“Instant karma”: Driver close passes cyclist on blind bend towards oncoming car… and immediately gets pulled over by police officer, who asks him: “What’s your problem?”; Cycling’s boring war: Is Tadej Pogačar “destroying” racing? + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
“Instant karma”: Driver close passes cyclist on blind bend towards oncoming car… and immediately gets pulled over by police officer, who asks him: “What’s your problem?”
If only all close passes and dodgy overtakes ended up like this one.
Dublin-based cyclist Hermann Wilken was riding on a busy road near Blanchardstown, northwest of the Irish capital, earlier this week when he was overtaken by a BMW driver on a corner, near the brow of a hill, and on a continuous white line. And, most dangerously, towards an oncoming motorist.
Luckily for Hermann and all involved, the BMW driver managed to swerve back into his lane in time, avoiding what would have been a nasty collision.
And then something truly miraculous took place. Just as the motorist completed his ropey, dangerous manoeuvre, a Garda officer appeared, as if by cycling road safety magic, and stopped him:
View this post on Instagram
Talk about instant karma.
“You nearly hit him. Overtaking on a f***ing corner, what’s your problem?” the officer asked the clearly bemused driver, who could only whimper back: “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
Brilliant stuff. Hermann muttered his thanks in the direction of the officer and continued on his way.
“Instant Karma. Thank you. The Gardaí do indeed care about cyclists,” Hermann posted on Instagram.
“It is not my fault that there is no bike lane and the signs clearly ask the car drivers to maintain 1.5m distance.
“If a car driver has to wait because there is a red light or a right turner for example, it is never an issue. But if a car must wait 20 seconds due to a bicycle rider it is always a catastrophe.”
However, while happy with his instant karma, Hermann also called for both motorists and cyclists to give peace a chance on the roads, writing: “To be honest, most car drivers drive carefully and we can all coexist on the roads.
“And to be honest again, most cyclists in Ireland don’t obey the rules and that is the reason why car drivers are so aggressive. I stop at every red light, because in Germany you will lose your driving licence if you get caught, even as a cyclist.”
“Take your hobby off public roads and let the rest of us get on with life”
You didn’t think I was going to share Hermann’s video without taking a deep dive into the comments section, did you?
And yes, rather inevitably, and depressingly, there’s a whole lotta victim blaming goin’ on. In fact, quite a few motorists are fuming at the idea that someone on a bike may need to commute to work on a busy road (hey, maybe they could start campaigning for some safe cycling infrastructure?).
“Can’t understand cycling on a road like that with loads of bends with no hard shoulder, you would want to have a death wish,” said camp440445.
On a similar theme, John also asked: “Has he got a death wish cycling on such a narrow road?”
“I’m a cyclist, but I would never EVER cycle on a road like that, holding drivers up, plus it’s dangerous,” added James.
“Cyclist on the f****** road,” complained Noely, while Damo pointed out, helpfully, that “cyclists are a pain in the hole”.
“Why are you on a road where big cars, buses, trucks, motorbikes live? Take your hobby off public roads and let the rest of us get on with life,” said Paulie, sparking some fierce criticism of his ‘drivers first’ stance to the roads.
“Some people don’t drive and still cycle to work and school,” Karl hit back. “A couple of minutes here or there to allow them to live without some clown like yourself killing or maiming them won’t matter to you.”
“I cycle so I can ‘get on’ with my life,” noted Meimer. “Takes me 12 minutes to cycle to work but 30/40 minutes in the car.”
And Bog Shuffler (I presume that’s not on their birth certificate) concluded: “Public roads are for everyone.”
Ironically, another fissure opened up in the comments, this time when it came to Hermann’s road positioning.
“As someone who can’t really stand cyclist entitlement, I do have to commend the cyclist here for being as tight to the side of the road as possible,” said Paul.
Greg, on the other hand, offered some friendly advice to Hermann: “Sit further away from the edge mate, primary position!”
No prizes for guessing which one of Paul and Greg is the cyclist…
Cycling’s boring war is back: Tadej Pogačar’s Tour de Suisse demolition reignites accusations that world champion is “destroying cycling”
It’s started a few weeks earlier than I was expecting, I’ll be honest, but after his on-a-whim demolition of the Tour de Suisse yesterday, it appears it’s already time for that biannual social media pastime: ‘Tadej Pogačar is making cycling boring, summer edition’.
And are you really surprised? The men’s Tour de Suisse was effectively, brutally, almost accidentally ended as a contest yesterday afternoon within the first two hours of racing.
Oops, Pogačar’s just slipped off the front there, silly lad. Oops, everyone’s too afraid to chase him. Oops, he’s now over two minutes clear on GC (and four minutes clear of everyone bar Richard Carapaz and Andrea Bagioli).
Granted, the stage racing A-list hasn’t exactly made the trip to Switzerland, but it’d be a disservice to characterise the world champion’s rivals as mugs. Carapaz is a former Giro winner. Primož Roglič is already almost five minutes down. After one lumpy, but not quite mountainous 144km stage.
The gulf between Pog and the rest is, let’s face it, quite scary. And people aren’t too happy about it.
“I have a pretty high tolerance for Pogačar domination (is it boring, is it impressive, blah blah ad nauseum) but this… come on bro,” my colleague in the press room, Matilda Price of Cyclingnews, posted on BlueSky after yesterday’s stage.
“Witnessing greatness, blah blah blah,” added Dan Challis, presumably fed up with some commentators’ willingness to contextualise Pogačar killing off all suspense two weeks before Paris.
> Was the 2025 Tour de France boring?
Some fans were even more scathing of Tadej’s brutal racing dictatorship.
“Well, this f***ing sucks, I’m not watching that,” wrote Matthias, while Lasse did concede that “completely killing the race on the first stage is impressive”.
“Sorry, but I am done with this s**t,” posted Eve. “This is destroying cycling.”
I fear we could be in for a long three weeks in July. And that’s just scrolling our social media feeds…
Flying Elisa Longo Borghini storms to solo stage win and yellow jersey as chasers Marlen Reusser and Kasia Niewiadoma head off course after missing turn in Tour de Suisse thriller
The men’s Tour de Suisse may be effectively over already, but no-one can accuse the women’s race of being boring. In fact, it’s shaping up to be a thriller.
After a difficult start to 2026 plagued by illness, Elisa Longo Borghini’s summer resurgence continued this morning with a stunning solo victory that catapults her into the leaders’ jersey.
What a ride! 🔥
Elisa Longo Borghini takes the stage win and the GC lead at the Tour de Suisse Women 👏 pic.twitter.com/Bm5OEDtfes
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 18, 2026
The Italian champion attacked clear on the steep Orselina climb with around 9km to go, after Kasia Niewiadoma whittled the bunch down to a small, elite group of GC favourites on the previous Fanghi ascent. Yellow jersey Femke De Vries – the victim of a crash earlier in the stage – was able to grittily hang on up the Fanghi but had to let go as the wave of attacks commenced on the final climb.
Over the top, Longo Borghini had built a 15-second lead over a trio consisting of Niewiadoma, Marlen Reusser, and De Vries’s Visma teammate Sarah Van Dam.
The Italian was then aided by a moment of madness on the run-in, as Niewiadoma and Reusser ignored the frantically waving arms of a marshal (and Van Dam’s correct reading of the race route) and thundered through a gap in the race tape, missing the left turn and heading 100m or so down the wrong road before realising their mistake.
“I was suffering in the heat all day and I just blew up,” Niewiadoma said after the stage, when asked what went wrong, the duo ultimately ceding 17 seconds to the switched-on Van Dam.
Wrong way 😮
Here’s the moment Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney and Marlen Reusser go the wrong way at the Tour de Suisse. How crucial could this be in the GC battle? pic.twitter.com/JVd3INSd90
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) June 18, 2026
“You go full gas, so you don’t have time to be like, oh what’s happening now? Then Marlen said we were in the wrong place and I just went, damn. But there’s nothing much you can do, you just turn around and try to minimise the gap.”
That gap, in the end, proved to be 47 seconds to stage winner Longo Borghini (who has her own history with high-profile wrong turns, remember?), the marauding Italian champion establishing a 27-second lead over Scottish sensation Lauren Dickson, who held onto her overnight second place with a strong sixth on the stage, just behind Kim Le Court.
The red-faced Reusser and Niewiadoma are now 57 seconds adrift of yellow, teeing up a tantalising last three stages. Now that’s what I call bike racing.
Did someone say ‘sticker collection’?
View this post on Instagram
Don’t tempt me, Visma, don’t tempt me. I’m only a quarter of the way through my Panini World Cup book and I’ve had to remortgage the house…
Why don’t cyclists use the cycle lane? #265,810
Tell me again about why cyclists should be forced to use “cycle lanes”.
16 cars parked in a very short stretch of cycle lane. A cycle lane that was installed to encourage the local kids to bike to the nearby schools.
All but 1 of those cars parked outside a driveway with space for them.
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Latest Comments
In fairness to our blogger, the map of the ride posted to Instagram looks like this, so you can see why they might have described it that way.
Not gonna lie, I love the look of these tyres.
@Chris RideFar I don't know how many people are paying these prices but the GP5000 S TR which is pretty much the gold standard for tyres and one that a huge number of people in clubs ride can be picked up for about £50-55. A little less if you want a slightly less trendy size like a 28mm ;) Even at that price it feels like a lot but I think the RRP of a lot of tyres isn't remotely what they sell for. Its likely more marketing than anything else. If you came out and said "this is a top top tyre, its £40" some people would instantly associate the price with lower performance.
To be fair, the Channel 5 / Paramount press release wasn't clear about it either (although the 2026 TdF Femmes is also listed at the bottom in a list of key dates - is the implication that there will be highlights for that too?) https://www.paramount-mediahub.co.uk/press-releases/tour-de-france-comes-to-5-in-landmark-multi-year-deal-with-tnt-sports
@Chris RideFar Isn't the officer referring to the oncoming driver, not the cyclist, when he says 'You nearly hit him'? Because tbf he was nowhere near the guy on the bike, he gave him loads of room, was just a daft place to do it.
@Chris RideFar Completely agree. He should be riding out a bit on that road. It's not a major road either and traffic is discouraged from going along it with traffic calming further down it, once past that little junction with Tinker's hill (where the garda stops the car). It's a bit of a rat-run though for people trying to get northward though, they turn left up Tinker's hill.
The instant karma video, that is not near Blanchardstown. That's coming out of Lucan, the Lower road beside the Liffey going towards the Strawberry Beds and the Phoenix park. The garda stops the car at the switchback junction that goes left up Tinker's Hill towards Westmanstown. Nowhere near Blanch.
The best way to ruin a nice bike is putting some crappy tires on it. A set of nice tires can alter the ride feel significantly. For example, you can get a set of michelin pro 5's for the price which I think are nearly as good, but a cotton case tire is still something else.
@Chris RideFar Perhaps because he is worried that if he takes the middle of the lane he will meet another cockwomble like the BMW driver (there's a lot of them about) performing the same sort of manoeuvre coming towards him? In which case it will most likely be goodnight Irene for the cyclist.
You ain't getting a hour I'm afraid, what with multiple adverts, a lot of verbal faff age, you're be lucky in getting a paltry 30mins.
9 thoughts on ““Instant karma”: Driver close passes cyclist on blind bend towards oncoming car… and immediately gets pulled over by police officer, who asks him: “What’s your problem?”; Cycling’s boring war: Is Tadej Pogačar “destroying” racing? + more on the live blog”
I’m not blaming the cyclist in any way, the driver was clearly in the wrong here and the officer did a great job. However, I would be riding in a position to take a lot more of that lane. There isn’t enough room for a car to pass when another is oncoming, so why ride in a place that suggests that maybe there is?
@Chris RideFar Perhaps because he is worried that if he takes the middle of the lane he will meet another cockwomble like the BMW driver (there’s a lot of them about) performing the same sort of manoeuvre coming towards him? In which case it will most likely be goodnight Irene for the cyclist.
@Chris RideFar Completely agree. He should be riding out a bit on that road. It’s not a major road either and traffic is discouraged from going along it with traffic calming further down it, once past that little junction with Tinker’s hill (where the garda stops the car).
It’s a bit of a rat-run though for people trying to get northward though, they turn left up Tinker’s hill.
@Chris RideFar Isn’t the officer referring to the oncoming driver, not the cyclist, when he says ‘You nearly hit him’? Because tbf he was nowhere near the guy on the bike, he gave him loads of room, was just a daft place to do it.
Is it now 🤔?
Or… given that in the cyclist’s own account the driver was bleating that they couldn’t account for their behaviour, perhaps that is just one of the many justifications after the fact for what may involve little thought. And most of that of the autopilot / “push pedal car go” variety.
Where anger is a motivating factor I suspect that it’s generally coming from more immediate situational triggers like “you’re in my way” or “you’re cheating by moving through the traffic I’m stuck in”.
Looking another way – do all the Dutch people cycling obey the rules / scrupulously obey red light signals? Most certainly not! But does this engender high rates of “retaliation” by motorists? It seems not.
I’m not familiar with court reports from NL so I can’t say whether this is a frequently used excuse over there though.
@chrisonabike It’s “Stockholm syndrome” of cyclists – even if it isn’t your fault, some cyclists think that it is.
The instant karma video, that is not near Blanchardstown. That’s coming out of Lucan, the Lower road beside the Liffey going towards the Strawberry Beds and the Phoenix park. The garda stops the car at the switchback junction that goes left up Tinker’s Hill towards Westmanstown.
Nowhere near Blanch.
In fairness to our blogger, the map of the ride posted to Instagram looks like this, so you can see why they might have described it that way.