The laws may be different in Australia than here, but it appears to me that they cyclists were breaking the laws as they are here in the US.

If they were holding up traffic that badly, then they were riding abreast which is illegal in the US and I bet in Australia as well. It is a rude, obnoxious, and dangerous thing to do.

Obviously not all 50 were riding abreast, but they most definitely were not riding in a single fashion as they should have done.

Such illegal activity is why people get irritated by riders.

Not saying it justified what happened or that they deserved the bruises,scrapes and whatnot. Just pointing out that unless my imagined scenario is different they are partially at fault. If they had been following the law and common courtesy the incident never would have happened.

According to the article, they were riding 2 abreast as required by law. They were all in the left hand(slow) lane with two more lanes in the direction of travel. The driver that caused the accident may have been slowed momentarily until he could switch lanes, but they weren't 'holding up traffic'.

At the speed that racing cyclists go at a crash could easily be fatal, I'm very surprised that no one was killed. Any small crash can total a racing bike, they can be quite delicate, usually custom built for the cyclist and very expensive, easily between 5 and 10k, possibly more, so if they don't have a sponsor they might not be able to afford to buy a new one. A combination of their injuries and damage to their bikes will probably put a lot of them out of competition for a while, and some of them are trying to get to the Olympics. That driver was incredibly irresponsible and malicious, I hope he has to pay compensation and get some jail time.

Appears that they were breaking the law? Exactly what in the article leads you to believe this? The rules they described in the article are basically the exact same as here in the states.

It is not illeagal for riders to ride two abreast. As long as part of traffic, Cyclists do not have to yield, stop or change their position for cars. The wording in most states says "as far as practicle" or "as far as saftey permits" This group was traveling at the speed of traffic in the correct and safe position. I don't believe they are at fault at all.

As a side note - Many states are now viewing maliscous acts with cars against cyclists as 1st and 2nd degree assult and attempted murder.

I said appears to have been breaking the law because if they were riding 2 abreast then they shouldn't have been holding up traffic to the point where the man got irritated. I also didn't read all 4 pages, stopped at the third page.

Yes, the woman claims that they were obeying the law. Perhaps she is correct. With so many witnesses I'll assume she is telling the truth.

However it doesn't make sense. They shouldn't have been holding up traffic that badly to cause such anger if they were riding 2 abreast. That is what led me to assume they were riding more than 2 abreast. I could very well be wrong. It just struck me as odd that they would have held up traffic for that long of a period for the man to lose it like that. It generally takes a while for someone to get that angry.