Cyclist gesticulating wildly at me

Cutting back in front of a moving bike when you have less than 2m to spare sounds like a pretty dangerous manoeuvre to me…I think the cyclist has ever right to be upset!

There are things that irritate me about cyclists, however if you had to pull in quickly, then you overtook in the wrong place. The chances of you being prosecuted are minimal but that should not be your main concern - how would you have felt if you had knocked him off? Drivers tend to be really impatient with cyclists - I had a driver beep at me trying to pressure me to over take just before a bend on saturday - had i done it, I would have hit a car head on. So just learn from it and be careful about where you overtake - you and only you are responsible for that

Sounds like you were far too close to him. The law is give a cyclist as much space as you would a car to overtake and at least 1.5m. We saw in Covid how poor people are at estimating 1m when standing near someone so it is more difficult when you are in a car and calculating the car space plus road space. I cycle and honestly people are terrible at estimating. I’ve had it all - “I was nowhere near you” - when I could have reached out and touched their window, let alone a wing mirror. To “I didn’t see you” well yeah if you’re looking at your phone instead of checking your mirrors you wouldn’t. And in general people do seem to hate cyclists. Not saying all cyclists are saints but not all drivers are either and cyclists are more likely to hurt themselves, drivers more likely to hurt other people.

So OP I’d say you were likely in the wrong. Next time pass as you would a car.

Find that hard to believe when they are so stretched under funded and crime seems to be on the increase.

The police do take action. There doesn't need to have been an accident.

I have colleagues who cycle to work in all the gear. So he may have been going to work. Either way, when you are on a bike tou are extremely vulnerable and cars need to understand this. It's not like pulling suddenly in front of a car - which you wouldn't have done. If he has a camera he will probably send the footage to the police.

Totally agree with this.

I never said over taking on a bend was acceptable, it is obviously not the right thing to do at all. Nor was I defending the OP in anyway. I think you are reading too much into it.
No, I don't drive because there are too many twats driving anyway, as proved by the number of accidents involving cars and other vehicles.
Where I live it is a bit of a joke the number of cars that end up on their roofs, thankfully people aren't ususally hurt but it is still a regular thing.

If you saw a car coming as you were overtaking and had to 'nip in', you shouldn't have overtaken. You need a clear road in front of you and enough time to safely move back over well ahead of the bike.

I'm a driver and a cyclist. Some cyclists are utter twats and don't help themselves, but it sounds like you were in the wrong here.

Well perhaps if it was a bend, the OP shouldn't have overtook the cyclist!

If you drive and think that's acceptable, do other road users a favour and hand your license back.

FFS, not always practical to walk for various reasons, I would not have walked 'narrow winding lanes' with my kids either for the safty aspect.
OP could have been more aware of space, distance and on coming cars, they aren't exactly small so she must have not had full view, a bend perhaps?
I doubt very much that the police would be bothered with charging anyone in the situation described. It was dangerous but there was no accident and no one was hurt.
OP needs to move on from this hopefully having learnt from it.

Because the driver has stated that the road is tight for 2 cars. So she’d have slowed down when she was the car coming the other direction (you’d have hoped, but seeing as she freely admits she cut the cyclist up and wasn’t sure she did anything wrong, who knows).

A fit cyclist in a 20mph limit road is doing 20mph. They can do this speed more easily than a car as they don’t have to worry about having to squeeze through if a car comes the other way. The car overtakes in an inappropriate place, has to cut up the cyclist then slow down to squeeze past the car.

It sounds like you were just closer to the guy than you thought and cut in front of him a bit too closely.

Getting cut up on a bike is scary, just be a bit more mindful that you are dealing with actual people.

Cyclists can "take their ride" any time they like, same as any other road user. Perhaps you think someone riding a bike to work takes precedence over a tourist going for a drive at the same time?

Op isn't coming back and this is just going to descend into drivers vs cyclists

Op, from your description alone and not making any other assumptions, it does sound like you cut him up. Cyclists are vulnerable, please be more careful in future

She may not have slammed her brakes on and come to a stop but with an on coming car and being on the wrong side of the road it’s highly likely that she did slow down suddenly as she ‘nipped in’ without indicating and at the same time blocking the view of the cyclist who wouldn’t be able to see the oncoming car and therefore can’t react as quickly.

Whilst I agree to this in general, in this specific scenario, 1.5m is not enough stopping distance for the cyclist to slow as slamming on the brakes would make them go over the handles. It’s not as controlled as slamming the brakes on a car.

1.5m in front is very tight! It would have taken a second for the cyclist to collide if they hadn't slammed their breaks on, so that would have been terrifying for the cyclist. The cyclist shouldn't have had to change their speed at all to compensate someone "nipping" in front of them.
My DH cycles in Lycra in the morning rush hour as he has to get to work an hour away so has to change clothes.

Op, your the reason why I don't use roads for my cycling any more.
I have had 1 to many terrifying near misses.
Roads aren't just for Chelsea tractors. We all pay our taxes to use the roads.

She cut him up probably, sure, but why would he have to slam his brakes on? That makes no sense - she was overtaking because she was going faster, so yes, the draught could have caught him, but neither of them had any reason to slow down.

She overtook, she didn't drive in front of him and slam her brakes on to a stop.

I drive on hilly, twisty country lanes, much beloved by cyclists to get my kids to school every day too. Most cyclists are absolutely fine - they even pull over into the side/a driveway when they know they've been holding up a queue of traffic. Maybe 1 in 20 is a bit of a jerk though, and will ride out in the the middle of the lane, preventing anyone from passing even in the safe spots, or ride side by side, or in a long queue with no room for a car between them so we're all stuck going 10kph (if we're lucky) behind them up the hill (on a 60kph road)

My point is that the level of danger is not comparable and the cyclist makes that judgement for themselves based on the road conditions at the time and their own experience. If they get it wrong then yes they are to blame but they are not putting others in danger unlike in a close pass.

as I was overtaking I could see a car coming towards me so nipped in in front of him-

YADBU

OP knows it, hence the fretting that she was filmed driving recklessly.

You are meant to leave at least 1.5m to your side while overtaking a cyclist. Allowing 1.5m when you cut back in is not very much, considering he is also moving forwards and would have had to slam his brakes on.

I share your frustrations at how difficult it is to encounter cyclists in a narrow lane, I don't think slow traffic and fast traffic should share the same roads, they are fundamentally incompatible leading to frustration on both sides. But these are the roads we have got....

But pulling in front of him at 1.5m isn't allowing safe space, it's cutting him up.

1.5m is the distance you need to leave when moving past, it's nowhere near enough distance infront or behind!!! If that cyclist was a car you'd get the same reaction because you cut in without leaving anything approaching a safe stopping distance for the vehicle behind.

Yes you don't expect to but you do adapt to what happens around you - to the child that runs out, to the car on a motorway that brakes because there is a queue ahead, even to a traffic light changing. Every road user adapts to the circumstances around them - although some cyclists seem to believe they shouldn't have to - as evidenced by this thread.