Witness to a cyclist(s) v motorist confrontation this morning on the Wirral

[lejogger]

Don't know if it was anyone on here, but approaching Clatterbridge roundabout here this morning I witnessed a very heated argument between one and then two road cyclists and a bloke and his wife in a Land Rover. It's a really busy approach especially at 8:30 in the morning and from the jist of the conversation I heard it seemed that the motorist had taken umbridge with the slow speed that the cyclists were travelling at, and that they were possibly two abreast rather than single file. Didn't witness the incident, only the aftermath, so I can't really comment too much.

I must admit I was quite amused to see that after a few minutes of witnessing the motorist giving the slightly built cyclist a torrent of abuse, the 'heavier built' cyclist then went straight over and was actually wrestling with the driver through his window to get his door open and out of the car to discuss it in the road! A case of a bully in a big car not being so much of a bully when faced with the prospect of not having 2 tonnes of steel to protect him!

Anyway, in case either of you are on here and anything was a bit more serious than it looks, I got the reg in case you didn't and wanted to take it further.

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

Reaching in through a window to assault the driver wouldn't look good in court. Sounds to me like the cyclist there was the nutter.

 

[400bhp]

Reaching in through a window to assault the driver wouldn't look good in court. Sounds to me like the cyclist there was the nutter.

You don't know what happened before or what was said, so let's not go jumping to conclusions shall we.

 

[lejogger]

Reaching in through a window to assault the driver wouldn't look good in court. Sounds to me like the cyclist there was the nutter.

Maybe...
Although I don't think either the driver or the cyclist were nutters.
All I can report on is what I saw... a cyclist riding along next to a Land Rover with the window down. The cyclist appearing to try to have a reasoned discussion, the motorist being very irate, shouting loudly and a lot of finger pointing on his side. The argument continuing when the car and bike had stopped, and then the second cyclist seeming to marginally lose his temper and then attempt to persuade the motorist to continue the discussion outside of the vehicle. The motorist seemed to be very much one of those loud mouthed aggressive sorts who was more than happy to swear and insult when locked behind a metal door, but whose tail quickly disappeared between his legs when faced with that protection disappearing.
There was certainly no 'assault' by either side from what I saw. There could have been some dangerous driving on behalf of the motorist or careless cycling involved, but I didn't witness that so can't comment. The point of the post is merely to offer help to either cyclist if they're on here and wanted the driver's reg no.
I may well be wrong, but I've driven and cycled for many years and from the feel of the circumstances my gut instinct was to sympathise more with the cyclists than the driver as initially they remained very calm and were certainly not the initial aggressors.
I also saw the driver shouting to the driver of the car behind me after driving away from the cyclists complaining about "...bloody cyclists cycling at about 5mph..."... he clearly wanted to carry on his rant to anyone who'd listen.
These certainly had the look of club cyclists not just blokes on BSOs, and while I of course realise that this doesn't prevent them from possibly being at fault, if they're the guys I see quite often on my commute then I'm pretty sure they're competent 'rush hour riders'.

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

You don't know what happened before or what was said, so let's not go jumping to conclusions shall we.

Well I conclude that anyone who makes the jump from insults to violence is going to end up in a lot of trouble.

 

[400bhp]

Read the above, then have a think whether you believe the cyclist to be a nutter.

 

[cd365]

I read the above and do think it was the 'heavier built' cyclist who was the "nutter", after some arguing with the driver and the smaller cyclist "the 'heavier built' cyclist then went straight over and was actually wrestling with the driver through his window to get his door open and out of the car to discuss it in the road". It sounds like he was the one who wanted to take thinks physical. What he did was a physical assault on the car driver. Don't get me wrong, I think in the same circumstances, i.e a motorist ranting at me I would be wanting him to get out the car and see how brave he really is.

 

[swampyseifer]

tbh it could have been the heavy-built bloke leaning in through the car window and wrestling with the man that made him loose his bluster a bit...not the fact he would lose the "safety" of being in his car?

 

[lejogger]

The point I was trying to make was that there are lots of motorists out there who are 'all talk, no trousers'. The vehicle is a comfort zone because they're generally well protected so the driver can feel that they can get away with saying and doing as they please with little come back. As cyclists, we have to have the 'trousers' if we're to get involved with altercations because we can't just wind up the window and pretend to be invisible.
This motorist clearly was an example of that. He was happy to shout away from inside his protective metal shell, but not so happy to back up his words when the offer of standing toe to toe was on the cards.

Let me also clear up that by 'wrestle', the cyclist was attempting to unlock the car by reaching through the window and grabbing the doorhandle. The motorist was grabbing his arms to get him off. We're not talking about an early 90s Hulk Hogan head grapple followed by a clothes line and a figure of four leg lock. In terms of criminal assault you could compare it with chasing someone down the street trying to tickle them.