A professional cyclist was injured after a motorcycle gang armed with a 15-inch machete robbed him of his custom-made bike worth £6,000.
Alexander Richardson, who rides for UCI ProTeam Alpecin-Fenix, was training in Richmond Park at about 3pm yesterday when he said four men wearing balaclavas rammed into him at 40mph.
Despite his best efforts to get away, he was knocked off his bicycle when one of the chasing motorbikes collided with his back wheel, and was dragged along the ground for 100 metres.
The former stockbroker, who competed in last month’s Tour of Britain, shared on Instagram a photo of his bloodied leg and detailed his ‘pretty shocking’ experience.
He said: ‘Was finishing my training around 3pm when two motorbikes with four men and balaclavas started following me.
‘I knew exactly they wanted to take my bike and started to think what the best thing I could do was.’
Alexander tried to reach the safety of a local café, but could not escape the motorbikes – one of which he thinks deliberately crashed into him at high speed.
He said: ‘I turned around at East Sheen roundabout and started riding full speed to the cafe about 500 metres away. They simply rode one of the motorbikes into me at 60kph.
‘I came off the bike and the first motorbike lost control. I held onto my bike, however the second motorbike then dragged me and the bike along the floor for another 100 metres.
‘After this they pulled out a 15-inch machete at which point I thought better and let the bike go.
‘I am pretty cut up and bruised with a swollen hip, but tomorrow is another day.’
He urged fellow cyclists to ‘be careful’ in the area and highlighted such incidents were ‘becoming a common occurrence in parts of London’.
Alexander only started cycling seriously in his mid-twenties and took the bold move to turn his back on a successful career as a stockbroker to follow his dream in the professional ranks.
He shook up the cycling world when as an unsponsored rider and with no team support he won the 2018 Lincoln Grand Prix, leading to professional contracts with Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes and now Alpecin-Fenix.
A spokesperson for Metropolitan Police told Metro.co.uk officers were called out to a robbery in Richmond Park but after searching the area, there was no trace of the suspects.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.