A bad misadventure that could have ended much, much worse. The protagonists were some cyclists, including a man from Cagliari, who were hit by a volley of pellets fired from a hunter's rifle. In the end they got away with superficial wounds (treated thanks to the intervention of an ambulance) and a big scare, but the consequences could have been much more dramatic.
The episode occurred this morning in Spain, about thirty kilometers from Madrid, and it is Nicola Epicureo, a fifty-year-old sales agent in the cycling sector and passionate about road cycling and mountain biking, who has been in the Spanish capital for ten years, who tells the story: «I was with four friends, we were doing our usual Sunday training and we were going about 35 km/h. I was in front at the time and shortly before we had already heard some shots. Then we saw this hunter, about a hundred meters away from us, on a hill. There are rabbits in that area, he shot without realizing that we were passing by. He hit all of us, except the one who was in the back. I felt the air displacement and felt the bounce on the bikes, then the pain in my chest».
The five stopped: "After the shots we protested with him, pointing out that he had shot at us, at him, but he wasn't the least bit worried and left. We immediately called the Guardia Civil who arrived in ten minutes and alerted the local police and the ambulance. One of ours had blood on his shirt. We were disinfected. Then the officers looked for the hunters, catching three of them but among them we didn't recognize the one who had shot. I think he was an elderly man, because we noticed his white hair. Now there will be an investigation."
In short, a bit of discomfort ( «I had three layers of clothing on, but if he had hit me in the face I could have hurt myself much more») and a big scare but then the five were able to get back on their bikes and go home without any further consequences.
