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Female cyclist sprayed with beer and verbally abused by men blocking cycle pathWhitworth Road Swindon (Google Maps Street View)

Female cyclist sprayed with beer and verbally abused by men blocking cycle path

The cyclist was left shaken by the incident involving a group of men who police believe may have been involved in criminal damage and an assault earlier on Friday afternoon
by Dan Alexander
Mon, Feb 07, 2022 11:45
2

A lone female cyclist was verbally abused and sprayed with beer by a group of men blocking a cycle path in Swindon.

The woman in her 50s was subject to crude comments from the men, described as white and in their late 20s or 30s, and sprayed with beer by another during the frightening incident on Friday afternoon.

The rider was left shaken, and police now believe the same group may have been involved in criminal damage and potentially an assault on the same road earlier in the afternoon.

The Swindon Advertiser reports the woman was cycling along Whitworth Road in the north of the Wiltshire town between 3pm and 4pm when she was stopped between the junctions with Haydon View and Mendip Close.

Police said the men walked off shortly after but may have been involved in earlier incidents as well.

Officers ask anyone with information to come forward, including anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have been targeted.

Anyone with private CCTV, video doorbell or dash cam footage which could help is asked to call 101, quoting reference 54220012595.

Swindon
Dan Alexander

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

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2 comments

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jh2727 | 2 years ago
6 likes

Just as an aside - there doesn't appear to be a shared use path there. The linked article says they blocked her "path on a cycle route".

I suppose it is a cycle route, in that it is a road. I can't help but think they saw the dashed lines of the parking area and they confused it for a cycle lane. Maybe the staff at the Swindon Advertiser, like many motorists, cannot distinguish between cycle lanes and parking bays - and perhaps don't even realise that there is a distinction.

Regardless, it sounds like a horrible assault, I wish the police luck in their endeavours.

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matt_cycles replied to jh2727 | 2 years ago
0 likes

I can confirm that there is no cycle path on that route, just a standard path and also, it is very much in a rougher area of Swindon where the men are likely to be from.

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