RESIDENTS of Andover have rallied behind a charity cyclist after he was pushed off his bike while crossing the town on Tuesday.

Chris Hall was travelling across England to raise money for charity when he was knocked off his bike in Andover “by a bunch of thugs”.

Cyclist ends 700km ride after being pushed off in Andover

Calling the men ‘a disgrace’, the readers of Advertiser said the incident was ‘unbelievable’ and ‘disgusting’.

Leader of Test Valley Borough Council Cllr Phil North told the Advertiser that the good people of Andover would be happy to welcome Chris back with open arms if he wishes to visit the town.
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“The recent pandemic has shown the sheer number of kind-hearted people there are here in Andover, whether they’ve been distributing food and medicines to those isolating, checking in on neighbours or becoming vaccine volunteers.

“Clearly the thugs that pushed charity cyclist Chris off his bike this week don’t represent our town and if he wants to come back then I know the good people of Andover would welcome him with open arms.”

Sharing the same opinion, one of readers of the Advertiser wrote: “I grew up in Andover and I like the majority of people there. Unfortunately, there will always be oxygen thieves wherever you go! Shame on them.”

Reacting angrily to the news, one reader said: “Those ‘men’ if u can call them that, wimps in my book, need to be held accountable for this. It’s an utter disgrace!”

Another reader commented: “What a surprise that's this town for you! Someone does good for a good cause an that’s how he gets repaid. Hats off to this man. May u continue to do good things.”

One reader urged people who know of the incident to come forward and name the bullies.

“Someone on here must know who they are. They need to be named and shamed. And to all those who start bleating about human rights, well they forgoed their human rights when they took to be bullies."

Chris’ plan was to travel from Land’s End in Cornwall to Ness Point in Lowestoft, a distance of 687 kilometres with more than 6,500 metres of climbing.

He was raising awareness about testicular cancer and the Movember campaign.

In an Instagram post, Chris detailed the incident he had to face while crossing Andover.

“Unfortunately during the night cycling through Andover I had a bunch of men decide it would be funny to try and push me off my bike,” he said.

“One of the group ran across to push me off, I think in attempt to steal the bike or just to have a laugh at my expense.

“At this point I was probably about 350km into the challenge with close to 6000 meters of climbing. I was pretty exhausted and on the limit as it was. When I next saw the guys filming, around 10:30pm I was pretty emotional and we decided to stop and get some sleep for the night and have a think about what to do in the morning.

“After a chat with a few friends and the guys filming we decided to pull the pin on the challenge. The final stats were about 400km with over 6,050 meters of elevation in just over 15 hours. Quite frankly my head was not in it any more and feeling nervous on the bike and already pretty fatigued, silly mistakes can easily happen and it’s not worth the risk.

https://www.andoveradvertiser.co.uk/news/19270874.andover-residents-back-cyclist-knocked-off-bike/