Global cyclist killed

During his cycle trips around the world, he was shot at by bandits, almost eaten alive by tropical ants and survived close encounters with elephants and lions. But, with sad inevitability, Ian Hibell met his end after being knocked off his bicycle in a collision with a car near Athens.

Hibell, from Brixham, Devon, estimated that he cycled 6,000 miles a year but claimed the most dangerous stretch of road in the world was close to his home.

According to the Times

He died on the road between Athens and Salonika when he was hit by a car whose driver was apparently in a race with another motorist.

The Times report ends with some useful stats:

A cyclist can travel 1,037km (644 miles) on the energy equivalent of one litre of petrol

— Regular cycling can make you as fit as someone who is ten years younger

— A cyclist consumes 1/50th of the oxygen of a car making the same journey

— A twice daily half-hour commute will, over a year, consume the energy equivalent of 24lb of fat

— In 1949, 34 per cent of all mechanised journeys were made by bicycle. Fifty years later that figure had fallen to 2 per cent

— The rate of serious heart disease for civil servants who cycle 20 miles or more a week is 50 per cent lower than for their sedentary colleagues