Sutton in road rage incident

Chris Sutton (Cofidis) was involved in a road rage incident in the South of Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, February 21. The Australian pro cyclist was training with a group of 20 riders from the St George Cycling Club on General Holmes Drive in Brighton-Le-Sands at about 5.40am, when a 50 year-old man drove out of a service station, followed the cyclists and crossed three lanes to drive up on them, narrowly missing the leading rider.

"I've grown up with cycling all my life, and it's always been dangerous on the roads, but just of late it's been getting out of control," Sutton told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Every year I come back from Europe and over there people are really nice, but when you come home it's almost like you're scared to ride on the roads. You go for a nice ride to Cronulla or somewhere and people are beeping their horns and yelling stuff out the windows. We're not like other athletes, swimmers are in the pool, athletes are on the track, but we have to ride on the roads."

The driver, from Rockdale in Sydney's south, was arrested and will face Downing Centre Local Court on March 17, charged with dangerous and negligent driving.

A St George Cycling Club official, whose name was not be revealed as he had been harassed by callers who tracked down his phone number, said road rage targeting cyclists in and around Sydney occurred on a daily basis. "We're riding early in the morning and against the traffic, but if we hold some motorists up for five or 10 seconds they think it's their God-given right to have a shot at us," he commented.