Decorated Costa Rican cyclist Andrey Amador had a morning training session take an unexpected turn Tuesday morning.
Amador illegally took his bike on Highway 27 near Escazú, violating the country’s transit laws, and was asked to pull over by a transit official. Video taken from the transit cop’s motorbike shows the officer get to the side of Amador, directing him to immediately stop. Amador responded that he wanted to stop at a bus stop up ahead to have more room and avoid an accident on the thin stretch of shoulder.
“Don’t make this any harder,” the cop yells back.
The officer eventually cuts Amador off and apparently shoves him after yelling, “Calm down!”
The entire video, courtesy of the Costa Rican Traffic Police, can be seen here:
In a subsequent video from the Traffic Police, Amador appears to be upset by damage caused to his bike when the cop turned it over. He tells the traffic cop that he’ll have to pay for damages if he ever stops him like that again.
“Do you know who I am?” Amador asks.
“I don’t care,” responds the cop.
A third video Tweeted out by Amador shows the confrontation continuing as the transit official says in Spanish to another man, “I don’t understand his attitude.”
Amador responds, “He almost threw me off the road.”
The renowned cyclist later asked on Twitter if someone could loan him a bike to keep training, as the transit cop confiscated his bike. A short time later, Amador posted a YouTube video in which he apologized and admitted his error. He said he knew what he did was a traffic violation, but was upset with the aggressive way the traffic cop reacted.
“After pushing and cutting me off with his motorcycle, he put himself at risk and he put me instead of just stopping off at a safer spot on the highway,” Amador said in his video response. “That’s why I was so angry.”
Transit police confirmed Tuesday morning that Amador paid the traffic fine of ₡50,000 (about $100) and got his bike back.
Amador will return to San José’s streets Saturday when he is scheduled to be the grand marshall of the annual Festival de La Luz parade downtown.
