A former Scotland and British Lions rugby player who now hosts a show on BBC Radio Scotland has revealed how he was pelted with eggs by a car passenger as he cycled home from work in Glasgow yesterday.
John Beattie, aged 60, posted a video to Twitter in which he revealed that he’d not only taken a note of the vehicle’s make, but also its registration.
I’ve got the car make, the colour, the reg number, and the stuff the passenger covered me with when I cycled home. Mmmmm what to do, what to do.
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 4, 2017
What he did, after encouragement from his followers on the social network, was report the incident to Police Scotland, according to The Scotsman.
Anyway your honour it was eggs they got me with pic.twitter.com/g6Q9md6x8t
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 4, 2017
He said: “I was a wee bit unsteady, I got angry and chased them a bit, but I couldn’t catch them.
“At the time I thought it was an apple or something. I got back home and thought it was bodily fluid or something.
“I had a shower and went back and there were two or three eggs at least. One had hit me and the others had shot past me.
“There was a bit of yelping and laughing, but I didn’t see anybody.”
He continued: “I’ve reported it. I contacted people on Twitter and there was one who had a friend who had been blinded. And there was taxi drivers saying they get it a lot.
“So I thought I better report it. “I don’t know what they’ll be able to do because no-one has been identified, they’ve only got the car reg and there’s no second witness.
“But I’ve reported it, so that it’s a statistic of a cyclist being hit by eggs.”
It’s the first such incident the former flanker and number eight, who commutes by bike daily, has encountered.
“Most drivers are great,” he said. “They let you in, they wave you in. Taxi drivers, delivery drivers, they are all brilliant.
“My commute has been a non-event until this, but it’s one really random event. “I believe in peace on the roads. Most people are brilliant.”
He acknowledged he was lucky to escape without serious injury, tweeting a link to a road.cc article from last year about a cyclist in Berkshire who sustained a serious eye injury when a car passenger threw an egg at him from a car.
I was lucky by comparison https://t.co/OVmMVmPYty
— John Beattie (@BBCJohnBeattie) December 5, 2017
Beattie won 25 caps for Scotland between 1980 and 1987, when his career was cut short by injury, and also toured South Africa and New Zealand with the British Lions.
He is now a writer and broadcaster focusing on sports including rugby union and also presents a lunchtime talk show on BBC Radio Scotland.
Simon has been news editor at road.cc since 2009, reporting on 10 editions and counting of pro cycling’s biggest races such as the Tour de France, stories on issues including infrastructure and campaigning, and interviewing some of the biggest names in cycling. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, his background has proved invaluable in reporting on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, and the bike industry. He splits his time between London and Cambridge, and loves taking his miniature schnauzer Elodie on adventures in the basket of her Elephant Bike.