Watch out for nutters in the woods at Hamsterley. And not the nice kind. A rider was thrown off his bike on the Hamsterley DH course on Sunday after hitting a nylon rope stretched between trees at neck height. The rope trap was put at the bottom of a slope, where riders would be going fast and would be unable to avoid it in time.
Fortunately he was wearing a video camera so the whole episode has been recorded.
Here’s what local paper, the Teesdale Mercury says:
A mountain biker was flung from his cycle at 20mph after someone had tied a rope across a steep track at Hamsterley Forest. The rope trap was stretched between two trees across the main run at Descend Hamsterley on Sunday, February 5. 29-year-old Lukasz Sikorski, from Consett, hit the booby trap at at high speed and was thrown off his bike into the air. The rope had hit him in his ribs and luckily he escaped unhurt.
Anyone with information is asked to call Durham Police on number 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The full newspaper story is here:
http://www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/story,3901.html
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I do hope they get whoever did this mainly so they can be punished accordingly but also to satisfy my curiosity as to what sort of person does that sort of thing.
Not exactly neck high is it, 2 ft high more like.
Whole thing smells fishy to me.
It doesn’t look that high, though if it hit him in the ribs, it’s probably higher than it looks. Plus if you hit the brakes when you see it, you might be sliding down the hill on your arse when you hit it anyway…
..or it might have been slid down the tree with the impact. It didn’t look as if it was tightly secured when he loosened it off to remove it.
How high it is (or isn’t) is largely irrelevant. This same thing has happened to me and it’s not pleasant; the scars are on more than just my cycling top. I refuse to believe that people are stupid and cruel enough to do it with malicious intent, but then this World never fails to disappoint me.
“I refuse to believe that people are stupid and cruel enough to do it with malicious intent”
I don’t!
(refuse to believe it)
What an absolute git, hope whoever did it gets caught, tricky to pin it on someone I’d have thought, hopefully the police and press taking it seriously will deter nasty git from doing it again.
You’d hope something like this would be taken seriously by the police. If it was deliberately set and potentially fatal then surely that is “attempted murder” or some other suitably hefty charge?
As for the height, just lucky it was an adult that hit it.
It could have been a child’s face.
I hope everyone takes care on all the trails at Hamsterley, and in the surrounding area, there’s nothing to suggest that this nutter is just targeting DH riders, and they went out of their way to target an area that’s not really used by anyone other than cyclists.
Could have been kids. I think if so then they’ll probably be scared by the publicity. Kids tend to think in cartoon style without necessarily realising the seriousness of something like this. But if it’s a teenager or adult that’s another thing again. If they get caught I think as well as whatever punishment is standard for this kind of thing, they should be made to meet the rider & explain what they were thinking. Having to face up to things properly always has the best chance of a change of heart/mind.
That’s really scary for all of us. There will always be animosity between riders and other trail users. Even in our local woods logs are laid on trails in such a way to throw you off course etc. I believe someone from Charge bikes hit something trap-like last year that resulted in broken bones
Luckily for him he is a total mincer and was hardly moving when he hit it.
This is not new. A guy died (indirectly) after a similar ‘trap’ across a bridleway in Coxley nr Wakefield woods a few years back.