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Video: Cyclists riding to watch Tour Down Under nearly hit by falling tree

Lucky escape for the rider in front, and the fella behind? Ah…

Two cyclists heading to watch Stage 2 of the Tour Down Under in South Australia on Wednesday had a very narrow escape when a tree suddenly fell across the road.

The footage was shot from the rear-facing Cycliq camera of one rider on a descent as they headed to watch the UCI WorldTour race's second stage from Stirling to Paracombe, won by BMC Racing's Richie Porte, who took the overall lead.

The tree starts to fall as the first of the following riders passes it, and luckily the second rider sees what is happening and manages to take evasive action - although that does involve him falling to the ground.

A second or so either way, however, and it could have been much, much worse.

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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4 comments

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matthewn5 | 7 years ago
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That happened to me in the Adelaide Hills when I was a kid. Came round a corner, and there was a massive tree - like half a dozen of those trunks - come down across the road, still vibrating and with stuff falling down all around the place. We had to lift our bikes over. Had we been any faster, we'd have been dead!

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mrchrispy | 7 years ago
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That bloke decends like Wiggins 

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Jamminatrix | 7 years ago
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This has happened to me MTBing. We have invasive Australian Pine trees here, and their shallow roots can't take our high winds.

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handlebarcam | 7 years ago
6 likes

I wasn't worried. You can clearly see in the first few seconds that they were wearing helments.

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