“Don’t upset the cycling community!” Driving instructor insists he was teaching pupil to give cyclists space after “painfully slow” 15mph advice backlash; Pogačar beaten by an amateur (again); Tour de France Femmes: UAE Blasi drama + more on the live blog
“Don’t upset the cycling community!” Driving instructor insists he was teaching pupil to “exercise patience” and give cyclists space after clip of “painfully slow, nightmare” 15mph rider sparks backlash
A week or so ago on the live blog, you may remember, we posted a video that had been doing the rounds on social media, featuring a driving instructor, a learner driver, a cyclist, and a 20mph zone.
In case you missed it, here’s a quick recap: in the video, titled ‘Dealing with a slow cyclist test’, we can see Liverpool-based driving instructor Daniel Smith and his learner following a person on a bike on a narrow road, as a stream of traffic passes them in the opposite direction.
“This is what would be a nightmare on a test. It’s something you don’t want but it’s here now so you’re gonna have to deal with it,” Daniel tells his student.
“You’ve got a nice distance there [from the cyclist] but it’s painfully slow.”
While Smith does, in fairness, make it clear that it would be foolish and dangerous to close pass the cyclist, for the rest of the video the instructor and his pupils spend the rest of the clip willing the rider to turn off, worrying about the queue of traffic behind, and complaining about having to drive at 15mph… in a 20mph zone.
Well, it appears that, following our blog story, Smith has received quite a bit of stick from members of the cycling community online (some it pretty unsavoury by the sounds of things), forcing him to clarify things in another video.
“I seem to have upset another group of people. And these people are the cyclists,” he says in the new clip.
> “This is a nightmare”, instructor tells learner driver going 15mph behind cyclist in a 20mph zone
“I wasn’t even aware of this, it was just on one of my videos. It was a video from last year that had been reposted, and it had been taken on by this group.
“I was contacted by another driving instructor, Chris, on social media who sent me it. And I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. There were 300 comments on this thing, basically all tearing me down.
“When I looked at the video again, one of my pupils was doing a mock test on a very skinny road, lots of cars coming towards us, and there was a cyclist in front, and they’re going really slowly. And I said, ‘this would be a nightmare on test’. I wasn’t saying this is a nightmare because there’s a cyclist in front of you.
“What I was more or less saying was the psychological thing during a test, that you want to keep getting on with it. Then when something slow moving is in front of you, you’re going to feel that pressure. But there was actually nothing she could do in that moment.”
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Daniel continued: “So I’m coming at it from that angle, I’m not criticising the cyclist in any way, I’m actually teaching my pupil to give them room. As most of my pupils know, I always say you have to give cyclists room, you’ve got to give them respect as well. They’ve got a right to use the road as well.
“So it was surprising to see all these comments, I actually got a DM as well and he was quite animated. I tried to explain to him where I was coming from and that I was just telling my pupil to exercise patience.
“If it’s not on, you can’t pass then, don’t pass them and make it close. Don’t put the front end of your car close to that tyre, treat them as you would a car. That was the sentiment of the video, or what I thought anyway.
“Maybe the way I worded it, but it’s just surprising seeing the comments. Generally, they’re getting really nasty, bordering on scary some of them.
“Don’t upset the cycling community that’s what I’ve learned from this. Because they mobilise!”
What do you reckon? Can you see where the driving instructor’s coming from? And should we all focus on exercising patience, both behind the wheel and on social media? Maybe that’s a bit Kumbaya for a Monday morning…
Tadej Pogačar finally beaten… by a German doctor
(I’ve just realised that headline could be misconstrued, don’t want the UAE lawyers on me…)
Anyway, Tadej Pogačar is probably, almost certainly going to decimate the field at the Vuelta and join the elite grand tour grand slam winners’ club next month.
But the world champion just can’t get the better of the plucky amateurs who line up at his annual Pogi Challenge, can he?
Last year, British hill climb supremo (and full-time solicitor) Andrew Feather got the better of the best bike rider in the world on the 15km, 7.6 per cent average Krvavec climb in Slovenia, where baby Pogi won his very first youth race back in 2009. With a seven-minute head start, but still. This is a man who makes Marco Pantani looks like Toto Commesso, after all.
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And this weekend, it was the turn of German doctor Frederik Niessen to take the spoils at the Pogi Challenge. Niessen was one of 1,177 amateur riders (matching the vertical elevation in metres of the Krvavec climb) to hit the road seven minutes ahead of the local hero, crossing the finish line at the top after a very fast 45 minutes and 49 seconds.
That meant he reached the summit over four minutes ahead of Pogačar, who took 42.51 to climb his local mountain, weaving his way through the hundreds of starry-eyed stragglers (for comparison, his personal record on Krvavec is 31 minutes), and therefore finishing in a gross time of 49.51.
In fact, that gross time meant that the five-time Tour de France winner finished eighth (eighth!) on the day, after only managing to pass 1,170 amateurs on the 15km climb. He’s losing it, I tell ya. Over the hill, done.
“At the foot it was a bit of chaos, with even a crash, but after that I kept riding well and suffered,” Pogačar said after the challenge.
Excuses, excuses…
But at least he ‘won’ his annual Pogi crit, I suppose. Maybe he’s not losing it, after all:
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It’s happening! It’s happening!
The least surprising – but still pretty exciting – racing news of the summer has just dropped this morning:
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Purely from a personal point of view, I don't find the news that Pogacar is going to ride the Vuelta exciting. It condemns viewers to a series of predictable cake-walks/cycles. I know some people think it's great.
I'm sure I've read articles on road.cc about track cycling in the past. I've definitely seen articles about indoor training. And might I have seen articles about cycle paths? When will this madness end?
Whereas returning again and again with different aliases to the same site from which you've been banned at least a dozen times over the course of several years is entirely sane behaviour, yes indeed.
@perce I agree
My problem is not with the idea that a n instructor is actually giving sensible advice on waiting, it is on the whole discourse on a 'nightmare' posed by cyclists, as if cyclists are illegitimate in the road, a major inconvenience, and so on. Put simply, the instructor wouldn't have said anything if they were waiting behind a car being driven at 15mph. And certainly not describing them as a 'nightmare'. Whilst there is nothing wrong with the advice, the problem is the framing and the language which has seeped into every aspect of Britain's car culture.
@Clem Fandango Saw them a while ago with Woke Tory and the Pseudo Authoritarians. What a gig.
Correct, and that completely aligned (except my phone auto-corrected and mangled my reply) with the instructor who said "What I was more or less saying was the psychological thing during a test, that you want to keep getting on with it. Then when something slow moving is in front of you, you’re going to feel that pressure. But there was actually nothing she could do in that moment.” You don't want to feel like you are hesitating and second-guessing yourself on your driving test.
And here is the exhaustive explanation from @jackcycles, in case anybody overlooked the comprehensive dissertation. "jackcycles July 23, 2026 at 12:02 pm “Undue hesitation” a very common cause of failing a driving test, and driving conservatively behind a cyclist where the examiner seems it possible to pass safely could cause it. The instructor is correct to point this out."
@jackcycles Slightly Unhinged? The synth pop/folk ensemble from Ghent? I fail to see how that's relevant.
It's odd to read about 'classic' bikes from year 2000 when I have a Flying Scot 531 from 76, and a Neil Orrell 753 from 81, just through the door into the garage. PS It's Ambrosio not Ambrosia
10 thoughts on ““Don’t upset the cycling community!” Driving instructor insists he was teaching pupil to give cyclists space after “painfully slow” 15mph advice backlash; Pogačar beaten by an amateur (again); Tour de France Femmes: UAE Blasi drama + more on the live blog”
I already explained the driving instructor video at the time
My explanation dovetailed with the instructor’s own thoughts on the matter, so it’s great to see it confirmed in today’s blog.
I think road.cc has to take responsibility for the way it reports these things. It must be able to see that some of the commentators on this site are slightly unhinged (at best), permanently offended, and become aggressive at the drop of a hat.
Unfortunately there’s a real lack of respect that’s been allowed to fester – it would be good for road.cc to balance its coverage with examples of courteous interactions between cyclists and different modes of transport to exemplify and model how to behave properly.
@jackcycles Slightly Unhinged? The synth pop/folk ensemble from Ghent? I fail to see how that’s relevant.
@Clem Fandango Saw them a while ago with Woke Tory and the Pseudo Authoritarians. What a gig.
@perce I agree
And here is the exhaustive explanation from @jackcycles, in case anybody overlooked the comprehensive dissertation.
“jackcycles
July 23, 2026 at 12:02 pm
“Undue hesitation” a very common cause of failing a driving test, and driving conservatively behind a cyclist where the examiner seems it possible to pass safely could cause it.
The instructor is correct to point this out.”
Correct, and that completely aligned (except my phone auto-corrected and mangled my reply) with the instructor who said “What I was more or less saying was the psychological thing during a test, that you want to keep getting on with it. Then when something slow moving is in front of you, you’re going to feel that pressure. But there was actually nothing she could do in that moment.”
You don’t want to feel like you are hesitating and second-guessing yourself on your driving test.
Whereas returning again and again with different aliases to the same site from which you’ve been banned at least a dozen times over the course of several years is entirely sane behaviour, yes indeed.
I can see where he’s coming from. He’s reinforcing the right thing to do with his pupil, and he’s also sympathising in advance with the pupil over additional pressures on a test.
So he’s covering the what/how. But a big part of that “nightmare” is the pressure faced by the pupil on the test. Here is the picture it reinforces:
– you have a road ahead with a slower vehicle user in front, one you have to take extra care over;
– there may be vehicles building up behind, drivers of which don’t appreciate you’re on your test and may polarise their reactions to a slow learner in front from giving extra consideration to becoming aggressively impatient;
– you’re on a test where every movement of your body and the vehicle you’re driving is under intense scrutiny over your control and reactions to unforeseen inputs.
It is easy to feel pressured, to panic, to pick up one too many minors or a major (or whatever they are called) and fail.
But when teaching the what/how, this is where the attitude needs to be spot on. You have to remove the emotion out of it.
Just like a good instructor won’t cover their eyes and yell, “we’re all going to die!” – they’ll anticipate; they’ll talk calmly; they’ll calmly grab the wheel and the foot controls if necessary and take over to avoid disaster.
They will have anticipated problems going into a situation and have planned their moves.
That approach of planning, staying calm and applying perspective doesn’t just avoid conflict/crashes, it dissipates tension and the path to panic.
So it is with the cyclist. So what if we slow down? If that’s the right thing to do, then that is what the examiner needs to see. It’s not a nightmare (“Don’t panic! Don’t panic!), it’s just a Thing.
The cars building up behind? They’re fine. If they honk, they’re saying “hello”, “well done”, “you’re doing great!”
Putting those situations into calm perspective is part of the instructor’s job. It’s not just driving safely, it’s driving with the right attitude and passing that attitude on. If you say it’s a nightmare, you’re passing on that panic stimulus.
You can sympathise with the pupil while still correcting their attitude approaching any form of hazard assessment.
The question is, will Daniel Smith see this as a pile-on, or an opportunity (laced as it is with all the subtlety that social media/BTL can muster) to reflect on how he passes on that calm attitude to pupils?
He’s not a bad instructor, but this wasn’t his finest moment. As with road users, is he happy to reflect on this as a personal learning moment for his road use rather than his YouTubery?
My problem is not with the idea that a n instructor is actually giving sensible advice on waiting, it is on the whole discourse on a ‘nightmare’ posed by cyclists, as if cyclists are illegitimate in the road, a major inconvenience, and so on. Put simply, the instructor wouldn’t have said anything if they were waiting behind a car being driven at 15mph. And certainly not describing them as a ‘nightmare’.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with the advice, the problem is the framing and the language which has seeped into every aspect of Britain’s car culture.
Purely from a personal point of view, I don’t find the news that Pogacar is going to ride the Vuelta exciting.
It condemns viewers to a series of predictable cake-walks/cycles. I know some people think it’s great.