Just when it seems British Cycling is winning, this happens.

tgaparsons

Out for a ride this morning and towards the end, my route coincided with the final hill of a charity ride. http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/74657/Cycletta-South#gmap_container
The hill is about as serious as the Chilterns offers and was closed to traffic - a great idea. Many many riders were off and pushing, but the atmosphere was great, with lots of encouragement and cheering from the sidelines.
At the top, the charity riders turned right, and i turned left to make my way home. Negotiating the bollards, a British Cycling Steward said to me "Looks like you dont understand what "Closed Road" means." Of course I do - closed to traffic. No, it means closed to everything except cyclists in this event. Sorry - even as a cyclist, I cant ride up with the others? No, its a closed road and thats the law!!
Unbeleivable. In spite of the cheering and positive family atmosphere, I wasnt supposed to be able to join in.
How sad. On the continent it would NEVER have happened, in fact there would have been "Allez courages" from all the Stewards as well as the crowd. Such a jobsworth attitude is outdated and has no part to play in British Cycling. I wasnt confrontational, just made my opnions known.
I'd love to hear from someone in British Cycling about this, I took down his name and would love to see him booted out.
Allez Courage to all the riders, Illegitimi non carborundum to the rest of us...

spen666

proving cyclists ar as ignorant of the law and as selfish as motorists

acidstrato

marshalls are volunteers of the event..usually members of the community or club/organisation running the event.

BC dont select marshalls

get wise mate

dilemna

Marshals do not have the power to stop traffic. You could have just ignored him and ridden on.

dilemna

spen666 wrote:

proving cyclists ar as ignorant of the law and as selfish as motorists

And grumpy miserable old lawyers who can't spell and make sweeping generalisations ............ I wasn't aware that being selfish indicated an ignorance of the law or that selfishness was an offence, unless of course you know different Spen ............... .

mouth

So a road had been closed to allow some people who had raised some money for charity and you felt that even though you hadn't done this you were entitled to ride up the closed road as well? I'm with the marshall on this one I'm afraid. Makes me think that if I decided to run along the streets of London on marathon day and tag onto the back of the 'peloton' (unsure of the correct word in running, pack maybe?) I'd probably be asked to leave the course.

Unsure of the legal aspect of the ride being closed and you not being allowed to ride it, but morally if you haven't paid your dues (raised money, paid entry fee etc) then you're very wrong.

P_Tucker

Simple solution here:

"are you a policeman?"

"no"

"well f**k off then"

spen666

Imagine that it was a motorist that was ignoring the marshalls etc

you'd all be taking a different attitude towards op then

MarcBC

Mouth wrote:

So a road had been closed to allow some people who had raised some money for charity and you felt that even though you hadn't done this you were entitled to ride up the closed road as well? I'm with the marshall on this one I'm afraid. Makes me think that if I decided to run along the streets of London on marathon day and tag onto the back of the 'peloton' (unsure of the correct word in running, pack maybe?) I'd probably be asked to leave the course.

Unsure of the legal aspect of the ride being closed and you not being allowed to ride it, but morally if you haven't paid your dues (raised money, paid entry fee etc) then you're very wrong.

+1

elmsallmissile

Don't know about cycle marshals, but I marshal for the Isle of Man TT and I have a warrant card signed by the Chief Constable giving me all the powers & responsibilities of a police constable for the duration of road closure.

ex-pat scot

cycle marshals have no stop powers in England.

spen666

elmsallmissile wrote:

Don't know about cycle marshals, but I marshal for the Isle of Man TT and I have a warrant card signed by the Chief Constable giving me all the powers & responsibilities of a police constable for the duration of road closure.

The IoM position is different o England

The IoM position is IMHO a sensible and practical approach

Pross

ex-pat scot wrote:

cycle marshals have no stop powers in England.

I think a few forces have delegated some powers to accredited marshalls as have the Welsh forces.

Wheelie Bin

I'm with Mouth (and possibly others... I've not read all the posts).

He was right to stop you. I assume a lot of people paid to enter that event and in exchange for the money they raised for charity and the effort they put in (especially on that final climb) they get the road to themselves... what makes you feel they should make an exception for you?

There's a sense of pride and camaraderie in any charity event and if I were part of one (or a spectator) I wouldn't want someone tagging along who hadn't earned the right to be there.