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Bristol cyclist flagged on Strava and reported to British Cycling … for crossing into Wales for bike ride during lockdown

Rider apparently flagged by 'Strava Police' account says he didn't realise different regulations apply across the Severn...

A cyclist from Bristol who crossed the Severn Bridge into Wales today to cycle on quiet roads has had his ride flagged on Strava because it is claimed to contravene lockdown guidance from the Welsh Government not to ride more than walking distance from home.

Each of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom has its own regulations regarding the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 23 May.

While the guidance is broadly similar and permits exercising, including cycling, being a reason to leave the home, only Wales has sought to put a limit on the distance from home you can ride.

> Welsh Government says you can only cycle within walking distance of home

The reason given was to ensure that if a mechanical problem or some other issue happened to the rider, he or she would be able to get home on foot without involving the emergency services or get someone to come out and pick them up.

While a distance of 10 miles form home has been widely reported, that stipulation is not contained in the Welsh Government's guidance, nor the emergency regulations themselves.

The cyclist, who told road.cc that currently 90 per cent of his cycling happens indoors, crossed the Severn Bridge into Monmouthshire today.

From leaving his home in Bristol to returning there, he was on his bike for a little under four hours, covering a little more than 100 kilometres.

After posting the ride to Strava, it appears to have been flagged by an account called ‘Strava Police’ which is based in Chepstow.

The account has no followers, nor has it logged any activities, and it may be that it has been set up on the social network to enable the user to see what others are doing, in particular people crossing the Severn from England into Wales.

 The rider was reported to British Cycling in an email which read, in part: “This is in contravention of the Welsh Assembly laws concerning COVID19 that state that no one should cycle further than their local area in Wales.

“Also they should cycle no further than the distance that they could walk home in the event of mechanical issues.

“This is a potential strain on local resources and he could be bringing COVID 19 to a rural area heavily populated with working farms and an older population.

“Please have a word with him as the next time it is spotted the matter will be referred to the police. I have a screen shot of his ride today as proof should I need to take that step.”

The rider, who said that he had been unaware of the different regulations between England and Wales, told road.cc that “most of the purpose of me riding out that way was to actively seek solitude from the busy city I live in.”

He added: “I do 90 per cent of my rides inside."

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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43 comments

Avatar
Exup | 4 years ago
5 likes

And on the BBC news this evening there was a flight from Belfast to London that was full. 2 inches of separation is definitely not compliant to any lockdown rules I've read.

How can a lone cyclist get criticised for some healthy exercise and a flight full of people not be quarantined for 14 days or arrested for likely unnecessary journeys.

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iandon | 4 years ago
4 likes

Leave well alone please... If your sat on your arse looking for excuses to tell tales on others, then you perhaps need to take a good look at your self.  Poor chap out there alone minding his own business.

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Hirsute | 4 years ago
2 likes

The guidance does say you can cycle to work. I guess they think this means 2 or 3 miles and not the sort of mileage and time that road.cc contributors have mentioned in the past.
Or perhaps it is best they are ignorant...

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kil0ran replied to Hirsute | 4 years ago
3 likes

Strictly speaking you can cycle to work, and ride separately for exercise. So nothing to stop you doing 20 miles each way and still tagging on another ride to your day once you've had your tea... smiley

Or, you could run to work and cycle for exercise.

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grumpyoldcyclist | 4 years ago
8 likes

I wish the Welsh shambles had issued the same 'helpful' advice to drivers and suggested they drive no further than they could have walked back from in case of accident or breakdown.

Would have gone down very well I'm sure.

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ktache replied to grumpyoldcyclist | 4 years ago
2 likes

Pushing distance surely, I mean, shouldn't call anyone out in case of a mechanical.

And the idea of fixing their own vehicles with a carried around tool kit...

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DanJ | 4 years ago
1 like

Anyone who spends the day trawling strava looking for rides to 'flag' and riders to 'report to BC and the police' really needs to get a life.

Even before lockdown this person was probably someone who sits in their house all day; doesn't do very much, doesn't socialize, few to no interests and is generally disliked by their peers.

Hope the rider enjoyed his ride out to Wales.

Anyway, I'm off for a 50 miler into West Lancs.

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brooksby | 4 years ago
1 like

With the Welsh guidance, doesn't it mean, then, that you can ride as far or for as long as you want so long as you fully intend only to walk home if you have an unfixable mechanical?  

"Reasonable distance" always seems a bit vague - is that the distance I'd find reasonable to walk, or the distance that might seem reasonable to my (entirely hyperbole) neighbour who gets in a car to change their TV channel?

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Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
7 likes

These fake atheletes can be reported to Stava.

Just go in to the 'athelete', and click the cog.
Report Fake Profile

You'll then get a message box advising that the profile will be looked in to.

What Strava does then .... who knows - but the more people that put the effort in reporting the fakes, the more likely that Strava will act.

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Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
0 likes

Interstingly, there is  Wilshire Strava Police who claim to be 'Associated with Wiltshire Police'

https://www.strava.com/athletes/55593624 

 

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Sriracha replied to Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
4 likes

Associated with the police? Hmmm.. Section 90, para 1
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/16/section/90
Maybe someone in Wiltshire could ask the police if they endorse this "association".

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CygnusX1 replied to Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
1 like

Of the 18 accounts I have flagged with the name "Strava Police" that's the only one I have any doubts about - they do have a single run activity with a title of "this segment was gathered as evidence in a burglary" or some such nonesense.

I would have thought plod would be a bit more professional than that, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

I still think its a local curtain twitching nazi, but at least they tried to be a bit more original. I mean,  using a profile name of 'Strava Police' (and some sharing the same meme image) is hardly plains-clothes detective/Stazi level is it?.

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Oldfatgit replied to CygnusX1 | 4 years ago
1 like

CygnusX1 wrote:

Of the 18 accounts I have flagged with the name "Strava Police" that's the only one I have any doubts about - they do have a single run activity with a title of "this segment was gathered as evidence in a burglary" or some such nonesense.

I would have thought plod would be a bit more professional than that, but maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

I still think its a local curtain twitching nazi, but at least they tried to be a bit more original. I mean,  using a profile name of 'Strava Police' (and some sharing the same meme image) is hardly plains-clothes detective/Stazi level is it?.

There are several forces and operating areas with their own Strava pages. It's almost as if some PR guru had told them to open accounts on ALL social media ... Including Strava.

Although, why the Metropolitan Police Tactical Firearms Unit needs to be on Strava is slightly beyond me

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Sheen wheels replied to Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
0 likes

The Wiltshire one has a tag "here to catch all you sneaky segment stealers" and the one "activity" beats the KoM time. So I suspect neither official police nor out to shop those "enjoying themselves without a reasonable excuse".

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Robert Hardy replied to Oldfatgit | 4 years ago
3 likes

Probably a local neighbourhood watch busy.

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crazy-legs | 4 years ago
9 likes

That Strava Police account (well, there might be several of them I suppose) was set up right at the start of lockdown, it was giving kudos to completely random people for doing <1hr rides and commenting on other rides for being too long / too far etc.

Someone clearly has enough time to go scrolling through the hundreds of thousands of rides uploaded to Strava daily in the UK and doing that. 

As others have mentioned, this pandemic has really brought out the curtain twitchers, the parochial NIMBYs and the little Hitlers - it's like a primary school playground of kids going "ohh, I'm gonna tell Miss about you!"

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Hirsute replied to crazy-legs | 4 years ago
0 likes

I don't use strava, so this account holder would have had to have trawled through to find stuff? Sounds very labour intensive.

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Awavey replied to Hirsute | 4 years ago
3 likes

I'd assume theyd pick a popular segment far enough away from a habitation and check where maybe top 5 or 10 riders came from, yes it's far more hassle than whatever grim satisfaction they get from doing it must provide,but it's not that they have to scour the roads of Wales to find anything

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Rick_Rude replied to crazy-legs | 4 years ago
9 likes

Sounds very similar to East Germany. Even those spying were spyed on. Dystopia step one. 

Told you it wouldn't be long before Strava shaming happened. 

Maybe this guy just needs a stern talking to first. Need to nip it in the bud, next he'll be going further and before he knows it he'll be audaxing under lockdown, probably using a steel frame and beyond all redemption. 

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Robert Hardy replied to Rick_Rude | 4 years ago
4 likes

People have always been like this, the folly of East Germany was allowing it to clog up their central beurocracy rather than leaving it in the realm of parish and local councils as we used to do.

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Mungecrundle | 4 years ago
6 likes

No issue with going out for a 4 hour self supported ride on quiet roads. But regardless of not knowing the current official regulations and accompanying guidelines, why does anyone feel the need to memorialise the event on a public platform at a time where cyclists in general are getting a bad press and are already targets of vigilante gammon defence forces around the country? Why give them more ammunition?

All I can see as a result from publishing activities like "cyclist from Bristol" is that said gammons are going to be ever more vocal in setting an agenda for Police forces to be stopping cyclists from going about their lawful activities instead of doing what we want them to be doing in policing the roads against dangerous drivers.

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Richard_pics replied to Mungecrundle | 4 years ago
2 likes

If it isnt on Strava, it didnt happen!

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Organon replied to Richard_pics | 4 years ago
0 likes

Richard_pics wrote:

If it isnt on Strava, it didnt happen!

If you don't Stravatoolbox, you don't Strava.

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eburtthebike | 4 years ago
6 likes

Clearly the fault of the Welsh government for not actively patrolling their borders.  I expect all cyclists to be refused entry while riding into Wales.

This is clearly long delayed revenge for the Severn Bridge toll booths being on the English side.

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cbrndc | 4 years ago
4 likes

I've done lots of long rides recently, including my longest ever. I just don't see the need to tell the world about it... Shit, just have indecision

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Municipal Waste | 4 years ago
9 likes

I would title all my Strava rides with this delightful Malcolm Tucker quote...

"You breathe a word of this to anyone, you f***ing c**t, and I will tear your f***ing skin off, I will wear it to your mother's birthday party and I will rub your nuts up and down her leg whilst whistling Bohemian f***ing Rhapsody, right?"

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Organon | 4 years ago
6 likes

Strava Police arrest this man,
He's way to fast and, 
Stolen all my crowns,
But we'll get them back next Sunday.

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handlebarcam replied to Organon | 4 years ago
11 likes

I shot the Strava Police
But I didn't shoot no Zwift Cop
All around in my home town
They're trying to track me down
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the crossing of a bridge
For the leaving of a country

Avatar
handlebarcam replied to handlebarcam | 4 years ago
3 likes

Grumble-grumble!
That's the sound of da Strava Police
Grumble-grumble!
That's the sound of da NIMBY

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CXR94Di2 | 4 years ago
2 likes

There are some good climbs there, how do I offer Kudos 🤟

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