Near Miss of the Day 620: Cyclist held up by Land Rover driver gets grief off ... another Land Rover driver for holding him up

The cyclist on the receiving end of this video in our Near Miss of the Day series tried to report it to police – but since it happened in Scotland, and he was back in Wales by the time he had the footage ready, that turned out to be impossible.

What’s more, despite the cyclist himself having to slow down on a narrow road due to a vehicle ahead of him, Matt – who was riding the North Coast 500 and will be sharing his ride on the road.cc podcast soon – found himself on the receiving end of a close pass and some abuse from another motorist who simply had to get in front of him.

“This happened near Torridon, on a long section of singletrack road with passing places,” Matt told us. “In total the section of road is approximately 15km.

“I was riding and despite being held up myself by a Land Rover Defender ahead (that you can see in the video), but the silver Discovery you can see was still absolutely determined to pass me. As he passed, he cut across me on purpose, pushing me to the very edge of the road.

“After he came by, around 100m later the cars in front stopped to allow a car to pass, so I had a word with the driver who simply swore at me and claimed I was the reason why they were going slowly,” Matt continued. “Ironically, 10km later I was still right behind the Defender ahead.

“After returning to Wales I tried to report the issue, but have not been able to.

“After calling 101 and speaking to the Highlands area Police Scotland they said that I am not able to give a statement as it would need to be taken by a local officer and said I would need to contact my local force.

“Then when speaking to Dyfed Powys Police, they have Operation Snap and all close pass issues would usually go through that, but because this was outside of the area covered, it would not be dealt with and if I wanted it reported, it would need to be Police Scotland.

“Upon calling 101 and speaking to Police Scotland they just reiterated the first situation, so I gave up,” he added.

> 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.

> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling