- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Yorkshire sportive versus road race YouTube stillRace v sportive video marshal clarifies incident details
The road race marshall who filmed a near-miss as charity sportive riders and road racers came together on the roads of Yorkshire has provided more details of what happened and the conversation that can be heard between him and a rider.
In an email, Scott Weston told road.cc that the rider he can be heard arguing with was not in fact a participant in the Cyclothon sportive, but the father of one of the racers. And the Cyclothon riders seen ignoring the road closure in the video were the only ones to do so. Weston says other participants were “friendly” and “compliant” and followed instructions “with good spirit”.
After the race passed through, the road remained closed for longer than expected, says Weston, because of a communications snafu between marshalls at the junction and the race’s trail car.
In the aftermath of the incident and the video, British Cycling called on the government to act to ensure sportives are better co-ordinated so as not to clash with road races.
Here’s what Weston had to say, in full:
I am the marshall who filmed the video of the confrontation between the charity ride and the road race.
A few things need clearing up.
Firstly the rider I can be heard arguing with is NOT a charity cyclist. He is riding the race route in reverse to observe his son who is racing the road race.
He is a gentleman who has organised many races and is well respected by a good number of people in the Yorkshire cycling community.
He also obeyed the road closures. I can only assume a moment out of character for his outburst.
The issue is with the charity riders that ignored my panicked instructions, and rode through the road closure.
They were however the only riders to do this during the three hours of the race, during which time hundreds of friendly compliant charity riders passed by and obeyed the eight closures when forced to do so and with good spirit.
After this video finishes the road closure is enforced for (in my opinion) an inordinately long length of time. To which I commented to the argumentative cyclist as such.
This was due to a breakdown in radio coverage between the trail car and the controlling marshall at my junction. However, I took my lead from the traffic control operative as instructed and the road remained closed until we could be certain no more racers would be coming through our control point. During which time several motorcyclists took it upon themselves to ignore the road closure and ride through.
I am sorry that the argumentative rider has been named on various forums, I purposely avoided this to save him any personal insult.
Unfortunately I have been informed that he has been the victim of some less than savoury personal correspondence, which I would not condone.
I did not expect this video to have such far reaching implications, and only posted it to three sites to show riders in the race why they faced oncoming cyclists on this particular lap.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- Freddy56 3 hours 56 min ago
The reflective nature of the fabric structure, in in a 2 layer sealed fabric-means moisture cannot pass thru, The breathability claim is lies.......
- HoarseMann 5 hours 8 min ago
Driver injured after car flips onto its roof https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0g9rpp8x9o
- mark1a 5 hours 26 min ago
I don't think he wants to talk about it...
- Rendel Harris 5 hours 55 min ago
Ach, dinnae fret...
- Matt Page 6 hours 3 min ago
The Prevelo Alpha Three on the main feature image is 20".
- eburtthebike 6 hours 15 min ago
£100 bonus.
- chrisonabike 6 hours 23 min ago
To be fair if this is our usual revenant they've got form in rewriting history...
- chrisonabike 6 hours 25 min ago
"At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them ... we have to because some numpty destroyed the roll of names"....
- hawkinspeter 8 hours 29 min ago
Looks like some Barton Hill residents don't want the Liverpool Neighbourhood or at least not Marsh Lane to be a no-through-road:...
Add new comment
14 comments
Please Re enable the video. There's no context and it makes the whole affair very hard to understand.
sportives should be regulated,
same as rr you should need at least basic bc licence and have to present it
marshalls should be present and if riders are riding like cocks they should be banned.
to many twats in hats just turning up and giving cycling a bad name
following on from Langsett's comment...
The report says the BC have called on the government to make sure sportives are better co-ordinated.
Thats choice coming from the parasitic BC who are quite willing to take money from every entry, also have all the details of every BC regsitered event, which does include sportives and road races (except LTI/vets leagues) and then shirk responsibility for doing their own auditing of events.
All they seem to want to do is take the money. Get real, what will the government actually do. Push it back down to the respective Police forces and councils who issue the license to use/close roads before an event, and quite likely dont co-operate at that level.
The only organisation with a clear overall view is the BC, but I bet they will ask the government for more money to facilitate that process.
Pity the video has been removed as it gives the debate context. The report says BC call for regulation or co-ordination but both events were listed on their respective sections of the BC site, where would it end, charity rides without numbers, reliability rides, Audax rides, and the clubs who are fortunate to have larger numbers?
Revel in the beauty of a prime example of 'Northern Chat'. T'wer great! Scott Weston don't ever change.
What i dont understand is that matey boy in the Kelme jersey isnt wearing a helmet and every sportive i have ever come across insists on one.
Was he not just a random fella out for a ride - got caught up in the sportive - wrongly assumed he wasn't meant to stop and just rode on?
Not condoning his behaviour - he is clearly a gormless wassock (Yorkshire term) - may explain something though.
A huge thank you to the Marshal for clearing up a number of points. Pity he didn't think to give these details when he originally posted this video. Better late than never but it would have stopped an awful lot of stupid ill-considered opinions and comments.
Scott Weston at least comes out of this well. Seems like a decent chap.
The fact is that a small percent of population at large are idiots, so when you get a large group of people then you're always going have some idiots. This isn't restricted to Sportive riders. You could be talking about football fans, motorists, pedestrians, dog owners; whatever.
Unfortunately this small percentage always causes an unrepresentative amount of noise and can give the majority a bad name. If 10 sportive riders get into the local rag for doing something stupid then the fact that the other 990 are sensible is going to be lost.
This is known as Confirmation Bias. You only remember the idiots. As Dr Hutch remarked the other day: 15 cyclists waiting at a red light are invisible to the general public. A single cyclist jumping a red light can be seen from space.
When you're out for a ride, almost all the motorists (even BMW/Audi/Merc drivers) will be fine. You just remember the 2 or 3 who weren't.
I have misgivings about sportives, but let's face it, the 5 abreast wrapper-tossers* are in the minority. I know plenty of people from my club who are considerate, competent riders. If the tossers rode in a club like that they'd be called out straight away and it's a shame that more people don't go the club route. If they took up windsurfing or dominoes they'd probably still be tossers.
*wrapper - not Rapha
Very good of the marshal that, seems like a nice chap!
Hopefully all the elitist snobs who were wittering on about the shouty bloke being a "typical sportive rider" will now eat their words?
Not a chance, just look at the comments above, this place has become the daily mail of the cycling world.
This video is only really worth watching because of the stupidity of the chap in the Kelme top, and then he falls off
. 'The argument' helps of course but now we find this is nothing to do with the sportive...
I am sure that BC will continue to argue that they need to regulate (meaning: make money from) sportives. Starting, of course, with; "They shall ride with helmets". Because that would have made all the difference here would it not?