Went down to the allotment on Saturday. Got the spuds in.
It isn't far, and I don't take the camera down there because its a bit of a pain storing it away in the shed while I'm working (to avoid another accidental near burial, which happened once). Besides, its one straight road, one corner, uneventful.
Black 4x4 overtook FAR too close on the main road. I was in primary, so I had swerve space, no problem. He wasn't going anywhere fast, the lights and the end of the (straight) road were red, and I could already see from the position they were taking that the two cars at the lights would be turning right. One of them, the one at the front, even indicated to do so while waiting (a rarity!). The overtake wasn't careless, it was aggressive; you have to judge a close overtake of a cyclist in primary with great care, and he had plenty of room for a careless but safe overtake, if that makes sense.
Black 4x4 was maybe fourth or fifth back from the junction when I got there. He'd swerved right in to the pavement, presumably assuming I would be filtering kerbside. I didn't, I went around the outside, in around the back of the two cars presumably turning right after making eye contact with car 3, waited in a decent secondary next to the right turning car (catching that drivers eye, nodding acknolwedgement of each others presence - its all going pretty much as you'd hope so far). I was going straight on at the junction, so my road position here suited me fine.
Moved off as the lights changed, black 4x4 also went straight on. I was well into primary position when he passed me, while in the process of doing so swerving sharply towards the kerb and braking hard. Had one of those 'now where do I go...' moments, yelled 'WATCH IT!', stopped barely with enough space, he of course had his window down and was yelling abuse. Okay, I thought, pay him no attention, can either wait here for him to reverse at me, dismount and wait for him to challenge me, or just keep going. Chose the latter, cycled around him, remained in primary. Antagonistic? Probably, but just breathing in this guys presence was enough to wind him up.
I was taking the next left turn, taking me to the allotment gates about 75 yards down that turning. 4x4 started off after me, yelling abuse through his window. Specifically, 'f***ing paedophile! paedophile'. Well, thats me told then. Someone who I don't know, don't want to know, who has just endangered me intentionally and who I have refused to acknowledge is now accusing me, from his car window and at high volume, of being a kiddy fiddler. That proves his case, that I am in some way an inferior road user, quite admirably. I turned off to the left and he followed me, right to the gates. I got off to open the gate, turned to face him, yelled 'get out and face me, or **** off'. He didn't get out, I opened the gate, closed it behind me, stared at him, and cycled off to my allotment. He could by now see that there were plenty of other people taking advantage of a glorious saturday morning on the allotments, clearly didn't fancy taking on a bunch of people armed with garden tools, did a cumbersome 3 point turn and sped off.
Just goes to show, even on the most ordinary, short trips, on quiet weekend roads, you only have to meet one mental case and it ruins things.
Reporting such things to Cambridgeshire Contabulary, even with footage, is a joke. So I'm not reporting this one. I'll just look out for this lemon and next time I get some video of him. Plod won't do anything even if I do, but I see little else I can do.
It isn't far, and I don't take the camera down there because its a bit of a pain storing it away in the shed while I'm working (to avoid another accidental near burial, which happened once). Besides, its one straight road, one corner, uneventful.
Black 4x4 overtook FAR too close on the main road. I was in primary, so I had swerve space, no problem. He wasn't going anywhere fast, the lights and the end of the (straight) road were red, and I could already see from the position they were taking that the two cars at the lights would be turning right. One of them, the one at the front, even indicated to do so while waiting (a rarity!). The overtake wasn't careless, it was aggressive; you have to judge a close overtake of a cyclist in primary with great care, and he had plenty of room for a careless but safe overtake, if that makes sense.
Black 4x4 was maybe fourth or fifth back from the junction when I got there. He'd swerved right in to the pavement, presumably assuming I would be filtering kerbside. I didn't, I went around the outside, in around the back of the two cars presumably turning right after making eye contact with car 3, waited in a decent secondary next to the right turning car (catching that drivers eye, nodding acknolwedgement of each others presence - its all going pretty much as you'd hope so far). I was going straight on at the junction, so my road position here suited me fine.
Moved off as the lights changed, black 4x4 also went straight on. I was well into primary position when he passed me, while in the process of doing so swerving sharply towards the kerb and braking hard. Had one of those 'now where do I go...' moments, yelled 'WATCH IT!', stopped barely with enough space, he of course had his window down and was yelling abuse. Okay, I thought, pay him no attention, can either wait here for him to reverse at me, dismount and wait for him to challenge me, or just keep going. Chose the latter, cycled around him, remained in primary. Antagonistic? Probably, but just breathing in this guys presence was enough to wind him up.
I was taking the next left turn, taking me to the allotment gates about 75 yards down that turning. 4x4 started off after me, yelling abuse through his window. Specifically, 'f***ing paedophile! paedophile'. Well, thats me told then. Someone who I don't know, don't want to know, who has just endangered me intentionally and who I have refused to acknowledge is now accusing me, from his car window and at high volume, of being a kiddy fiddler. That proves his case, that I am in some way an inferior road user, quite admirably. I turned off to the left and he followed me, right to the gates. I got off to open the gate, turned to face him, yelled 'get out and face me, or **** off'. He didn't get out, I opened the gate, closed it behind me, stared at him, and cycled off to my allotment. He could by now see that there were plenty of other people taking advantage of a glorious saturday morning on the allotments, clearly didn't fancy taking on a bunch of people armed with garden tools, did a cumbersome 3 point turn and sped off.
Just goes to show, even on the most ordinary, short trips, on quiet weekend roads, you only have to meet one mental case and it ruins things.
Reporting such things to Cambridgeshire Contabulary, even with footage, is a joke. So I'm not reporting this one. I'll just look out for this lemon and next time I get some video of him. Plod won't do anything even if I do, but I see little else I can do.
