Got freaked out this morning

[Sharla]

People are people no matter where you go.

BTW, just because he yells something out in arabic, or dressed like an arab doesn't mean he's automatically a muslim extremist.

I guess I just got that impression not only because of his language but the way he was angry the first second he saw me. I've been hassled before but it's usually guys who comment on my ass and then get peeved because I ignore them or people on the road passing on my side who dislike cyclists. Not people who have to go out of their way to chase you down.

I knew I couldn't be anything to do with my cycling because I was across the opposite side of the road going the other way and I didn't even notice his car before I heard his angry yelling. Whether or not religion was his motivation he was extreme in some sense. Had he managed to get close enough to grab me I wouldn't have hesitated to put the steel frame of my mountain bike through his skull because he was so angry.

As I said before I study with some muslim people who are absolute legends. I don't want to really make this about that and to incite anti-muslim behaviour. I guess he could have been on drugs or something and I might not have seen some tell tale sign of it because I was too busy getting out of there. The thing is if he was speaking English or I knew Arabic I wouldn't have to speculate about what he was saying. I'm just left guessing what might have set him off.

Where I was at the time had a golf course on one side and a train track with trees on the other. Not many people around - i suspect that probably was part of his thinking when he decided to turn around after a minute and chase me down. If he was drugged up wouldn't he have swerved immediately like the guy who attacked Trainer Monkey? He considered it and turned and came back. Freaky!

What happened to your girlfriend sounds freaky Diz - I hope she hasn't seen him since. I don't like that this happened somewhere I travel often and I suspect the same thing bothers your girlfriend!

Thanks guys - Trainer Monkey, Bilbo, Julius and Andre. Also glad you had a good morning for a change Mick.

[El Gamo]

You did the right thing cycling off. Isn't there a safer route you could take? I wouldn't out so much emphasis on the Arabic,maybe he just didn't know English full stop,maybe he was having a bad morning etc etc.

[Sharla]

You turn your vehicle around and chase someone, even going to the effort of getting out and chasing them on foot when you can't drive any further because you're having a bad morning?

You can say he might have non-cultural reasons for chasing me but he was definately psycho. No bad morning justifies that let alone whatever he planned to attempt if he got close enough.

I don't know why he went after me. All I know is he was angry the first second he saw me before I even saw him.

As I've said I don't dislike muslim people. I'd never assume this behaviour is typical of any culture more than another. There are stories daily of irrational people attacking each other using cultural differences as an excuse to justify it including people of my own race.

I just think that he saw something immediately which POd him and I can't think of what that might be since I was cycling in a bicycle lane on the other side of the road. If I was on the road and he was passing in my lane I would have assumed he just hated cyclists. If I try to work out what it was that set him off some sort of cultural difference seems like one possibility.

What else can other people think of that would evoke such an instant angry repsonse? Considering this is from someone at 10 am who didn't appear drunk and is still capable of rational enough thought to drive on for a minute and then decide to turn around and come back to get me - not tooting or yelling on his way back to warn me he was coming - only going off again once I'd spotted him and gone off road to avoid him.

The muslim people I work with would never behave like that. They are great people. I hope they don't get chased down the street by psycho because they look different. I'm glad they are here. I work closely with a few including one which is much more help to me than my own supervisor. Actually there are a lot of people from different cultures where I am and those who seem to have more disputes with other people are not Muslim.

I sort of regret that I even mentioned he spoke arabic now but I'm not racist for being freaked out and trying to work out what set a complete stranger off in what is usally a safe area particularly at 10 am on a Saturday morning. Something freaks you out like that you try to work out WTF it was - that's natural. I am not for a second recommending people go out targeting random Muslim people in revenge - that would be just as bad.

As for going another way - other routes would take three times as long and be dangerous because the traffic is too heavy to cycle in.

[Andre]

Just get the number plate, rule one.
HEs gone then.

My misses before we went out got hasseled up in the belgrave hills on her way to work. Around where puffing billy goes along here in Vic.
this prick tailgated her through the hills so she pulled over and let him go.
HE started the stop start routine in front of her old holden station wagon ,an old HQ wag.this went for miles.
He was in a hotted up valiant pacer, dice on the mirror etc..
She just put her foot down and pushed him along from behind and ran him off the road he stopped, she went flying past. next town he comes around a round about the wrong way and stops her takes her keys out of her car. She goes to his car takes his keys out of his .they are running around swearing at each other.
This fool calls the cops and they turn up at my misses work with him cause he wants his dents fixed. The stories are told and this fool says in front of witnesses that he hates surfrs and surfy wagons anyway!
My mises said the joke on you fool we are 40 miles inland I dont surf its just a fukin car.
The cop let it all go, seeing 'she' didnt want to press charges if he dropped his of ramming.
That was 20 years ago there are worse people around now, best avoid them completly or say sorry before you swear at them.Put them at a false ease promise them anything,Walk away safe ,note their number plates down and get some cops you know personally to put a pollution exaust immitting roadworthy style check on them for the next few years.
They have to take their car to get it checked at their expence then go back to the exact cops and its up to them if they let it through or not.Which they do , then they pull them over again and again till they get the message they have fucked up royally and change cars.

[Sharla]

Your wife sounds like a gutzy woman Andre.

In my position though i'm really aware of how much more vulnerable I am on a bicycle in an altercation with a car driver. My first thought when I saw him coming back was to get as far off the road as possible.

I am a little short sighted and there was no way I could get his number plate without him being much closer to me than was safe.

No people around to help except one car which slowed for a second up ahead and then drove off as soon as they saw he couldn't run fast enough to catch me on my bike.

If this happened to one of my bros they'd probably wait for him to get out of his car and then turn and chase him. They are six foot two and six foot 4 though.

They are big an oddly enough usually only get hassled by drunk guys at night who feel brave because they are in a group. As a bantamweight I wouldn't bet my safety on letting him get close enough - especially in his car - to argue with him.

[Andre]

Probably just a Borat looking for a aussie wife.
"I smak you ,you love me yes"?

[Sharla]

Well I should have gone in a made a statement earlier but i'm off to do that now. I told my mum about it - she works in the Admin department of forensic science. She mentioned it to a cop and was told I should make a statement even though he didn't actually catch me because it could be a recurring incident.