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news
Menin Gate, Ypres (CC licensed 3.0 on Wikimedia Commons by Johan BakkerCyclists in Belgian race fined for urinating on Menin Gate memorial to Great War dead
Five junior cyclists taking part in a race in Belgium are to be fined for urinating on the Menin Gate in Ypres, one of the best-known memorials to British, Irish and Commonwealth casualties of World War One.
They were taking part in the GP André Noyelle yesterday, which preceded the UCI 1.2 Kattekoers race between Ghent and Ypres, reports FlandersNews.be.
Race organiser Bart Vannieuwenhuyze said that those participating in the junior race, allowed to start at the memorial to mark the centenary of the start of the Great War, had been warned beforehand to respect their surroundings.
“We briefed the team leaders clearly that urinating on the Menin Gate would not be tolerated.
"This time we were given special permission to start our race at this symbolic spot as it is 100 years since the beginning of the Great War.
He added: “We can’t let this lie, as we would like to start the race at the Menin Gate again next year.”
Opened in 1927 and owned and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate commemorates 54,896 members of the armed forces for whom no known grave exists.
They were among some 300,000 British, Irish and Commonwealth troops killed in the Ypres Salient during the conflict.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
Educate them as to the significance of what the memorial is there for and the suffering that people went through also as well as a fine that they or their team may pay they should have been disqualified and sent home in disgrace.
Farrell, I am going by the FACTS as reported ie the very first paragraph.
"Five junior cyclists taking part in a race in Belgium are to be fined for urinating on the Menin Gate in Ypres"
Fluent in Flemish then?
Also, it isn't "FACTS", it's just part of a report which may or may not be accurate.
"I DONT KNOW ANY OF THE FACTS BUT LET ME TELL YOU DEATH IS TOO GOOD FOR THESE SCUMS!!
Or,
Have these lads been clocked pissing up the actual memorial or is it, the more likely scenario in my mind, in the grounds surrounding it?
I would have done more than fine them!
My family has two "names" on the menin gate.
I appreciate that you are rightly offended and upset by their actions.
But what *exactly* would you do to them? Bearing in mind that the implication here is that they are children, albeit older children.
Pissing on a war memorial is so utterly bloody offensive that I don't care if you're a junior cyclist or not. My son is a junior rider and if he did something like that I'd first have his guts for garters and then I'd start looking at the job I'd done bringing him up and ask where I went wrong.
Fine them and DQ them.
I hope young British rider Jake Coward wasn't one of them. This year this promising junior is racing for a Belgian squad with support from a CTT scholarship. Blog entries to date:
http://www.ctt.org.uk/News/tabid/58/itemid/3538/Default.aspx
http://www.ctt.org.uk/Home/tabid/36/itemid/3542/Default.aspx
There may be more pressing affairs at hand. Uganda for example. Very important this time of year, Uganda.
Ugandan affairs will always be prioritised; its a rule of politicking
Johnny Foreigner + War heroes + cyclists = perfect Daily Mail fodder.
Quite, was wondering if there was perhaps a "patriotic" MEP who spends a fair bit of time in Brussels the DM could get a quote from? Drawing a blank at the moment though ;0
No, I can't think of any frog-faced plane-crashing xenophobic buffoons either...