{"id":534,"date":"2008-06-20T11:03:49","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T01:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/?p=534"},"modified":"2008-07-01T13:14:39","modified_gmt":"2008-07-01T03:14:39","slug":"pigs-halt-launceston-hobart-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/?p=534","title":{"rendered":"Pigs Halt Launceston-Hobart Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Snowy<\/a><\/font><\/u><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/mercury\/story\/0,22884,23882890-3462,00.html<\/a><\/font><\/u><\/p>\n

ONE of the highlights of Tasmanian cycling has been cancelled this year, for the first time in its 111-year history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organiser Ray Slater said the Launceston City Cycling Club had to call the $7000 Launceston-Hobart race off after Tasmania Police refused permission to race on the Midland Highway.<\/p>\n

Mr Slater has been the race’s driving force since 1972, putting in about 100 hours of his time each year — while his tax accountancy business has donated prize money of $1000 a race.<\/p>\n

Mr Slater, 78, said his unsuccessful battle with Tasmania Police to secure a permit this year caused him nightmares.<\/p>\n

“It hurt very much when they said no,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Slater said permits had been harder to come by since a fatal North-West Coast accident, involving a truck and young cyclist in 2004.<\/p>\n

He said former police commissioner Richard McCreadie issued a permit last year but less senior employees had been less sympathetic this year.<\/p>\n

Mr Slater said draft guidelines borrowed from NSW did not allow races on 110km\/h highway sections, unless there were extenuating circumstances. He said his argument, that the race’s history was an extenuating circumstance, got nowhere.<\/p>\n

He said that to his knowledge no Launceston-Hobart competitor had suffered an incident involving a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

He said he had offered to shorten the route to Brighton and switch the race day to AFL grand final day, when roads were quieter, to no avail.<\/p>\n

He said he was determined to get the race up again next year.<\/p>\n

“I will become a politician if I have to,” he said.<\/p>\n

Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Tom Tully yesterday confirmed that cycle race guidelines excluded race permits on 110km\/h roads.<\/p>\n

Mr Tully said his department understood the race had “considerable history but is of the view that the safety issues associated with conducting a race for 25-50 cyclists over the length of the Midland Highway outweighs those considerations”.<\/p>\n

“The guidelines were designed to maximise the safety of cyclists and other road users during a race and were adopted after consultation with the cycling fraternity in Tasmania,” he said<\/p>\n

Note: I think it show’s poor vision on the part of the Police Force. This race has a long history and it’s worth remembering that the cyclists plying this route have been doing so for 111 years.. that’s just a few longer than the cars. Drop the speed limit to 100km for the day Commissioner Tulley? >:(<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/mercury\/story\/0,22884,23882890-3462,00.html ONE of the highlights of Tasmanian cycling has been cancelled this year, for the first time in its 111-year history. Organiser Ray Slater said the Launceston City Cycling Club had to call the $7000 Launceston-Hobart race off after Tasmania Police refused permission to race on the Midland Highway. Mr Slater has been the race’s … Continue reading “Pigs Halt Launceston-Hobart Race”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bottlesandchains.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}