Boris Johnson decided to run as Mayor of London after almost being “minced” by a bendy bus while out cycling.
The former Tory Prime Minister described nearly being “killed” by one of the 18-metre-long vehicles in High Holborn in 2006.
After learning that then Mayor Ken Livingston had commissioned the articulated buses for the streets of the capital, Mr Johnson said he “vowed there and then to do whatever I could to remove him from office”.
Mr Johnson banished the last bendy bus from London in 2011 - three years after winning the mayoral election.
In his memoir “Unleashed”, he also admits that he liked the idea of running City Hall because it was “basically monarchical” and “you didn’t have to worry about cabinet mutinies or backbench unrest”.
But he stressed it was not easy to be chosen as the Conservative candidate for the 2008 election.
In his book, Mr Johnson claims that then PM David Cameron did not want to him to run as Mayor and asked “virtually everyone else” including Sir John Major, Nick Ferrari and ex BBC general director Sir Greg Dyke to run, before settling for him.
His candidacy was dismissed as a joke by some in his own party, but he beat Mr Livingstone by 1,168,738 votes to 1,028,966 including second preferences, and then went on to win a second term against the same Labour opponent in 2012.
The former Mayor said he became “religiously convinced” that London needed a “cycling revolution” after winning the City Hall vote.
He launched TfL’s hire cycles, which became known as ‘Boris Bikes’, and oversaw the controversial “mini-Hollands” programme which aimed to make outer boroughs more cycle friendly.
“Your cares melt away on a bike,” Mr Johnson writes in Unleased.
“You lose your aggro and your impatience. The endorphins start to course through your system and you arrive in a state of quasi-euphoria, maddeningly full of ideas and initiatives.
“I loved cycling so much that I wanted others to share my love. I couldn’t understand why so many people wasted their lives in cars or trains, when they could be active an enjoying themselves.”
He added that his love of cycling “fried the brains” of his leftwing critics and described the cycle lane along the Embankment, which was controversial with many of his Tory colleagues, “as a triumph”, adding he wished “he could have done more” to improve cycling infrastructure in the city.
