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Near Miss of the Day 51: Dangerous overtake in French gorge
If you've ever cycled in France, it can sometimes seem like a breath of fresh air after riding in the UK, with many motorists giving much more space when overtaking than typically happens in the UK.
That's not to say that there aren't dangerous drivers on the other side of the Channel, however - remember Chris Froome being knocked off his bike during a training ride earlier this year?
> Chris Froome back on the bike day after being rammed by driver
And so to the latest entry in our Near Miss of the Day series, submitted by road.cc reader Erwan Le Floch, who was riding in the stunning surroundings of the Gorges de Saint May in the Drôme department of France's Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
With the wall of the gorge to his right, a car is approaching Erwan when suddenly one overtakes him from behind, the motorist swerving in front of him to avoid hitting the other vehicle.
"I understood that something bad was going to happen when I saw the car coming in front of me making headlight flashing," says Erwan in the description of the YouTube video.
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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18 comments
This summer I spent a week cycling in the Pyrenees.
The Spanish drivers were as nice as usual, but when we crossed over to France I was scared of every car approaching from behind.
I used to complain about the Spanish drivers, but after some riding in London, Berlin, Andorra and France I really appreciate it here
France perhaps has an exageration of what you'd expect in the UK. There are more cycling fans in France so I found you got a lot more wide passes and even encouragement (who'd have thunk it) from motorists. On the other hand, the French are a bit mad so you'll also get a fine moustache close passing as he's smoking and eating garlic...
English driver in rented car...
Ryan Gosling drives a Peugeot in 2049, they are that cool.
I'd like to see them do that in the Gorge de Galamus...
From the footage it does look like the cyclist is in the gutter. If there's no space to overtake in the lane don't grovel so close to the edge.
Crap driving too.
I live in the French Pyrenees, near Luchon, for 6 months of the year. I get 'uncomfortable' passes almost daily, and truly terrifying passes on , at least, a weekly basis. I've been 'nudged' twice, hit by a can of lemonade, and had a motorist tell me that I am 'not allowed to ride two abreast in France'. I got driven off the road, by a head on overtaker, similar to the one you showed the other day. And, all of this on relatively quiet, wide open roads that we dream of in the UK. I've started to use my camera in case one of them kills me so my wife has some 'evidence'. I've had some recent long trips into Spain where they seem a little more considerate. They have many more signs up showing the 1.5m safe passing distance.
They have idiots in France too. Was coming down Ventoux this summer into Bedoin and turned a blind corner to find a truck, a car and a motorbike coming up the hill three abreast. All had French plates. Thankfully I'm a nervous descender so was going slow enough that a trip onto the grass was feasible without damage to the bike.
That said, on the whole the driving is far better.
It is a hairdresser’s car. No offence intended...
Maybe they thought he wanted a close shave?
All joking aside, that's pretty shocking - although it's the kind of overtake I usually get at least once a week - without the awesome scenery. Would be interesting to hear if they reported it, and whether the French police did anything.
Yes, definitely a non-French driver in a hire car.
British? Italian?
No we really have some proper bellend in France as well
Lol I recall Ronde Picarde when a car over nothing and in the middle of a little one street village decided to have a go at a cyclist. One of those Bellends indeed. I think the cyclist cycled past his car stopping him getting out of his parking space for 2 seconds. The delay was so severe it mean he had to remonstrate for 2minutes
No excuse but they look scarilly close to the gutter inviting stupid overtakes like that :-o
Having ridden quite a lot in France, I'm a bit surprised this was a French car, as most of the ones that did that kind of thing had GB plates. Most French drivers take exaggerated care around cyclists, but perhaps it was a French car with a Brit driver?
I'm not surprised in the slightest, have ridden and driven over there quite a lot too, the modern day French driver is no better than those on UK roads. Given like for like they are far worse in terms of road deaths/serious injuries (3,400 deaths) and the number of cyclists killed is around 50% more, the impression that French drivers are great is simply not true.
Swiss drivers are worse but the worst on continental Europe that I've encountered are Italians, absolute baw-bags.
As for this guy, far too close to the gutter and absolutely no get out of jail space, it's a pretty common theme IME, one that I don't approve of.
Whats surprising is that France has (roughly) the same population as the UK but twice as much (approx) motorway network by distance. You might expect their accident rate would be dragged down by having more available (relatively) safer motorway miles than us... Maybe its used less as people avoid their tolls? My own experience of riding in the South of France - 5-600km each summer for the past five years is that the drivers, by and large, are considerably more thoughful, respectful and courteous than UK drivers. Its most noticeable for me, when you ride through little bits of street furniture, pinch points ahead of mini roundabouts, crossings or where two lanes filter down to one, that sort of thing... I've had numerous drivers up my tail, who by and large, patiently wait until I cycle through these sections of road, when it just would be too narrow for them to pass. In the UK, I'm forever finding drivers here loathed to do the same, and will overtake you when its risky, only to stamp on their brakes the second they realised the road has changed shape, pinches in or whatever. Its often as if they've completely forgotten you exist - the moment the overtake.
so given all what you said why is their cycling death rate (per mile) significantly higher and getting worse, this BS about it being UK is just that?
Cycle commuting in France is at an all time low IMHO, go into any small/medium sized town and cycling is virtually non existant. There's no doubt cycle sport is still popular but when you have increases in cycle deaths for at least the last 6 years (against a significant drop of KSIs for motorists) and increases in pedestrian deaths this definitely reflects in the driving std.