Near Misses Volume 2 (So close you can feel it)

The levels of stupidity are quite worrying, all 3 in quick succession and for no gain.

White Audi overtakes into a blind bend and then beeps, not sure if that's to alert me or any oncoming cars he might meet.

Silver Citroen (UK reg) is dangerous, I'm signaling into the bend to turn right and he proceeds to overtake across the junction, any cars turning left from the side road wouldn't expect that and likely take us both out.

3rd grey SUV driver overtakes into traffic to gain 100m so I congratulate him on his progress to which he takes offense.

I'm out in the Sierra Nevadas since Friday. Loads of miles, loads of hills, lovely quiet roads, and even when there are cars, the overtake you like you would your own 6 year old daughter if she was on a bike and you in a car.

Had one dodgy pass today though, overtook me quickly with cars oncoming and cut in, something which NEVER happens here.

Then as it scurried off ahead I copped the 161 KE reg.

Well done Paddy. Well fcukin done. 🙄. A one-man masterclass in cultural difference.

Might it have been them?? 😁

We're in Motril. First grey skies day today but still warm.

That is absolutely idyllic. Fair play to them.

Did they have an employment/income angle to make the big move work out?

Niiicce…Maybe spartan, but I'd take it having arrived in on the red-eye from New York yesterday morning to see the levels of traffic on the M50/N7 at 5:30am

That's unreal. But not atypical. There seems to be no end of such tiny little remote villages in the hills. They're amazing altogether.

This has been an epic cycling trip. Definitely coming back again.

Just to say if you cycle round Motril itself long enough you might see another side of driving & definitely if you go to Malaga Town itself, fairly familiar with the area.

In general though it's a great place to cycle especially when you go up into the mountains.

There was a great restaurant on the main road just outside Motril called El Mirador which has amazing steak that is cooked inside a clay oven in the wall of the bar, also a,nice terrace even just for a beer.

Apologies- its called el mirador de la corregidora & it's actually outside the next town over- Almunecar.

Nice place to stop on the bike for a beer.

A horrible one this evening; on a country road cresting a hill so was at low speed and could see a few 100m ahead of me and a car coming really fast on the edge of my side of the road, a few feet spare on his own side. I was going slow so braked and into a track stand position while trying to think what to do, luckily he was able to slow enough and move over to his side of the road but braked hard alongside me. He then started shouting out the window (which was open) but i just let go off the brakes and rolled off.

However I looked back as I could still hear shouting and expletives, he had gotten out of the car to hurl more abuse but the worst part for me was for the next few km's I had to look back to wonder was he going to chase me down and thinking what would I do. If I was doing a decent speed or in a car or tractor it could've been nasty.

He was angry about being exposed (and therefore embarrassed) doing something stupid I'd say.

There is little self-awareness or very little ownership of one's own mistakes in the population.

Easier to blame the cohorts society sets up nicely - like cyclists, or immigrants, or God-forbid immigrant cyclists.

That link isn't working I don't think.

Aspects of the media portrays the foreign food delivery riders in a negative way regularly. It was a factor in the recent accident reporting in Dublin city centre.

A common reaction to being found out up to no good, being lazy, or caught doing something stupid…is to go on the offensive. It is a plausible answer as to why a driver got so thick with a cyclist despite the car he was driving coming across the white line on a blind bend over a crest where he couldn't possibly have seen the oncoming cyclist.

Never underestimate how many drivers would see this as the cyclists' fault.

"I'd say" he felt like a right tit and instead of owning it, he doubled down and got narky.