11-year-old cyclist injured after car occupants throw bottles at New Zealand club race

An 11-year-old cyclist was injured during a club race in New Zealand after occupants of a passing vehicle threw bottles at a group of riders, one of which hit the boy and caused him to crash.

The incident happened on Saturday 19 April, during a Ramblers Cycling Club event in Poukawa, near Hastings, prompting the cancellation of the race and an appeal from police for witnesses to come forward.

According to a statement from New Zealand Police, the occupants of a black Ford Ranger pick-up truck were seen throwing bottles from their vehicle at riders participating in the council-sanctioned event on Mutiny Road at around 2.45pm.

A police statement said: “A young person was hit by a bottle and fell off their bike. Fortunately, the injuries sustained were not serious.”

The vehicle, described as having large off-road tyres and a roll bar, was last seen heading south on Middle Road.

Ramblers Cycling Club manager Katja Williams described the attack as “completely uncalled for and unacceptable,” saying the 11-year-old rider had been among a group of experienced participants when he was hit. “As far as I understand, two bottles were thrown at him — one of which hit him,” she said.

“There was no reason for that sort of aggression level,” she added. “[The rider] was injured, not severely… but he came off the bike which would hurt any adult.”

The club subsequently cancelled the remainder of the race in response to the incident. Williams said the route, known as the Mutiny Circuit, is used for racing roughly every six weeks, and that signage had been in place in order to alert motorists.

She also noted that the injured boy had been riding with the club for years and said the club had “never had something like this happen before.” Calling the behaviour “just horrific,” she encouraged anyone with information to contact police.

> “I had too much to drink”: Paris-Roubaix spectator who threw bottle at Mathieu van der Poel apologises and “will take legal responsibility”

The attack follows a high-profile case in Europe just days earlier in which Mathieu van der Poel was struck in the face by a thrown water bottle during his victory ride at Paris-Roubaix, prompting the Dutchman to label the act “attempted manslaughter.”

“It was a full water bottle and it hurt a lot. If I get that water bottle on my nose, it’s broken,” he told Belgian broadcaster Sporza. “Hopefully the police can identify the man, because there has to be a trial for this. This is attempted manslaughter.”

While Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck team manager Philip Roodhooft struck a more muted tone, saying “we shouldn’t give it too much attention,” the incident sparked widespread condemnation and comparisons to previous crowd misbehaviour, including a spitting incident at E3 Saxo Classic and a hat-throwing case at last year’s Roubaix.

In the latest Paris-Roubaix incident, the man responsible — a labourer in his 20s from Waregem, West Flanders — later said he was “really ashamed” and would “take legal responsibility”, explaining that he had been drinking and acted on a foolish impulse.

In January, a cyclist from Wellington, New Zealand, who was doing a group ride in Auckland, made the headlines after an uninsured driver pulled out of a parking space —allegedly without indicating — directly into his group’s path, sending him flying over the handlebars, and making him land on his head, “nearly breaking” his neck.

The cyclist, a road safety engineer by profession, later confronted the motorist at her home to demand almost $13,000 to repair the damage to his new custom bike, but the 68-year-old claimed that she “didn’t hit” the rider and that he had simply “bumped into” her car instead, and insisted that there was “no damn way I’m bloody paying” to repair the victim’s bike.