Chinese Student Cyclists - don't mess!

[John the old'un]

Wow. Pupil power.

[Tony]

That’s quite funny. Given the writing style it’s not 100% clear whose to blame but seems like a bullying motorist tried it on and got what they deserved!

My first ride since before Christmas resulted in my first instance of road-rage within a few minutes of leaving home! I could have done with a bunch of militant students on my side.

Some guy (and his lady friend) took offence to me using the green cycling box at the new set of lights where the Coulsdon bypass begins. Quite how or why is beyond me! As the lights changed from red to amber I clipped in and set off as sharply as I could, turning right towards Couldson / CSS. As the guy came past he gave me a long blast on the horn and accelerated hard - straight in to the next traffic queue! His response was was actually so unnecessary, I wasn’t sure it was for me.

At the next junction in the centre of Coulsdon, he’s stuck at the lights. As I approach on the inside, he deliberatly tries to block me. Now I’m sure the guys is a t*sser. As I pull alongside him (on the left) the traffic starts to move again and he seriously cuts me up. So I yelled at him and gave his side window a firm punch as he moves past (to discourage him from coming any closer, of course ). With a bit of adrenalin in my system, I actually hit it far harder than I intended. It didn’t break, but the whole window felt as though it bowed inwards with the force of my punch. Any boy did it make a loud noise! This really set the guy off and he started weaving all over the road to ensure I didn’t get passed him. The lights then changed to red again, he had to stop and looked like he was going to get out of the car. He then appeared to have second thoughts.... I was seriously tempted to face the guy off – but I’ve never had to defend myself wearing cleated shoes and thick gloves don’t lend themselves to defending yourself either. So I used the heavy traffic to make good my escape.

Next time, maybe I won’t be on my own and maybe we can hand out some proper Chinese style justice!

[Stu Merckx Man]

come in the training group tony, a smite on one is a smite on us all...george will have your back (or neck )