Novak Djokovic (licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 by Christian Mesiano).jpg
World number-one men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic has been banned from cycling on the grounds of the Wimbledon Championships by the site’s owners – for safety reasons.
According to Mail Online, an official at the All England Club told the Serb not to ride his bike around the grounds after he was nearly involved in a collision with a supply vehicle last week while training for the event, which starts today.
The newspaper said that Djokovic uses bike rides around the complex as part of his training “because of its steep slopes,” although we’re guessing he’s not attempting to ‘Everest’ Henman Hill.
He was reportedly told not to ride around the grounds for his own safety, with the official also concerned that as well as potentially putting him out of the tournament, a crash could also lead to legal proceedings.
The 29-year-old was said to be unhappy with the ban, since he was not breaking any regulations, although a spokesman said that while the AELTC was in favour of cycling, that it did not encourage it during Wimbledon Fortnight itself or in the build-up to the Championships.
Djokovic, winner of three Wimbledon men’s singles titles, has started his title defence today against unseeded Briton James Ward, and with the Serb taking the first set 6-0 it seems a more familiar type of Brexit is on the cards this afternoon.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.