A professional British cyclist was lucky to escape with his life after colliding with van and being thrown from his bike down a ravine near Benidorm on Spain’s Costa Blanca.
Ribble Pro Cycling rider Scott Auld was riding with team-mates when the van driver came around the corner partly on the wrong side of the road. Another Ribble cyclist was clipped by the van, and the chain reaction sent Auld careening towards signpost at the side of the road.
Auld told a local paper: “We were riding two abreast and around a swooping left-hand corner, doing 50 to 55kph. A van came around in the opposite direction, about a metre or two onto our side of the road.
“I remember seeing him coming as clear as day. We braked, readjusted and for a split-second I thought ‘we’ve missed him’. I was second wheel and my friend’s arm caught the wing mirror. It completely smashed apart. As I was turning he has clipped my back wheel and I have flown over my friend.
“The last thing I remember was flying towards this signpost and thinking ‘this is really going to hurt’. I clipped the signpost and landed on rocks and stuff.”
Auld was found by a team-mate lying face down in a pool of blood.
“Luckily, one of our friends was about a minute behind. He came down and saw all the bikes in the road. He said at first he didn’t even know where I was. He was like: ‘Where’s Scott?’
“He looked over the ravine and he saw me lying face down in a pool of blood. He woke me up and we eventually got an ambulance out and I was taken to Benidorm hospital.
“At the time, because I was full of adrenaline, I didn’t think it was too bad. But then about nine people came and stood around me and I thought ‘Oooh, I must be pretty banged up’.”
