A dark red Land Rover -Range Rover model pulling an open wood+metal trailer with ATV equipment intentionally hit me yesterday. The Greenville Police Dept. and myself are looking for information. Driver: mid 20's. Passenger: mid 20's, white skin, not wearing shirt.

The Incident:
27 August: 7:25pm, Altamont Road

Descending Altamont Rd. down towards Rt. 276/ Old Buncombe Rd., hear 'honk-honk' behind me. I squeeze over to the shoulder and wave on dark red/ maroon Range Rover trying to pass.

Driver does not pass, he attempts several times. Too many curves, no opportunities. Driver lays on horn continuously, and drives <1 ft off my rear wheel. (this is while descending ~30 mph).

I give middle finger. Driver pulls up besides me.
ME: "Chill out or pass me man!"
DRIVER & PASSENGER: "You're gonna f$@king die!"

I apply brakes, but realize the trailer he's pulling is wider than his car, and if I slow down the trailer will run me over. The driver pulls over towards me (on the right) until the right-rear door on his 4-door SUV makes contact with my left shoulder. (still descending ~30mph) There's only 10-15 inches between my tire and the edge of the road. The driver's front passenger side wheel is directly behind me. Even without contact, realize this is completely abnormal and dangerous.

After the contact and the drivers lack of reaction to it I realize this guy is intentionally trying to hurt me and run me over/ run me off the road. We've all had cars buzz by too close or honk their horns to intentionally frighten us, but this terrified me. Upon this realization I become EXTREMELY frightened. Within a few more seconds I am forced off of the pavement.

I crash at the best possible spot on Altamont Rd. I miss the guardrail, the steep drop-off, the metal street sign and take my big tumble across 20-30ft of leafs and dirt. I walk away from accident, with minor scrapes and soreness from impact. My trusty Spinergy wheelset is all done :<. Haven't inspected frame.

I wake up the next day very sore, but mostly sad. Sad because I felt the need to flip this guy off and stick up for cyclists' rights on the road. There weren't places to stop, but I don't know why I didn't try to just find a way off the road after he began tailgating within an arms reach of my rear wheel. And sad because the enraged driver felt the need to respond by intentionally trying to hurt/ kill me. I'm still in disbelief. He just kept pulling right.. and made contact with me, and still kept on going right... and more right and more right and more right... Even his own tires were over the right side of the white line when I took my spill.

Knowing this other human wanted to shmush me, and how he kept driving and speeding off after I crashed. -The whole thing left me with a bone-deep sense of pure horror. I really can't explain it.. it's ...well its just horrifying. It just doesn't seem human. Sheesh, I'm really still in a strange state of disbelief, confusion, horror, and thankfulness.

Did anyone see a couple hooligans driving a dark red, mid-90's Range Rover pulling a trailer on Tuesday, August 27 near Altamont road? It's likely these guys live right on Altamont Rd, since it's not the type of steep twisty shortcut anyone would take while hauling a trailer.

Greenville Police are trying to find the guy. They'll talk to him, hear his side of of the story. A woman in a nearby house may have hear the beeping and yelling. They'll evaluate how strong of a case can be made from all of this and go from there.

I just blew a bunch of $$ on bike stuff. Until this guy is found and an agreement/ trial happens I'm stuck with the repair bills. Which probably means the running shoes and 29'er will be working double duty for a while. Gosh. We really are fortunate foe these things, and even more fortunate for our health. So ride fast and safe!