Texan cyclist leads girlfriend on 15-mile route to spell ‘marry me’

We don't actually see him overtake at that point though - he appears to move out and sit just off the rear of the car, so if something had come the other way he could have dropped back in behind it.

I'm in Belgium and saw the full clip at the time in the media. I'm also a cyclist. That bike rider is an a$$hole, if you watch the full thing there's no doubt he deliberately knocked over the kid. There's no excuse for that type of behaviour.

In 1976 I bought a TX900 from Open Air Bicycles in Santa Barbara CA, the TX900 was a model the article failed to mention, it was Trek's top of the line frame/fork, it could only be bought as a frame/fork, I had it equipped with Campy Nuova Record because it was open box sale, can't recall the other stuff, but I think I had Zues hubs on Mavic tubular rims. Had the bike for about a year and sold it because girls thought there was something wrong with me because the bike was worth more than my car! So, I sold both and got a better car. Later, after I got out of the military, I went back to Trek and that same bike shop and bought an 81 515, and a few years later an 84 Trek 660 after the 515 got twisted in an accident, that one was a replacement frame so it was just a frame/fork which I put the entire Suntour Superbe group on it, I still have this bike in storage because I ride a newer bike.

(a) It looks like an absolutely stupid risk to take- I don't see how the rider could possibly have had any visibility round the right hand bend at the end of the video, when he is well across the centre line into the path of oncoming traffic. (b) It is absolutely NOT the case that he is only a danger to himself. Ask a train driver who has hit a "jumper". Surely you can imagine the life-long trauma of killing someone with your car, even if obviously it was not your "fault". Kids of friends have suffered PTSD for years after a car they were in was struck by a motorbike, and the rider was badly hurt. They weren't even driving. (c). AND equally obviously, what if a driver coming up the hill sees a bike in front of them, and either pulls off the road, or into the oncoming car??? (d) AND, critically, if anyone on a bike does something utterly twattish, there are many people who don't ride bikes who extrapolate to the position that all people who ride bikes are twats, and there is a dehumanising effect that makes life more dangerous for everyone on a bike. There are few things that make me more cross than people on bikes riding through red lights- which, let's be frank- happens at pretty much every red light, every time, in central london, because they are just making life more dangerous for everyone else on a bike.

I guess. But I've seen a fair amount of this sort of entitled behaviour from cyclists sharing paths with pedestrians... I noticed he said he'd got a 120db horn and had used it...Makes you think he was actually used to blasting it at people who had the temerity to be in his way.

Yup. Complete dick and someone who gives us all a bad name.

Well done!

Annoyingly with it being in the Daily Fail they will be using it to fuel the hatred of cyclists :-(

He might have had sight lines through the trees overtaking the second car, but I doubt it for the first - the ground is raised, most likely blocking any view around the corner. So it was probably a stupid risk to take, but the point a lot of critics miss is that as a cyclist he's only a danger to himself, not others.

I think it happens quite a lot, just not reported. Just one of those things. How often do we really hear about the four and a half deaths on our roads that occur every single day.