In rejecting Rhys Wilkins' bid to overturn his conviction for negligent driving causing death, Justice Richard Refshauge said ''in some ways the case of a cyclist is in a category of its own''.

But the judge partially agreed with Wilkins' appeal against his sentence, and as a result the five-time convicted disqualified driver will walk out of jail at the end of the month.

Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker locked Wilkins up for 12 months in August, with at least nine months to serve, after finding him guilty earlier this year.

The 36-year-old was driving on Sternberg Crescent in Wanniassa towards Ashley Drive when he passed cyclist James Thomas Keenan.

Wilkins slowed as he approached Ashley Drive and turned on his left blinker. Mr Keenan's bike crashed into the side of the Mitsubishi Evolution while the car was turning the corner. The 61-year-old suffered serious injuries as he tumbled to the road and died days later at the Canberra Hospital.

Wilkins fought the conviction in the ACT Supreme Court, arguing he discharged his duty of care by indicating after overtaking Mr Keenan.

His lawyer suggested the driver was entitled to assume the cyclist would keep a safe distance from the back of the Mitsubishi, keep his eyes on the road and obey the rules.

And the advocate also said his client owed a greater duty to road users in front or beside him than to those behind him.

''That may be accepted, but in some ways the case of a cyclist is in a category on its own,'' Justice Refshauge wrote in his reasons, handed down yesterday. ''The cyclist is, for the most part, other than where there are designated cycle lanes, a joint road user of the lane in which a car is travelling.''

The judge ruled even though Wilkins had passed the cyclist - ''particularly one riding somewhat faster than anticipated'' - he had a duty to be aware of where the cyclist was while negotiating the corner.

Wilkins was banned from getting behind the wheel at the time of the fatal crash and had two older convictions for driving disqualified.

To make matters worse he was nabbed in the driver's seat of a car twice more in the three months following Mr Keenan's death.

The Chief Magistrate increased the length of Wilkins' suspended sentence for breaching a good-behaviour order linked to a suspended jail term.

The appeal judge ruled Ms Walker should have warned lawyers at both sides of the bar table that was her intention, and also found another part of the complex sentencing exercise was too harsh.

Instead he ordered the man to be released next Wednesday, with a five-month suspended sentence hanging over his head for a period of two years.