Sabotage at Étape Caledonia

unionman

Carpet tack protesters halt Étape Caledonia cycle race

Peter Walker and Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 May 2009 17.23 BST

One of the UK's most popular long-*distance amateur cycle events was brought to a sudden, if temporary, halt today after protesters spread carpet tacks over sections of the course, *puncturing hundreds of tyres.

Tayside police were investigating the "reckless and irresponsible" stunt, which saw the Étape Caledonia, an 81-mile *charity ride around Pitlochry, Perthshire stopped for about 90 minutes so the tacks could be swept from roads. Organisers said they found out what had happened when a number of riders in the leading group reported getting punctures on a hilly section about halfway through the course.

The race was subsequently resumed and most of the 3,700 riders finished, although about 500 received punctures from the tacks, among them the *eventual winner, Veli-Matti Raikkonen. "As far as we know, no one came off their bike because of a puncture and there were no injuries. But to it could have potentially been very much worse," said Tricia Fox, a spokeswoman for the race organisers.

Apparently the work of a residents group 'against closed road events'. Read more here

Slideshowbob

unionman wrote: »

Apparently the work of a residents group 'against closed road events'. Read more here

shocking carry on

was it a race or sportive event?

DirkVoodoo

Its interesting that a lot of the protest is directed towards the "negligible" benefit of the event to the local economy.

Surely 3,500 people descending on Pitlochry (first time I ever heard of it) for a day or two looking for food and accomodation would provide some cash for the town. At least the record sale of carpet tacks has made the local hardware store a bit of money surely?

Plus it's only one day! One day of inconvenience to get a bit of attention for your town and raise money for charity.

Really stupid thing to be doing anyway. dangerous and stupid.

mikemac

3,700 riders plus support and friends and family.
That kind of number brings huge money to a town.

No doubt some of the residents will be complaining to their elected officials they need more jobs and more investment.

That race might move elsewhere next year, possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds now lost to Pitlochry. Roads are only closed for one day from what I can see, not for days and days

ROK ON

I was in a bike store on Saturday, when the owner was explaining to a mother and her teenage boy that race circuits in Ireland have often had to be changed at the last minute due to protests by the locals. He said it is more and more common. He mentioned a case whereby a resident in a particular area took a court injuction out against a cycling club over the proposed holding af a club league race.

I guess that society is becoming more and more intolerant of , well society.

I have only been at 2 sportif's thus far, and I would say that the local community were out in force and made the day what they were. Hopefully this behaviour will not become more prevalent in Ireland. Local communities should realise that a sportif is a reasonably rare event: it is not like there is several thousand cyclists rolling past your front gate every weekend. Surely as some poster said, the tourist benefits would be considerable.

paddy's hill

1998 Tour de France. Dublin chamber of commerce complained about the loss of business due to closed roads in the city center. This was reported all over the world. There are towns and cities in Europe that would practically kill to get the tour and that bunch of idiots had it handed to them and complained, it's is probably the main reason that the Tour will never be in Dublin ever again.

neilled

paddy's hill wrote: »

1998 Tour de France. Dublin chamber of commerce complained about the loss of business due to closed roads in the city center. This was reported all over the world. There are towns and cities in Europe that would practically kill to get the tour and that bunch of idiots had it handed to them and complained, it's is probably the main reason that the Tour will never be in Dublin ever again.

That lot are the biggest shower of tossers ever and always have their hand open looking for pre-emptive compensation. Sure whey whined and moaned the whole time during the Luas construction about the "damage" done the their trade, forgetting about the hundreds of thousands of customers it it has brought in a fast safe and comfortable manner, every single week since it has opened to them. And this was back in the day of the celtic tiger when they were merrily shafting customers for every cent the could wring from them and being miserly with their staff.

That Rally of Ireland thing yoke used to pass my house a fair bit in the past. We never complained about it - even though there were noisy rally cars, rednecks/hicks/petrolheads sitting/standing in our garden wall, - it was one day a year, they were entitled to their day out. It brought badly needed trade into our county - my uncle owns a restaurant in town - lots of hungry rally fans in there eating after the morning stages, local bn'bs, hotels having booked out due to guests, the local spar with the deli counter selling extra breakfast rolls, i mean the list goes on.

Ultimately the locals in this case are nimby's who would cut off their noses to spite their faces.

scottreynolds

neilled wrote: »

rednecks hicks petrolheads nimby's

Love it....


Regarding the throwing of tacks its appauling. Everyone seems to want to defend there own turf. Roads are publib and not owned by anyone this kind of cral is annoying. Cycling on roads in the UK seems to be slowing getting kicked into a corner. Pretty soon riding is groups of 5 or more will result in criminal fines.

ednwireland

its actually a closed road sportive, which seems to be the main reason for the complaints (and one of the main reasons it gets so many riders)
seems that theres a lot of people retiring up there and we know what their like.
pathetic really, cant understand the mindset of someone who wont acoomadate something like this once a year and then go out and ruin it. you want to have a wrc event to see real road closures. plenty of people complaing about having the roads closed for half of sunday.
mind you on the 60k tour of sligo we closed the roads by having a couple of hundred cyclists on the road for the first few miles.

big thread on bikeradar forums, there seenms to be those who will never be back and those who see it as a challenge.

hope we never see it here but as someone said plenty of people objecting to events already here.

neilled

scottreynolds wrote: »

Love it....


Regarding the throwing of tacks its appauling. Everyone seems to want to defend there own turf. Roads are publib and not owned by anyone this kind of cral is annoying. Cycling on roads in the UK seems to be slowing getting kicked into a corner. Pretty soon riding is groups of 5 or more will result in criminal fines.

Pretty apt description for them - lads from the country side who've grown up salivating over the max power school of motoring, driving bangers in fields since they were 14. I went to school with some of them - some sound lads all the same, however crude an unsophisticated when they're perched on your garden wall!

The point being, afiak I detest the culture that they love, the souped up cars etc - however they are entitled to "take part" in their sport. In their case its by spectating because the cost barrier to active participation is much higher than doing an etape. The "Road Tax" argument is a not an argument, but even in this case its cancelled out by the amount of serious bike bling that can be seen on these events - if people can afford the flashy bikes you see on some of those events, chances are they can afford and do pay for a car as well. This is incredibly short sighted on the part of the tackers. Any goodwill generated by the race - eg "oh err this is a nice part of the world. Perhaps next X(insert appropriate holiday break) i'll take the partner/kids/parents up here for the weekend" will be gone and people will be determined either neither to come back, or spend a penny in the area.

ednwireland wrote: »

seems that theres a lot of people retiring up there and we know what their like.

Don't get me started on wrinkly's who move into an area and think because they own a particular house, that they own everything around it. I've seen them give out to a local school taking kids up a public path because of the "noise" and "disruption" that they' were supposedly causing. The school had been providing for the community they had moved into long before they arrived.

CheGuedara

What a rediculous situation. If they lost the revenue generated by the event they wouldn't be long changing their tune.

There's a big letter to the UK Health and Sport minister here (http://blog.commentonline.co.uk/) - apparently on the day the ACRE leader will miss giving a 'conducting and singing' lesson as a result of the road closure (tragic I'm sure) - bet it's the source of all the hassle.

And the address to send your punctured tubes for compensation is

ACRE Campaign
C/o OffiZone
Kenmore Street
Aberfeldy
PH15 2BL

Chips Lovell

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

At least the record sale of carpet tacks has made the local hardware store a bit of money surely?

Not to mention record sales of inner tubes.

victorcarrera

Would'nt the tacks also puncture the residents car tyres also?
It could get out of hand if a "tit for tat" scenario developes wherby militant cyclists dispense tacks after events in troublesome areas.
Might be a great opportunity for and ad for Slime tube protection though.

Raam

Why do the roads have to be closed? Is there that many cyclists taking part?

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

Why do the roads have to be closed? Is there that many cyclists taking part?

That's the way it's always been. One of its main draws is that it's on closed roads, so you get more people doing it as it's the only one of its kind in the UK

paddy's hill

All sportives in France are on closed roads without any trouble. But thats a civilized country.

niceonetom

CheGuedara wrote: »

There's a big letter to the UK Health and Sport minister here (http://blog.commentonline.co.uk/) - apparently on the day the ACRE leader will miss giving a 'conducting and singing' lesson as a result of the road closure (tragic I'm sure) - bet it's the source of all the hassle.

Norman Beedie. Even his name sounds mean and self-righteous and griping.

Mountain Goat

Hi! I participated in the Etape Caledonia- and despite attempts to ruin the event; I have to commend the patience and understanding shown by all participants (while enduring a 90min wait to reopen event)- and of course, not to forget the welcome and encouragement that locals showed us on the route. The whole matter was dealt with very efficiently by race organisers. However, unfortunately, as a result, it meant that the main climb of the event was far too crowded (as the race had restarted some few km before the climb) and bordering on dangerous as cyclists were passing out on left and right without looking or looking behind on what is a relatively narrow climb. Definitely feel that closed roads are needed for an event of this size because majority of the route is very narrow in places. A cap on numbers is needed should they decide to have an open road.

All in all- a very scenic, not too challenging route and well organised event. See stats on the event: http://www.etapecaledonia.co.uk/

short circuit

Next time roads in phoenix park are closed due to a running event, I need to think of some way to sabotage this ... after all its usually on a weekend, fairly early and disturbs my training schedule.

I can't believe the organisers have the nerve to close the roads for 2 hours .... what are the footpaths for if not for runners .. have the event there ....

Junior

Tayside police have charged a 62-year-old man in connection with the sabotage of the Etape Caledonia cyclo-sportive in Scotland on Sunday.

The man, who hails from the Rannoch area, is suspected of spreading tacks on the road, leading to a temporary stoppage of the 81-mile Perthshire challenge ride.

Hundreds of riders suffered punctures as a result of the sabotage, and many had to pack up after running out of spare inner tubes in the £54-per-head event. None of the 3,500 participants were hurt in the incident.

The man is due to appear in Perth Sherriff Court on Wednesday.

Link

Serves the idiot right..

victorcarrera

Junior wrote: »

Tayside police have charged a 62-year-old man in connection with the sabotage of the Etape Caledonia cyclo-sportive in Scotland on Sunday.

..

Ach the auld vets up to their old tricks again. You couldnt be up to them. Thell do anything to win, even the sportives.

Signal_ rabbit

I was there too, a superb event even though some numpties tried to ruin it. I got 2 punctures along that stretch but there was others with 3 or 4 punctures and one fella with 6! Can't work out what their problem is as its 4 hours on a sunday morning once a year, the revenue last year was half a milllion, this year there were more people so what's the problem. And its a worthwhile charity too.