TWO aged farmers brandish sticks at cyclists on the Tour O’ the Borders event. Hundreds of riders suffer burst tyres burst in what is believed to be an attempt to sabotage Pedal Scotland, Scotland’s biggest cycling event. Dozens of construction knife blades are scattered in a bike lane in a city in British Columbia.

These are among the latest examples of the escalating hostility towards cyclists. Last year saw nails being strewn across a dirt road on part of the Giro d’Italia stage eight climb, and tacks being left on roads used by a charity bike ride in Surrey. There have been so many other cases of sabotage aimed at the two-wheel community.

Whatever the reason – mere spite, or farmers protesting that they could not get between their fields during the harvest – sabotaging cyclists and cycle events is a senseless, thing to do, especially given the speeds that bikes travel at. In 2015 a cyclist taking part in the Velothon Wales was left with deep lacerations to his leg after his bike ran over tacks. Brighton police had earlier reported that wires had been hung between trees on a bike-track. Cyclists may be unpopular with some people but such acts of sabotage are appalling. It is too much to hope for that perpetrators will cease and desist. When they are detected and arrested, the law has to come down on them, hard, before someone is killed.