“She saw nothing was wrong, came back and started screaming about how I’m a f***ing moron”: Cyclists share “terrifying” road rage experiences; Hinault tips Pogacar to win three Grand Tours in a year + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
London road rage
There’s a bias to trawling the London Cycling reddit thread, much like there is in news reporting. No one reports on the hundreds and thousands of journeys that are uneventful, safe and maybe even enjoyable.
But it being the summer, these are peak months of the year for people to be travelling around on two wheels, which unfortunately means there’s more scope for cyclists to be victims of the sort of road rage that no one deserves to be on the receiving end of… like this woman:
“Yesterday after work I was cycling home and was about to go onto Wandsworth Bridge. The bridge is under construction right now and is down to two narrow lanes.
“Traffic was stopped, I was merging from the cycle lane into normal traffic by carefully/slowly weaving through some cars so I could integrate. I was going barely above walking speed, and while trying to squeeze through the last bit that would let me onto the bridge, the side of my foot grazed against a car. I did not hit it or kick it, my bike did not make any contact, my shoe grazed the passenger side door.
Immediately I said “sorry! was my shoe!” and this woman SLAMMED on the horn. I stopped and repeated myself again. She was still laying on the horn until traffic started moving again, and she floored it and sped past me.
I didn’t want to escalate anything so I cycled behind her car and made sure to give a very ample amount of space, like about 10 meters. Traffic stopped again and she got out of her car, came up to me screaming in my face about how I hit her car.
“She walked back to check her door, saw nothing was wrong, and came back to me and started screaming about how I’m a fucking moron and shouldn’t squeeze through tight spots. I had a really awful day at work and just broke down crying saying I’m sorry I’m sorry I promise it was just my shoe. She said oh don’t fucking start crying you bitch (I’m a woman in my mid 20s). I kind of dissociated for a lot of it and don’t remember all of what she screamed at me but she got back in her car and sped away.
“I was crying and hyperventilating because I was terrified, but the guy in the car behind me said he recorded the entire thing on his phone if I wanted it. I said no but thank you, I just want to go home.
“I just wasn’t expecting someone to be so aggressive for such a non-issue. I’m here on a work visa and I’m terrified of someone being on my record to send me back home and I just spiralled. In the future, which hopefully never happens, what do you do when a driver gets out of their car to approach you?
“Next week I’ll start taking a different route home to avoid this bridge and hopefully won’t happen again.”
A horrible situation all round. Unfortunately car weaving can be perilous even when it’s ostensibly not dangerous. The comments aren’t short of sympathy…
“That sounds awful, I’m so sorry that happened. I’ve had people yell and abuse me for just existing on my bike (I’m a woman in my 40s). It leaves me all shakey! I’m glad other people were there for you. I’ve just bought a small camera to attach to me for when I ride cos I’m fed up of this shit.”
“This is so horrible, I’m so sorry it happened to you. Absolute idiots exist. Glad that you’re okay and absolutely next time cycle off and ignore the dumbass. You didn’t damage her car, so no reason for you to hang around!
“I’m purely terrified of weaving so I avoid it and ‘think like a car’ when I’m cycling in London. I drive more than cycle, so i know sometimes drivers don’t check blind spots and all that stuff that they SHOULD do and sometimes get spooked by cyclists. Purely for safety reasons, I’d sit behind tight traffic rather than weave.
“Ignore it, hope you’ve recovered, take yourself off and get a cake and give it no more thought 🤘”
“This really sucks, and they sound totally out of order. If a driver angrily gets out of their car and is approaching you and you feel threatened; this is already grounds for common assault so feel free to pretty much do anything that gets you out the situation and into safety.
“You’re not at risk of being done for fleeing the scene of an accident if you fear for your safety.”
It’d be interesting to hear the thoughts of the esteemed panel on this. Is there any hope of undertaking or weaving through vehicles when drivers are capable of acting so irrationally? I thought we were moving past the mindset of ‘vehicular cycling’ but it appears not…
West Midlands Police's e-bike/motorbike confusion
I want the world to know that I came up with the quip that West Midlands Police’s efforts were equivalent to trying to pin down Al Capone for tax evasion. It made 100 percent of news writers and editors in our group chat react with laughing emojis, so it’s good to know they both enjoyed it…
A Brit has won a race!
There’s always a chance you might be raced out, but you’re probably not sick of watching bunch sprints.
In that case how about a lovely victory for Noah Hobbs on the opening stage of the Tour de l’Ain. Timed to perfection…
Timed to perfection 👌
Noah Hobbs launched his sprint at exactly the right moment, surging past the rest of the bunch to claim victory on Stage 1 of the Tour de l’Ain. pic.twitter.com/AripUcPjVT
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) July 28, 2026
How to win at the Tour de France... if you're Richard Carapaz
Marginal gains never went away…
Millie Couzens to ride the Tour de France Femmes
The former British National Champion made her debut in the race last year and will once again line up for Fenix-Premier Tech supporting the GC hopes of Puck Pieterse and the sprints of Charlotte Kool.
And as team announcements go, I don’t think you can beat childhood photos…
View this post on Instagram
Pricey Pog steers clear of Post-Tour crits
Once upon a time, the post Tour de France criterium was a means for a pro to make a living. It was one of the key reasons why the lanterne rouge, or last placed rider, was such an esteemed position, because it came with the invites on to the lucrative crit circuit.
Terrible puns aside, thankfully, the economics of the sport have improved so athletes are paid all year round, but criteriums still can offer a pretty penny for riders hoping to make a quick buck or make a small Benelux child’s evening. Here’s Richard Carapaz and Jasper Philipsen enjoying themselves at the Daagsnade Tour (‘The day after Tour’ I think – based on my rusting Swedish and school-level German)
View this post on Instagram
Now, Het Laaste Nieuws have done an investigation into the cost of attracting the world’s best to your village crit. The answer: 50,000 euros if you’re lucky. That was the cost of convincing Remco Evenepoel to rock up in Aalst, whilst Tadej Pogacar’s 100,000 euro price point was too expensive – as his cost would have swallowed up the crit’s entire rider budget!
Some criteriums benefit from a private sponsor willing to cough up the extra money to attract a star, but others aren’t so lucky.
So there you are… it is a lot of money, more than many of us make in a year for an evening’s work. But again, compared to so many other sports, it really isn’t that much for a sponsored appearance. Imagine how much it might cost Harry Kane to appear at a corporate football exhibition, let alone play?
One can imagine the Tour de France’s official criteriums, in Singapore and Japan, offer significantly more money to the very best athletes…
Incidentally, Carapaz ‘won’ the criterium by beating Thymen Arensman in a two-man sprint whilst Jasper Philipsen won the sprint behind for third.
A screwed over wheel
Just got screwed
by
u/Vegetable_Safety238 in
Justridingalong
The mechanic writes, “I thought someone drilled it into his wheel. Once I took the tire off I found the screw somehow made its way sideways into the rim and went into one of the spoke holes punching a hole into the rim. An odd one for sure”
Our thoughts exactly
LEJOG bike stolen
I suspect the answer to Christoph’s question is, unfortunately, ‘yes’…
Ultra-cycling in a photo
This is just tremendous…
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Incidentally, Robin Gemperle started the Transcontinental Race in the lead… and he’s still there! At the time of writing he’s in southern Albania heading towards the border with Greece and more than 100km ahead of second place Nicolas Chatelet who appears to be riding slower but sleeping less.
Bernard Hinault tips Pogacar to win three Grand Tours in a year
Both Bernard Hinault and Roger De Vlaeminck have a knack for saying something along the lines of ‘He’s one of the greatest, like Eddy Merckx and me.’ Our latest example of this comes from these quotes from the Badger on Tadej Pogacar to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“It is beautiful to see an athlete remain at the top for so long. Merckx managed it, and so did I.
“When he wants to make the race, he makes it,” Hinault said. “He does not ask himself too many questions, just like Eddy and me.”
And finally, when asked about how he would have fared against the Slovenian…
“Every champion’s dream is to compete at the same time and under the same conditions. I do not know who would win, but Eddy and I would not start already beaten.”
I honestly admire the chutzpah. I suppose once you are a retired elite athlete you are stuck with an elite athlete’s mind for the rest of your life. Hinault was undoubtedly a great, a five Tour wins, 10 Grand Tour titles, a world champion and a winner of monuments as diverse from Lombardia to Paris-Roubaix.
Why wouldn’t he insert himself into the conversation, even if most people are probably in agreement over who is third best? And he is surely third best, much like how Jonas Vingegaard is currently second best, albeit less assuredly after this Tour de France.
Still, one achievement which Merckx, Hinault and a certain Chris Froome have achieved is uniting the belts, being the defending champion of every Grand Tour at once. But they all had a pesky off-season, with none of them ever winning the Giro, Tour and Vuelta in the same calendar year. But both Merckx and Hinault think Pogacar can do it…
“He has no limits,” Hinault said. “There is enough time to recover between the Grand Tours, and he could win more than six Tours. He has an advantage over his rivals.
“He knows how to manage himself, so I do not think physical wear will be the problem. Mental fatigue could be more important. But he enjoys himself. He loves competing and he thrives when things become difficult.”
To put that achievement into context, the number of riders who have even finished all three Grand Tours in a season is really rather short, although there is precedent of riders sustaining multiple GC challenges in a season, even if you have to go back to 1957 for the last time a rider top-10’d all 3.
It seems like the Slovenian might need to contact Nelson Oliveira for some advice if he feels so inspired, or his union rep…
📊 Record-breaking ✅ Grand Tour # 2⃣4⃣ out of 24!
Parabéns, @Nelsoliveira89!
— 501 stages (incl. a couple of neutralized / cancelled)
– 1 y, 4 m, 16 d— over 80,000 km of racing
– 2x the length of the equator 🌐— 0⃣ DNF, DNS, DSQ
___
🇫🇷 #TDF2026 // 📺 Ⓜ️/ig pic.twitter.com/j0ZD86YXxI— ammattipyöräily (@ammattipyoraily) July 26, 2026
How strong is a steel frame?
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In true Taskmaster style, the answer can only be provided in strange units of measurement…
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@Freddy56 Yep, Or rather she was told she can step down and say what she likes (which was nonsense then and even more nonsense now) or she will be fired, which would be way more harmful to her career.
@Nigel Garage Oh yes, the defence of the country and adequate provision for the disabled are very much an either/or, we can't possibly have both. Hang on, what if we set about closing all the tax loopholes and avoidance schemes advised by greedy Essex accountants, then there might be enough to go round.
@Rendel Harris tut tut, you obviously haven't taken your DEI course yet. You can't say "the disabled" in this day and age because it objectifies them. You're turning an adjective into a noun, very poor form by someone who self-certifies as an expert in the English language. "Disabled people" is the non-discriminatory way to describe those with disabilities. Putting aside your ridiculous and cliched comparison of my vision of an equal society with National Socialism, the last thing I'm going to say on the topic is that society has infinite number of wants on a finite number of resources. Clearly you think doling out free cycling gear to people is more important than spending those same precious resources on treating people in the NHS, educating our children, or defending our country. Well, more power to you, but I'm certain the overwhelming majority of people think otherwise.
@chrisonabike Yes, of course in any march of 250,000 plus people you're going to get some nasty bits of work and idiots. The police have arrested some of these and from what I hear (friends have gone on the marches, I haven't) they are reasonably assiduous in doing so within the obvious limits of trying to identify and then isolate and arrest a person responsible for shouting stupid things in a massive crowd. However, and I'm happy to stand corrected if they should wish to make their position more clear, I assume from the tone of open_roads' remarks and his description of the marches as antisemitic that they regard any march protesting the behaviour of the Israeli government with regard to the slaughter in Gaza as being antisemitic. In any case, the point I was making still stands, as backed up by those arrest figures I quoted, which is that it is not accurate to say that the Met have a "not a priority" attitude to these marches, quite the opposite.
@Ramz Not in the slightest, because the supposed wrong price isn't part of the review, so no misleading or inaccuracy there, and the shoes are available, albeit only in one colour, for £45 as stated.
@Rendel Harris Are you agreeing that the review was misleading and inaccurate?
@Freddy56 wrote "No ideal but it is real and now. Adapt and survive" It's a very similar situation to climate change. As a species we had a choice to reduce carbon emissions or do nothing and learn to live with consequences. We chose the latter and now we wait to see which one will kill us off first.
@Rendel Harris yes. Though apparent motivations of protestors have been ... mixed. And it's certainly *caused* fear and alarm to Jewish groups here. Hopefully the small numbers of Jewish folks attending some protests didn't feel threatened. I'm not sure I'd appreciate a few folks on such protests apparently randomly celebrating the sport of paragliding etc. any more than if a few of the "fair fuel" protestors had been making knowing references to "piano wire" or joking about mounting spikes on bumpers.
@Nigel Garage Of course you were purporting to be speaking (admittedly totally stupidly and without any justification) for disabled people, claiming that they want to "stand on their own two feet" and that they don't want to be given assistance. It's extremely telling that you claim to be speaking for "decent law-abiding citizens", so anyone who wants the disabled to get the help they need is neither decent nor law-abiding? And these people apparently "want an inclusive society without favouring one group of people over another". You can't have an inclusive society unless you make provision for those who need more assistance than others. There was a group in Europe, just under a century ago, who were very keen to emphasise that the disabled were a financial burden on the state, indeed their first steps towards "cleansing" society were to attempt to eradicate this burden. Ever heard of them? Didn't end well.
@tomlew A good point. This opinion piece seems to be complaining about how AI is being used to sell us stuff, rather than using humans to sell us stuff. AI has no impact on me enjoying cycling, how I ride, the people I ride with etc that the article says.
27 thoughts on ““She saw nothing was wrong, came back and started screaming about how I’m a f***ing moron”: Cyclists share “terrifying” road rage experiences; Hinault tips Pogacar to win three Grand Tours in a year + more on the live blog”
There are a lot of mentally ill motorists on our roads
@kingleo maybe. I don’t think mental illness is the issue here. It’s “car culture” and “motornormativity”. The constant treatment of cyclists as some kind of aberration, cockroaches to be crushed, cars as extensions of personalities and power, and drivers’ rights as sacrosanct.
Nah, it’s just Londoners being Londoners. Step outside the capital in any direction for 20 or so miles and people revert to normal.
Last time I went into London (a couple of weeks back) cyclists themselves seemed to have become far more assertive and aggressive, bundling through red lights and shouting at pedestrians. Very unpleasant city all round full of rude and insolent people. Couldn’t wait to get home.
@jackcycles If you want to stay in leafy Essex and keep out of our town that suits us just fine, Nigel.
Nope – we get our fair share of violent, aggressive, egocentric individuals driving around the towns and villages of Oxfordshire too. Of course, with the concentration of people in London, you’re likely to be exposed to more of them in an average journey than elsewhere, but they exist everywhere.
Agree there are some horrible people outside London too (and I used to live in Wallingford for a time, so I can speak to this) but generally it’s a much calmer, less angry, less self-entitled place to live.
My point was that it’s really unhelpful to say “cyclists do this”, “motorists do that” etc when they are just subsets of a wider population of the area. A motorist in London is far more likely to be aggressive then a motorist outside London, because Londoners generally are far more aggressive as a group.
We need to take the “them and us” mentality out of society and I’m hopeful that politically we might see a little bit of cross-party agreement on things like social care etc, which might help to bring society back together a little and get a bit of consensus. We shall see. And I think once society starts becoming less angry, these kinds of incidents will occur less frequently.
“We need to take the “them and us” mentality out of society” …unless the ‘them’ is Londoners and the ‘us’ is the rest of the country?
There will be more aggressive motorists per square mile in London because there are more people per square mile in London, so the same proportion gives you a higher total incidence, not because they’re “more aggressive as a group”.
@mdavidford “We should all love one another and I know there are people who do not love their fellow man and I HATE people like that!” Tom Lehrer. Thing is Tom was being satirical…
I wish that were the case.
In Trumpton perhaps, but not the real world.
I suspect if Trumpton were remade, the modern version would include characters like :
Ms Sellers the Influencer,
Mr Platt-Ichewed the PR Spokesman,
The Donut Brothers in their Subaru (with fuel injection and aerofoil),
Mrs N Titled in her giant SUV, travelling between school, Waitrose and lunch appointments, but never more than 1km from her mock Tudor 7 bedroomed mansion (catchphrase “Get out of my fucking face!”)
Mr Darius Titled the League div 2 Footballer, (catchphrases “Sick as a parrot”, “Over the Moon”, “Just wait till I get a transfer to the Prem, doll”. ).
I hear Windy Miller’s windmill went out of business & was converted into a Wetherspoons for a couple of years before also closing down due to lack of business (Trumpton being a famous Remain voting parish unlike those Reform voting types in Chigley,) and has subsequently become a vape shop.
I’m also looking forward to hearing the jingle for the Trumpton Deliveroo brigade (you know: Chew, Spew, Bhaji McChew, Burger, Nugget & Sub).
Can confirm that wounded pride at “lack of respect from the ‘other’ ” (cyclists here) exists on the roads of Edinburgh, albeit it’s mostly good.
I reckon it’s just the greater density / numbers of population. The more people trying to get somewhere, the more stress and acting out.
Sometimes one might think something similar applies on the internet.
@jackcycles London is indeed a bubble but I can assure you those exact same people live everywhere. Unless by “revert to normal” you mean just the average level of twattery from drivers in this country.
@jackcycles yes yes, but what was the picture on the ground re established reds?
@jackcycles
Yep, couldn’t agree more. Moved to London in 1977, spent 6 months thinking I was in heaven, & the next 19½ years looking for the exit. Have travelled a fair bit, & lived here & there, & I’m afraid London, by miles. is the worst pest hole I’ve seen. The dirt, the noise, the overcrowding, the antique facilities, the viciously aggressive inhabitants, the insane prices, it has it all. There’s worse traffic in plenty of places (Capetown & Sydney famously, & Kathmandu takes some beating, but the worst I’ve ever come across was Lusaka in Zambia), bigger crowds here & there, dirt & poverty almost everywhere, more blatant overpricing sometimes, etc., but London just manages to be one of the worst in pretty well every category I can think of, with no redeeming features at all. Even the much-lauded parks & green spaces are no more than average. So, yeah, you’re welcome to it. Just please stop assuming it’s the centre of the Universe & entitled to dominate everything else. It isn’t & it isn’t.
I live only 10 miles outside the M25, & here if I’m on the bike & trying to join a queue of traffic, cars stop to let me in – ’nuff said?
@oceandweller Thanks Nige
@oceandweller Viciously aggressive inhabitants?
Can the trolls try harder please.
@oceandweller So you spent two decades living in a place you hate with no redeeming features at all? Doesn’t that make you a bit stupid? We don’t have border guards you know, everyone is free to leave at any time. But yeah, apart from an arts and culture scene that makes London regularly top the polls not only as an overall cultural destination but in numerous categories with three world-leading symphony orchestras, an astonishing collection of galleries and museums (most of them free), world-renowned theatre and opera and so on, so many green spaces and trees (Richmond Park and Hampstead Heath “average”? Really?) that London actually technically qualifies as a forest, a two-millenium history that has left some of the greatest Gothic,Renaissance and Baroque buildings to be found anywhere, one of the best combined mass transit systems, some of the most famous sporting venues, clubs and tournaments in the world, an incredibly vibrant popular culture of gigs and comedy, amazing pubs, an astonishing range of restaurants covering every style and culture, lower crime rates than many other parts of the UK, comparable to or lower than similar European cities and far lower than any city in the USA of remotely comparable size, some of the cleanest air of any major capital city… as for the “vicious” inhabitants, as in most places you get what you bring, if you’re friendly and open and kind you’ll get it back. Perhaps you aren’t. Drivers in London are no worse than in any other major city I’ve cycled in, and I’ve cycled in a lot, and a lot better than some other places, and the rapidly-expanding cycle networks and infrastructure are making cycling safer every year. No redeeming features at all. Weird that so many people from all over the world seem desperate to live here and that outside the far east, specifically Hong Kong and Bangkok, we are the world’s most visited tourist destination, ain’t it?
@Rendel Harris take time to breathe in your rant! Paragraphs help.
Oceandweller is perfectly entitled to give his lived experience of London life without being shouted down.
“Viciously aggressive inhabitants”? Yep, checks out!….. After all, here’s a guy (according to Gemini) who has such a potty mouth that his own case got thrown out of court for being viciously aggressive on his own video.
@Nigel Thanks for the confirmation that you are indeed Nigel, road.cc mods have declared that any time you attempt to return you will be removed so enjoy your latest pathetic little run, you’ll be going the way of your other twenty-eight personas soon.
@jackcycles Utter bs. The worst pass i’ve ever seen, on a club mate, was in Essex.
Said motorists remain mentally ill when they aren’t behind the wheel.
Regarding the road rage incident, should Road CC/London Cycling et al look into obtaining the video from the driver behind to help bring the criminal (yes, that is what they are based on the incident description) to justice?
Whilst we live in the modern world with camera phones, some people still feel it is fine to behave like this presumably as they feel the chances of facing any repercussions are low.
@mitsky In this case the cyclist didn’t want the footage, although on this topic, Ryan will have an update on the West Yorkshire ‘dangerous cycling’ case later this afternoon… 🙂
@Callum Devereux Thanks for the update.
With regards to the cyclist (victim) not wanting the footage, presumably the police can still review the footage if it is obtained and make a decision on whether to prosecute.
And whilst at the time the cyclist said to the driver behind that she didn’t want it, there is a chance that she could change her mind and look to pursue it soon/later.
Remember kids, every time you feed the troll, they go off for a crafty w@Nk.
Don’t feed the troll.
“carefully/slowly weaving through some cars …… and while trying to squeeze through the last bit”
Maybe its just me but maybe these are the lines that start off the driver on the irrational road rage, Yes we are allowed to filter through traffic but sometimes a bit of patience is required too. If you are ending up so close that you are making contact with someone else’s property then maybe just hold back a little until there is space.
I am not attempting to justify or suggest that the response was proportionate but lets be honest the chances are that the OP may have played down thier own actions that triggered the nutter.