“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…
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.
Help us to bring you the best cycling content
If you’ve enjoyed this article, then please consider subscribing to road.cc from as little as £1.99. Our mission is to bring you all the news that’s relevant to you as a cyclist, independent reviews, impartial buying advice and more. Your subscription will help us to do more.
4 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
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.
They're tyres - surely inflation is to be expected?
I grew in the '80s watching Channel 4's half-hour evening highlights show (6:30-7:00 IIRC), and was worried that the UK were moving backwards in time to before that era in terms of access to coverage. So I'm looking at this as getting 1 hour instead of 30 minutes, so very positive news (although we obviously can't have Phil & Paul anymore).
If this is a viable product on the market at this price then there must be a LOT of lawyers and dentists with money to burn and aspirations of turning pro'. I would expect a PAIR of high-quality tires to cost this much. Please do an article on the rate of inflation of tire costs over the past 10 years and expose what is going on, because I don't get it.
@chrisonabike It's "Stockholm syndrome" of cyclists - even if it isn't your fault, some cyclists think that it is.
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.
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".
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?
@mdavidford though they'll get a lot done with that comically large shovel!
It's about honesty in markting my friend. Nothing wrong with manufacturing in Asia (you forgot Vietnam and now even Bangladesh) - But the brands I mention don't pretend to be something they're not. Stunt's so-called Italian aerodynamisiist was actually originally a trainee jnr ultrasound tech. Joined Campagnolo (briefly) and was fired for stealing company processes. Stunt's composite 'expert' was quoted as having spent a summer camp learning about the material. Marketing hype seems to be what the masses prefer.....
4 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?
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.