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Cyclist stopped by police while riding on Isle of Man Mountain Road (credit - Chris Glencorse)Cyclist stopped by police three times and “told to put bike in van” after a “load of complaints” from motorists on foggy climb
A cyclist who was riding in foggy conditions on the Isle of Man’s Mountain Road says he was stopped by police three times and ordered to “put my bike in the van as it was too dangerous”, following complaints from motorists on the climb.
Chris Glencorse, from Scissett, West Yorkshire, was climbing the A18 Snaefell Mountain Road between Ramsey and Douglas yesterday, as part of a three-day cycling trip to the Isle of Man, when he was stopped by officers who were dispatched to check on his welfare, after several drivers reported that they had nearly struck the cyclist due to the apparent poor visibility and adverse conditions on the road.
A video of the incident was posted on Twitter yesterday afternoon by Chris following his ride and has since been viewed over 650,000 times.
In the post, the cyclist wrote: “Unbelievably the Isle of Man Police thought it was appropriate to stop me three times while cycling over the mountain, the last time to tell me to put the bike in the van because of complaints by car drivers. That’s not how the Highway Code works. I didn’t get in the van.”
However, a spokesperson for the Isle of Man Constabulary told road.cc that the officers simply “offered to transport the cyclist and his bicycle to Douglas to ensure he arrived safely” and that the incident was a “timely reminder to all motorists that cyclists frequently use the A18 Mountain Road” and to “ensure that you drive/cycle to the conditions and arrive at your destination safely”.
Unbelievably the @iompolice thought it was appropriate to stop me 3 times while cycling over the mountain the last time to tell me to put the bike in the van because of complaints by car drivers. That’s not how the Highway Code works. I didn’t get in the van 🙄@100Climbs pic.twitter.com/VGXXmq3E3f
— Chris Glencorse (@chrissyglenc) March 16, 2023
Glencorse, a 51-year-old utility and touring cyclist who has completed in recent years bucket list rides such as Land’s End to John O’Groats, the Hebridean Way, Mizen Head to Malin Head, and L’Etape du Tour, says he was inspired to take on the Isle of Man’s famous hills by reading Simon Warren’s seminal 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs books.
“The book started me off on to do lists, and I’m slowly working my way through the second 100, so thought I’d do a quick tour of the island, do a lap of the TT course, and tick the three climbs off,” he tells road.cc.
The Yorkshire-based cyclist says he normally takes on his cycle touring trips with friends, but couldn’t quite convince them that three sodden spring days on the Isle of Man would be much fun.
“Obviously the weather was horrendous [yesterday], but I’m here and there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes, so I set out, as I have done countless times before in bad weather,” he continued.
“I’ve two lights on the back, a 1200 lumen front light, had a bright orange jacket on, and hi viz overshoes and gloves.
“All was okay for the first 29 miles, if horrible and wet and windy, then I started the climb out of Ramsey. The road was busyish, but no more than say Holme Moss back home, and while visibility wasn’t great, it was about 200 yards so fine to be seen.”
A photo taken by Chris as he made his way along the road
However, as Chris made his way up the famous Isle of Man TT climb – which was reopened earlier this week to traffic after icy conditions forced it to close for six days – he was stopped by police following reports from “concerned” drivers who had passed the cyclist on the road.
“I’ll admit I’m not the fastest climber, but slow and steady wins the race, and I’d just got past the really steep bit when a police van pulled up alongside and scared the s*** out of me by giving it the full blues and twos,” he says.
“[The officer] opened his window and told me he wanted to speak to me and to pull in at the bungalow about half a mile ahead. I told him I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he said they’d had ‘a load of complaints’ from car drivers that a cyclist was riding up the mountain in all black and couldn’t be seen.”
After stopping at the bungalow as instructed, Chris then refused to provide the officer with his name, “as I was doing nothing wrong”.
He continued: “He repeated the complaints of the motorists, at which point I pointed to my hi viz clothes, the lights, and then asked him what I was doing wrong. He confirmed I wasn’t doing anything wrong, at which point I told him I was going to carry on.”
No, concerned they had to slow down until it was safe to pass, despite the fact they couldn’t see me…🙄
— Chris Glencorse (@chrissyglenc) March 16, 2023
Chris then told road.cc that he was approached again by the same officer five minutes later, and that he once again refused to stop, before the driver allegedly “pulled around me” and forced the cyclist to come to a halt.
“He then told me his sergeant had told him I had to put my bike in the van as it was too dangerous and they would drive me back to Douglas,” he claims.
“It’s here I slightly lost my s***. I told him he’d have to arrest me to get me into the van. He then got me to sign something to say I was carrying on at my own risk, at which point I asked him, does that mean if a car ploughs into me it would be my fault?
“After now becoming piss wet through and freezing, I told him I was carrying on so if he kindly would leave me alone. To be fair, I had some sympathy with the officer, he was just doing what he was being told and he did seem uncomfortable.
“Anyway the day was now a bit ruined, so I had a cup of coffee in Douglas and made my way to Castletown.”
Several callers were concerned for your safety today due to the poor visibility and heavy fog. We simply wanted to check on your welfare and offer assistance so that you could arrive at your destination safely.
— TweetbeatIOM #RespectIOM (@TweetbeatIOM) March 16, 2023
Chris told road.cc that he is currently contemplating reporting the officers for what he believes were their unnecessary actions on the road.
However, the Isle of Man Constabulary has since argued that their officers acted following reports from callers “concerned” for the cyclist’s safety “due to the poor visibility and heavy fog”.
“Yesterday, we received a number of calls from members of the public in regards to concerns for a cyclist on the A18 the Mountain Road,” a spokesperson told road.cc.
“Several of the concerned callers advised that the weather was adverse (heavy fog) and stated that they had nearly struck the cyclist.
“Following this, officers were dispatched to check on the welfare of the cyclist, who advised he was cycling from Ramsey to Douglas. The officers offered to transport the cyclist and his bicycle to Douglas to ensure he arrived safely. However, this was declined.
“We are pleased to say that the cyclist arrived in Douglas safely, but this is a timely reminder to all motorists that cyclists frequently use the A18 Mountain Road and therefore please ensure that you drive/cycle to the conditions and arrive at your destination safely.”
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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105 comments
"And by the way, he had front and back lights and a bright orange jacket. But it is his fault for not wearing high vis or having lights"
Maybe we'll meaning? Seeing some poor soul struggling up a hill in the rain and mist thinking they must be utterly miserable, at risk of hypothermia and in need of rescue from danger when in fact they are quite content and having a lovely time.
Visibility in the pictures is hardly unusual for these fair Isles. I'm a bit surprised that the Police used the "complaints of several near misses" line. Was this really the nature of the calls? Surely Chris might have mentioned if he had been on the wrong end of some close passes, besides that of the Police driver.
Police are acting on the information they have, and at the end of the day cycling up a mountain that had only just been reopened in fog is questionable. Imagine for a moment something had happened and the police had done nothing. He wasn't stopped from cycling, the police spoke to him 3 times and got him to sign a waiver to cover their arses.
No - the guy had front and back lights, bright orange jacket. The police, if they had any sense, would have just have had a word once, maybe not even that. But three times?
Yeah, i'm fully behind the police here. Drivers don't care about cyclists in general. They certainly don't care enough to phone the police because they are being held up. I would assume they were genuinely concerned for the cyclist.
I would love to know what the response would be if the cyclist was hit and we then found out the police were called 3 times and did nothing...
I know we are pro-cyclist on here but sometimes we have to perhaps indulge the thought that not everyone is out to get us. Just most of them.
I'm also with the cops on this one. What they did was prudent. As mctrials123 wrote, had the guy been hit and it then turned out that the police were repeatedly contacted but did nothing, they would've been hung out to dry.
Also, and please give me some credit because I'm a daily commuter and fully aware of the idiocy of some car drivers: not everything that is legal to do is also wise. The fact that a motorist would have been at fault might not mean a lot to the surviving relatives.
I ride long-distance events a couple of times/year, from a double century to sometimes 600-800 km in one go. It's a non-competitive hobby and helps me relax. But there have been times that -mainly due to weather circumstances such as very dense fog at night- I've pulled out or simply stopped to roll out my bivi and wait for visibility to improve. It's not for nothing that the very first rules that organisers put up is usually something along the lines of 'whatever you do, be safe. It's better being Mr late than becoming the late Mr'.
But when you come from Yorks you know the crappy weather can sit on a hill for hours. And so tougher than most folk.
When you're out do you start thinking at some point the police are going to offer you an indemnity for your presence on the road?
Does that just apply to cyclists? Any of the car drivers out that day could have been killed by a lorry driver that didn't see them in the fog but would anyone blame them for being out in bad weather?
what, you mean in the absence of overhead matrix boards flashing a message "warning - cyclist in roadway"?
Institutionally anti-cyclist
Not really evidence of that here.
Stopping him three times and deliberately blocking the higway to stop him. Really?
Offering a cyclist a lift in a van in bad conditions? Ooookay
Police would have been better employed checking the eyesight and vehicle roadworthiness of the complaining motorists if they can't see a cyclist in those conditions.
^^^THIS
Difficult one this. It's a Mountain not a hill in Surrey. There is a long history of people making poor decisions in poor weather on mountains that cause unnecessary risk to the individual and to the people sent to rescue them (or pick up the bits). This example doesn't appear to be an exact parallel but I would always take the view that if a "professional" suggests it's unsafe to be on a mountain, then I'd usually give that advice additional weight, over my right to do what the hell I like.
A reasonable view of the police conversation may be, "There is a cyclist on the mountain in the fog and rain, a few motorists are calling to say they nearly hit him".... "What the **** is an idiot doing up there on a day like this"!
A more reasonable conversation might be there are motorists complaining about something, have we told them to drive to the conditions at all?
By and large problems on the IOM roads are caused by the police not tackling people who think they're racing in the TT, not cyclists.
Do we think if Cav was doing a bit of mountain training they'd have stopped him ?
Even during TT week it's 50/50 if the weather will allow you ride your motorbike as if you're in the TT. I'd imagine speed tourism is a summer problem.
I've been the TT a few times and also out of TT season and I wouldn't go on a motorbike before May.
If we take the cyclist at his word, which I'm inclined to because it's supported by his photographs, visibility was 200 yards. Perhaps the question asked by the police should not be "What the fuck is an idiot doing up there on a day like this?" but "What the fuck are these drivers doing if they can't see a cyclist with lights, bright clothing and high viz in 200 yard visibility?"
If a "professional" coastguard, mountain rescuer, RNLI person etc advised me not to do something I would obey their advice absolutely without question; I'm afraid my experience and that of others I know with the police is that they are often quite the reverse of professional and do not always give unbiased and well judged advice to cyclists. The attitude of the police (I'm talking here of the Metropolitan, Surrey and Kent forces, I've never cycled on the Isle of Man) in many cases is that you are mad to be cycling on the road anyway and any ill that befalls you is more or less your own fault.
Which 200 yards is that? It's just that when I've been in the mountains in poor visibility and fog, 200yrds can become 2 inches in the flick of an eye lid.
That doesn't change the responsibility of the motorists to drive to the conditions though does it, and I've seen thicker fog than that in Cheshire, any of us could encounter it on any ride and we rely on motorists to behave responsibly otherwise we would be forced to stop cycling.
I didn't absolve motorists from their responsibilities. Having been in the mountains on many occasions there are some conditions you shouldn't drive in or ride in. Personally I'd veer to the side of caution, because there is no coming back once you are dead even if you relatives can prove it was the drivers fault!
Obviously we don't have the full story but it appears to have been a bunch of amateurs who can't drive to the conditions who are giving the advice.
"appears to have been a bunch of amateurs who can't drive to the conditions"
And the evidence of this is?
That they found it difficult to avoid a cyclist wearing bright clothing, high viz, and with lights on. Aren't you supposed to drive at a speed that will allow you to brake well within the distance you can see? Anyone who was doing that would not have had a problem.
Where's the evidence they "found it difficult to avoid a cyclist wearing bright clothing, high viz, and with lights on. "
Rather than they were concerned seeing someone cycling up a mountain road that according to the BBC article from two days ago
"A Department of Infrastructure spokesman said the road had been successfully treated with more rock and salt to counter the ice.
The department previously said it was expecting the road to stay shut over Tuesday night.
However, sub-zero temperatures expected overnight meant there could well be more ice, the spokesman added."
Seems to me we once again here are spinning a story to fit accepted bias rather than being objective.
Please tell us how long after the road is reopened to traffic should cyclists wait before using it!
How long is a piece of string? Not exactly the most sensinble of things to do though is it. And this kind of reaction from other road users and police shouldn't really be at all surprising, but hey he got his 5 mins of fame and another road.cc Grrrrr motorists bad! article.
Half the journey from one end to the other and back.
Are you suggesting that the opened the road before it was safe to do so?
So that was Tuesday night and this incident was on Thursday late morning/early afternoon. Fairly sure the police would have mentioned it if the road was icy, and indeed they would not have reopened the road which was closed for ice. Yesterday in the Isle of Man the minimum temperature, even at midnight, was 9°C, so ice seems extremely unlikely even on a hill (I refuse to call something 600 m high a mountain!) given that the heuristic for temperature drop due to altitude is 0.65°C for every hundred metres gained.
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