“She walked back to check her door, saw nothing was wrong, and came back and started screaming about how I’m a f***ing moron”: London cyclists share their “terrifying” road rage experiences + more on the live blog
With Ryan slowly adjusting to life without a lanyard for another 12 months, Callum is back on the live blog to sweep up the last remnants from the men’s Tour and settle back into the more regular rhythm of drivers questioning cyclists’ right to exist
Tue, Jul 28, 2026 09:52
28 July 2026, 09:27
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…
28 July 2026, 10:39
Georgi, Clay and Nelson in Picnic PostNL's Tour team
The best way to get over the end of the men’s Tour de France is to look ahead to the women’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. We had our first Brit confirmed when Canyon SRAM announced their line-up on Saturday. Zoe Bäckstedt will be making her debut in a team that will be supporting Kasia Niewiadoma in the mountains and Chiara Consonni in the sprints.
View this post on Instagram
And we now have more Brits and our first Irish rider confirmed to be tackling the biggest race of the year courtesy of Team Picnic PostNL. And special praise must go to any team integrating their men’s team into their women’s team socials…
View this post on Instagram
Eleonora Ciabocco is the team’s GC hope, whilst young Irish sprinter Mia Griffin will spearhead the team’s hopes on the flat. Pfeiffer Georgi, Josie Nelson and Robyn Clay will be domestiques and no doubt seeking breakaway opportunities. Incidentally, our Ryan spent a bit of time following and interviewing Pfeiffer Picnic’s classics team this spring…
> Big Mac recons, broken radios, and never giving up: Inside Picnic PostNL’s classics campaign
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 £2.49. 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.
Callum is a News Writer for road.cc, having initially joined as a freelance journalist in September 2025. He is also a Road Book contributor and has written for the almanac since 2023. He has a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Cardiff University, where his dissertation focused on Geraint Thomas’ retirement and the boom and bust of the domestic racing calendar. He also has a degree in Scandinavian Studies & Politics which is somehow even more niche.
4 Comments
Read more...
Read more...
Read more...
Latest Comments
Rendel Harris 10 seconds ago
@jackcycles If you want to stay in leafy Essex and keep out of our town that suits us just fine, Nigel.
jackcycles 3 minutes ago
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.
the little onion 28 minutes ago
@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.
kingleo 37 minutes ago
There are a lot of mentally ill motorists on our roads
mitsky 50 minutes ago
@mdavidford It is a shame that the clips doesn't show it but I would guess that the cyclist's wheels were on the left of the central lines on the road and the right side of the handlebar and the cyclist's right elbow would be on the line or barely over it. At the end of the day, we as cyclists can pass more closely (filter) than drivers should.
Bungle_52 55 minutes ago
@Bungle_52 PS I posted a link with more details on fridays blog but it didn't appear for ages. I'm not putting the link in again so you will have to find it in Fridays blog. Well worth a look in my opinion.
mdavidford 1 hour ago
And regardless of UK law, a decision in the EU is likely to impact UK customers anyway, since AliExpress and it's ilk aren't likely to want the bother of maintaining two different standards - anything they do to stay legal in the EU they'll probably do for the UK too, to keep things simple, more than anything else.
Bungle_52 1 hour ago
@mdavidford I suspect they are saying that the oncoming driver was inconvenienced by being forced into the gutter. I also suspect that a cyclist forced into the gutter wouldn't be inconvenienced because that is where we belong!
quiff 1 hour ago
Yep. I suspect being in the oncoming lane* as the Volvo approached round a blind bend / hill brow contributed - would be interesting to know if they'd have taken action if the cyclist had remained in their lane throughout. * don't know where the camera is mounted, so not sure, but the before and after position below suggests so.
ChrisA 1 hour ago
The more I see this, the less I like it. I wouldn't describe it as riding by a "careful & competent" rider. BUT; the rider was passing a parked, locked (mirrors were folded) car, slowly, on a good road suface, on their side of the road. The oncoming car was travelling slowly and could use their entire lane. A bit of a squeeze, but the police have been quoted (elsewhere) as saying, "a close pass doesn't occur if the vechicles remain in their own lane". So no close pass occured (they are going in the wrong directoion, anyway), filtering is allowed, the only danger was to the cyclist themselves and they had obviously assessed & accepted that risk.
4 thoughts on ““She walked back to check her door, saw nothing was wrong, and came back and started screaming about how I’m a f***ing moron”: London cyclists share their “terrifying” road rage experiences + 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.