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news
Egan Bernal close pass.PNGNear Miss of the Day 659, Tour de France winner edition: Egan Bernal gets an ultra-close pass
Spend too long reading below the line of a mainstream press article on a cyclist being put in danger by a motorist, and you will inevitably find comments along the lines of everyone on a bike thinking they are competing in the Tour de France. But here’s the rub – even being the first person from your country to win cycling’s biggest race does not make you immune to close passes, as this video from 2019 yellow jersey winner Egan Bernal shows.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider was out training on his bike with a couple of other riders, one of them a team mate, in his home country of Colombia, where he is a national sporting hero. A driver then decided to overtake them by squeezing into a non-existent gap as a truck came through in the opposite direction.
Bernal is not the first Tour de France winner from the British WorldTour outfit to have experienced dangerous driving while on a training ride.
In 2013, a motorist was sent on a driver awareness course after she knocked Bradley Wiggins from his bike at a petrol station in Lancashire.
> Driver awareness course for motorist who knocked Bradley Wiggins off his bike
And in May 2017, four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome was rammed from behind by a driver in the South of France in what he described as a “scary experience.”
> Chris Froome back on the bike day after being rammed by driver
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
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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23 comments
Following team vehicle saved them from a dangerous driver
On the contrary I think that the support car behind there exacerbated the issue. Following cyclists then overtaking them when possible is not that hard to do. But to have a car following them at their rear and refusing to overtake them - we always say that riding 2-abreast makes it easier to overtake as we're not strung-out, you're in the other lane for less time, yet by driving right behind them the car is actually extending the length other drivers need to be in the other lane.
That red car had to drive around both the support car and the riders - if they'd just had the cyclists to drive around, I don't think they'd have been so close.
TBH, I did think that the support car might have added to this although it still doesn't mean the original driver is not the person solely at fault still. Do the support cars have a sign on them stating something about cyclists when trailing them? Even though they were both Ineos, I'm guessing it wouldn't have been a branded car.
From the ticking noise I'd guess it had hazards on, at least. When I've seen groups of pros out training with support (though usually in bigger groups than two, admittedly) it's always been with a team-branded car.
It (or rather, it's driver) didn't have to - they chose to.
Who do these lycra-clad menaces think they are riding around like they're in the Tour de France? ROAD TAX! They're not even on the right side of the road. Argh! Why aren't they using the cycle lane which was installed for £18bn? Outrageous.
They're definitely on the right side of the road.
There may have been a hint (just a hint) of sarcasm in my comment.
I think andystow's deliberately misreading the 'right' in your comment.
Obviously, that cyclist is far too slow, a real traffic obstacle...
Actually, I'm a little concerned now about the health and safety of that motorist. Doing this to a national sporting icon, in Columbia, might not be beneficial for his life expectancy...
All they needed was them to be on TT bikes and we could have had a Boo full house and his blessing for the driver to be allowed a second chance to kill them on purpose rather then accidently.
Two abreast. -- check
having a chat. --check
Moaning at driver after dangerous manouvere -- check.
Foreign -- check
Unecessary journey -- check
Egan was on a TT bike...
Looking between Egan's legs (ooh err missus) at his handlebar it looks like he might have been on his TT rig ...
Ahh yes. Then total bingo then.
Don't forget, no hi vis...
Correct.
So I'm right, in Boo's eyes the driver has total rights to pull over and beat up the cyclist OR just drive their vehicle into them because they happen to be on the road.
Lycra - check.
Gestured at and probably called the driver something nasty - check.
To quibble slightly with Captain Badger - likely not making a "journey" (between two different defined points, for a practical purpose) but you'd have to check Strava to be fair.
I do like Nigel's version of the "man with red flag" - it's OK to cycle provided you're proceeded / followed by a car...
Unnecessary non-journey - I like it!
Forgot one
No daytime running lights -- check
Oh, and hard to see but given the weather and state of Colombian roads quite likely:
Running 28mm tyres that are only necessary for fatties - check