I am known at work for being relatively enthusiastic about overtaking fellow cyclists when it's safe and legal to do so. Today I was whizzing along the road as is my wont and I came up behind a fellow cyclist. We were close approaching a blindish corner and I was aware of a green car close behind me. I therefore did the sensible thing: waited until the corner was past and the car was past and then moved out to overtake the cyclist.
All good.
When I got into the office, a colleague mentioned that she had been a passenger in the green car. The driver knew me too. There had apparently been a conversation as they dawdled along behind me and the other bike as we all approached the blind corner, knowing my enthusiasm for overtaking.
Driver: "Why isn't [Greenroofer] overtaking that cyclist?"
Passenger: "Probably because he's approaching a blind corner and he knows he's got a car right behind him."
This apparently hadn't occurred to the driver of the green car, which is interesting.
It was an eye-opener for me about how little experience some drivers have of the challenges that cyclists face. It's the exact reverse of cyclists who scoot up the side of LGVs: they have no experience of the challenges the LGV driver faces in seeing what they are up to.
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