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Witness appeal after Burnley cyclist loses memory in crash

Police unable to ascertain whether crash involved motor vehicle

A rider Burnley who was found unconscious in the road six weeks ago still has no memory of the incident. Police are appealing for witnesses to help clear up the mystery of how he came to be injured.

The 49-year-old man was found in Old Roman Road, off Whins Lane, Read, near Burnley at around 5pm on Wednesday, September 17 and was taken to Royal Preston Hospital, according to the Burnley and Pendle Citizen's Michael Morrison.

As well as serious head injuries, the man sustained a broken wrist. Police have been unable to ascertain whether he simply fell or was hit by a motor vehicle.

PC Derek Scott, from Colne’s Road Policing Unit, said officers were keen to speak to anyone who may have seen what happened.

He said: “Due to the severity of the impact to his head, the cyclist is unable to remember anything of the incident and we are appealing for witnesses to come forward with any information about what happened. I would urge anyone who may have seen anything at around the time of the incident or any vehicles which may have been involved to contact us.”

Anyone with information about the crash should call police on 101, quoting log reference number LC-20141017-0327.

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.

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