James May forced to complete charity cycle in car after “busting wrist” in bike crash – and drives into bollard

He may be best known to the masses for appearing on television behind the wheel of a fast (or moderately fast) vehicle, but driving turned out to be a booby prize for James May this month, when he was forced to revert to his motoring past during a recent charity cycle – after “busting” his wrist in a crash while riding his bike in London.

Not that the former Top Gear presenter fared any better when he returned to more familiar ground, revealing that, while following the fundraising ride in a car, he drove straight into a bollard.

May, a lifelong cyclist who appeared on road.cc’s Drink at Your Desk series in May 2022, was riding his bike near Hammersmith Bridge earlier this month when he fell off, injuring his wrist.

> James May: “I can’t stand road sectarianism – it’s all b*llocks”

At the time of the crash, the 61-year-old was gearing up to take on a three-day cycle organised by classical music company Armonico Consort to raise funds for dementia charities.

The cycle challenge, which May was planning on riding alongside the Armonico Consort’s singers and wine writer Oz Clarke, his co-host on BBC2’s Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure, took place between 15 and 17 October in Warwick, and saw the group ride around 35 miles a day, while stopping to perform mini-concerts in pubs, cafés, and care homes for people living with dementia.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Armonico Consort (@armonicoconsort)

As part of their fundraising efforts, Clarke and May also teamed up to sign the saddle of an E-Champ e-bike, worth around £10,000, which will be raffled off on 12 November.

However, May’s cycling plans – as well as his piano-playing accompaniment during the concerts – were brought to an abrupt halt by his crash in London days before the event, forcing him once again behind the wheel of a car.

“I’m taking part in a charity bicycle ride today, with the Armonico Consort and me old mate Oz Clarke (OBE),” the broadcaster tweeted on the first day of the three-day cycle last weekend.

“But I’m going in the car, because I bust my wrist in a bicycle accident.

“I was supposed to accompany the musicians upon the piano, but now can’t. I’m expected to join in the singing. Avoid the area.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Armonico Consort (@armonicoconsort)

In photos posted by Armonico Consort during the cycle, May can be seen nursing a heavily bandaged hand, which he told the Telegraph was taking much longer than expected to heal.

“At my age, this sort of thing takes much longer to heal,” he told the newspaper.

“I woke up one day and the one thing I never thought would happen had happened: I felt old. It’s partly my hair; my baggy face.”

The former Grand Tour host may have been safer cycling with an injured wrist, however, considering his experience while driving behind the riders.

“Charity cycle ride update,” he tweeted. “Drove car into bollard. Sang very badly. Got a bit syncopated in the Black Horse, Moreton Morrell.”

Proper Top Gear, that.

> James May rubbishes "nonsense" ideas to regulate cyclists in response to fatal collision

Despite the often controversial public utterances of one of his old co-hosts, May has long proved an ardent supporter of cycling.

In 2020, he urged the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “bomb us with bicycles,” pointing out that the £80 billion budget for the HS2 railway line would be enough to buy “every adult in Britain a carbon-frame bike.”

Last January, the man known as Captain Slow during his Top Gear days voiced his support for introducing 20mph speed limits in urban and residential areas, which he believes is “plenty fast enough”.

May also argued that a “change in attitude”, rather than new signage or infrastructure, is key to ending road sectarianism – something he famously described as “bollocks” while appearing on road.cc’s Drink at Your Desk the year before – and earlier this year spoke out against what he described as “nonsense” measures to strictly regulate cyclists.