Road rage driver causes Olympic training spillJacqueline Magnay and Dylan Welch
May 9, 2008
THE Commonwealth Games cycling champion and world silver medallist Ben Kersten has had his preparation for the Beijing Olympics interrupted by a road rage attack on 50 cyclists yesterday morning.
The group included Kate Nichols, who was badly injured in a crash in Germany in 2005 involving the Australian women's road cycling team that killed Amy Gillett. Nichols had just returned to group riding after a long break.
A driver of a Ford Falcon accelerated past the cyclists on an expressway near Sydney Airport at about 6.30am yesterday, reportedly swerving in front of the group and braking suddenly, giving the cyclists little time to stop.
Many Olympians were in the group including Kevin Nichols, Graeme Brown, Michelle Ferris and Matthew White. Ferris was at the front of the pack.
"We were all in the left-hand lane and this Ford Falcon came from the middle lane and swerved into the front of the bunch and braked suddenly," Ferris said.
"We were doing about 40 km/h. There was no way for me to go and I went straight into the back of his car and other riders went into me.
"My chin (hit) the back window and my bike was totalled."
The resulting smash led a semi-trailer to jack-knife and cars to swerve. "We were all very worried about (Kate Nichols)," Ferris said.
"She's pretty shaken," Kate's father, 1984 Olympic gold medallist Kevin Nicholls, said. Kersten suffered whiplash and shock. He said his arm, hip and ankle were sore. "We're so lucky somebody isn't dead."
Australian cycling officials will delay a series of race-offs between Kersten and Shane Kelly for a remaining spot in the Beijing Olympic team.
Mr Nicholls said the group had not been holding up traffic and was obeying road rules.
The NRMA's senior adviser on road safety, Anne Morphett, said a large bike pack sometimes could stretch to 40 metres.
"They need to break them up so cars can overtake safely. You might have three across and five deep, but not 40 or 50 deep," Ms Morphett said. "We want to see people get their training in but they need to be in areas that are safe and these are public roads, not a training facility."
The president of the National Roads and Cyclists Association, Alan Odds, said cyclists had every right to be on the road but "they still get abuse hurled at them, stuff thrown at them, female cyclists get wolf-whistled".
"You wonder where this rage is coming from," he said. "For some reason, Lycra to motorists is like a red rag to a bull."
Police last night had not found the driver but have the car's number plate.
With DAN EMERSON and SUNANDA CREAGH
When are people going to understand that fooling around like dickheads will eventually kill some one. There is no excuse for that type of incident to happen and when they catch the person responsible give him a bike and take him for a pedal on a busy road to see how it feels, then post ride all take turns kickn the crumpet out of them.
Later
