Two attacks on cyclists

The curious common factor in these two assaults is presumably just a coincidence…

Police investigating the shooting of a cyclist with a BB or pellet gun in Hampshire have released a CCTV image of a man they want to trace.

Two men were cycling down Bramshill Road in Eversley when the passenger of a silver Ford Focus leaned out of the window and fired at them, police said.

and

A cyclist attempting to pedal the length of Ireland for charity says he was left badly shaken after someone in a passing car deliberately pushed him off his bike on the outskirts of Derry.

English cyclist Ian Mayhew and his girlfriend were cycling along the Culmore Road late on Saturday afternoon when he says a passenger in a silver Ford Focus leaned out the window and struck him.

“It was most certainly deliberate,” Ian told the ‘Journal’ yesterday. “The driver of the vehicle pulled his car alongside me as I pedalled and closed the gap between me, the kerb at the edge of the road. The rear seat passenger leaned out of the car and deliberately hit me causing me to fall off, hitting the kerb and pavement.”

Meanwhile in Oldham County:

On May 28, Schmidt was riding through Oldham County with three other cyclists. Everything was fine until they got into a Pewee Valley neighborhood.

"First I thought it was just a pebble thrown by a car tire that had hit me and then I heard a popping again," said Schmidt. "That's when I realized, that sounded like a BB gun."

The riders tried avoid the main roads to stay out of the way of traffic, but that didn't seem to help.
"All the sudden it made a loud pop and immediately I felt some sharp pain in the left side of my chest," said Schmidt.

Schmidt thinks the shots came from a white Ford Ranger pickup truck.