Protesters put an almost hour-long halt to today’s UCI Cycling World Championships men’s road race in Scotland, blocking the road – with one reportedly cementing their hand to the surface – and forcing the riders to stop eighty kilometres into the route between Edinburgh and the finishing circuits in Glasgow.
As the riders entered a hilly section of the route between Bonnybridge and Lennoxtown, approaching Crow Road, a strong nine-rider breakaway containing Great Britain’s Owain Doull and Ireland’s Rory Townsend was stopped with 191km remaining due to the protest.
A group of chasers and the main peloton (who, of course, were unable to be informed in advance due to the lack of race radios at the world championships) were also stopped as the race organisers dealt with the incident which, according to GCN-Eurosport commentator Adam Blythe, involved one or more protesters “cementing their hand to the road”.
Environmental group This Is Rigged have claimed responsibility for the protest and said four of its activists were involved. Police Scotland also confirmed that five people were arrested after the road was cleared.
This is Rigged recently targeted the Scottish Parliament and the Grangemouth oil and gas petrochemical plant, the largest manufacturing site of cycling team sponsor Ineos.
In a statement, one of the protesters, 21-year-old Cat, said: “The fact that Ineos has been allowed to sponsor a team in the race around the Campsie Fells – which were engulfed in wildfires last month – is a disgrace and an insult to the both cycling community and the people of Scotland.
“We cannot continue with business as usual while our country burns and our futures are ruined. Time is of the essence and we need to act like it. The Scottish government must stand up to Westminster and oppose all new oil and gas, and implement a fair transition now.”
In the wake of the sudden race stoppage, Police Scotland confirmed that it was “aware of a protest in the Carron Valley area” and “officers are currently in attendance and engaging with protesters”.
Images circulating also appear to confirm that the protest involved cement, as officers took over half an hour to remove the protesters and begin to clear the road.
The UCI said it was “working closely with all relevant authorities to minimise disruption to the race and also to ensure the safety of riders as our paramount concern”.
UCI President David Lappartient also told the riders that, while the bunch could be swiftly rerouted to allow the race to restart, the lengthy delay owed to the fact that it would prove much more difficult to reroute the event’s vast cavalcade of motor vehicles, including medical and emergency personnel.
The neutralisation was eventually ended at 12.15pm, over fifty minutes after the riders initially stopped, with the groups heading back up the road according to their corresponding time gaps before the protest halted the race.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that climate protesters have put a stop to a major cycling race by blocking the road.
Just last year, activists from the French environmental campaign group Dernière Rénovation staged two protests at the Tour de France.
The first, on stage 13, saw EF Education-EasyPost’s Alberto Bettiol stopped in his tracks by a group of protesters who sat tied to each other across the road, blocking the race’s path, while setting off flares.
The protest, which forced the stage to be paused for over ten minutes, was quickly claimed by Dernière Rénovation, who accompanied a photo of the demonstration on their website with the caption: “Non-violent disruption is our last chance to be heard and avoid the worst consequences of global warming.”
Some of the eight protesters also wore t-shirts with the slogan “We have 989 days left”, in an attempt to highlight the urgent need for governments to act on the climate crisis.
39 thoughts on “UCI Cycling World Championships road race stopped as protester reportedly “cements hand to road””
Looking forward to the Daily
Looking forward to the Daily Mail et al coming to the defence of cyclists held up by a climate protest…<taps fingers>…<whistles>…<looks at watch>…
For the record, I’m all for More Of This Sort Of Thing – as our collective governments aren’t taking the future of the planet anywhere near seriously enough. There’s no cycling on a dead planet.
Plus pro cycling is addicted to Big Oil’s money no matter how dirty/bloody it is, so is totally fair game.
KiwiMike wrote:
Indeed – if we’re lucky we’ll be dead of weather directly (felled by a blown-over tree in it’s tit-for-tat upon the humans) or quickly drowned in a flood of raindrops dumped on the flood of humans by Mummy Nature as she deals with the plague proportions & predelictions of we two-legged rascals.
But if we’re unlucky it’ll be a long drawn-out demise full of angst and suffering in one or another Mad Max style worlds following the breakdown of the larger economic systems including the food supply, a really savage pandemic or Pukin setting off some really bad bombs. Inerich oil billionaires will attempt to hide in New Zealand or some other bolt-hole but will minced by events anyway.
*************
Personally I stopped watching so-called “professional sport” decades ago because it isn’t sport but just another circus in which we not only pay to get in but have the circus performers doing their antic to sell us loadsa stuff – just another armature in the vast consumer-producer madhouse. Now they also pollute and nuisance wantonly as well.
Still, many enjoy fiddlin’ as their local Rome catches alight.
KiwiMike wrote:
That’s a tough call. Do they hate cyclists more than they support the oil companies?
Maybe as more and more places feel the initial effects of our climate catastrophe, more people will feel the need to make a stand against Big Oil and the many organisations and politicians that have been bought by them.
I look forward to the day that a politician stating that they’re on the side of car drivers (and thus against pedestrians and active travel) and licencing more oil drilling, will be the complete end of their career. Unfortunately, it’ll require people to stop believing MSM narratives and to look around themselves.
DON’T LOOK UP!
KiwiMike wrote:
It won’t be the planet that dies, although it may be humanity. And if that happens it’s because we deserved it, no more, no less.
It’s a weird kind of arrogance to assume the human race is necessary, or even desirable, to the health of Earth. We shall probably become just another species that couldn’t hack it when things got tough.
And in any case, in a couple of billion years our galaxy will collide with another and there won’t be any walking wounded when that happens.
It’s being so cheerful that keeps me going.
The point is surely the mass
The point is surely the mass extinction event we are causing, rather than the fate of the planet itself.
mike the bike wrote:
It won’t be the planet that dies, although it may be humanity. And if that happens it’s because we deserved it, no more, no less. — KiwiMike
Exactly. The planet will be fine, just different. And unless we start build space arks pretty sharpish, we (humanity) won’t be around to see it.
KiwiMike wrote:
Probably something along the lines of what Graham Simpson, the Scottish Conservatives net zero and transport spokesman said:
“It’s utterly nonsensical for a group which claims to stand for environmental protection to target an event promoting active, green travel like cycling – and raises a huge question mark about this publicity-seeking group’s true motives.”
You heard it here first – pro-cycling is a promotion for active travel.
With the protest splashed
With the protest splashed over most media outlets I’m reminded of the one of the final scenes in the film ‘Misbehaviour’ when the Keeley Hawes character comments on the protesters interuption of the 1970 Miss World contest being on the front page of all the newspapers “…clever girls”. A good Sunday’s work by the protesters I’d say.
Fully supportive of such
Fully supportive of such action; solidarity to the protests. Those riders and cyclists who understand why such actions are neccesary and how utterly twisted it is that companies are allowed to greenwash their way into sport whilst creating an unihabitable world for the rest of get it; welcome to the right side of history.
Just read the commuting
Just read the commuting article which is all about reducing ecological impact. The racing of bikes seems not to follow the same principle. I suspect history will be on the protestors side.
Thanks for the custom length lasers over the years Ryan.
levestane wrote:
The idea that pro cycling is an environmentally friendly sport is pure fantasy.
And it’s a lie that it promotes active travel.
Certainly most of the riders we watched today will have flown to Scotland, will be put up in hotels and transported here and there before and after the race. When riding the course and other training they will have been accompanied by a team car.
As mentioned above: “UCI President David Lappartient also told the riders that, while the bunch could be swiftly rerouted to allow the race to restart, the lengthy delay owed to the fact that it would prove much more difficult to reroute the event’s vast cavalcade of motor vehicles“. Also those roadside barriers, the km to go banners, the finish line trucks and the huge compound of TV equipment don’t get delivered by cargo bike (I vaguely recall a statistic of 4 miles of cables at a typical TdF stage finish?).
The average WorldTour rider has a pretty hefty carbon footprint but the team’s collective impact goes far beyond that. Some of the bigger teams have more than 50 staff, many of whom will travel to training camps and races. The team buses consume many litres of fuel, even when at a standstill. DSes seem to drive the team cars like lunatics during every race, 250+ km in low gears with lots of sharp acceleration and braking must make for horrendous mpg figures and very short tyre life.
There are a large number of police escort riders, press and TV motorbikes that move up and down the race, multiple TV helicopters and a high altitude plane that sends the mobile TV images to the broadcast feed. There are usually additional helicopters used to fly guests to and from locations along the route.
I noticed a comment during today’s race about how the team cars would be unable to get to riders with a mechanical issue due to the narrow, twisty nature of the circuit and a very strung out peloton. Surely this would be an ideal opportunity to dispense with them completely; scrap the whole ‘get a bike off the roof’ caper; put team helpers with wheels around the circuit and replace the team cars with a much smaller number of neutral support motorbikes. If your bike breaks then tough luck. Perhaps it would be an incentive to make components more reliable and for every bike to have a chain catcher.
.
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Power to the protestors ✊
Power to the protestors ✊
Powerdrill to the protestors,
Powerdrill to the protestors, best way to remove their weak little hand from the concrete.
Good to have Ned on the BBC.
Good to have Ned on the BBC.
He has done his building up to an ad break thing a few times.
Race was inconvenienced by a legitimate and appropriate protest.
Will we look upon these protestors as hero’s in a few decades, especially if they do a few months in prison?
Heros? Are you serious? If
Heros? They are hypocrites, they live in centrally heated houses, many own cars, some even have been photographed arriving at demonstrations in diesel SUVs and they will all have mobile phones, which, apart from the precious finite resources, have components made from the oil industry.
But how else will we get to
But how else will we get to Zero…?
ktache wrote:
Legitimate and appropriate? Imagine if everyone decided to protest,
The riders were stopped for nearly an hour, this impacts literally everyone along the route – the spectators that have travelled and waited to see the riders, the transport they may have booked home, the broadcasters, the teams and riders particularly – how on earth is it vaguely reasonable to protest in such a way?! Not to mention using cement, which has already been covered below.
As for calling them heroes…
Well this escalated quickly..
Well this escalated quickly…
Without oil and gas what else
Without oil and gas what else does Scotland have? It’s vital to the economy. Yes, we need an alternative but what? Second of all, cement! Really? It’s actually one of the worst pollutants the planet endures. Way head in terms of plastics. If I was feeling mean I’d leave the person cemented and have a think about what they have done. No water, food, a place to pee and all overnight …. then arrested.
boardmanrider wrote:
Yes quite, so the argument for an independent Scotland couldn’t be any weaker, and surely the Scots should be happy that the conservatives have passed the new O&G licenses then too.
boardmanrider wrote:
Indeed. The thing with that though is our bigger neighbour doesn’t *even* have oil and gas but they seem to be doing so well they’re keen to prop up Scotland, apparently at great cost to themselves. Hmm…
I’m not an economist but what Scotland does have is *water*, which may prove to be more of an asset than a (tourist) liability in the near future. Especially if we burn all that oil and gas!
chrisonatrike wrote:
— chrisonatrikewhat Scotland does have is *water*— boardmanrider
Being essential for life, water is an asset anywhere. Fortunately Scotland’s sole neighbour has enough water to meet its own needs for the foreseeable future.
Dnnnnnn wrote:
Shurely “southern neighbour” (according to these folks)?
Dnnnnnn wrote:
However, now that our water is run purely for profit, it seems that we just dump sewage into rivers and the sea. Probably not as good for life as it once was, but seems that we value profit over life.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Getting rather off-topic here but that’s an issue of waste water management, rather than clean water supply. The former is clearly inadequate, whereas the latter is more than adequate in both volume and quality.
Nationalised Scottish Water has a much more effective approach to managing sewage overflow – they just don’t monitor it.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23532003.scotland-shockingly-behind-england-monitoring-sewage-releases
Dnnnnnn wrote:
Yeah, I don’t have any problems with our water supply, but it’s the same company that deals with our sewage. Having a monopoly service owned by a purely for-profit company is obviously an atrocious idea as can be seen with the water companies being saddled with huge debts so that people can grab some “free money” at our expense.
hawkinspeter wrote:
However, now that our water is run purely for profit, it seems that we just dump sewage into rivers and the sea. Probably not as good for life as it once was, but seems that we value profit over life.— Dnnnnnn
Anyone see this one over the weekend?
Dozens fall ill after Sunderland triathlon, health chiefs confirm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-66421422
brooksby wrote:
Yeah, I don’t think we’re doing well in our stewardship of the environment when people can’t even swim in the sea without swallowing a bit of sewage.
Dnnnnnn wrote:
Doesn’t Scotland’s sole neighbour import water from Scotland, to meet its needs?
Paul J wrote:
— Paul Jwhat Scotland does have is *water*— Dnnnnnn
Being essential for life, water is an asset anywhere. Fortunately Scotland’s sole neighbour has enough water to meet its own needs for the foreseeable future.
— chrisonatrike Doesn’t Scotland’s sole neighbour import water from Scotland, to meet its needs?— boardmanrider
No. Why would it?
http://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202200317330
boardmanrider wrote:
Lots. O&G is certainly important but a relatively small part of the overall economy, and much smaller than in the past (figures jump about due to price fluctuations but the 21st century trend has been significantly downwards).
I’m curious, what else is
I’m curious, what else is there?
boardmanrider wrote:
http://www.lmgtfy.com ?
O&G (and whisky) apart, it’s not very different to England.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Scotland
boardmanrider wrote:
Haggis?
boardmanrider wrote:
Hydro and wind, in abundance.
Than them they were
Thank them they were enthusiasts trying to fix the potholes!
Just in case anyone hasn’t
Just in case anyone hasn’t seen the latest Jonathan Pie
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8Y_0rjKfyzw&feature=share
IanMK wrote:
I’m not a huge fan of Jonathan Pie as his rants can get a bit too shouty, but that one is bang on the money.