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Video: Cyclist kicked into road - by another cyclist

"I could easily have died" says victim of two-wheeled thug...

Contending with angry drivers on the streets of London is bad enough, but the last thing you expect commuting across the capital is to be deliberately knocked off your bike by another rider. but that's exactly what happened to Raphael Carrondo back in August, and he'd still like to find the rider responsible.

As you can see in this video, Carrondo was riding east along Victoria Embankment at about 5:15 pm on August 6 when he overtook a rider on a BMX at the pedestrian lights just outside Embankment Station.

As he approaches a bus the rider on the BMX attempts to undertake him, though Carrondo says he didn't realise that until he got home to Canary Wharf and watched the footage from his camera.

The first he knew that he had a problem was when the rider kicked his front wheel, Carrondo told ITV News.

He said: "This guy just came out of nowhere and leathered my front wheel.

I went flying over the handlebars and my head almost went under the bus - it was terrifying."

When he watched the video, he realised what had happened.

"I didn't see him trying to cut me up, because I was concentrating on overtaking the bus safely," he said. "I had to swerve and he shouted something at me.

"I'd forgotten about it - that sort of thing happens all the time on the roads.

"But then he just pedalled past and smashed my front wheel with his boot.

"It was ridiculous - it's the most dangerous thing I've ever seen on a cyclist's cam, and unfortunately it happened to me. I could have easily died."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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36 comments

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gazpacho | 10 years ago
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Must have been a BMX Bandit.

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usedtobefaster | 10 years ago
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and once again I'm damn glad I don't live in London (or have to go there except for "leisure") ... I've just got the NewForest NIMBY's to cope with ... not sure what's worse now I come to think of it?

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DrJDog | 10 years ago
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OK, the lengthier footage of this incident shows the camera dude coming past the BMX at a set of changing lights, the BMX accellerates til he's alongside, and camera dude does not move out to allow both past the bus. Nasty trick to kick the wheel, but no one here is being courteous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHy82l8oMpM

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davidbrad2000 replied to DrJDog | 10 years ago
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I agree DrJDog that camera cyclist was discourteous, but the two actions aren't even comparable. One is being a jerk, the second (the kick) is just plain assault at least.

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EddyBerckx replied to DrJDog | 10 years ago
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DrJDog wrote:

OK, the lengthier footage of this incident shows the camera dude coming past the BMX at a set of changing lights, the BMX accellerates til he's alongside, and camera dude does not move out to allow both past the bus. Nasty trick to kick the wheel, but no one here is being courteous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHy82l8oMpM

I disagree. Sometimes in fast moving traffic you're a bit wary of pulling out too far into a lane while overtaking in case someone from behind hasn't seen you or pulls into the lane themselves from the other side - in this example the cars weren't respecting the lane as containing cyclists (and giving them a cars width when overtaking) so for the cyclist to vear out suddenly without looking to let the twat undertake could have been very, very dangerous.

Basically the twat shouldn't have tried to force his way out into the first place. I've ridden that route hundreds of times in rush hour and you need to plan ahead and be aware of whats around you - and you cant expect people to magically get out of the way when doing a d*ck move like that.

Lets hope he gets arrested and put away for a few nights at least.

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Das | 10 years ago
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