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Max Mioducki left Georgia July 15 on a three-month bicycle trek to San Francisco, but a road rage incident in Moody on Sunday, July 31, 2016, left his bike crush and a 51-year-old motorist under arrest.

(Special to AL.com)

Mark "Max" Mioducki on July 15 started a coast-to-coast cycling trip he's been planning for more than a year but, as he peddled through Alabama on Sunday, his dreams and his bike were crushed following a road-rage incident.

Now, a 51-year-old Moody man is under arrest and Mioducki isn't sure when, or if, he'll be able to continue his cross-country trek. "I'm 6-foot, 3-inches and 250 pounds and I was on my knees in tears,'' Mioducki told AL.com of the Sunday incident. "Everything just came to an abrupt end."

Here is what happened, according to the 26-year-old Mioducki and Moody police: Mioducki saved money for more than a year to take three months to make the bicycle trip, which started in Savannah, Georgia and was to end in San Francisco. He worked as a bicycle cab driver in south Florida to make money, and get in shape, and eventually moved back in with his mother in Georgia to save his money for the trip.

"I just wanted to see the country and that was the cheapest way I could think to do it,'' he said.

He budgeted about $2,500 for food and water, and had been "self-camping" behind churches, and any other place he felt was his safest bet. He planned to bike 50 miles a day with 100 pounds of gear.

On Sunday, he left Anniston. He took Highway 78 and was heading toward Birmingham. "It was supposed to be all downhill from there,'' Mioducki said.

But at the top of a hill, something went terribly wrong. He said he was topping a hill when a motorist starting honking his horn at him. "I tried to wave him on,'' Mioducki said. "Usually I look to make sure it's clear and then I give them (motorists) the thumbs up to pass me. I sometimes get honks, but I usually don't pay any attention to them."

He said he looked back when the motorist didn't pass, and saw the driver was cussing at him. "When oncoming traffic passed, he got as close as he could to me, and that set me off,'' Mioducki said.

The driver - 51-year-old Ronald Levi Hughes- told police that he sped around Mioducki and pulled into a Sunoco gas station. Mioducki followed him there and the two began to argue about bike laws and vehicle courtesy around bikers.

According to a police report, Hughes said Mioducki spit at his vehicle and kicked his door. Mioducki then left and went to the Love's truck stop on Kelly Creek Road at exit 147 off of I-20 to call his girlfriend. Hughes followed Mioducki there, police and Mioducki said, and re-engaged Mioducki in the dispute. Mioducki said Hughes brandished a knife.

The dispute resumed and Hughes began revving his engine. Mioducki said he moved out of the way thinking Hughes was going to run over him, and that's when Hughes accelerated, drove over a curb and over Mioducki's bicycle. The bike got stuck under Hughes' vehicle, and he was unable to make a getaway. Two witnesses told police it appeared Hughes was trying to run over Mioducki.

Hughes is charged with reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal mischief.

Mioducki is now in Birmingham trying to figure out whether his trip can be salvaged. He knows his $1,000 bicycle can't be. "I've been going around trying to get replacement estimates for the judge,'' Mioducki said. "I have a little money saved up, but that's for food and water. They told me not to expect any money of him (Hughes.)"

His mother has started a GoFundMe account for him. He said he was shaken, but said the police, magistrate and everyone else he has encountered couldn't have treated him any better than they did. "They've been good to me,'' he said. "I'm just trying to keep my mind focused on getting back out there."