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Dame Sarah Storey collides with mother and child during Croydon cycle race

Pair had bypassed barriers to try and cross the course

Dame Sarah Storey collided with a mother and her son midway through round three of The Matrix Fitness Grand Prix Series in Croydon last night. The 11-time Paralympic champion took to Twitter to explain the incident.

“Bit battered after exiting the fastest corner on the circuit and being confronted by a woman trying to cross the course with her young son,” she began. “Had nowhere to go and ended up hitting them, but worse was the woman shoved her boy towards me when he was trying to run for safety.”

Storey expressed her hope that the boy was okay after getting caught up underneath her bike and emphasised that there was nothing she could have done to prevent the collision.

Roads were closed for the event, but there were reports of a number of people breaching safety barriers to cross the route. “It happened all round the course by people annoyed they weren't able to use their ‘usual’ route,” said Storey.

She then pointed out that it wasn’t just cyclists who were a threat to those crossing – the camera bike could have hit someone as well.

Scottish rider Charline Joiner won a race that featured its fair share of scrapes and went as far as to label the corner of Drummond Road and North End “death corner”.

Earlier this year, Storey made an attempt on the UCI Hour Record at the Lee Valley VeloPark in London where Sir Bradley Wiggins will this weekend make his own attempt. While Storey fell a little over two laps short of the required distance, she did set a new British record of 45.502 kilometres.

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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27 comments

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ianrobo | 9 years ago
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Cycling weekly says a video appeared on Youtube of the incident and was shortly taken down (they have a still from it). Guess pulled as the child is identified.

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goggy | 9 years ago
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I cycle in and out of Croydon every day - there is almost total disobedience and/or disregard for others by all road users and pedestrians there - cars on the wrong side of the road, pulling out in front of others, blocking lanes, taxis permanently parked in bus lanes, bike lanes always blocked by cars, suicidal pedestrians...

When I saw that there was going to be a road race there I put my head in my hands ... this was ALWAYS going to be the outcome  40

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Awavey | 9 years ago
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when the Tour Series visited Colchester & the crossing points were manned by squaddies, a guy in his mobility scooter still forced his way past them on to the road (whilst shouting and swearing at everyone in earshot) daft thing was he didnt head for the crossing exit, he headed up the course road and only some quick thinking from the crowd nearest the barrier he was aiming for who dismantled it in time to give him a gap to get through, prevented the whole group who piled round the corner only a few seconds later from wiping out on him.

its amazing how belligerent some people get in insisting on following their set pattern or route they know regardless of obstacles or danger to themselves, let alone the riders.

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Lucan07 | 9 years ago
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Must be a theme had a silly little girl approx 18 shove a buggy in front of me today despite desperate bell ringing, shouting and braking hard (all totally useless due to her headphones). The buggy and toddler were sent clear accross an often busy road leaving me to quickly dismount and recover buggy while she stood motionless mouth open, thank god no cars coming in either direction. I had a laporotomy three weeks ago today and the results of her actions could have been disastorous for the toddler and myself, her attitude was am I bothered? I just had to ride away feeling sorry for her child!

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SteppenHerring | 9 years ago
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I have had a first-hand account from someone who was manning the nearby crossing point. They had asked the woman to wait a few seconds while the riders passed. She wandered off down the barrier and before security could stop her, she'd hoicked the kid over the barrier and hopped over herself. Short of having security round the entire perimeter, it's difficult to see how it could be prevented.

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Das | 9 years ago
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This would not have happened if the cyclist paid road tax.  35

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therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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Oh right.... every day's a school day.

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Leodis | 9 years ago
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Happened on TdY as well, one 5 year old thought it would be a cracking idea to drag his bike onto the course, the mother was smiling until I grabbed a Tour Maker who sorted it. Other times people forced the barriers apart and crossed all 100 yards from a crossing point.

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Rider | 9 years ago
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Saw same thing in Tour de france last year in Chelmsford.
Want be the last either.

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JeevesBath | 9 years ago
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Was in London this Sunday to watch the triathlon. The crossing points were very well controlled. Whenever there was a gap, the marshals would say "OK, cross quickly!" - then the people in front would amble across without any sense of urgency or appreciate that those behind were trying to get out of the way of oncoming bikes...

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twinklydave | 9 years ago
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I hope the child is OK. I hope the mother is dragged over hot coals for being so stupid and selfish. In fact I hope she is made to apologise to bother Sarah AND the child, given her actions.

She's probably on the phone to some sort of "where there's blame, there's a claim" bottom feeding lawyers though, or selling her story to the local paper...

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SlowCoach | 9 years ago
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I was marshalling at a crossing point for the Tour Series in Durham last week (10 crossing points on a ~ 1 mile circuit) and was amazed at the stupidity of some people as they tried to cross in front of bikes coming towards them. Putting your arm across to block the crossing point wasn't enough. I physically had to stand there and block the gap in the barriers. Even then I had people trying to push me out of the way. The closest we came to an incident was a woman with a dog on an extendable lead. She let the dog cross to my side, but stayed on the far side herself. All I could do was grab the dog by the collar and unhitch the lead so it wound back in on the spring. She wasn't very happy about having her dog manhandled...

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Brigader | 9 years ago
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Amazing how people react when some people see safety barriers,do they not realise safety barriers are for their safety?,to some they see them straight away as a challenge to fight against,and straight away a sort of rebellion ensues  2

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AJ101 | 9 years ago
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Made the trip down to watch the Tour Series with friends yesterday and that Croydon circuit was one of the best I've seen in a City Centre Crit.
Glad Sarah avoided any serious injury, a credit to her bike handling skills.

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danthomascyclist | 9 years ago
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Crazy cyclists. Was she wearing hi-vis? I bet she didn't have her lights on. She was probably speeding too, and I heard she jumped a red light. She doesn't even pay road tax. This event should have been on a cycle lane.

Etc.

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ianrobo replied to danthomascyclist | 9 years ago
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danthomascyclist wrote:

Crazy cyclists. Was she wearing hi-vis? I bet she didn't have her lights on. She was probably speeding too, and I heard she jumped a red light. She doesn't even pay road tax. This event should have been on a cycle lane.

Etc.

she did have a helmet on though

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userfriendly | 9 years ago
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Reads very much like an unsuccessful attempt at postnatal abortion to me.  39

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gareth2510 replied to userfriendly | 9 years ago
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userfriendly wrote:

Reads very much like an unsuccessful attempt at postnatal abortion to me.  39

This is a rather crass way of putting your view across

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userfriendly replied to gareth2510 | 9 years ago
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gareth2510 wrote:
userfriendly wrote:

Reads very much like an unsuccessful attempt at postnatal abortion to me.  39

This is a rather crass way of putting your view across

I guess it would be ... if that was me "putting my view across".  29

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Bob's Bikes | 9 years ago
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I went to watch the tour series a while ago (not Croyden) and I found there to be ample crossing points on all three of the courses I visited, mind you this meant walking alongside the course (behind the barriers) to get to one, which obviously isn't something cretins are prepared to do.

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Hindmost replied to Bob's Bikes | 9 years ago
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I was there last night and there were loads of well organised crossing points, allowing people to cross throughout the race, so no excuse for this. I hope the child is ok.

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therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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I've seen this at Sheffield GP.

Some people just think they have a right to go where they want and think that being blocked by the barriers is some kind of insult to their freedom.

Poor kid, he was just doing what his idiot of a mother told him to. Hopefully Dame Sarah will pursue the daft bint for damages and teach her some sense.

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oozaveared replied to therealsmallboy | 9 years ago
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therealsmallboy wrote:

I've seen this at Sheffield GP.

Some people just think they have a right to go where they want and think that being blocked by the barriers is some kind of insult to their freedom.

Poor kid, he was just doing what his idiot of a mother told him to. Hopefully Dame Sarah will pursue the daft bint for damages and teach her some sense.

It would be nice to think you could sue the mother but actually it's the organiser that would be liable both to be sued by Sarah and the flaming stupid woman. It's their job to keep people off the course and they have a duty of care to everyone to do that. It's impossible of course to have enough marshals and barriers all the way round the course. But said daft bint will claim she had free access and no-one warned her. and unless the organiser has evidence that she defeated a barrier that would be capable of keeping out a reasonably determined adult (they aren't though are they) or evidence that she forced her way past a marshal who tried to stop her, chances are she'd win.

Silly innit?

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oliverjames | 9 years ago
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Yet another example of how poorly some peoples thought processes work. The mother was clearly not using her brain, I feel sorry for her son.

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JeevesBath replied to oliverjames | 9 years ago
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oliverjames wrote:

Yet another example of how poorly some peoples thought processes work. The mother was clearly not using her brain, I feel sorry for her son.

I was saying something similar to a colleague the other day. Accidents occur when people don't think about the potential consequences their actions; it seems like adults are acting like ten year olds themselves and need someone to point out the stupidity of what they're doing.

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ianrobo | 9 years ago
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Guess the Daily Heil later today will claim this was the cyclist's fault for going too fast in a pedestrian area ?

Sounds like the mother should be charged for being reckless in charge of a child ?

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headwaiter replied to ianrobo | 9 years ago
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ianrobo, you are so crass, keep politics or your attempt at politics off this its please.

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