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Tour o the Borders (via Vimeo).jpgFarmer who stopped Borders sportive says the event is "a waste of police time"
One of the men alleged to have held up and attacked riders taking part in the Tour o’ the Borders sportive has claimed that he was attempting to stage a peaceful protest but was grabbed by a “bearded hooligan”. He also suggested that the men he was with were shoulder-charged by other cyclists.
A number of riders reported men with sticks blocking the Tour o’ the Borders route at around the 26km mark last Sunday. Several said that the men had swung at cyclists.
Deadline News reports that 60-year-old John Marshall has admitted to being the “ring leader” of the group of farmers.
“Four of us organised it. I don’t want to name the other three but I was the ringleader. We waited until the police bike and tour car had gone round.
“We blocked off the road and had draining rods in our hands but they were basically touching the ground so we weren’t appearing violent. It was meant to be a peaceful demonstration so they would stop and we could have dialogue.”
He said: “We tried to shout at them that we were pedestrians and one of them shouted ‘morning’ thinking we were there to support.
“I started to say we were pedestrians again but they started to push through. Two of us got shoulder-barged and I got grabbed so I shouted back at the guy who I could only describe as a bearded hooligan.
“From what I saw nobody touched the ground, nobody was pushed except for ourselves. For them to say what they have – I hope they can back it up.”
Marshall believes that motorists are “held up every day of the year” by cyclists and sees the road closures for the sportive as an added insult.
“We’ve been getting more and more abuse from them when we’re just trying to go about our daily lives, and for the cyclists to suddenly shut off the road is a bit of an indignity as they get the police to monitor the event and it’s basically a waste of police time.”
He says the police investigation into the confrontation is also a waste of time for “what is basically a storm in a teacup.”
Nevertheless, he remains unhappy with the event’s impact.
“I had to have words with the organisers last year because they’d taken up the whole junction – you should still be able to get two articulated lorries round it side by side so to shut off the whole junction last year was regrettable.”
He also questioned the nature of the sportive.
“The other thing is that they were racing – it’s supposed to be a ‘tour’ and it even says on the pamphlet ‘this is not a race’. If they were just touring they would’ve been able to stop and have dialogue.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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77 comments
Am I missing something, when did he mention Brexit?
A farmer who complains about others holding up traffic, eh...?
Beat me to it. Sick of farmers doing 10 mile trips at 15mph whilst spreading mud, shit and potatoes all over the road.
Oh the hilarity of coming round a bend to find the road layered in mud with a piece of cardboard with mud on road written in Biro. We need laws to make farmers mark hazards with proper hazard signs.
For about 4 months of the year, you can't do more than a mile in the countryside without getting lungfuls of shit either, smelly bastards.
Cardboard hazard signs are OK for cyclists usually. Don't need to see them several miles off. But how about a law to make farmers (well, anyone) sweep up after hedge trimming rather than effectively close a whole road to cyclists for days until enough motor traffic has passed to pick up all the thorns in their tyres?
I'm pretty sure there is a law saying that hedge clippings have to be removed, but don't ask me to quote it. Can anyone confirm?
Not definitive but https://www.bradford.gov.uk/transport-and-travel/highways/mud-on-the-pub...
gives some info which obviously applies nationwide. I've often thought about informing authorities here in Shropshire due to the state of some of the roads, thorns and mud mostly.
Or perhaps to clean the roads behind them as construction companies are obliged to.
This X a million.
I regularly get held up on my commute home from work (whether on my bike or in my car) by tractors on a-roads. I also regularly have to stop for tractors and cows etc when out on weekend cycles.
I don't mind.
They are simply going about their daily business, it can be frustrating, but a little bit of patience goes a long way.
The state of the roads (pot holes, mud, cow shit, crops) after rainy periods with lots of tractors is horrendous. Again, I don't mind so much, that's the countryside.
Just wish those few people who kicked off would have the same attitude towards the occasional cycle...
With all the land they own, you'd think they'd be able to get from A to B using it and not the road...
No different than any motorist with more than two wheels complaining about others creating traffic.
Never difficult to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and a farmer with a grievance.
There's a fair comment i've seen about closing rural roads at this time of year due to the impact it has on farmers being able to complete harvest. Most citing this point also completely miss the overall benefits of cycling and the events to encourage it, but I can appreciate the frustration of being stopped from doing their work nonetheless.
Organising to stand at a particular point of the sportive armed with sticks with the intent of obstructing the highway and to intimidate its users, is not "being stopped from doing your work".
The guy is a fucking arsehole and should be prosecuted
If it was intended to be peaceful why did they have draining rods in their hands? Raised or not they were surely there for intimidation?
Cyclists now seem to be the minority group it's legitimate to vilify and intimidate. Supported by our wonderful media services and the opinions of non entities who sadly have the public eye.
I've been saying this for years: if cyclists were a racial group or some other minority to which hate laws applied, lots of people would be getting locked up for hate crimes. The real problem is that it is illegal to denigrate those people, but the haters still have to vent their spleens at someone, and cyclists are a handy target, and like most hate speech, it is almost completely misguided and wrong.
Wow! Clearly deluded to the point of insanity. Should the police be asking for him to be sectioned rather than looking at him as a criminal?
Obstructing the highway is a crime, and definitely if it is done deliberately.
Great that although everyone else was wasting their time, these farmers had so much spare time they could indulge in pointless road-blocking, both illegal and stupid.
Is in-breeding a problem around there?
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