Tack sabotage attempt on Etape Caledonia cycle race

An attempt to disrupt a cycle race by spreading tacks and drawing pins on the road has been described as “reckless and completely irresponsible”.

Police said metal screws and staples were also found on the road prior to the start of the Etape Caledonia cycle race in Highland Perthshire.

It is the only bike race in the UK where all the roads are closed to other traffic during the event.

The 81-mile charity ride was disrupted in similar style in 2009.

On that occasion hundreds of the 3,500 people taking part suffered punctures to their tyres.

Police said that this time the event was not disrupted.

One cyclist, who was not connected to the event, suffered a puncture.

The debris was discovered between Weem and Strathtay.

Tayside Police said: “This attempt to disrupt the event was reckless and completely irresponsible and it is fortunate that no injuries were caused.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13404042

Its a real shame that some of the stuck up arses who live round that area think that they are so special that they think they can spoil it.

Strange. The previous “protestors” agreed to suspend all activity until after this years event as then 5-year contract would then be up for renewal and they would argue against that. I suspect this is more likely to be the work of some neds/chavs thinking it would be a bit of a larf.

hopefully they are found and adaquately punished this time ….. attempted murder should do it …. maybe detere the **** from doing it again – and before you say its not …. consequenses could have ammounted to the same as the giro.

shame as by all acounts its a great event – im just too tight to pay for what are effectively local roads…..

Did it ever come out why the last perp never got done?

Freemasons?

connections …..without a doubt. smelt fishier than a fish factory full of month old fish – even from here !

My bet would be neds too.

Do you get neds up there?

ill speak to my cousins up there – they are about that age ….

good thing about neds is they are stupid enough to brag about it to their mates 😉

Neds are everywhere. They don’t need to be local neds. They have shitty modified cars which allow them to blight every corner of the land with their neddery.

Maybe they’re angry because cyclists don’t pay road tacks.

I’m sure they’ll someone to pin the blame on tho.

Maybe they’re angry because cyclists don’t pay road tacks.

Boom boom! 🙂

Theres a closed route Etape in north wales on 9 October 2011.

http://www.etape-cymru.co.uk/

It uses the roads near LLandegla, the Horshoe pass and Worlds End.

See you all there.

’twas a good event – not sure my arse or legs agree though.
Only saw one incident and that was someone who overcooked the schehallion descent and ended up in an ambulance – healing vibes to you.

Are the roads closed for just one day?

I don’t think it’s even a day- just a few hours.

Why are they so angry? What reasons have the people against it given?

I was up in the area 2 years ago when the first Tack Attack happened, my then gf was riding the event.

The reasons given for not wanting closed roads are just bobbins. It’s a small bunch of NIMBY’s complaining that they can’t get to church or the shop. The road closure is about 6hrs at most.

Road closures happen every weekend all over the UK for all sorts of reasons – marathons, 10km run (Manchester today), festivals (Notting Hill), even roadworks and people cope. But cos it’s cyclists, the NIMBY’s get all in a tizzy. Hope that whoever put those tacks there gets caught. At least it didn’t disrupt the event, about the only good thing that came of the sabotage 2 years ago is that they do a thorough check of the course now.

Chunky – not sure, although an inability to get to Church has been mentioned in the past.

I had a weekend in Pitlochry as a third wee stag with my 5 best mates 5yo,it is FULL of neds.(esp during holiday season) The common thread with us has been rugby, we all played prem 1 standard in Scotland,and as such none of us are wee,and all have interesting noses, yet we were offered “outside now ” by two local young lads in their late teen wearing the uniform of Scotius Nedicus.It would appear we were staring at them.
Contrast that with the nimbys, the main excuse was Church,however the local vicar had planned an evening service instead that day.The next attempt was shopping….apart from a paper,WTF do you really need Sun am from a tiny wee shop that cannot wait till noon? (they roll the road open again)The last guy owns the laundrette on the corner of the main road…The address was commonly posted last time.When the police decided they had not enough evidence to proceed you should have seen him go, threats of suing,vindicated by court etc, Chugger!
I would not be surprised if is nor somebody from the same group again as their website gives an insight into how bitter and twisted they are (very). Dunno if neds give enough of a crap.

The couple of times I rode it, there was a guy who would sit at the side of the road with a sign up complaining about how it was affecting his business , which as already said was on a sunday … go figure.

As already said, its NIMBY people …. many of whom, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were oot-siders of the area, have spent their retirement money on a place up there, and now dont want anyone else to come near them.

The road closure is a rolling thing and is not for the whole timeframe of the day. its opened as soon as the last bike comes through … and considering there is a sweep wagon, its not that long in the grand scheme of things.

I would not be surprised if is nor somebody from the same group again as their website gives an insight into how bitter and twisted they are (very). Dunno if neds give enough of a crap.

Neds will shout/swear/throw things if a cyclist comes past. But actually doing anything that involves planning, buying screws/tacks etc, going out and scattering them is usually far too much like hard work for the average ned.

It’s a real shame cos it’s a lovely area and most people are very much in favour of the event.

Pathetic, sadly i suspect it isn’t neds, its just the same local protestors as other years, as crazy legs says this needs planning and i’d suspect that outside of the cycling and local anti-cycling groups no one is aware of the dates – certainly not your average ned/chav.

Even a closure of a couple of hours seems to drive GB’s car-bound morbidly obsese wild – I ran in the Eastleigh 10k this year and some residents drove their cars into the main pack of runners (at low speed to be fair) beeping their horns and swearing despite the race lasting about 90 minutes all in with rolling closures and the closure notices having been up for months beforehand. Police ended up having to intervene as one knob actually pulled across the road and blocked off the route with his car. Saw 5 cars ignoring the closures during my run and I was in the quicker half of the field, it was apparently worse at the back.

There was some old bloke shouting about the road being closed for 45 minutes at the CRC Marathon in Ruthin North Wales last year, seems the cretins can crop up everywhere.

The event seemed to go really well yesterday and I hadn’t actually heard about this until after I finished.

I agree that it doesn’t sound like the protestors again, they would’ve got up early on the day, they would also probably have used one type of tack (unless they had a whip round before hand so it couldn’t be traced who’d just bought hundreds of takcs). Sounds to me like kids have got hold of what they can from around the house and done it for a laugh, ar$e$.

Wonder if B&Q in Perth alerts the police everytime someone buys loads of carpet tacks on the run up to May!!!

They obviously didn’t get all of them I punctured just past weem, to say I was pissed off would be an under statement It was on to beat last years time by about 30 mins.

my buddy double punctured just before the sharp right hand into climb – same one that catched most folk out …. wasnt tacks though

some fuddstick came up the inside of him and overshot the junction forcing him over a sunken drain

Strangely enough my mate punctured in Strathtay on Saturday afternoon.
Was behind a nasty looking crash between two people just before Weem on Sunday, had to take evasive action into the verge.

I live on the route so get most of the gossip/info.

The police did get the guy who almost certainly did the tack thing two years ago (at-tack?). He is a solicitor and ex church elder, so probably has “friends”. Apparently didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. He lives along Loch Rannoch hence the location of the tacks on the Scheihallion climb.

The tacks this time were a totally different area, apparently drawing pins, not tacks and was almost certainly done by the local neds. It’s walking/cycling distance from the centre of Aberfeldy.

The crash on the Schehallion descent was pretty nasty and involved serious head injury. Was helicoptered to hospital. Here’s to a full and speedy recovery.

I wanted to emphasise again that 99% of the local people, including the local businesses, agree that overall the Etape is very good for the local community and want to see it kept in place. Unfortunately the guy who runs the anti action group is a total idiot, out of tune with the rest of the community, but does run the local joke rag