Wanty-Gobert rider Yoann Ofredo has posted pictures to Facebook of the injuries he sustained today, including a broken nose and severe bruising, when he was assaulted during a training ride, with his assailants hitting him with a baseball bat and a bladed implement.
The 30-year-old, who was 14th at both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix earlier this month, said that he was not angry at what had happened but that the assault had left him “in shock.”
He wrote: “I started riding a bike at the age of 12 with all the feelings of being carefree that goes with it. I never imagined that from this passion would be born a career, that of a bike racer.
“Nor did I ever imagine that in the course of my career I would meet some magical people, who in some cases have left us way too soon.
“I never imagined either that this job would be so dangerous.
“I never imagined that exercising my profession would at times involve me risking my life.”
Offredo, who joined the Belgian team this season after 11 years with FDJ, did not reveal where the assault had taken place nor the exact circumstances of it.
However, he wrote: “Today, I was the victim of an assault with a bladed weapon and baseball bat while training with two friends.
“The result – a broken nose, a rib in a very bad way and bruising all over my body, but beyond physical wounds above all I am shocked.
“I’m not angty, I am just sad to realise that this beautiful sport that I love, I don’t want my kids to practise it … it’s too dangerous.
“You go out in the morning to train, but you never know if you’re going to come back home.
“I’m just sad to realise, that in this country [France] of the Rights of Man, the rights of cyclists are ignored.”
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
32 thoughts on “French pro Yoann Offredo attacked with baseball bat during training ride”
Very convenient the
Very convenient the assailants description – of migrant origin – is completely ommitted from almost every news article, just as Le Pen gears up for runoff…
Jamminatrix wrote:
migrants… hmm. Jambafacts? Who knows where they were from until we actually get told. France is full of people who were migrants 1-2 generations ago but identify as French.
atlaz wrote:
I know a lot of 2nd gen french migrants that identify as french and are well integrated, even thus they know their origins are non-french.
and.. I know as many of them that are not as well integrated, and identity as non-french – they beleive being french is basically “not cool” but being from X or Z is “cool” and “better”.
And thats the problem really. Its not that easy to assimilate. I hightly doubt the new flux of immigrants will integrate well even in 1 or 2 generation (thats 50 years of time also, time by which a lot of us will be dead or too old to care)
Jamminatrix wrote:
Offredo does not give a description in his Facebook post, which is the source for this story. Do you have a reliable source? What is your reason for wanting the information included?
yourealwaysbe wrote:
Very convenient the assailants description – of migrant origin – is completely ommitted from almost every news article, just as Le Pen gears up for runoff…
— yourealwaysbe Offredo does not give a description in his Facebook post …— Jamminatrix
Were you born yesterday?
Do you think it wise for anyone with a public profile to ever make any refererence to minority ethnics that might possibly be construed as being negative?
Valbrona wrote:
Maybe they should sign up for an anonymous account on a – say – cycling forum, and make those references there…
Valbrona wrote:
or how about making up your own facts when actual ones are not available to you? It might be a “migrant”, it might not, from the description of the incident it sounds like a classic road-rage incident. Since this is clearly reckon-time, my reckon is that it’s not a “migrant”, but an entitled driver of a fast car who felt they were being held up
but that’s only my reckon. It could be a jealous husband, Russian car driver who just got a “Stop a Douchebag” sticker, anything. All just worthless speculation, including yours
Valbrona wrote:
?
So, because he didn’t say “I was attacked by someone who was clearly a nineteenth-generation Frenchie” the obvious subtext that we should read into it – and, indeed, everything that any prominent person with a “public profile” ever posts online – is that “it were immi-, imme-, forrin scum wot dun it”, right?
Jamminatrix wrote:
Yes, I’ve tried really hard to find more details but failed. I’d love to know where you found the extra detail which Offredo himself hasn’t even given, but which you’ve just added to this story? Perhaps you should be adding your insight on another website?
StantheVoice wrote:
+1
but well done in trolling the thread
Jamminatrix wrote:
I am a longtime reader of road.cc. I typically come by to read a bike review or about some shifters or something…
I’ve never had a user account but I felt compelled to create one based on the infuriating comments on this article.
The fear mongering insinuation that migrants were behind the attack is ridiculous. How thick headed do you have to be to think that such arguments can hold water?
I grew up riding road and mountain bikes in Colorado, one of the most cyclist friendly states in the US. Nevertheless, I’ve still had friends have guns pulled on them by angry drivers. Working in bike shops and being part of the cycling community I saw instances of friends in the community being attacked and harassed by drivers.
You could literally just take a quick spin on google and see unfounded your “criminal migrant” insinuation is. A couple of years ago a cyclist was shot and killed by an angry driver in Iowa. Hell… you can get beat or shot over a parking spot (and I can assure you that the person’s ethnic background has nothing to do with their propensity towards violence).
So please, if you’re going to be ignorant and biased and hateful… keep it off the bike websites… we are here to read about bikes and bike-related stuff… Furthermore, do us all a favor and go read a book, go travel and meet people from different backgrounds. Use your ability to think critically just a little bit more please…………..
France is now having its
France is now having its moment of self induced madness. Conflate anything you want into this.
This was a clearly hate crime
This was a clearly hate crime, targeting an outgroup – cyclists – and someone frequenting this page, presumably a cyclist themselves, has the gall to bring their own hatred of a different outgroup into this?! Go chew on some cyanide you sick Nazi fuck!
userfriendly wrote:
A) It is terrible either way, but it could have just been bikejackers or (what’s unfortunately) standard issue road rage.
B) The suspect’s description is not clear and of no particular interest to me, as I can do nothing to help find them. But it’s ommision does seem to provide a sort of Streissand effect, if this isn’t the norm in France. Which it may be. YMMV.
C) Way to go on the anti-hatred campaign. Your words are surely helping make the world a better and more tolerant place.
Carton wrote:
Oh for f-…
Sure, because what’s really helpful is to mollycoddle on obvious racist. We wouldn’t want to hurt his delicate feels.
If you think intolerance should be tolerated too, you don’t get the concept of tolerance.
userfriendly wrote:
Well I’m off to France next
Well I’m off to France next week and I have no qualms whatsoever, the chances of stuff like this happening is as rare as rocking horse shit. friends saying OMG you’re going to France, what about the terrorism, and I’m like, yeah, what about the terrorism on the roads daily.
I remember as a young squaddie when the IRA were still in full on mode, I was only 6 months in and 11 soldiers were killed by a bomb whilst inside their barracks in Kent, the following summer 3 young lads were only 12 weeks in and were shot at point blank range waiting for a train for weekend leave, one died and two survived and again we were told to be extra vigilant.
between 1969 and 1997 there were 656 British soldiers killed and almost as many civilians in terrorist acts by the IRA, but still this pales into insignificance almost to deaths and serious injury caused by the real terrorists.
being smashed in the face/knifed is no laughing matter but again the chances of it happening on the roads on a bike are so remote as not not give it any thought.
What isn’t so remote are the 3000+ deaths on French roads every year (twice the UK rate) with cyclists faring slightly worse than their UK counterparts, the French government has it hand though they’ve forced motorcyclists to wear gloves, children to wear plastic hats and considered reducing rural roads from 90 to 80km/h, because that’s worked, twats.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
Erm – I think the IRA did count as “real terrorists “…
brooksby wrote:
I think B.T.B.S. was making the point that as a threat to the average person in the street, Daesh, Al Q and their like have nothing on good ol’ fashioned terrorists like the IRA whose level of carnage in turn pales into insignificance next to the deaths and injury of ICEiS (Internal Combustion Engine is Supreme).
CygnusX1 wrote:
I know, fair enough, and I do agree with the point. If the same effort was put into making cars safer for people outside the car as for people inside the car, the world might be a better place.
(It just riles me a little that the IRA is seen to have faded into history and become rehabilitated as ‘freedom fighters fighting for peace’ or some such horrocks).
On your post, I think the same comment has been made on ‘number of civilians killed by avowed terrorists having refugee or minority ethnic status in the US’ vs ‘number of civilians shot by their dog in the US’ or something like that.
brooksby wrote:
Real terrorists on the roads, incidents like the one here isn’t that common and terrorism in general does not affect people on bikes whilst on the roads, well I can’t recount any terrorst incident targetting people on bikes. The ‘real terrorists’ comment is meant to reflect how we as people who ride bikes are directly affected by, unless you know differently.
And given i was around when the IRA and other groups around the world were in full flow I think I know that the IRA were terrorists and there’s no way I will forget their dastardly deeds, just that they and other groups didn’t specifically target people on bikes, unlike the group of people that kill over a million more than terrorists groups have every single year, let’s call them ‘motorists’.
IRA murders 1,300
Road ‘deaths’, or manslaughters in most cases, over the same period, over a 100,000 people. Even with improved vehicle design and medi care the last 20 years has seen 54,073 people killed by the terrorism on UK roads.
At the time of the troubles who presented the greater chance of death, an attack by the IRA or an attack on the roads? What about now?
All clear now?
Think France is safe? Check
Think France is safe? Check out the “antifa” anarchists setting fire to anything they can, including the police. Check out “policiers en colère”, cops protesting because they’re sitting ducks, routinely attacked with molotovs while their administration lets them do nothing to defend themselves. Don’t want this to be the dialog? Then they need to come clean on who the attackers were, otherwise I think it’s a safe bet why they won’t.
Don’t dilute or befuddle a
Don’t dilute or befuddle a very important point.
the point being made that our reaction to an event is out of scale to its impact – thousands die at the hand of careless/dangerous drivers our reaction and spend in reaction to this is tiny especially when compared with the frankly tiny effect of the awful terrorism employed by the likes of the IRA. The publicity given to these people is what they wanted and was effective. If society reacted in the same way when someone is killed by a driver who has no defence e,g, the recent civil case, with the same level of horror then we would change things.
fotbthe family and friends left behind the tragic killling of a loved one is not lessened by the manner of the death. We should as a society react as strongly to a fatal RTA as we do to one by a nutter or terrorist and look to fix the problem to prevent it happening again.
FatBoyW wrote:
this whole point seems a bit befuddled…
the state supports both the motor industry and the military invasion of other countries – in both cases thousands have died and in both cases there have been protests against these by minorities, which have been largely ignored – clearly the scale of horror has no bearing in standing in the way of “progress”
How about ‘degenerates try to
How about ‘degenerates try to steal pro’s bike’ as the headline? I’m pretty sure if you went through some of the scummy, mainly white areas of Leeds on a 10k bike then you’d get the same result.
I’m always amazed at the lengths that criminals go to, to be criminals. I saw one of those traffic police programmes and these scumbags were out at 3 in the morning doing a grand tour of sheds and garages. Just apply the same motivation to getting a job?!?
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
Seconded. You’d also think that a legal job wouldn’t be as hard work as doing a night shift of thievery…
brooksby wrote:
Seconded. You’d also think that a legal job wouldn’t be as hard work as doing a night shift of thievery…— Yorkshire wallet
Agree with the sentiment but it’s probably impossibly hard to get a job with a criminal record and barely literate, which is what a lot of hardened reoffenders are. I think all prisoners should be made to work while in prison so they can have employable skills on leaving, and the work they do in prison should be non paid with all profits going to the running of prisons and courts, as part of their repayment to society.
First, thankyou to those who
First, thankyou to those who put my point about the car killing and society so much more eloquently.
Seconded. You’d also think that a legal job wouldn’t be as hard work as doing a night shift of thievery…
— brooksby Agree with the sentiment but it’s probably impossibly hard to get a job with a criminal record and barely literate, which is what a lot of hardened reoffenders are. I think all prisoners should be made to work while in prison so they can have employable skills on leaving, and the work they do in prison should be non paid with all profits going to the running of prisons and courts, as part of their repayment to society.— Yorkshire wallet
I often wonder at the creative energy some people put into criminal activity but a return to prison labour I think would not be good – if you mean skill ’em up and create work opportunity ideally with a direct crossover to the outside AND let offenders see/attain their rewards in a well funded rehabilitation programme then I would agree.
rliu wrote:
Seconded. You’d also think that a legal job wouldn’t be as hard work as doing a night shift of thievery…
— brooksby Agree with the sentiment but it’s probably impossibly hard to get a job with a criminal record and barely literate, which is what a lot of hardened reoffenders are. I think all prisoners should be made to work while in prison so they can have employable skills on leaving, and the work they do in prison should be non paid with all profits going to the running of prisons and courts, as part of their repayment to society.— Yorkshire wallet
Well, how about
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39653431
“Another key policy at Timpson is to hire people who have a criminal record, with 10% of its 4,700 employees having served time in prison.”
Apparently Timpson make a point of hiring ex-cons. And who wouldn’t want an ex-con cutting your keys?
wear cameras on your helmet
wear cameras on your helmet or attach to your bike… put one on your helmet and observe how much different people act when they realize they are no longer anonymous. stateside… people slow down, some wave, but most suddenly remember how to drive. Sometimes, i don’t even turn on my camera… and it can have the same effect. not going to stop every crazy person, but might make them think…
From CyclingNews:
From CyclingNews:
“I was training with two colleagues in the Chevreuse Valley when a car came roaring very close past us. Suddenly the driver braked with the intention of making us crash,” Offredo explained in a team statement.
“I wanted to talk to the driver, but he was ready to get out of the car with a cutter blade. In reflex, I blocked the door of the car. Then his passenger got out of the car and picked up a baseball bat from the boot [of the car]. With that he hit me, and afterwards, he head-butted me.
Another forum:
“M DS • 11 hours ago
So, it seems that one of the guys Offredo was training with is a journalist and a former pro -Guillaume Judas (formerly of the Jean Floch team). The thing actually took place near Paris -so much for my unkind words about Provence’s motorists. Judas posted this on a French forum: “I’m OK and so is the other guy. Yoann isn’t. We’re shocked, we were going through some place where the speed limit is 30 kph and still we nearly got run over by some speeding car. Tempers flared, the guy stopped his car right in front of us and then he got out with a cutter and a baseball bat just to show us who’s in charge, I guess. Still, what pissed me the most is that afterwards a couple of so-called ‘witnesses’ told the gendarmes that, basically, we were just asking for it…”
http://www.cyclingnews.com
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/offredo-i-was-attacked-while-training/