A CYCLIST was chased by a “grinning” driver for more than a mile before the motorist ploughed into his bike and sped off.
Iain Thomson was then left clinging to the bonnet of the Renault Clio as the driver made his getaway.
The 32-year-old road rage victim had shrugged his shoulders when the motorist had earlier been involved in a near miss in Edinburgh city centre.
Mr Thomson, who is a bar supervisor, was then tailed for more than a mile from the Fountainbridge area of the city while the driver chased him by car and on foot.
And the pursuit nearly ended in tragedy when the motorist crashed his hatchback into Mr Thomson’s bike.
The dramatic city centre chase happened during the city’s rush hour on Monday morning.
Detectives are now scouring CCTV footage to trace the car and are appealing for anyone who witnessed the chase, which ended at around 8.50am on Monday, to get in touch.
Mr Thomson, who is from the Slateford area of the city, said the driver’s behaviour was “beyond belief” “He had this grin on his face, then just drove into me,” he said.
The chase began after the Clio appeared to brake hard behind another car.
Swerved
Mr Thomson added: “The Clio driver obviously hadn’t seen the car in front indicating and stopped very abruptly.
“I had to slow down, cycled past and made an innocent gesture as if to suggest ‘how couldn’t you have seen that?’.
“But he followed me, pulled up in front of me before a set of lights and shouted out his window that the second car had stopped without any warning.
“I just kept cycling because I didn’t want to get into anything, but going through the next set of traffic lights he swerved in as if he was going to hit me.
“I probably shouldn’t have, but I shouted at him as we passed round the bend. At this point he got out of the car and started running at me.
“The lights were at red and I ended up going up over the pavement to make sure I wasn’t going to get attacked.”
Mr Thomson then peddled along a series of streets before he saw the determined driver on his tail again.
“I was nearly on the Royal Mile when I realised there was a car right behind me,” he said. “He’d obviously waited for me to turn around, had this grin on his face, and just drove into the back of my bike at speed, bucking the wheel.
“I leant on to the car and ended up on the bonnet. I grabbed the windscreen wipers and the wing-mirror, he reversed, did a U-turn and started speeding away.
“I didn’t want to let go in case I went under the wheels, so I hung on and hoped he would just stop. He must have been doing between 20 and 30mph.
“He then slammed on the brakes to try and get me off. I was hanging on thinking there’s no way he can keep going.
“I didn’t want to end up under his wheels so I pushed myself off the car and rolled down the road.”
Three witnesses then helped Mr Thomson, who was then taken to hospital and treated for bruises and grazing.
Acting detective constable Kris Haigh, urged anyone who saw the driver to contact the police. He said: “I’ve never known of something like this happening before. We hope someone has seen something.”
