Female Ironman athlete deliberately pushed off bike by laughing car passenger into a ditch, breaking her collarbone

A female cyclist has suffered a broken collarbone, which will require surgery, after she was pushed off her bike and into a ditch by a car passenger who leant out of the vehicle’s window and shoved her while laughing and jeering.

Katie Good, an immigration lawyer who competes in Ironman and Half Ironman events, was training with friends in Kent yesterday morning, when – according to her boyfriend, fellow triathlete Olivier van den Bent-Kelly – at 11.17am a motorist “deliberately drove behind her”.

In an Instagram post, Van den Bent-Kelly said that one of the people in the vehicle then “leant out the window, and pushed her off her bike, before laughing and jeering at her as they drove away.”

The push forced Good over her handlebars and into a ditch, where she was covered in mud. The cyclist also broke her collarbone in the crash, and she will undergo surgery at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

> Cyclist pushed off bike by car passenger on Irish mountain pass says “they could have killed me”

“To be involved in what is effectively a hit and run incident or assault, and for the culprits to act in such a premeditated, malicious manner is abhorrent,” Van den Bent-Kelly said, in a post which has been shared by Good with the caption “Pretty awful day”.

“I’m furious, upset, and appalled at what happened to her. Cyclists are already vulnerable road users who are frequently unfairly treated by vehicles. To be deliberately targeted in such a way really makes me ask the question: how could aiming for a young, female cyclist in this manner ever be acceptable to anyone?

“The lack of empathy, thought or awareness shown towards Katie and her life really highlights that more drivers need educating on how dangerous their vehicles are.”

> Hartlepool cyclist hospitalised after car passenger pushed him off

He continued: “Maybe if they knew that Katie is a seriously talented athlete: a county tennis player, county hockey player, U23 5K national champion, multiple 70.3 podium-winner, sub 10hr Ironman finisher (on debut), they’d have realised she’s an incredible human with an incredible story, and thought twice about attacking her in this way.”

Van den Brent-Kelly also said that Good was building towards this year’s Ironman World Championships, which will be held in October in Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i, but that the injuries she sustained in yesterday’s crash “will impact her build towards that”.

He nevertheless added that, despite the horrifying experience, Good has remained in “amazingly high spirits so far” and that she’s “one tough cookie”.

He also confirmed that the police have been contacted and are currently investigating the attack. road.cc has contacted Kent Police for further information.

> "Reckless" passenger hits cyclist by opening car door as driver overtakes

Unfortunately, Good’s traumatic incident isn’t the first time that cyclists have been targeted by car passengers in recent months.

In January, a man was fined £200 by Kilmarnock Sheriff Court for leaning out of an overtaking vehicle and hitting a cyclist with a tub of hair gel, after becoming frustrated that the cyclists were not “moving fast enough”.

Last September, a cyclist in Yorkshire feared that he could have been killed when a passenger in an overtaking car opened one of the vehicle's rear doors, hitting him on the hand.

Fortunately, Trev Walker escaped relatively physically unscathed, suffering swelling and bruising to his right hand, but said it “could easily have ended with serious injury or fatality” after a passenger sat in the rear of a passing car opened the door into him as the vehicle’s driver passed on the B6248 near Wakefield.

And in April 2021, another cyclist, this time from Ireland, said that the occupants of a vehicle “could have killed me” after he was pushed off his bike by one of its passengers – who later posted footage of the shocking incident, which happened on a mountain road near Dublin, afterwards to social media.