Two men accused of driving up to cyclists in rural south-west France and pushing them into ditches for fun have gone on trial in Toulouse for organised violence and could face up to five years in prison.
The two men, aged 20 and 22, were arrested last year after a spate of cyclists being pushed off their bikes on quiet country roads. One victim told the newspaper La Dépêche: “It was April … I’d gone out on my bike for the afternoon. When I got to a little country road … I felt a car was following me silently. It was driving very slowly behind me when it could easily have overtaken me. Then after a few minutes it drove up beside me. The car’s passenger suddenly pushed me down.”
« Ce sont des faits graves mais surtout je tiens à le dire d’une stupidité affligeante », souligne la représentante du ministère public avant de requérir leur placement en détention provisoire.
👉 in french
It’s not actually bikes v. cars here, nobody is panting their way up the last 1/2 mile in a car. Superior vehicle.
An inherently impractical vehicle, especially if human propelled. I would, it’s really the slowness that’s the problem.
Yeah, fortunately I got over my shame when I was a kid. But keep ‘em coming… I can already tell this is going to be a delightful, nuanced conversation.
Source? Oh… hold on let me dig up that article… wait, it’s here somewhere… Shit you were right! How could I have been annoyed for 30 years for no reason. How could I have been so wrong. Every person in a bike is a person who could be going faster in a car. Or on a train or something, but we’re not good at those.
I don’t think I had any credibility when I started… but now I feel extra bad.