TEAM PYGMY RIDICULE

This blog entry will be a collection of “Traffic incidents” where I will make Internationally known those who cause me drama on the road. You the reader will be given a link to the website of the offenders vehicle, I don’t expect that you will use it as you may not have time or interest but I hope that these “pygmy brains” will get to hear that they are being ridiculed. Why do I use this spelling, it is because the true race of Pigmies are probably quite intelligent human beings but without the formal education we westerners receive and thus I use my spelling to differentiate those gentle folk from the “Morons” who choose to cause grief to other road users.

As I experience exposure to these unwanted incidents I will update this Blog entry so as to catalogue the circumstances without subjecting you the reader to unnecessary repetition. I will refer you to an incident as an “item no.” so that each link stands alone (Murphy’s law applies) and gives a fuller picture of the incident.
ITEM 2
Tuesday 2nd March about 10.10am I am driving the bike up the Gerlos Pass towards Hainzenberg and I am passed by a car decked out as “Rotes Kreuz” which as soon as it passed braked and swung left causing the following car to pull right barely avoiding a tailend collision and nearly side swiping me. Had this been on the flat I would have been doing 30kpm+ and would have suffered damage, as it was I had a nasty scare. The driver of the car carried on down the lane/street she had turned into so I had to follow about 1/2km before the car pulled up at what was the local depository for rubbish, bottles and cans.

When I confronted what turned out to be a youngish girl in her “R K uniform” the attitude was that as she had passed me the resulting accident would have been the other vehicles fault. At first she said she did not see me as she was late and looking for her turnoff, why she was there I did not enquire but I tried to involve some other folk there as witnesses to the dressing down she had earned. Wearing a bright yellow cycle jacket on a bike heading up an uphill road in the middle of winter is not an everyday occurrence for me and so to be told I was not seen risks disbelief and questions the competence of the driver. Ask any thinking person if they would notice a cyclist on winter roads and the answer would be “of course”!

Now some readers may not know what “Rotes Kreuz” is, but you will guess correctly that it is the “Red Cross” who do the Ambulance work in this area of Austria, saving lives on the scene as well as transporting patients to Hospital. These drivers are supposed to be trained before they are allowed use of vehicles and generally only have use of them on official business, not my problem but becoming a victim of careless/thoughtless behaviour I can do without. At the control room in Mayrhofen I had recovered my humour but I hope they realise that there are too many of their colleagues who consider signalling as they pass cyclists unnecessary.


ITEM 1
Today 24th Feb was the first time in 2010 I took the road bike out, the weather and roads were clear and I am off medication the past several weeks so the system needed exposure to the real world. From photos some of you have seen you will know I generally use the “San Marco Carbon Saddle”. Today I used the “Rever” which is a high tech San Marco saddle that is on the “Carbon” bike as the “derriere” has had no exposure during the past six months to the harsh realities of cycle life. After an hour and half of “ trouble free riding I was heading south from Fugen towards Uderns on the RHS of the road, coming towards me was a White Sprinter Van on the LHS of the narrow road. The driver was holding the mobile phone to the left ear and holding papers in the right hand as well as the steering wheel. Suddenly he jerked the steering wheel to the left across my path without thought or signal, into a side street, I went left to avoid hitting him into the path of his following colleague who also came to a halt. The following traffic came to a stop also, I made the hand gesture indicating hand telephone and pointed out his colleague , he just shrugged. Both vans were advertising platforms for their employers company. Here I am linking the KWS to their website so that they get the public raspberry they deserve, click here if you chose! Searched the web without luck but bound to find the KWS company item later.