Alberta mountain biker suffers sliced throat after collision with barbed wire on West Bragg Creek trail

Update: Psaroudakis’ claims were later revealed to be fraudulent. As of October 2017, he seems to have fled to Germany to avoid charges.

In a frightening incident at West Bragg Creek Provincial Recreation Area earlier this week, a Calgary-area mountain biker, Stelianos Psaroudakis, had his throat sliced by a stretch of barbed wire strung across the trail.

The incident, the CBC reports, happened on Wednesday, July 5 at around 8 pm Mountain Time.

On a fast descent, Psaroudakis told CBC reporters that he could see something out of the corner of his eye, but by the time he realized what it was, it was too late to stop. The barbed wire “just hit me like a ton of bricks,” he said, resulting in a wound to his throat that extended from one side of his neck to the other. In places, reports say, the wire gouged into his flesh a centimetre deep.

Saying that the wire was placed at the bottom of a West Bragg Creek hill, just around a corner and slightly out of sight, Psaroudakis suspects that the culprits intended the absolute worst. “They’re trying to kill somebody,” the avid, experienced cyclist said. “This is like attempted murder.”

“If it was like an inch higher, it would have taken my head off,” he added.

The wound to his neck wasn’t the only injury he suffered, either. The force of the impact with the wire dramatically flung Psaroudakis off his bike — something he described in CBC reports as a “clothesline” — and threw him into the air, bringing him down hard on a nearby rock. Severe bruising resulted. Losing consciousness for fifteen minutes, he came to with a lacerated liver and internal bleeding — injuries, fortunately, that doctors believe will heal without the need for surgery.

To add insult to injury, the mountain bike he left behind — a 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR, worth approximately $8,000 — was evidently stolen by the following day, after he and his riding companion left to seek medical attention. Local RCMP posted a photo of the bike, published in the CBC’s coverage, in hopes that recovering it might also lead to those responsible. Local cycling groups, meanwhile, are advising caution when using the trails while police investigate.

Horrific though the calamity was, Psaroudakis feels fortunate that it wasn’t any worse. “When I blacked out, I thought my head was dangling on the other side of my body,” he said.

“I thought I was dead.”