The Etape Caledonia, an 80 mile race around Perthshire and one of the most popular events on the UK cycling calendar with 3,500 riders taking part, was thrown into chaos by a deliberate act of sabotage.
Someone, as yet (but hopefully not for too much longer) unknown, covered part of the route with carpet tacks in an attempt to cause multiple punctures and stop the race. The saboteur is presumed to be one of the minority of local residents who object to the closure of roads in the area for the duration of the race.
Sky newsreader Dermot Murnaghan was taking part and was quoted as saying:
I got my first puncture at the bottom of the big climb. I managed to change it but then got another puncture 200 yards later. It was chaos. I’ve been training six months for this and then some moron goes to a hardware store and gets a load of tacks, ruining a glorious event.
This was an insanely dangerous, stupid, small minded and wrongheaded act, and entirely the wrong way to object to the staging of any event. I used to live on part of the road course used by the Ulster Grand Prix motorcycle race, and while it was a pain every year when the roads were closed for the few hours of the race, I got over it and I would certainly never have dreamed of trying to cause the riders to crash by way of protest.
The tacks were dropped on a fast section of the course. Crashing off a punctured bicycle at 30mph (a speed relatively easily achieved in a race or downhill situation) is going to cause serious injury to the rider. Didn’t the tack dropper(s) see the television adverts showing what happens when you hit a pedestrian with a car at 30mph?
Police are investigating the incident and race organisers said they had a “positive line of enquiry”. I hope they get their man.
Update: Looks like they have!
I have nothing eloquent to say about this but: FFS!
Throw the book at ‘im, guv! Yes, the one covered in carpet tacks.