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Velothon Wales 2015 routeCyclist crashes as tacks sprinkled on Velothon Wales route - but others praise local support
A cyclist taking part in today’s inaugural Velothon Wales suffered cuts and bruises after crashing at 35 miles per hour when tacks were sprinkled on the road in two locations. Most of the 15,000 participants, however, enjoyed the day, with some tweeting their appreciation of the level of support shown by locals.
It’s the second time a mass participation event in Wales has been targeted in such a fashion within the past two years, with a similar incident happening on the Etape Cymru in September 2013.
In a statement reported by the South Wales Evening Post, event director Andy Taylor commented: "We can confirm that a small amount of tacks were discovered at around 9.30am on isolated sections of the route at Belmont Road in Caerleon and 10.02am at High Street/New Road in Caerphilly.
"Fortunately, no accidents or injuries were caused and the affected areas were cleared within a few minutes."
Despite that statement, at least one cyclist was injured, however - Islington CC member, Sustrans press officer and Cardiff native Alec James, who tweeted a picture of himself after receiving treatment following a crash caused after he ran over a tack.
Down but not out. @IslingtonCC 35mph downhill crash due to pins on road #velothonwales #cycling pic.twitter.com/TPsXZW98m2
— Alec James (@AEWJ) June 14, 2015
One participant, Derek Goode, said: “There were around 30 guys that had punctures after tacks were thrown across the road at the top of the hill coming into Caerleon.
"We've raised more than £800 for charity by getting up on a Sunday morning and someone goes and does that.
"It's disgusting and I don't see the point.
"They're just ruining it for the rest of us."
As we reported earlier this month, there had been some local opposition to today’s closed road event which was accompanied by a professional race won by Martin Mortensen of Cult Energy.
Critics included owners of businesses along the route who were worried that trade would be affected, and the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones, criticised the event organisers’ communications strategy.
However, a number of people who took part in today’s event tweeted their congratulations to the organisers afterwards with one, Luke Dix, calling it “the best event I have ever done thank you.”
Another, Sam Mason, said: “Wonderful ride, great route and amazing local support. Anthem at the start gave me goosebumps. Be proud.”
And a tweet from Cardiff-based town planning and urban design consultancy read: “15,000 people seeing our region at its very best today @VelothonWales a great ride, but the support along the route was the real showcase.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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Whereas Susan Hall has her own vision for reducing contamination.
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61 comments
This was a great event and most of the route had spectators on it cheering and waving to us riders, all were great ambassadors for the region.
Re. tack spreaders; in any population you'll always get a small minority of cretins that share a community brain cell and obviously some didn't have access to it on Sunday to make them think twice of the consequences of their actions. Hopefully they'll be shamed by the supportive majority into disappearing back under the rock they call home.
I can see how some small business's on the route would face a loss in trade due to the event, but this is more an indictment of our "must shop every day of the week" society. Look at France, Sunday is time for family and friends. We spent the weekend in Cardiff as a family and reckon we spent circ. £500 with accommodation, entertainment, shopping etc
Friend of mine also fell, smashed rear mech, wheels, helmet was a complete right off and the organisers leant him a bike so he could complete the challenge. Nice work - though not sure he should have carried on after being out cold for a short period.
How was traffic this morning? lots of cars with punctures?
Or did someonce clean up the tacks after the race
As a cyclist I've obviously had punctures many times, including via thorns and bits of flint, but have never experienced a 'catastrophic event' that caused me to lose control of the bike at high speed. How has this happened in Welsh Wales as a result of a few tacks?
Very easily I'd imagine. I suffered a double blowout at about 40 mph once. In a straight line. Massive wobble, clouds of smoke, tyre off front, stayed on rear, managed to get it to stop. Very scary. If I'd been turning at all I would have been off.
Another injury report, spotted on Twitter (warning: gruesome picture)
Check out @GarethEnticott's Tweet: https://twitter.com/GarethEnticott/status/610178221137653760?s=09
Looks like there was more than one person injured by the tacks:
https://twitter.com/GarethEnticott/status/610178221137653760
When are 'You and Yours' doing the phone in?
daft?? DAFT???
Tacks are more than daft - they are a premeditated attempt to cause riders to crash, with all the associated risk to injury and death.
Sorry, but that comment is daft.
35mph may have been absolutely fine for the road conditions until someone left a malicious trap.
Tacks. Daft to say the least. 35mph. Equally daft. If your speed is such that a puncture will have you off you ride slower don't you?
Manners from those I saw ranging from great to disgusting.
Same as any other sportive I guess.
Can you blame some people for not being happy if their business is affected?Few people will be stupid enough to say that they are happy to see some cash to come to their region at their own expense.
Sad that, as usual, those who rant on about thatevents are great for the community fail to show consideration for those who don't like the events.
That post is just daft all around - next you'll be suggesting that we all ride slower in case someone has stretched wire across the road at head height...
I was there today and it was a great event, hundreds of people cheering the riders on, and only a few idiots.
Really? 35mph a daft speed? Really?
1) a front puncture could have you off the bike at 10mph ... So you want all riding limited to that basis?
2) if the conditions are right then 35mph is really not fast at all on a clear decent. I was doing sections of flat at 30 mph in the dragon ride last weekend. Not wishing to disparage what you ride but if that seems fast enough to be daft to you your bike must have some incredible rolling resistance. In fact I reckon you would have a greater risk of a puncture from an overheating tyre rim blow out by braking all the time if you tried to stick below that on descents. Do that in the Alps and you are nearly certain to crash.
So no. 35 mph is not a daft speed.
Bagsy no return.
Would you apply the same logic to cars? Lorries? I was once driving behind a lorry on the motoryway that had a tyre blowout. Huge cloud of smoke, debris hammering against my windscreen, completely unable to see but I managed to slow down and get over to the hard shoulder safely. How fast should people be going to the motorway to avoid that sort of thing?
Before we moan too much about this specific issue, I would like to say that the event was a roaring success. Well-organized, great route, and the crowds were fantastic.
It would be terrible to assume that this action represents the general feeling in the area - it absolutely doesn't. Myself and my fellow club members felt very welcome and greatly appreciated the cheers from the crowd to keep us going.
Yes we had to dismount and wait a bit at Caerleon while a guy with a broom legged it up the hill to sweep them away - he wasn't too happy with the uphill run I can tell you! - but otherwise we were lucky enough to be unaffected
I DO hope the police find the guy though - with an injury they may be more likely to, and especially given the negative publicity this will create. Personally, I would puncture his tyres of his car every day for a year as punishment
Are Gwent Police investigating? Shouldn't have to look too far as a number of people were on their Facebook page specifically threatening to spread tacks on the road.
I did the ride today. One idiot laying tacks but hundreds of people out on the course clapping you and wishing you well. Let's try to remember them and not the idiot. Hope the chap injured recovers soon.
Overall it was a great event, loads of locals out cheering us on, shame that one arsehole has to taint it. As for business generated in town, the bars were full of cyclists after the race, I'm sure the restaurants will be too in a short while.
I thought there was no such thing as road tacks.
Sorry. Putting these deliberately on a downhill corner is clearly intended to injure someone. Compare: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3639057.stm
Nice, manslaughter, if a lob a brick at a 40 ton metal box, but if you deliberately drive the same 40 ton metal box at a cyclist we'd be lucky to get a charge of careless driving.
Have just experienced quite a different ride in France today, no tacks, waving children and adults and best of all, really friendly car drivers. Big thumbs up to ukcycling events and the French public
Two years ago I had my first experience cycling in France (in the Alps). The drivers were amazing - hanging back until safe then passing really wide. Also you get the occasional shout of "Chapeau" rather than the 'C' word you tend to get in the UK.
I've just done the Vätternrundan in Sweden- 20,000 + riders, 180 miles, with loads of people cheering us all on along the route, and even grabbed a toasted marshmallow offered by one friendly teenager as we rode past. A great event and I did think if it wS in GB there would have been an attack of drawing pins.
Thing is, this is what it was like (except the friendly car drivers, because there were no cars - which is even better than friendly ones).
There were loads of people who'd come out of their houses to cheer, clap and wave to us. There was probably one person who'd thrown a few drawing pins out of a car window the night before, so I had to carry the bike for about 100 metres total, but that wasn't the bit I'm going to remember from the day.
Chapeau to the organisers, I think they got everything pretty much perfectly spot on on the day (and next year, noone can complain they weren't expecting it).
+1
This is happening too often. It needs someone to be caught and severely punished, perhaps with a jail sentence, to make clear that it is not acceptable.
Not hanging then ?
Of course it's not acceptable, but apart from this one idiot the day went well, riders enjoyed themselves, the crowd did too and it didn't rain.
Like football crowds there's always a few idiots.
What a bunch of morons, if every rider spend 10p in the town it'd probably generate more trade than the locals would driving to the chip shop. not to mention friends and family of riders who might also be there to watch.
Not quite no injuries
“@AEWJ: @IslingtonCC 35mph crash due to pins on road #velothonwales pic.twitter.com/0veagbJ6rk”
as mentioned on the other thread if caught should be charged with attempted murder.
Argh, not again. No, it's not attempted murder.
Anyway. With that out of the way... I was held up for 40 minutes driving through Liverpool today because of road closures for the Liverpool Marathon. Somehow I kept my cool and didn't start throwing bricks at the runners...
No, it isn't "attempted murder" but it is whatever the UK equivalent of "reckless endangerment" is. Which Google is not helping me with. It's pretty close to lobbing bricks off a motorway bridge - a high chance of doing someone some harm. The closest case I can find (Google again) is this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12159581
The problem with manslaughter is that someone has to actually die as a result of the perpetrators actions. You have to ask yourself the question: should someone be tried/punished on the basis of their actions, or on the basis of the consequences of their actions. Tricky question as the consequences are often a matter of luck.
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