Leisesturm

Listening to OPB Radio right now. On the air is a British cyclist who has just cycled around the world in 79 days. To do this he had to ride 240mi. every day for 2.5 months. It was a sanctioned event and he had a support team but the grunt was all his. When asked what the most challenging and dangerous parts of the event was he did not dither with an answer. Pickup truck drivers in the American Midwest. He was aggressively buzzed there many times and was deliberately run off the road several times by hostile p/u truck drivers intent on vehicular manslaughter. I don't see why he would lie about this. I imagine the circumstances must have been also witnessed by his support crews on occasions. WTF. Whenever anyone says something sideways about those who drive trucks on this forum there are usually angry rebuttals and comments to 'stop profiling p/u truck drivers'. Sorry. Redneck is as redneck does, and there really appears to be a problem here. I now have to wonder about some recent competitive cyclists that have been killed here during road events. They have always gone on the books as accidents, whether due to possible carelessness or not. The fact that a driver might deliberately use their vehicle to maim or kill a cyclist seems like an impossibility to most in the legal profession. Might be time to rethink this and totally re-calibrate the perception and plausibility metrics as regards driver and cyclist interaction.

adablduya

well, never mind the rednecks, they are out there. but, i never encountered one in almost 5,000 miles of cross-country miles.....

i do, however, have serious skepticism of a claim to ride 240 miles+ per day for 79 days around the world, as well as a claim that the worst encounters were with American pickup truck drivers.

is this person a Clinton relative ??

atbman

The performance's "legality/integrity" is checked by the Guinness World Records organisation and they're reasonably well clued up about such things and will have laid down very stringent conditions before accepting the attempt. But still, you could also try enlightening them from your expert (?) perspective. Of course, he would also have some agenda which required him to say that American pickup truck drivers were the worst he'd encountered. Perhaps (again) you could say what and why.

He's already demonstrated from earlier feats that he is a man of an unusually determined and self-disciplined character, so averaging 15mph for 16 hours/day (4 x 4hour fully supported sessions), extraordinary though that is was within his capacity.

CliffordK

I've ridden a lot in Oregon, and some in Missouri and Illinois, and don't ever remember being run off the road. I get a few close passes, but to me close doesn't count as long as I'm not hit.

A British cyclist, was he riding on the left side of the road?

There was a Canadian also complaining about cycling in the USA.
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...e-usa-why.html

I wonder if there are local customs that people in the USA just grow up with, while a foreigner might not quite get it.

There are a lot of comments about lane positioning, and I try to position my bike in a place where I am least obstructing to traffic (if at possible, being where cars aren't driving). I do "take the lane" in some places. I heard a bit of honking after I recently did a left turn in a construction zone. Sorry, I can't help it. If it had been a car, would they have beeped? I did pull over to the right at that place a while ago, and got stuck not being able to cross so taking the lane it is. I think in part, some people don't realize that cyclists are just like car drivers, trying to get somewhere.

There was a video earlier that showed horrible passes, where cars were forced off the road, and passed on the grass at high speeds (not here, as we generally have ditches).

Oh, the other thing is route planning. It can be difficult for non-local. Did his support crew hunt for the best cycling roads? Did he just run down the main highways? For a fully supported ride, was there a tail vehicle?

FBinNY 

There's no doubt that there are some sick people out there. And the midwest (aka meth capital of the world), shouldn't be a surprise. That these folks gravitate toward pickups shuldn't be a great surprise either.

BUT

This is a one way correlation. While nuts may be more likely to drive pickups, it doesn't mean that pickup drivers are likely to be nuts, even in the midwest.

So, I accept the observation, but also maintain perspective.

CB HI

The last 3 months of touring in Colorado and Wyoming Rockies, the license plate was a better indicator of asshat drivers than the vehicle type. The biggest asshat driver was in a sub-compact Chevy with Minnesota plates.

Milton Keynes

I live in Kansas and have only once had a close pass, and yes it was someone driving a pickup. However, by far most people, car, SUV, and pickup drivers alike have been quite courteous to me as a cyclist. Of course I mainly ride the back roads and stay off the highways, don't know if that makes a difference but normally all drivers give me a wide berth and even slow down when passing.

jefnvk

Any links to the story? I've read a few articles on him, never heard that, and seems odd since it looks like he was probably only in ND/Minnesota/Wisconsin/UP of Michigan for four days. The areas he rode through were more the rather remote rural areas that I wouldn't really expect multiple buzzings and purposeful running off, as I would be more inclined to believe if he were down in the more densely packed, more southern Midwest area.

Also, were any of the other long distance riders killed by pickup trucks targeting them? I'd have a hard time believing it was redneck drivers in big trucks in Belgium or Australia.