A cyclist from Surrey has raised the alarm after being violently attacked by masked thugs on motorbikes while using a segregated cycling route near Box Hill, the rider suffering broken bones and a punctured lung when he was aggressively shoved from his bike on Wednesday evening.
Whether the incident was an attempted bikejacking remains unclear, numerous similar incidents of masked motorbike riders targeting cyclists to rob them of bikes having been reported across London, Kent and Surrey in recent times.
At around 7.30pm Matt Farr was cycling back to his home in nearby Leatherhead having completed a lap of the popular Box Hill climb made famous by its inclusion in the 2012 Olympic Games road races and which sits just a mile south of where the violent attack happened as he rode along the shared-use infrastructure that runs parallel to the busy A24.
Matt heard the sound of motorbikes approaching but assumed they were on the dual-carriageway. He was then "suddenly and violently pushed down onto the ground" and has little memory of anything before being helped by several cyclists and walkers who were passing by and reported seeing four people on two motorbikes without number plates, none of the suspects wearing helmets and instead with their faces covered by bandanas or balaclavas. Coincidentally, the author of this story was cycling up Box Hill at 7.15pm on Wednesday and was shouted at by four people matching the description speeding down the climb on motorbikes towards where the incident occurred just minutes later.
"I don't remember much after [being pushed]," the cyclist who has spent four days being treated at East Surrey Hospital told road.cc. "Shortly before, I had heard a motorbike behind me but assumed it was on the road rather than the cycle path. I suffered four broken ribs, a punctured lung, broken shoulder blade, concussion and numerous cuts, scrapes and bruises and have only got out of hospital today [Saturday].
"I had a rear-facing camera on my bicycle and the police attending the scene took the memory card, so I haven't seen the footage yet. I'm still waiting to hear back from the police but I'm not hopeful of the culprits being caught. I'm yet to assess the damage to my bicycle but can see at least the levers have taken a lot of damage. My cycling kit was cut off me in A&E and my helmet took several heavy hits so this is definitely going to cost me a minimum of multiple hundreds of pounds just for equipment, plus many months to get my fitness back again. It's really truly horrible.
"I couldn't believe how violently I'd been shoved, I just remember feeling that I was rotating to the left incredibly quickly, there was literally nothing I could do and it was a fraction of a second before I hit the ground. It was bizarre and obviously they'd kicked or pushed or done something on the way past, it wasn't like a glancing blow or like I was hit from behind. It was a sideways shove basically, so it must have been deliberate."
The police told Matt it is unlikely the four people could be traced due to the lack of number plates and the fact they had hidden their faces, raising concerns about repeat incidents in the future.
"My immediate thought, because they weren't wearing helmets, was that they must have been local rather than coming out from London, they must have not come very far," the cyclist continued.
"Maybe it was just for fun, who knows? I was quite beaten up from it and was lying by the side of the road for about two and a half hours before the ambulance. Lots of people stopped and helped and there was a couple who were walking who got there first that don't live that far away, so they were nice and brought my bicycle back home."
Matt admitted being unsure about what it would be like when he is able to return to riding outside and will be "setting up Zwift" in the meantime once he is sufficiently recovered.
"I might be completely fine or I might have some kind of post-traumatic and be unable to get on the bike again outside, I really don't know, hopefully it's the first," he explained.
"I was on my own and I think when the roads are really busy it's probably less of a worry but if you're out on your own on an evening, which quite a few people do over the summer, I think it's good to be a little bit forewarned. If I'd known about it, I don't know, maybe I would have looked behind and got out the way or stopped, I don't know. It's just so unnecessary [...] people riding motorbikes down the cycle lane not wearing a helmet with bandanas over their faces... they're not people who care about consequences.
"At the end of the day the chance that happens to you is obviously still going to be very small, I was probably very unlucky, but you'd like to think the chance would be zero."
There have been numerous incidents involving motorbike-riding masked attackers targeting cyclists, often in bikejacking incidents, across the countryside surrounding south London in the past few years. The motive in this case remains unclear, the cyclist's bike and property having not been taken.
In 2022, British Cycling stepped in to say it was "deeply concerned" by a spate of violent bikejackings across south London. In the most high-profile incident, in autumn 2021, professional cyclist Alexandar Richardson was knocked off his bike, dragged for 100 metres by muggers on motorbikes, and threatened with a machete during a shocking bikejacking in Richmond Park.
In April of last year, a teenager, aged 15 when Richardson was attacked, was jailed for 12 months for the bikejacking.
Another professional cyclist, former Scottish champion Jennifer George said she no longer rides alone after she was similarly attacked by two people on a motorbike during a long ride from her home in south east London out to Surrey.
"I've never felt so vulnerable in my life. I've never felt so terrified in my life," she said.
A chase ensued, with the attackers trying to veer into the 39-year-old. When George asked them to leave her alone, one of the attackers said "no, why should we?" She managed to make it to a busy pub nearby, and collapsed having a panic attack.
Seven weeks later George was targeted by two more would-be attackers on mopeds, and she was forced to wait in a driveway for half an hour until they had gone. She reported both incidents to the police, with Surrey Police filing details of the first incident due to limited lines of enquiry, and Kent Police failing to respond at all.
A member of Penge Cycling Club narrowly escaped a robbery attempt near West Wickham, around five miles west of Orpington, during which the rider was told he would be stabbed if he did not give up his 2022 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7.
While another incident saw a Trek Domane SL6 and Wilier GTR forcefully taken by a group, described as "youths on mopeds" by one victim and "four males on mopeds" by the other.
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said he believes criminals are attracted towards stealing high-end bikes because the potential money to be made from selling them on far outweighs the chances of getting caught.
"It is possibly perceived as a low-risk crime if the numbers of people being caught are so low," he explained. "It may be seen as a high-reward, low-risk crime.
"There have been increasing concerns about people cycling out of London to the Kent and Surrey hills who have been victims of muggings or robbery. There are a limited number of routes where people would cycle out of London.
"Somebody has posted on Strava what they are doing on their ride. The criminals will know it is someone on a £3,000 to £4,000 carbon fibre bike who has unwittingly signposted the fact that they are likely to be heading out to Kent or the Surrey Hills. It is on the police's radar."