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Rooftop bike rider nabbed by Queensland police

Described by officers as one of the most dangerous road stunts they've seen...

We're not sure if this falls under stupid cycling, stupid driving, or both. Queensland Police have released video of a man sitting on a bike mounted on the roof of a moving car. Not for long, though, as the driver has the sense to pull over when he realises there's a patrol car behind him.

In a video released to Australia's 9 News, police dashcam footage shows a man on a bike on top of the car, as another attempts to climb out of the passenger window to join him on a second bike.

The passenger climbs back in as the car pulls over, leaving the bike rider on the roof in a solo breakaway.

Queensland police chiefs called it one of the most dangerous road stunts they had ever seen.

"I just shook my head and thought how can collectively three people think so stupid together," Queensland Police Inspector of Road Policing Operations Peter Flanders said.

"They would have landed straight on their head and we would have had another fatality, absolutely have another fatality purely because they thought it was a great idea to ride a push bike on top of a moving car."

The driver was fined AU$600 (£305), banned for six months and put on probation for two years.

The rooftop passenger is not believed to have got the idea from Mark Cavendish, shown above at the 2012 renewal of Jaguar's partnership with Team Sky.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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10 comments

Avatar
EK Spinner | 9 years ago
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Is it just me or are there people getting wedding pictures taken in the middle of the road while the cops are dealing with this.

Takes all sorts - and Australians it seems

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watlina | 9 years ago
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The news story video has moved to here

Bike on roof of car

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stealfwayne | 9 years ago
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 35 Seconded Hypoxic.

The Darwin Awards have been a bit quiet of late.

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Hypoxic | 9 years ago
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I think the police should be held accountable for interfering in another Darwin Award attempt. Shame on you boys.

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SteppenHerring | 9 years ago
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It's obvious what they were doing. Wind-tunnel time is expensive. However, attaching a few strain gauges to a bike carrier is pretty cheap. Get on the bike, on the roof, get up to 30mph and adjust your position until it's the most aero.

Don't tell me I'm the only one who does this.

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don simon fbpe | 9 years ago
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Quote:

"They would have landed straight on their head and we would have had another fatality, absolutely have another fatality purely because they thought it was a great idea to ride a push bike on top of a moving car."

And the informed police officer can guarantee that death would have been the result, how?

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CarlosFerreiro | 9 years ago
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If you apply the Mike Penning statistical method, it's probably the safest way to travel on the road? I can't think there are many reported "riding a bike on a car roof" incidents.....  3

http://road.cc/content/news/57138-road-safety-minister-says-gbs-roads-sa...

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johndonnelly | 9 years ago
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Police were just upset because they kept losing their Strava KOMs.

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rookybiker | 9 years ago
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Caption says Juan Antonio 'Fletcher', but the guy is a Spaniard, Flecha.

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KirinChris | 9 years ago
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Video not working but it looks like he was wearing a helmet?

Don't really see the problem.  35

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