House of Pain.... Its All In The Name!

I was on the front doing about 25mph 1/3 of the way up Collier Canyon when a motorist decided to tango with our group. The driver of the vehicle (Ford) actually swerved aggressively in front of me and the rest of the pack missing us by a mere 15-20'. He was doing about 40+ mph when he swerved to the right from the opposite lane of traffic. He nearly lost control of his vehicle as it slid from left to right across the road right in front of us.

His move was so sudden and abrupt that I and one other rider had no choice but to swerve to our left into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting him. As we passed him he jumped out of his car, by first throwing open his door in an attempt to hit anyone nearby. He then began yelling, "You guys need to get off of this road." He was immediately swarmed and confronted by 20+ riders with elevated heart rates and a strong distaste for life-threatening moves such as this.

The drivers keys were removed from the ignition of the running vehicle against his will. This was a move to disarm the assailant of his weapon. The drive (Matt?) was obviously and rightfully fearful for his own personal safety as evidenced by his changed attitude. He was very compliant with our request to keep quite and refrain for further stupidity. The hood of his vehicle was bashed in a cocktail of fluids dressed his hood and we rode off to complete the climb, his keys still in our possession.

The cops were called and the episode ended with an, "us versus them" mentality between the automobile bearing officers and the Collier Canyon claim holders. Our wit and presence certainly will not be forgotten by this young man. (idiot of a man really, I mean who tries to take on the likes of Ken Carpenter, Paul Taylor and other very strong willed accomplished athletes?)

Just before we rode off JD of Morgan Stanley so eloquently and clearly espoused to one of the four CHP officers on the scene that, "[officer] we depend on you to protect us and keep us safe from events such as these, that is why we called you. If we can't count on you we will have to protect ourselves."