A WODONGA cyclist dismounted and prepared himself for a possible fight when an angry driver confronted him on a country road on Tuesday.
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It could have been me he ran over, I don’t think he was thinking very straight. I was bewildered, to be honest
- Cyclist
But instead the driver returned to his car, drove at the rider and then ran over the bike before speeding off.
Beechworth police investigating the road rage incident say the company that owned the white van is now assisting to confirm the driver’s identity.
The cyclist had been riding towards Wodonga on the Beechworth Wodonga Road at Leneva just after 1pm when the van went past at high speed honking its horn.
“It didn’t seem like a great deal to me at the time, but five minutes later this van has come back up the road towards me,” the rider, who did not wish to be named, said.
“This guy’s got out, come towards me and he’s ranting, not making a great deal of sense.”
The driver, who appeared to be aged in his 50s, possibly then realised the cyclist was bigger than him.
“He’s retreated to his car and come at me, yelling out the window still,” the rider said.
“I’ve sort of pushed myself off the car and he's run over my bike, drove into the paddock and back onto the road and drove off.”
Uninjured but stranded in an area with patchy mobile phone reception, the cyclist visited a couple of houses but found nobody home.
He eventually gained some reception in a paddock and called police.
The bike, worth up to $3000, was badly damaged.
“It could have been me he ran over, I don’t think he was thinking very straight,” the rider said. “I was bewildered, to be honest.
“I’ve been riding for a long time and this is probably the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.
“I’ve never had an incident; especially through those hilly parts, I always stick to the edge but you can't avoid someone turning around and coming back, getting out of the car and standing in front of you.”
Albury-Wodonga Pedal Power treasurer Tony McLeod-Nibbs said he had not encountered such an extreme cycling incident in this area.
“You do get the odd driver that will toot, angrily toot, you can’t avoid it all the time,” Mr McLeod-Nibbs said.
“(This example’s) actively aggressive; passive aggression they might toot and keep driving to show you they're annoyed but to actually stop and come back, that’s terrible.”
Anyone with information about the incident should contact Beechworth police on (03) 5728 1032 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.
