The barbed wire was cut from a fence and stretched neck-height, above, across this lane popular with cyclists.
A cyclist had a very lucky escape when he avoided riding at speed into a piece of barbed wire stretched across the cycle track he was training on.
The wire had been cut from a fence running alongside the track and had been placed neck height in an apparent trap to injure passing cyclists and knock them off their bikes.
The photos showing the wire fixed tightly to trees on both sides of the track were taken by cyclist Daniel Webster in Kent, England.
He was out on his mountain bike in the Hollingbourne area when he decided to do his usual loop, but in the opposite direction.
He told Kent Online had he approached the spot where he found the wire from the direction he normally rides; he would have been travelling much faster and ridden straight into the wire with obvious consequences.
Advertisement
Webster said he had decided to post on Facebook about the incident because the track was very popular with riders from across the region and he wanted to warn them.
Related News
"It was like something out of Mad Max," said the 39-year-old father of four, "it was definitely a trap."
"I was riding with my head down and I happened to look up when a glint caught my eye and I realised something was stretched across the (track).
"The wire was tied between two trees. It was neatly cut and stretched tight.
"I normally come the other way down the hill but I had decided to do it in reverse.
“I would have been going at 20 mph and I would never have seen it. I would never have stood a chance."
He has reported the incident to the local police and said he had posted about it on Facebook and shared the photos he had taken in order to warn other cyclists using what is a very popular route for mountain bikers.
"I was shocked. I felt like I had a lucky escape,” he explained.
“There is always a problem with logs and the like being put on trails used by mountain bikers. But never something like this.
"This didn't look like the work of kids, it was so tidy. I don't really understand why people do this sort of thing."
Topics
