A cyclist in Leeds says he was “scared for my life” after a van driver chased him, with one of the vehicle’s occupants subsequently demanding he hand over his bike.
The victim of the incident, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Yorkshire Evening Post that the incident happened on his way home from work on Crossgates Road just after 6pm yesterday.
He said that as he rode home, a van drew up alongside him.
"I saw the white van with black windows,” he said. "An old guy was smoking a cigarette and looked over at me on my bike.
"I didn’t think anything of it, then two minutes later the van pulled along the side of me and the passenger was covering his face.
"I thought there is something wrong so I started to pedal away and the van pulled over to the right.
"I turned around and pedalled the other direction and the van spun round and then came after me so I went through a ginnel [alleyway] to come out on the other side."
The van driver continued to pursue him as far as his father’s house, where the cyclist managed to get the bike inside.
He then left to visit a work colleague whom he had been speaking to when the initial incident happened.
However, on his way there, the van returned and a man got out.
"He jumped out with something in his hand asking where the bike was and for me to go and get it,” the cyclist said.
"He chased me and kept going around looking for me. I am scared for my life after what happened."
During the incident, the cyclist sustained cuts and bruises and he added: "I don't want to go out on my bike now so I will have to get a taxi for work in case I see them again."
The incident has been reported to West Yorkshire Police and officers can be contacted on 101.
As I'm getting more and more paranoid about leaving a bike locked up in plain site, winning the Oxford kit would go some way to calming me down!
They are claiming it's "20% faster, 9% lighter and 10% more comfortable"....
Good shout, I managed to bend a link in a chain while cycling around Horse Shoe Pass, with Di2 I will tend to shift under some load, and that gave...
Did Scott nick the Orro Venturi frame mould and make a few tweaks to get away with it?!
It's not defensive driving per se, if the car in front stalls, you can get around them, if they roll back, they have space to do so, so nothing to...
Pffff!
What a silly question! It says "UPDATED WED, JUN 29, 2022 08:10" right at the top, so it's clearly been completely redone. I bet they contacted the...
I'm not sure the police count as 'infrastructure'.
I was similarly sceptical about his 'justification'....
This is terrible - very sad that someone's weekend TT could end up this way and I feel for anyone close to them....