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Cyclist and London buses (copyright Simon MacMichael)Cyclist beaten up after his hi-vis vest gets mocked
A Hampshire cyclist who remonstrated with a gang of people who poked fun at the high visibility vest he was wearing was left with a broken nose after they attacked him – with one woman hitting him in the face with a full vodka bottle.
Anthony Stokes was riding to his home in Southsea following a night out when some people starting making fun of his hi-vis clothing at around 1.10am on Friday 5 June, reports Portsmouth News.
He stopped to speak to them but says he hadn’t realised how many people there were, and was then subject to a brutal assault.
“Six people were kicking me down the street,” he said. “I just went into the foetal position, I was thinking ‘this is going to hurt’. It felt like a lifetime but it was only 20 or 30 seconds. What surprised me was just the viciousness.”
He said that the abuse he received before the attack “was very derogatory. There were six people and I didn’t realise. I got a bit of lip and my biggest mistake was stopping and defending myself – it wasn’t a fair fight.”
Two other men intervened, bringing the assault to an end – but not before the woman hit him with the bottle.
“Luckily I had a helmet on and it caught me underneath it,” recalled Mr Stokes, who also suffered cuts and extensive bruising during the attack.
“It was quite vicious. If those two guys hadn’t interjected I would have been a lot worse. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Portsmouth News says that he described three of his assailants to police as follows:
- A white woman in her early 20s with permed black hair, wearing a leather jacket and white leggings with gold trim.
- Another white woman in her early to mid-20s. She was stocky with brown hair styled in a bob. She had a red sunburnt complexion and was wearing a grey jacket.
- A white man in his mid-to-late 20s, who was 6ft tall with facial hair on his chin. He was wearing a blue baseball cap with red trim and a Nike logo. He was wearing a red rain coat.
The attack on Mr Stokes comes as police further along the South Coast, in Brighton, investigate a series of incidents in which tripwires have been set on bike paths, resulting in several cyclists being injured.
One local sustainable transport expert said he suspected that media-driven anti-cyclist sentiment may be to blame, and Jon Spencer, the chairman of Portsmouth Cycle Forum, agrees that bike riders are often singled out.
He said: “We’re portrayed as doing something strange or different and it doesn’t fit, in some people’s eyes. This sort of behaviour is what that kind of attitude leaves you with.”
He continued: “I hope it doesn’t put him [Mr Stokes] off riding his bike because obviously there are health benefits to riding a bike. He was wearing the right thing to be wearing at night.”
Hampshire Constabulary say that anyone with information regarding the assault on Mr Stokes should contact PC Samantha Hockley on 101, or the charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
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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40 comments
' I didn't know quite what to say, given that my ligths were clearly on the handlebars and merrily flashing.'
the thing to say is thus 'sorry, I'll switch them to constant mode. Then you will have a better chance of seeing me'
I usually have one flashing and one constant, though I didn't on this occasion...
Ride on, avoid at all costs...
#BloodyCyclists
"Anthony Stokes was riding to his home in Southsea following a night out"
Perhaps his judgement was temporarily impaired?
Never been to Portsmouth and don't see any reason to do so any time soon...
Do not argue with idiots.
They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
They beat him with a bottle.
The problem here is excessive alcohol, not cyclists in the media.
Agree this is a bit tenuous. I reckon this is just symptomatic of our glorious UK drinking culture. .......Seriously save yourself a kicking and just ride on.
Portsmouth - charming place and people not. Avoid.
"wearing a leather jacket and white leggings with gold trim." - and she had the nerve to criticise someone wearing a hi viz vest???
What?! No helmet debate?
Portsmouth at 1am? What did he expect? I'd stay clear in daylight.
I'm just picturing the woman with the perm, leather jacket and white leggings with gold trim clutching her vodka bottle......class!!!
Mate, in Portsmouth those ones *are* the classy birds.
I'm expecting a photofit of Matt Lucas.
Not quite accurate, but....................
Lucas.jpg
Britain - the greatest place on earth.
Chairman of Portsmouth Cycling Forum is a hivis apologist?
Agree that the only daft move was stopping to argue with drunks but really that shouldn't lead to an assault.
Shame the pedestrians didn't have number plates, eh? Then they'd catch them. After all, you never hear of motorists doing hit and run attacks.
What do you mean by that?
Hi viz was a perfectly reasonable choice of outside wear in the circumstances. I wouldn't necessarily go that way myself but nor would I endorse assaulting someone who does. And that's coming from someone from Portsmouth, a foaming pool of psychopaths as we're told by the erudite anthropologists hereabouts.
I don't endorse assaulting someone who does, but calling it "the right thing to be wearing at night" seems like victim-blaming any cyclist who gets SMIDSY'd at night while in normal clothes.
I don't endorse assaulting someone who does, but calling it "the right thing to be wearing at night" seems like victim-blaming any cyclist who gets SMIDSY'd at night while in normal clothes.
Drivers don't look, no matter what is going on. I had someone pull out on me the other night. I shouted at them, and they shouted at me, asking where my fudging lights were. I didn't know quite what to say, given that my ligths were clearly on the handlebars and merrily flashing.
They do look, but at night they're looking for car headlights and nothing else, which is why cyclists and bikers get taken out by such idiots.
Well that's my theory.
As I said, please recognise that these are my words as precised, filtered, refactored and otherwise mucked about with by a journo on the local rag who called me out of the blue while I was in the middle of doing something else. Please don't hang me out to dry on the nuance. It's not mine.
So the answer to my earlier question is "no, the quote is not quite an accurate reflection"? Maybe we could have got here faster if you'd answered it directly
Police wear hi-vis clothing as well. Would they beat up a police man as well? I think not.
Last night when wearing a 2012 Garmin jersey, some neds/chavs shouted 'Hey,Wiggins!' I wanted to stop and tell them that Wiggins was no longer riding for Garmin at the time but I knew I would get beaten up for being so pedantic
Seriously, you are wearing 2012 jerseys?
2012 is nearly retro now and in my mind better than the current Garmin Green.
Bought it last year in a clearance so it's not as stinky as you might think.
Please wash it.
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