Italian track rider Simone Consonni’s world championships was brought to an abrupt end on Tuesday morning, after a cyclist on an e-bike collided head-on with him and teammate Francesco Lamon as the pair enjoyed a leisurely spin along the River Clyde on one of Glasgow’s cycle paths.
Consonni, an Olympic gold medallist in the team pursuit in 2021, suffered a broken collarbone and wrist in the crash, while fellow team pursuiter Lamon escaped with just a few minor injuries.
The e-bike rider, meanwhile, reportedly fell into the river following the collision, which occurred close to the Italian team’s hotel near Glasgow’s Exhibition Centre.
Cofidis rider Consonni, who picked up a silver medal earlier this week after riding the qualifying stages of the team pursuit alongside Lamon, Filippo Ganna, and Jonathan Milan, was due to line up at the start of the points race this evening, the final session of the track events at this year’s inaugural multi-discipline UCI Cycling World Championships.
He was spotted last night by road.cc at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome sporting a heavily bandaged left wrist and with his arm in a sling, and it was later confirmed that he had sustained a broken right collarbone and a broken left scaphoid when the e-bike rider hit him head on.
> Cyclist suffers serious head injuries after crash with e-bike rider in Glasgow
“I wanted to do two hours to stretch my legs ahead of tomorrow,” the 28-year-old former world champion said last night. “Francesco and I went out and we got on to this narrow cycle path, with this blind left half-turn, and this other cyclist on an e-bike was coming from the other side, with panniers, carrying quite a bit of weight.
“I tried to avoid him by turning to the left but from what I remember he hit me on the right shoulder with his helmet. I did some x-rays, my collarbone is slightly chipped, the left scaphoid is broken.”
After watching the racing from the stands yesterday evening, Consonni, who was ruled out of Italy’s team pursuit final defeat to Denmark due to a “bit of flu”, will now return home to be treated by his national team’s medical staff.
Members of the Italian team have confirmed that the incident was not reported to the police, and it appears unlikely that they will seek to press charges against the e-bike rider.
22 thoughts on “Glasgow e-bike rider crashes into Italian pros on cycle path, falling into river and ruling Simone Consonni out of world championships”
Sounds maybe like where the
Sounds maybe like where the “cycle route” by the Clyde by the Broomielaw goes under the Glasgow Bridge or King George V bridge – by the railway bridge. Completely useless path for anything but tootling at walking pace and best generally avoided.
By sounds of it, neither the e-bike rider nor the Italians were at tootling-along pace.
It says clearly in the
It says clearly in the article that it was by the SECC.
Broomielaw isn’t far from the
Broomielaw isn’t far from the SECC. Those bridges are the nearest blind spots on that cycle track that I can think of.
I’d bet it happened somewhere
I’d bet it happened somewhere in this area:
That’s very near the SECC,
That’s very near the SECC, but it’s not blind at all. Plus, the cycle path goes straight there – only the the road that kinks (with good visibility, and not near enough to Clyde for anyone to fall in really).
As per my reply to the other reply, where the path goes under those 2 bridges is the nearest spot I can think of that has blind bends – also very narrow there. Fairly poor standard part of the route, not really suitable for cycling faster than walking speed.
About 100m East and 200m west
About 100m East and 200m west of the Bells Bridge there are spots where the path turns away from the river. Visibility isn’t great at either of those – although no problem if you slow down a bit and are paying attention. That the collision was sufficient to send the e-bike rider over the barrier into the river suggests there must have been some speed involved…
Looks like quite a big drop
Looks like quite a big drop over the barriers into the river too.
HoarseMann wrote:
It is!
Wots this!? A cycling helmet
Wots this!? A cycling helmet breaks the bones of a cyclist, perhaps two!!? Time they were banned for the dangerous things they are.
If the mental states of all concerned were to be examined at the time, I’m sure it would soon be discovered that they were all going too fast for the conditions because they believed that in any crash, “a helmet will save my life”.
Did the e-bike rider’s polystyrene hat save him from drowning in the river he fell into by acting as a float?
Cugel wrote:
I can’t wait for Road.cc’s float test of current bike helmets
Great daily mail esc headline
Great daily mail esc headline, careful you don’t get headhunted
check12 wrote:
Agreed, where is the fact that it was an e-bike relevent. It’s two cycles, one or both of which were likely traveling too quickly, coming together on what is probably a typically crap piece of infrastructure.
It’s actually not a bad path.
It’s actually not a bad path. I used to use it all the time – but people riding it too quickly or on the wrong side are things I could definitely imagine happening.
It could be relevant.
It could be relevant.
E-bike riders are still quite often elderly people who are not always very confident on their bikes, and not really skilled/experienced enough for the higher speeds you easily reach with an e-bike.
To a lesser degree this also goes for many younger e-bike riders, and here in The Netherlands there’s also youth who ride like crazy on their (often souped up) e-bikes.
Sredlums wrote:
Youare confused about the e-bikes. They’re only e-bikes up to 15.5mph, after which they’re an ordinary bike, sometimes a very heavy one that’s difficult to get to go a lot faster than when the engine is helping (only up to that 15.5mph, I repeat, in case you missed it).
Souped-up e-bike? Not really an e-bike then but a motorbike.
Now, about this age thing ….. In my 74 years of contact with the humans, I’ve noticed that they can be divided into all sorts of classifications, some meaningful in various contexts (but not others); some not meaningful at all.
One class differentiator is the degree to which a human is considerate of the other humans (and other things, like hedgehogs and drystone walls) or nor considerate. When one juxtaposes this classification on that for age, its noticeable that the considerate and inconsiderate humans are more or less the same proportion in every age group.
Of course, its often nice for a certain kind of thinking to have nice stereotypes concerning, say, older folk, younger folk and even folk who are pink rather than yellow. Sadly these stereotypes often prove to be worthless because they fail to reflect anything real in the world, other than the fact that many humans enjoy their baseless prejudices. 🙂
Leaving aside that E-bikes as
Leaving aside that E-bikes as a category do not exist in the UK, we don’t know whether it was a legal EAPC or an E-motorbike.
Nor do we know that the ‘he rode into me’ story from the pro-cyclist is an accurate report.
“press charges”
“press charges”
Is this what happens under Scottish law ?
“Press Charges” is when the
“Press Charges” is when the SNP want to stop a story
.
Reflecting, as it is an
Reflecting, as it is an injury collision, is there not a legal requirement to report it to the police?
Interesting question. Does
Interesting question. Does the RTA cover cycle paths?
It does cover cycle paths,
It does cover cycle paths, but I think the requirement to report relates only where a mechanically propelled vehicle is involved – s.170 RTA 1980. Mechanically propelled vehicle doesn’t seem to be defined, but it seems to exclude pedal and ebikes.
There are some serious sharp
There are some serious sharp turns with steep ramps where the riverside route goes inland just West of the hotel plus the sharp non radiussed turns where both bridges abruptly butt into the line of the cycle route. To claim it is ‘designed’ is stretching the imagination – this was not the route we used when the route opened in 1988 with a ride in from Balloch to SEC
Sinec this is on private land there might be a case to highlight this as a RIDDOR with HSE who might look at a reports & recommendations
From my own experience the arrangements for several locations on the cycle routes through SEC campus do not look clever from a full risk audit perspective, hence for speed and comfort I’ll often use the carriageway pavement, and I built several parts of this route 1985-1995