Thread started by Noble Experiment at 09.5.08 - 10:09 am

I don't know if any of you remembered Ian Hibell, but he's the man who rode his bike around the world for a generation. Rode his bike for 80 miles a day from The UK, to Alaska, to South America, through the jungles of the Congo, and again, and again, and loved every moment of it all.

But on the day my friend was getting married not far from the incident while I was in Lagonissi, Greece, Ian Hibell died on a hit and run accident at the Northern Suburbs of Athens, Greece.

R.I.P. Ian Hibel, Our modern day Marco Polol. He was 74 years old and would have continued to ride.

=(

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Quite an awesome person. It's too bad that he's gone, but I think he spent a great deal of time in pursuit of his passion, so congrats to him.



Eric Hair
09.5.08 - 10:35 am

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Remarkable person that I'm just learning about now.

"Ian Hibell, 74, was a well-known figure in the world of long-distance cycle touring, setting several records and pedaling the equivalent of ten times around the Equator."

Good article here too.


Something on the bottom of this article......

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



User1
09.5.08 - 10:43 am

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Wow, sounds like a remarkable guy. How sad that he rode so far only to die at the hands of a speeding coward.

I'm a little outraged to see that the "reputable" BBC glorifies him with the "Marco Polo" tag but doesn't even mention the hit-and-run (and almost makes it sound like it was Mr. HIbbel's fault) whereas the Times puts it in their headline. So much for getting your news from one source.



two wheels good
09.5.08 - 7:21 pm

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Wow, sounds like a remarkable guy. How sad that he rode so far only to die at the hands of a speeding coward.

two wheels good
09.5.08 - 10:21 pm
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He had a remarkable journey and i'm looking to see if he kept a journal of his travel logs because I remembered he was once invited to a night with an eskimo queen in Alaska.

As for where he was killed, Athens, Greece is not a bike friendly city. I was riding a rental bike the next day after my friend's wedding and came within 5 near misses in Glyfada, Greece. When being approached to a bike rental guy at the beach and told him There's a lot of crazy drivers here cos i almost got hit by cabbies, mopeds and even vans, he told me Glyfada is better than Athens for cyclists. If 5 near misses was better in Glyfada than at Athens, then apparently he was right the next day. Athens is a speed crazy metropolis there, especially at Omarion Square and Pireaus. After coming out of the Omarion Square and Victoria Square stations from Pireaus, Greece, the speed density on the streets was intimidating a week and a half ago. I can only compare riding a bike through high speeding cars at dense traffic with darting pedestrians playing frogger like this is Hollywood Blvd during the NBA All Star Week.

It's sad he died in what most cyclists feared. It's also sad I haven't heard anything from the Athens or Glyfada papers if they followed up on the story or if they found the driver.



Noble Experiment
09.7.08 - 12:23 am

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Noble E,

The article I posted above stated in part,

"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. Although the driver fled the scene, he was arrested two days later and charged with causing death by dangerous driving"



User1
09.7.08 - 1:54 pm

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The death of a cyclist was mentioned in the greek media the day after it happened on Aug 23 but there was no mention it was Ian Hibell till today.



marino
09.7.08 - 2:59 pm

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