• I'm going to call myself out, because I felt a bit of a tool after this. I was on a straight, quite narrow road and there was a queue of stationary cars in front of me. I moved to the right to filter past them assuming it was a tailback from the lights ahead. It wasn't: there was some roadworks jutting into the road blocking about half the lane, meaning the cars were waiting for a gap in the approaching traffic before going around it. The front car pulled away leaving me level with a van on my left, me over the white lines in the opposing lane and cars approaching. By now I was in limbo: I wasn't sure whether the white van was going to allowed to go around by the approaching traffic or whether he was going to stay where he was. I don't the van was aware of me, concentrating on the approaching traffic. I was forced to make a spilt-second decision: stop dead in the opposing lane and let the van go (if it was going) or commit to the act and go around the van.

    Whish I did and was probably the wrong decision. I carried on cycling on the right of the van, he pulled out, I cycled ahead and around him before diving back to the left curb, and I got a massive honk from him as he was forced to brake mid-manouver(deservedly). I tried to put my hand up in apology, but being a van he was already alongside me, honking again and squeezing me into the curb, so the sorry gesture turned into a finger.

    In my defence the roadworks were obscured by the traffic but it wasn't my finest hour, and it shows that filtering through on the right isn't always the best idea. It was this morning as I shot past about 3 miles of queueing traffic though.

About