Human Race have released the following statement regarding the investigation into the incident that involved cyclists overtaking a horse and rider, which occurred at the Royal Windsor Triathlon on Sunday 17 June;
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Since the recent incident at the Royal Windsor Triathlon on 17 June, we have been going through our internal review process and liaising with other stakeholders including the police, who are investigating the matter further.
We believe we have identified two individuals at fault, but we won’t be revealing further details or sharing their identities, as this is a police matter. One cyclist will receive a lifetime ban from all Human Race events, a 2nd (who did come forward after the incident) will receive a 12 month ban from all of our events. As the investigations are still ongoing this is pending any further information or mitigating circumstances that may come to light in the future. We are liaising with British Triathlon, who will be responsible for taking their own actions.
As a result of our internal review, we will implement the following actions as an organisation:
– We will improve our signage for the Royal Windsor Triathlon, to ensure all road users are aware of the event. We are holding a review of the event with the local SAG (Safety Advisory Group, which includes the council and police amongst others) on signage. This will include a thorough review of advance warning signage and on-the-day event signage. The end result will be additional signage along the course.
– We will improve communication to the horse riding community in the area, through direct contact with stables, polo clubs, etc. This will provide advance warning of the event to this group. We take responsibility to make sure this is as thorough as possible.
– We will improve education to our participants and the wider cycling and triathlon community about the Highway Code and the likelihood of horses (or other users) being on the road. This will be over and above ensuring competitors are aware the Highway Code is to be abided by in our pre-event communications and pre-race briefings. Moving forward we will implement the following:
For all our participants we will specifically communicate the details of the Highway Code that are relevant, to ensure triathletes are informed of what to do and how to keep everyone safe in a similar situation.
We will also be creating an educational advertising plan to our wider audience in the cycling and triathlon community, about how best to deal with any similar situation they may find themselves in.
We take this incident very seriously and are committed to improving our processes.
We believe this mishap is a poor representation of the triathlon community. The vast majority of triathletes and cyclists do follow the rules and ride with due care towards others.