The lead moto carrying two people hit the crowd barriers and left its driver stricken in the road as the Tour of Taiwan field whizzed past just inches away.
Ultimately the crash in the clip below ended with no riders coming a cropper and with both officials on the motorbike escaping serious injury.
But it could have been very different.
The footage was captured by a spectator during the opening stage of the Tour of Taiwan in the early hours of Sunday morning Irish time.
The moto, which was in front of the bunch, comes around a left hander during the opening crit in Taipei.
The wheels go from under it, sending the moto into the crowd control barriers and depositing the driver and passenger on the road.
Just moments later the front of the bunch appears, with one of the officials clearly so dazed or injured they are unable to move.
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But while a couple of riders come very close indeed to crashing into the leather-clad biker sitting in the tarmac, they all get safely around him.
The word in the local media is that driver and passenger escaped without serious injury.
The footage was posted on YouTube by 商執一.
Ireland's Conor Dunne made the winning breakaway and finished 7th; you can read our stage 1 report by following this link after you look at the clip below.
Lead moto mayhem
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