I rarely ride in the Surrey Hills these days because I don’t enjoy steep, narrow descents with dubious road surfaces, poor sight lines and traffic coming the other way.
There’s been a huge increase in the number of cyclists in Surrey in the 17 years that I’ve been riding there, but the traffic also seems to be a lot worse on the lanes. I think some of that could be due to the increase in the use of SatNav, which probably sends people up the lanes that link the main roads, where in the past folks might have driven the longer way round.
I get the usual close-passes every week and I’m probably immune to them now. I think riding solo you probably get less agro from angry motorists than you do in a group because people see riders riding 2x2 and assume they are holding them up.
One thing that I did notice a couple of times was oncoming cars carefully passing cyclists nice and wide but seemingly not noticing me coming towards then until the last minute. It’s like they’re concentrating hard on the riders that they are passing and not paying attention to what’s in front of them.
The two nearest misses that stick in my mind, there has been hundreds commuting into London most days, I was on TT bike heading out on a long ride, main road nice and wide 30 zone. Slight downhill so hitting 25-30 myself a white van crossed in front of me from one side turning to the other literally 6 feet in front. Not sure how I missed but was stopped in middle of road shaking it was that close. Another guy actually stopped and got out to see I was OK.
Worst was a bus on commute, wide bus lane, the bus pulls round me to overtake and whilst halfway along pulls straight into me and hits his brakes. Bus stop there that he must have not seen! I still dont know why I chose this option but I bunny hopped up the curb which quite possibly saved my life, or at the very least save a nasty accident.
Yes, I’ve had a few bumps over the years. Most recent was my first few weeks of commuting in my current job. Guy just pulls across my path to turn right, I go straight into the side of him. Broad daylight. Luckily I had a second or two to anticipate it. After that I went out and got a front strobe light.
Years ago some young hoonigan came around the bend of a country road on the wrong side overtaking someone, with a can of drink in one hand! I wasn’t quite quick enough to see what drink it was, but I could see the panic in his eyes; missed me by inches.
These are all fleeting incidents though; like most traffic stuff. The one that unsettles me most was my life literally hanging in the balance, at the mercy and competence of others. Another piece of ice gives way and the thin strand that attaches you to this mortal coil bouncing down another two feet; hanging there above a huge black hole, just waiting to fall to your death. I managed to get my shit together for a second trip that season but I wasn’t the same. Mountaineering films make my toes curl
I’ve been riding a bike in London for over 20 years, so I think I’m generally pretty good at anticipating stupid drivers and haven’t had too many real issues in traffic. I’ve only had two proper collsions with cars that have resulted in more than a bit of bruising and some bad language.
The first was in the Surrey Hills. It had been raining in the morning, so I’d gone out a bit later than usual and the roads were still a bit wet. It was on a fast, straight descent where the road goes from reasonably wide at the top to narrow at the bottom. A car overtook me near the top, so I dabbed the brakes to give me what I thought was a decent stopping gap. Another car was coming up the hill and even though the road was still wide enough at that point for both cars to pass comfortably, the driver in front of me did an emergency stop and came to a complete halt. I was faced with a choice of the back of a stationary car, the front of a moving car or a barbed wire fence. I opted for the first, braked as hard as I could and hoped for the best. UI reckon another 10m and I’d have been fine, but I just ran out of road and went face-first into the back of the car.
I broke my helmet and got bloody cuts and scrapes down the left side of my face and a sore head. The people in the car behind lived just don the road and they were kind enough to let me clean myself up at their house, but I still looked a bit of a sight and got some funny looks on my ride home! Mrs W was a bit alarmed when I walked in the door . My desk at work at the time had a window on the left hand side, so I had some comedy moments in the first few days after when people came to my desk from my “good” side and I turned to face them and revealed my smashed-up side
The 2nd incident was about 6 weeks before IM Lanza. I was riding out through Putney on a Sunday morning. I was riding reasonably far out from the curb because I could see parked cars ahead and an Uber pulled wide to go round me. He got alongside me when his sat nav must have told him to turn left, so he did. He took me round the corner with him and I clipped the curb on the apex of the bend and bounced off the back of the car, landing on my backside. He stopped, but he barely spoke English and just sort of shrugged at me. As I was picking myself up off the floor, a helpful Audi driver who hadn’t seen the accident took the time to stop and suggest that it was my own fault because I wasn’t wearing hi viz . I think I made my thoughts about his opinion pretty clear .
I finished the planned ride just feeling a bit battered, but I’d badly bruised my lower back and running was really uncomfortable for about 2 weeks, so even though I could cycle and swim, it knocked my IM preparation right off track.
Training in Cyprus for the forthcoming Inter services tri, a greek cypriot driver joined the main road we were on from a slip road, seemed to see us and slowed, but then decided to accelerate and get ahead of us but misjudged it. Took 5 of us out and broke my ankle (which i din’t know until the next day)
Riding my m/bike through my village, a Volvo pulled out and then saw me, and panicked, stopping infront of me. I slid in front of him (and for years I could remember the number plate backwards as I saw it), hit the curb which threw me into a wall. I was unconscious and the driver thought i was dead so covered me with his dog blanket. It was outside where my mum worked and she came out to see m covered in the blanket…
If we are talking real accidents, those who knew me in 2012 will know, came out of work. Literally 100yds down Union Street, no traffic usually and a car pulled from a side road, no issue, slowed gently but was only doing 10mph so no big deal until a parked car pulled straight out in front of him, he hit his brakes I hit his back screen. No damage to car, was ready to ride off when I noticed blood and someone told me to sit down. Turns out it was about 60 stitches in my jaw both dissolvable below and real ones above and enough dental damage to fund a new Pinarello. I’m still suffering the effects of that. Luckily they took me to St Thomas’s who happened to have a plastic surgeon in A&E who did a pretty good job of patching me up and sent me to King’s College dental "as it is free and brilliant) where I got a free implant , crown, 2 root canals (over a number of years) . Thankfully I got that guy patching me up as the cost at a normal dentist would have needed a 2nd mortgage.
Parked car, 2 guys legged it, police didn’t get any witness statements but followed my ambulance (car) to hospital for a statement like a pair of lazy cunts they blamed me as I was “going too fast” and “riding into the sun” forgetting it was late afternoon riding east and ignoring my Garmin that had me at 12mph at time of impact! No one tried to trace the 2 guys that ran who caused the accident and no CCTV was requested either (theres plenty in London)
There’s a guy who we occassioanlly ride out with and he winds me up. When riding x2 he tends to ride right out near the white line whether it is busy or not. Sometimes he will even ride out there even though he isn’t ext to anyone. He regularly annoys drivers.
Also, annoyingly he often tries to slow the pace down on the flat but then tries to drop everyone on climbs.
I probably did as many hours as anyone in the first six months of this year, but I realised that I was hoping for bad weather in April and May so i could train inside…. I’ve never experienced that before?
I’m not afraid of cycling on the road, but I’m apprehensive for sure.
For non technical flat courses like Sundowner, Deva, Nantwich Sprint etc I have more than enough bike experience to race well.
For IMUK not so much, Tri x and worse, not a chance.
Weirdly I went to Yorkshire and hired a mountain bike this year, I felt much safer on that even on busy unknown roads than I do on road/ tt bikes.
So possibly a big change round in bikes this winter.
At the end of the day ( it gets dark ) if the ex Danish pro Sorensen can get killed on a pan flat course in a pro cycling country it could happen to any of us.
I’ll have a big decision to make in Feb next year.
TBH he was giving the cyclists more space than I’m used to seeing
With the oncoming car I’d have expected him to swerve in harder on the cyclists.
One of the things I don’t like about riding in big groups (10+) now is the number of times that a car starts an overtake and seems to be caught out by the number of riders in the group and then cuts in very close on the riders at the front of the group to avoid oncoming traffic.
. My desk at work at the time had a window on the left hand side, so I had some comedy moments in the first few days after when people came to my desk from my “good” side and I turned to face them and revealed my smashed-up side 
