DEVOTED tandem rider Irene Wallace was mowed down by a careless driver who failed to see her and her husband John as he cut across a junction near Ledbury, an inquest heard today.

The couple were cycling back home from a Gloucestershire countryside centre on a December afternoon when Enriko Bassi, 67, struck the Cannondale bike on which they clocked up thousands of miles together.

Mr Wallace, a retired civil engineer of Apperley Park, Apperley, has no recollection of the smash, in Corse Lawn Road, which killed the mum of two.

"I have no recollection from the sound of the bang to being on the grass verge," he said.

Mr Bassi, who escaped jail with a driving ban last year, told the hearing he had come from London to visit friends in Gloucester that afternoon, December 10 2005.

"I didn't see the tandem, absolutely not," he told county coroner Alan Crickmore. "The road ahead seemed clear, and as I turned right the windscreen shattered. I accept that I cut the corner short.

"I had side lights on and I indicated right. I don't know why I didn't see them. Maybe they were hidden against that the backdrop of Pathologist Dr Jonathan Christie-Brown gave the cause of Mrs Wallce's death as multiple injuries.

Recording an accidental death verdict coroner Alan Crickmore said: "These two people were experienced cyclists who had been riding since 1996.

"They had bought an expensive tandem with a device that showed they had ridden over 20,000 miles. They had even ridden together abroad.

"Mr Bassi very honestly says he simply doesn't know why he didn't see the tandem.

"He might have been distracted, or they may have been hidden against the backdrop.

"It is something I don't think I will ever get the bottom of."