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Team GB's Charlie Tanfield struck by motorist in “intentional” hit and run

Tanfield was training in Essex, along with his brother and fellow Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling rider Harry, when he was knocked off his bike by the “aggressive” driver

Charlie and Harry Tanfield were involved in an “intentional” hit and run incident while training in Essex yesterday.

The brothers, who are currently racing for Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling in the Sportsbreak.com Tour Series, round six of which takes place in Barking today, were riding through Mistley when they were approached by a driver who allegedly began to act aggressively towards the cyclists.

According to Charlie’s girlfriend Kate Spencer, who tweeted about the incident, the motorist drove straight at the 25-year-old, knocking him off his bike and seriously damaging his rear wheel before driving off.

“This driver was behaving aggressively towards him and his brother, beeping the horn and shouting [at them] simply for also being on the road,” Spencer wrote.

“She then proceeded to intentionally drive into him, knocking him off his bike, drove over the rear wheel and then drove away.”

Spencer’s account was supported by a passer-by, who later wrote to the Tanfields’ team to praise the brothers’ actions in the wake of the incident, who said she saw the driver “shout abuse and drive on without stopping”.

“Cyclists have as much right to be on the road as cars and are so much more vulnerable in an accident,” Spencer added on Twitter. “So be patient and give them some space. I see anger directed at cyclists way too often online for simply sharing the road.”

She also confirmed that Tanfield emerged unscathed from the collision and that the incident has been reported to Essex Police.

Spencer added: “We have since found out that the vehicle is also without an MOT, so hopefully the driver will receive some consequences for her actions.”

Tanfield, a world and Commonwealth Games champion on the track who competed for Great Britain in the team pursuit at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, later posted a photo of his mangled bike – the race numbers from the previous evening’s Tour Series event in Clacton still attached – on Instagram. 

“Bike’s seen better days [but] luckily I’m fine,” he wrote. “Worst part is that it was definitely intentional.

“Pretty sure the woman who did this would never think of assaulting someone in the street but for some reason thinks it’s acceptable in her metal bubble.”

> RideLondon: Cyclists claim they were assaulted by motorist with drawing pins on sportive route 

Unfortunately, the hit and run on the Tanfields isn’t the first instance of aggressive and violent behaviour from motorists towards cyclists on the roads of Essex this week.

Yesterday we reported that two cyclists, training for next week’s RideLondon event in the county, claimed that they were assaulted by a motorist who allegedly threw drawing pins at them before scattering them over the cycle lane.

In happier news, Charlie and his brother Harry, who raced professionally for Qhubeka NextHash, AG2R La Mondiale and Katusha Alpecin before returning to the domestic scene this year, were also this week confirmed as part of Alastair Brownlee’s pace setting team, as the two-time Olympic champion aims to record a sub-seven-hour Ironman triathlon in early June. 

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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14 comments

Avatar
Lazygit65 | 1 year ago
3 likes

Almost ironic the vehicle least entitled to be on the Highway was an unMOTed car! Best wishes to Charlie.

Avatar
wtjs | 1 year ago
3 likes

Spencer added: “We have since found out that the vehicle is also without an MOT, so hopefully the driver will receive some consequences for her actions.”

Stories on here suggest Essex Police is down there on the 'Who Cares?- cyclists who report offences can Get Stuffed!' bottom tier with the likes of Lancashire, so don't be too sure. This is PE18 KYV going through a red light on 9th May. No MOT then, no MOT now. I've seen the vehicle around town since the report to No Response-No Action Supremos Lancashire Constabulary. 

Avatar
Sriracha replied to wtjs | 1 year ago
2 likes

I see so many cars now, all pimped up and no front plate - quite brazen. Clearly the Police are not bothering them. It doesn't even require a vehicle check or anything, so if they can't be arsed when it's that easy, what chance if it involves effort?

Avatar
wtjs replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
2 likes

Pfff! Our Brave Lancashire Lads even declare publicly that they're not interested in illegally spaced plates or multiple large dogs loose in the front passenger seat, or years of 'No VED'- they could ignore multiple offences like yours before breakfast do'nuts. I'll see your example and raise you Bronze BMW MV57 GXO- no VED since 31.5.21 and no MOT since 16.12.20- and this doesn't look like a vehicle first registered on 25.9.07 either. Photo taken 19.5.22

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chrisonabike replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
1 like

Well of course they can't do anything - with no plates / bogus plates they're clearly as impossible to trace as all those cyclists not wearing hi-vis tabards with their crimeregistration on...

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Fignon's ghost | 1 year ago
1 like

The driver should (at very least) end up with a careless driving CD10 and Failing to stop at the scene of an accident AC10 motoring conviction. The insurer of the car is also liable for the bike damage and personal injury to the rider.
I appreciate there are independent witnesses. But camera footage would've sealed the deal.
Personally. The driver would get a custodial sentence and a pistol whipping.

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Awavey | 1 year ago
1 like

Just goes to show you can meet these types of people on the road anywhere & anytime, as I rode between Clacton & Mistley last year as it was being used as a stage of the Womens Tour which it sounds from the discussion on their tweets they might have been following the same route, and Mistley was the last place on that part of the route youd think youd encounter problems, its a really fast downhill lead in to the place as well iirc.

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Clem Fandango | 1 year ago
4 likes

"cycle like you drive" huh?

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Grahamd | 1 year ago
6 likes

Terrible incident, am sure the Police cycle like you drive attitude will help.

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I like bikes | 1 year ago
4 likes

Driver will receive consequences for her actions 😂 😂 😂don't hold your breath

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Sriracha | 1 year ago
4 likes
Quote:

Spencer added: “We have since found out that the vehicle is also without an MOT, so hopefully the driver will receive some consequences for her actions.”

They may be bang to rights over the MOT infraction, but unless the evidence shows the cyclist actually swerved I doubt there will be much else to answer for...

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Velo-drone replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
1 like
Sriracha wrote:

They may be bang to rights over the MOT infraction, but unless the evidence shows the cyclist actually swerved I doubt there will be much else to answer for...

Errrr ... what? You appear to be referencing criteria that might be applied on the case of a close pass.

In the event of a collision that's not relevant ... especially one that is deliberate.

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IanMSpencer replied to Velo-drone | 1 year ago
7 likes

He is just expressing inevitable cynicism.

My guess will be that there will be plenty of soshall meedya posts along the lines of:

The cyclist could see she was a homicidal maniac so he should have got out of her way, the idiot.

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lonpfrb replied to Velo-drone | 1 year ago
1 like
Velo-drone wrote:

In the event of a collision that's not relevant ... especially one that is deliberate.

Independent witnesses of leaving the scene of an incident without providing insurance details is a police matter, even with Essex Police funding difficulty, as the law has been broken.

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