On Saturday, I was riding on our Triathlon Club end of season 3 pass ride. The issue with riding in the moutains on a good weather saturday is the people who feel the need to test their driving skills
I was riding up Luk Mania pass with a friend when we heard a sreaming engine coming up fast from behind as we were goind round a left hand bend. At that moment a Volvo appeared on the opposite side of the road heading towards us: Sound of ABS and shrieking tyres as a Renault Megan Super Sport flew down the inside at about 120kph, totally off road, gravel and clumps of earth flying. Luckily the verge was wide, and somehow the driver avoided trees, cliffs and ditches. We did stop to remonstrate, however the guy’s girlfriend / wife was giving him a pretty significant slapping
Close passes in the Surrey lanes are quite common. I’d probably say most rides to be honest, especially if you’re out past 9 am.
I think back in February myself and a mate are headed back into Cobham via Plough lane. We’ve just crested the small hill, turn a right hand corner then start heading downhill. As we do so a Range Rover is on our side of the road overtaking a pair of cyclists. My mate managed to completely stop dead where as I was on the brakes but still moving. I was left with a gap the width of my handlebars between the car and a brick wall. My undone gilet slapped on their wing mirror. I couldn’t bloody believe I managed to get through the gap.
I’ve been hit by a truck in my teens, ended up in hospital for days but that was a distracted driver thing and quite exceptional IMO. These days however it’s different.
When I moved from Oz, I was was really happy that I could go go out nearly anytime of day and feel pretty safe compared to Down Under where I’d have missiles thrown at me, get charged at by tradies in utes and my mate was shot in the leg with an air pistol!
These days I’m more convinced that there’s that gap is closing and I do question whether i need to be out there. It’s strange because I never feel this way on a moto.
In Switzerland, generally feel pretty safe, but the experience at the weekend did shake me up. A lot of people I know avoid the mountain passes at weekends, I think I will do the same
One ped walked out infront of me and wiped me out.
3 cars turning from the other side of the road.
Once over the bonnet with no further damage. Once with a shoulder injury but not too bad and the last time I was taken out by an off duty dci in an unmarked police car. Fractured the base of my skull. Quite nasty tbh. Lots of legal wrangling after
My worst was when a kid ran out in front of me. 5 broken ribs, smashed collar bone into 3 pieces, punctured lung and fractured hip. Took a lot of self reflection to get back on the bike after that.
But there’s nothing like having kids to make you analyse your appetite for risk.
I had a really similar crash to @Doka in July, the difference is that I sustained no injury. As Brett posted before, it was the type of accident that you brush yourself off and its pretty much forgotten a few miles down the road, just in his case he was really unlucky. I guess that this is always at the back of my mind whenever I go out on a bike, but it doesn’t stop me from riding.
I think I am really sensitive to being hit from behind as this happened to me in 2017, Air ambulance called, luckily my injuries were minor.
Closest I came to a proper accident I was bombing down a hill that leads into a small town. Yes there is a speed camera on the hill and yes all the local cyclists try and set it off.
Anyway there is a t junction. Car at the junction, I see him, I make eye contact so I know he’s seen me, he waits, waits, just as I approach out he comes. Queue me shouting, braking very hard wobbling and avoiding being hit by I reckon a foot at most. Worse thing is there are parked cars on the side of the road, and he hasn’t stopped having now turned, and so after nearly wiping me out he’s bow almost forcing me into a row of parked cars.
As you can imagine the language coming for me is rather blue. He drives off. I cycle after him turn the corner and oh what luck, the level crossing is down. I pull up along side and am shouting “what the fucking hell were you doing, you nearly killed me” etc. He’s both hands gripping the wheel staring straight ahead. Eventually after a few minutes of ranting he decides its time to blame me for it and says it was my choice to go fast. This is where his luck changed as the crossing lifted, because I had gone full rest mist at this point and was really about to lose control. He drove off, I threw a bidon at him, it missed and got run over.
I could hardly cycle after that. My legs were shaking from the adrenaline. Thankfully wasn’t far from home.
First was thundering down a narrow descent in the Surrey hills, and I get the predictable van stopped in front, there is no chance of me stopping, and about 2 feet gap on the inside of the van. I went down the inside of the van, brakes locked, actually leaning on the van to stay upright, stopped almost alongside the (very surprised) driver.
Second was a dual carriageway time trial. Passing a petrol station exit and a lorry came barreling out, clearly had absolutely no idea I was there. To avoid being smeared under the front wheels I had to swerve into the fast lane - I was literally waiting for the 85mph BMW to pile into my rear wheel. Literally had to wait a few secs, in the fast lane, until the lorry had pulled ahead and I could get back across. The swerve was clearly visible on the strava trace, I’ll see if I can dig it up.
About 3 years ago I had 2 really near misses and a close call on a Sunday winter ride. It was actually only due to my own diligence that I managed to avoid them. Generally going to fast and not concentrating around junctions.
This is partly why Zwift is quite appealing now.
TT’ing on a DC last week took a lot convincing, doing a 100 near there about 8 years ago the guy who was a minute behind me was hit and killed. I’d spoken to him just before the race as he parked behind me. Struggled with it ever since and regularly drive past it. Can still picture his bike in the outside lane as I drove past on the opposite side. It was a difficult ride back
Hit by the wing mirror of a Range Rover Sport a couple of years ago, definately a case of dangerous driving but the coppers were not even remotely interested.
Try as I might I simply cant get my road bike confidence back, so these days all my riding is off road or indoor. I am only really interested in x-terra/off road type events.
Should probably sell the road bikes.
Oddly however This only really relates to being out in the country; I have biked across London a few times recently.
Part of my argument is that generally DC’s are long straight roads with good visibility. People do 60 on twisty country lanes and often overcook bends.
And I suspect it’s quieter up here compared to where a lot of you ride.
Riding with a volatile mate of mine (always gets into rows on the bike) and we got close passed by a windows down loud music car full of young lads with associated abuse as they go by.
He’s steaming and sets off in pursuit, and found they were caught in a line of traffic up ahead. I wonder how long it took them to clean off the sticky sports drink from the inside of their car, designer clothes etc……
I was really put off riding on DCs as I expected people would leave more room because they had another lane to use and didnt have to worry about on coming traffic. After a few close passes I decided that it was really dangerous. The fact that they hadnt moved over made me think that hadnt even seen me
