Seasoned Austrian pro Marco Haller has described how a confused car driver reversed into his bike and drove over it several times, destroying his Bora-Hansgrohe team issue Specialized Tarmac bike.
The former Austrian national champion and winner of last year’s Hamburg Bemer Cyclassics told the Kleine Zeitung that the driver "initially thought he had only caught a branch."
The car suddenly reversed while waiting on a single-track road, forcing Haller to make an ‘emergency descent’ off his bike. The car then drove over his bike a total of three times, leaving it a mangled mess,
"I thought to myself: I'm not going to risk an overtaking manoeuvre, I'm not stressed,” he said, "Then suddenly the white reversing lights came on.”
“At the last moment I managed to unclip my shoes from the pedals. And in the end he had to go over it again, three times in all. Crazy.”
The cost of the team bike was estimated at 20,000 euros.
Haller warned that the incident could have ended much worse, particularly with more riders training in the warmer spring weather, and observed that he and his teammates constantly practice getting off their bikes in ‘emergency situations’.
Five years ago, Haller was involved in a much more serious training accident when a car ran a stop sign and knocked him down.
Left with a career-threatening injury of multiple fractures in his left knee as a consequence, he was unable to race for six months.
Contacted by the newspaper, the driver of the vehicle refused to comment.
