May bank holidays! A time to kick back, relax, have a beer in the sun, a walk in the park, or as a friend and I thought, a ride to Southend from London through the beautiful Essex countryside.
From Mile End to the seaside in Southend it is a nice, fairly easy 50 miles with plenty of undulating quiet roads to navigate. After negotiating Stratford, we were heading towards Romford via the scenic Gants Hill route (Don't worry, you don't actually have to cycle through Romford). Harold hill is the next target which takes you into the nicest part of the route, through Brentwood. This is a new route for me and I was pleasantly surprised to find such nice country cycling roads less than an hour from my front door. After leaving Brentwood and heading through Billericay, wide open roads continued through the villages that mark the way towards Wickford. However, it was in Billericay that I witnessed something that I am still struggling to understand.
I was cycling about 5 meters behind my fellow cyclist when a white van came shooting past. It veered over to the left deliberately towards my friend, coming within inches of his handlebars. I genuinely thought at that point that the van driver was attempting to knock him off. However, what came next was astonishing. The passenger in the white van swung what appeared to be a phone charger by the wire and smashed it down onto the helmet of my fellow cyclist. It shattered across the road as he came to a halt while the van carried on. We stopped for about 5 minutes to take in what had happened. Thankfully, no damage was done, but unfortunately, we didn't see the registration number, or company on the van. We continued on to Southend, but to be honest, I didn't enjoy the rest of the ride. I felt sick!
Aggression towards cyclists is constantly in the news. Recently, Emma Way, a 20 year old tweeted about knocking a cyclist off his bike! Not only did she fail to stop, she boasted about her dangerous activity online. Her stupidity landed her in hot water not too long after however. She is training to be a tax advisor (not sure for how long now) which is even more disappointing because she obviously doesn't realise that road tax does not pay for the roads, it pays for vehicle emissions. We all have a right to use our roads without intimidation and bullying.
I still don't know how I feel about what happened. I don't know what provoked the actions of the white van man and his accomplice. I don't know if either of them have stopped and thought about what they did, why they did it, or if they ever will. I don't think so. However, we will be back on our bikes, and so will all the other victims of road rage. Hopefully in time, these sorts of incidents will become a thing of the past.
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