Video round-up: Close pass karma & downhill carnage

On the roads the line between you staying vertical or ending up horizontal, sprawled across the tarmac, is thin. That line is thinner if your in heavy traffic, riding through adverse conditions, battling for position in a peloton, or descending at speed.

This video round-up is stocked full of lines so thin you'd struggle to see them.

We get our video round-up under way with an example of a line between safety and danger that cyclists have very little control over: reckless driving. A white van man decides to pass far too close to a cyclist, but then comes a cropper a few feet down the road.

The lines stay thin with glaciar descending, appalling driving, questionable bike-lane maintenance in Amsterdam, wheelies through heavy traffic, and masterful bike control from Peter Sagan.

We end the round-up with one of the more bizarre bike inventions we've ever seen.

Close pass white van sees instant karma

As cyclists we’re upsettingly desensitised to examples of poor driving on the roads - most of us see it every day.

However, when a bit of footage that includes a little bit of redemption for the reckless driver, we can’t help but bask in the schadenfreude.

This video, taken by Pompey Cyclist, demonstrates the dangers of cycling on the roads when drivers are willing to risk the safety of others to get through a gap that simply isn’t there.

We’re thankful the van driver didn’t pass the cyclist any closer, but the video leaves us wondering what would have happened if the cyclist had ridden just a little further away from the door zone.

Near miss in Manchester - lemming driver

Just to highlight one more time how totally dependent us cyclists are on drivers paying attention - here’s an example of a driver being dangerous in their lack of thought rather than their dangerous disregard for safety.

Here on Deansgate in Manchester a driver appears to be away with the fairies and totally happy to just follow the rest of the cars over a junction without taking a look for himself.

It’s safe to say the passenger is somewhat more embarrassed than the lemming driver, is. At least his total lack of awareness is consistent.

Megavalanche Glacier Carnage

When we're talking about mountain descents here on road.cc we're usually in complete awe of riders like Peter Sagen - whose incredible descent on stage 16 of this years Tour de France can be seen further down - or we're wincing with fear at the conditions through which some of the riders have to descened.

In this video we're firmly in the later category, but so much further into that category than we're used to in bike races.

This is the Megavalanche Glacier. It covers just under 3km of Alpe d'Huez descent on snow, ice, slush, gravel, and sand alongside hundreds of other cyclists. It’s carnage.

ABC news - cyclist goes over handlebar

Over in the states ABC news caught a cyclist struggling to handle some pretty tough conditions - though nothing compared to the Megavalanche riders.

In the background of a news report on flooding we see a cyclist ride through a very deep puddle and totally misjudge the height or location of the kerb he’s approaching. He ends up landing on his head on what we imagine is a rain-softened grass verge. Ouch.

Amsterdam cycle lane multi-bike wipeout

The conditions are getting kinder but the crashes aren’t.

Discounting many of the Megavalanche crashes, those guys knew what they were getting themselves in to, this is probably the worst crash of the bunch.

Taking place in cycle haven Amsterdam following the gay pride Canal Parade celebrations, this hidden kerb on an apparently notorious stretch of cycle lane totally catches out a female rider.

Her subsequent loss of control results in her front wheel taking out an adjacent cyclist as both riders end up on the road nursing their injuries.

There’s always room for infrastructure improvement.

Peter Sagan amazing descent on TdF stage 16

And we transition seamlessly from cyclists with questionable bike control to a professional cyclist with arguably the best bike control in the peloton.

Peter Sagan is well known for his hijinks, whether that’s harassing podium girls(/content/news/79947-sagan-under-fire-pinching-podium-girls-bottom), or popping mid-race wheelies(/content/news/61314-video-peter-sagan-makes-tour-look-wheelie-easy), but here we see the incredible cyclist that’s hiding under the mask of ridiculousness.

This incredible descent didn’t secure him the stage win, he ended up 30 seconds behind Team Lampre Merida rider Puben Plaza Molina, but what a ride.

Unbelievable wheelie technique in traffic

If you thought Peter Sagan’s bike control was something to marvel at, check out @rrdblocks.

This young man from the USA can wheelie for days, literally by the looks of things, and his on-road hijinks put Sagan to shame.

Enjoy.

Mango bikes - Epic Poole to Prague ride

Earlier this year Mango launched their new Point R road bike(/content/news/154665-mango-bikes-launch-new-point-r-aluminium-road-bike-range-priced-429).

What better way to highlight the quality of their product than to take the bike for a spin, a really long one?

That’s exactly what two members of the marketing department over at Mango did. Pete and Sam from Mango rode from Poole to Prague, completing a hat trick of P’s on their Point R bikes.

The pied biker

Finally, we present you the latest bike accessory that’s been developed to stem the flow of driver-on-cyclist road rage.

The bicycle bubble machine not only improves the mood of drivers and eradicate road rage, it also works as a fantastic child herding tool.