (though as I won't get to use 'reasonable force' towards the driver of the blue P reg toyota, I'll have to just feel angry)…… 2 mins earlier, I was in a hedge, the driver whose car actually hit me just carried on….. no witnesses afterall…

So I agree with you, and no I'm not saying it is OK to give abuse to someone else, I'm saying that might be the reason….It is def not ok, and def not an excuse… just possible that they flipped…..

Form the story though, I can't see what she did wrong.

I feel very sorry for the lass for the abuse she received. We need to celebrate drivers (and cyclists) who behave well, and those people who give us cyclists (and drivers) a bad name should be educated with the use of a 12-bore, i'm tolerant see 😉

I hope she realises that some people are just idiots and that she doesn't loose confidence in her driving ability and importantly for other cyclists, doesn't think we are all like that….

SpeshP sounds as though you're right that they mis judged the 'over take' and actually were peeed off that they looked stoopid so blamed Mrs Jimbobrighton…

🙂

[not relevant to this situation, it seems however…]

i'm often much ruder, and especially *much louder* when i speak (shout) at other road users than i mean to be, often because of the adrenaline caused by fright i've just had.

relatively often the vehicle in question has no idea why i appear such an arse, after all if they appreciated how scary their driving was they probably wouldn't do it to start with…

[/not relevant this situation]

it's a shame when cyclists act like cocks, like these two seems to have or [ducks and waits for flaming] RLJing. makes us all look bad…

[mutters off grumbling]

Missus was driving, doing 20 ish down a gentle hill after pulling away from some lights. Amubulance parked on the road so she indicates and pulls out. as shes going roudn the vehicle she gets an torrent of abuse of a couple of roadies (who were well behind her i.e. not in her blindspot) cos she's slowed them down.

So I must have been the only person reading the OP who read the above para, clearly indicating the two roadies were just total knobs, abusing someone for holding up their training ride by thirty seconds. If they can't anticipate the movements of other vehicles in front they need to take up a pastime that removes them from the road where they won't have issues, like indoor track riding.