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New Forest rider and pony (CC licensed by iNew Forest:Flickr)New Forest Authority claims cyclists poo on village greens
Defecating on village greens, racing on the public highway and shouting abuse at anyone who gets in their way. Those are the latest accusations levelled at sportive riders in the New Forest at a meeting of the National Park Authority.
According to the Southern Daily Echo, National Park Authority member Maureen Holding, the Conservative member for Brockenhurst and Forest South East on New Forest District Council, said: “I was driving through Brockenhurst at 30mph and was overtaken by cyclists.
“Police say the events aren’t races but the riders are timed and given gold, silver or bronze medals according to how fast they went.
“Some of them go very fast and it’s only a matter of time before an old person is hit by a cycle.
“I’m not anti-cycling but these big, money-making events are getting out of control. The problem has not been managed, it’s simply being looked at in retrospect.”
Martin Barden of UK Cycling Events, which organises sportives in the New Forest on behalf of sponsor Wiggle, told road.cc: “It once again feels like a few anti-cyclists trying to stop cyclists enjoying their pastime. They believe the New Forest is an extension of their back gardens rather than a National Park which was set up for everyone to enjoy.”
UK Cycling Events recently announced that numbers in its sportives would be reduced by 20 percent, the event HQ would be moved outside the park, the number of morotcycle marshals would be increased and the events would be routed away from very narrow lanes and hotspots where conflict had previously occurred.
Deputy chairman of the National Park Authority Oliver Crosthwaite-Eyre said cycling events were causing “enormous upset” in the Forest because of the speed and behaviour of riders and the frequency of events. Mr Crosthwaite-Eyre is President of the New Forest Association and Vice Chairman of the New Forest Trust.
David Harrison, Liberal Democrat Hampshire County Councillor for Totton South and Marchwood and National Park Authority member criticised the “anti-cycling” posture of some of his colleagues.
He said: “We should be actively promoting and supporting responsible cycling, a much enjoyed, largely peaceful activity that’s a positive for the Forest, not a negative.”
Peter Roberts, chairman of the New Forest Association, said that a complaint had been lodged with police that sportive events were causing a public nuisance.
He said: “The activity is clearly a race, either against the clock or fellow competitors – whatever name is given to it by the commercial organisers.
“A complaint has been submitted to the police regarding public nuisance.”
Chief Inspector Tony Rowlinson of New Forest police said the complaint was being investigated by a senior officer.
He said: “The prosecuting authority is the Crown Prosecution Service and we will look to them for a steer.”
Martin Barden of UK Cycling Events said he had not yet been contacted regarding the investigation.
He said: “I am not aware of the details of the investigation, but we provided clear guidance on how riders should ride considerately and provided four rest stops all with toilet facilities on the route.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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51 comments
Lighten up fella. Can't you see it's just light-hearted banter treating this ridiculous accusation with the disdain it deserves?
There are perhaps two places in Brockenhurst where it's possible to get up to 30mph or more on a bike but it's the cars that will be overtaking you...
The guys is obviously an idiot.
The local paper's report on this story about the Wiggle Sportive had photos of riders on mountain bikes carrying rucksacks; the report of defaecation was based on someone finding faeces and toilet paper on the green at Wood Green.
I suppose on an mtb with a rucksack you might not complete the course within your Bowel regularity schedule.
So you can have roadies that are too fast, or gringos that are so slow they need to stop to park their breakfast........I have reported this thread to Ray Davies and the Village Green Preservation Society.
Struggling to find that article... anyone got a link?
In the mean time I can merely speculate:
Step 1 - Faeces and Bog roll found on village green
Step 2 - "I was really annoyed by those cyclists recently, it must have been one of them"
Step 3 - "Those cyclists are all the same mindless scum, they must all go around shitting where they like"
On a lighter note, observations of a friend recently:
"Someone needs to invent quick-release bibshorts."
"Get dressed for riding, have breakfast, walk out the door - hang on, I'll just have a shit before I go - get almost totally undressed to do so. Its a right bind"
I do hate those in cars, who go so slow they stop me riding at full pelt anywhere!
30+ mph .... gods how i wish i could .... then I woke up !
I heard strava are working on a new sensor so you can record how many times you take a dump on a ride
Can we get this organized? Everyone we know with a bike down to the New Forest for a ride (rather than a sportive) one weekend and shit on every village green we see. We can take tents and free camp too so that we avoid contributing to the local economy of these ignorant fuckers and piss them off some more.
I don't think it's that simple. When i 'go', I 'go'. Granted the saddle is great for helping to 'hang onto the contents', but staccato defecating would never be my strong suit. Maybe we could do a count down the line at the start, 1,2,34,5,1,2,3.4,5..,
Total waste of police resources! Taking a dump on an open village green. Most of these 'guilty' cyclists will need to take off their jersey before having to drop their bib shorts this is difficult enough in a cubicle let alone in full view of all and sundry. As for the 30mph+ cyclists get their names and have them signed up to Sky or some other pro team.
It does look like the wealthier residents getting a little indignant at the hoi poloi turning up on bikes and inconvieniecing them.
However I'm no fan of sportives and paying to ride a bit of road I can ride for free always seems like a rip off tbh, especially when hey make dubious charity connections.
I suppose they serve a purpose of getting new riders into the sport but also I can see how they could be annoying and as often money making ventures using public infrastructure some perhaps should be regulated.
As long as a distinction can be made between commercial events and club rides etc.
It sounds like those who are complaining are so full of shit they have to explode somewhere and the village green is as close as they get to their home address!!!!
Why don't they just live and let live!!!!!!
Anyone comment on how many sportive's there actually are ?
ive seen alot of horses shitting on village greens, and the roads of the new forest are covered in ponies feces. Ive just looked at the OS map of Brockenhurst. Considering the contours, I find it difficult to believe that cyclists would be going at over 30mph down the main road, and impossible to believe they would be achieving that speed through the town. Furthermore, i would hope that such a responsible pillar of the community as Ms Holding would be curbing her speed well below the limit in such a built up area.
How many people have been killed or seriously injured by bicycles in the new forest? how many have been killed or seriously injured by motorised vehicles? Do the maths, you ignorant, blinkered idiots.
I have to say folks, I think this time they may have a point.
I mean come on, be honest, who hasn't shat on a village green during a sportive?
Ha ha ha bloody hippies pooing everywhere and using other means of transport than a Land Rover they ought to be shot and fed to pigs. I hope their flares get caught in their chain and they come off their horse killing bicycles.
I did the offroad London to Brighton this september and found that having a colossal dump on every village green on the route really helped my power to weight ratio on the last big hill near Brighton.
I punched the vicar and violated a few farm animals too, just to uphold our reputation.
driving at 30 and overtaken... hmmm... do i believe either of those statements....
fucking tory mp's
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