VIDEO: Cyclists in Boulder County, Colorado harassed by honking driver

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. - A video posted on YouTube shows a SUV driver constantly honking his horn behind two cyclists.

The cyclists told reporters at our sister station 7NEWS in Denver that what began as a quiet Sunday morning ride east of Longmont turned into a frightening ordeal.

Dirk Friel said he and his friend did nothing to provoke the tirade, but tried to keep it from escalating.

"I was just like, this is insane. I'm not sure if this is going to get ugly. He was definitely the one who could do more damage to us than us to him," explained Friel.

The two-lane road has no shoulder and the cyclists were riding in the far right line.

Friel said the older man behind the wheel kept following them, honking his horn for more than five minutes.

Now, the Colorado State Patrol said troopers are interviewing witnesses and the cyclists to decide if charges should be filed.

"This is getting old," you can hear one of the cyclists say on the video.

"What's even worse is we saw him approaching from behind and to be polite, we ride single file to give him as much road as possible, as we did with every other car we encountered on this road," the cyclist wrote on YouTube. "This guy was so intent of bugging us that he backed up traffic behind him and cars had to pass him on a double yellow line."

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The cyclists said they eventually slowed down to force the driver to pass them.

After Friel posted the video, another cyclist commented online that he had a similar incident with the same man a few weeks ago.

7NEWS tracked the license plate number to a home in Erie, but the driver’s son, David Ernst, said his 76-year-old father was not home.

"I don’t know what happened," said the son, who has seen the video. "Maybe there was something that precipitated it. I don’t know because he’s a gentle old man."

State troopers are trying to track down the driver to get his side of the story.

A 2009 state law allows drivers to cross a yellow line to pass cyclists if it is clear.

"Under Colorado law, bicycles are vehicles just like a car or truck or motorcycle," Dan Grunig of Bicycle Colorado told 7NEWS. "So we have the same rights and the same rules to follow" as other vehicles.