A motorist intentionally shoved a cyclist off the road and into a ditch in Oregon on Saturday during a MS 150 bike ride. The rider suffered cuts and bruises; the motorist left the scene and is being sought by police.
Pro cyclist George Hincapie was among the 900 bike riders in the two-day fund-raiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society that rode out of Forest Grove on Saturday and Sunday. The Oregon Wine Country MS 150 Bike Tour raised about $600,000 this year.
In fact the bicycle rider involved in the incident, Kyle Ranson, was riding with the Discovery Channel team member minutes before he was struck. Ranson was last year's top money-maker in the event, raising $13,000.
The News-Times quotes Washington County Sheriff spokesman Sgt. David Thompson: “It appears that the vehicle intentionally swerved right, striking Mr. Ranson and forcing him off the road.”
Ranson told that he was in a group of cyclists that had been dropped on a hill by the Hincapie group. As Ranson tried to catch up with Hincapie, a car between the two groups swerved back and forth preventing Ranson from passing.
Ranson tried anyway, and his left hand caught the car's mirror. He told the newspaper: “I didn’t exactly exchange pleasantries with him, but I carried on.”
The car then came up behind Ranson and pushed him off the road and into the ditch. The incident happened on SW Scholls-Sherwood Road in Washington County.
Witnesses said the car was “likely green,” according to the newspaper, and the driver was in his 40s.
Ranson is the CEO of InFocus, Inc., a maker of digital projectors.
Oregon has had an earlier ugly incident on a bike tour this summer. Organizers of the Cycle Oregon Weekend Ride told the Eugene Register-Guard that someone had replaced their directional signs with printed placards proclaiming: “Attention Bicyclists: Find a Safer Road,” and “If I wanted to travel at 10 mph, I would be on a bike.”
Read more: “A tale of two state bicycle tours — Oregon and Iowa”
“Holy Hincapie; George riding in Oregon this weekend”
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