Don't you just love cyclists?

So I've dropped Logan off at daycare this morning, about 8am, and I've gotten back in the car to head off to work.

The carparks are right outside the daycare building, meaning cars have to drive over the footpath to get to and out of them. So while I'm reversing out the angle park, I'm conscious of the fact that there's cyclists and pedestrians travelling along the footpath in both directions. So I pull out carefully, and fortunately there's no cyclists or pedestrians in sight.

So there I am sitting on the footpath, dutifully indicating that I'm intending to pull onto Hutt Road when there's a gap in the traffic. It being rush hour, I've got to wait a bit.

I'm sitting there about thirty seconds when a cyclist arrives behind me. Remember, I'm stationary (with my brake lights on and have been for half a minute) and indicating that I'm trying to get onto a very busy road. But that's not enough for this character: he gesticulates at me to get out of the way.

Where? Where the heck am I going to go? On to Hutt Road? No thanks: the traffic's not stopping and I have no desire to be the road accident for the morning. Back into the carpark? Along the footpath?

Finally, the cyclist decides to go around me. Through the one-metre-wide gap between me and all the parked cars (so I'm between him and the busy street). The gap that no-one else is using. The gap that was there all along.

As he passes the front of the car, he gives me a dirty look.

So to sum up: I manoeuvred my car carefully (because I don't want some lycra-clad idiot splattered across my bonnet), I kept a gap so pedestrians and cylists can keep moving along the footpath (emphasis on foot), and I'm indicating so everyone can clearly see what I'm doing. But it wasn't enough for some holier-than-thou wheel-wiener who obviously decided that I was a massive obstacle that he'd have to alter course for.

I should also point out that I've almost been knocked down five times while dropping Logan off or picking him up from daycare. All five incidents involved a cyclist. Two of those times I was holding Logan.

So that's why I hate cyclists.

Update: And on the way home along the Hutt Road, in the 80 km/h stretch, I had to swerve to avoid hitting an idiot cyclist who suddenly veered in front of me to overtake another two idiot cyclists who, despite having the whole shoulder to ride in, were riding on the lane marking. Fortunately, I was the only car for twenty metres in either direction, and having Logan in the back seat helped keep the bad language away, but I was pretty ropeable.

Damn cyclists.