the cyclist was probably standing on the pedals starting to accelerate again and hands firmly on the handlebars away from the brakes(as one does when trying to accelerates hard off traffic lights etc).
This, yes.
I'm a reasonably quick road cyclist. Here's my take:
He's just passed the glasses cyclist with the neon bag, and is moving at the speed of free-flowing traffic.He's at the right of the bike lane because of the car turning left.
Blue car pulls in front, cyclist sounds his siren.
Blue car is moving at a slower speed due to stopped traffic ahead.
I can understand the blue car not seeing the cyclist, because rider was more-or-less behind the blue car.
But the car should have seen the glasses guy-- he would have been just a couple feet behind, almost at the same speed, and yes, visible.
I can understand the cyclist's frustration, because he had to jam on his brakes and lose a bunch of speed (which he worked hard for!).
Cyclist is also frustrated because the blue car will be stuck at the speed of the slow pannier lady cyclist ahead.
Blue car starts to accelerate to match the pannier lady's speed.
Notice how the blue car is planning to try to squeeze between the pannier lady and the traffic in the next lane? Crazy dangerous move! That's why I try to ride in the middle of the lane! Though her lane position was appropriate, given how many other (faster) cyclists were on the road as well.
Cyclist is standing on his pedals, fingers holding the hoods (away from the brakes) to get back up to speed again.
Blue car stomps on his brakes, INTENDING TO CAUSE A CRASH or at least make an extremely dangerous situation.
Cyclist is unable to react in time
He can clearly see the traffic in front, and knows there's no road hazard requiring blue car to stop.
He's anticipating incompetence from the blue car, not intentional crashing.
He's standing on the pedals to accelerate.
Reaction time plus time to shift onto the saddle and get his fingers on the brake levers dictate that he can't stop in time.
Because he had to slow down earlier, the glasses guy with the neon backpack has caught up on his left-- cyclist can't swerve left without crashing.
At this point, the blue car's action is successful-- he caused a crash.
If I were in the same situation, I might have also ended up on the ground.
Should the cyclist have given another couple of feet of following distance behind the crazy blue car? Probably. But he didn't know the blue car's driver was a psycho. I'm glad the driver got what he deserved.
