‘Lucky’ cyclist Glenn escapes with cuts and bruises after near-100ft cliff fall at Milford
“LUCKY bastard doesn’t begin to describe it,” said a cyclist who suffered only cuts and bruises in a near-100ft cliff fall at Milford.
Glenn Burnage found himself at the centre of a major rescue operation after a normal ride along the clifftop path became a potentially life-threatening situation in “a second”.
Multiple emergency crews, including coastguard teams and helicopter, rushed to the scene between Hordle Cliff and Taddiford Gap in response to his 999 call shortly after 2.30pm last Thursday.
Having plunged over 98ft foot, the 68-year-old from New Milton was dubbed “incredibly lucky” for landing on a soft mud plateau near the bottom.
But Glenn told the A&T this week he was particularly fortunate not to be more badly hurt as he struck the cliff face several times on the way down.
He had been negotiating ruts on the path when he lost control of his mountain bike and came off it over the edge.
“From a normal ride to plummeting down was just a second,” he recalled
“I keep getting flashbacks about that – that moment when you realise you’re not going to get it back and this could be extremely serious.
“I got halfway through an expletive and then there was the first impact. The first bit was a straight drop of about 20ft, then I hit-bounced, hit-bounced and then hit the bottom.”
Lying on his back in the mud, Glenn struggled for a while to retrieve his phone from his riding jacket before dialing 999.
Confusion over his exact location led to him being sent a special app to help find him.
“The woman on the 999 call asked, ‘Do you know how injured you are?’ and I said, ‘I could probably sit up’, but she said, ‘Don’t move!’,” Glenn continued.
“Everything seemed to work OK, but I was worried about internal stuff – whether my spleen had gone when I hit the cliff on the way down.
“It was like being hit by three cars travelling in different directions, but it didn’t even knock the wind out of me.”
Glenn even took a selfie to check the extent of his facial injuries.
Lymington and Southbourne coastguard teams lowered a HART (hazardous area response team) paramedic to him.
Once assessed, a rescuer was winched from the coastguard helicopter and brought him up on a stretcher.
It landed back up on Taddiford farmyard, where he was transferred to a land ambulance and taken to Southampton General Hospital as a precaution.
Initially thought to have a leg injury and possible concussion, a full check-up revealed nothing more than cuts and bruises.
Glenn believed those on his forehead were from the peak of his helmet smashing when it hit the cliff face.
“Most of the time was spent getting the mud out of my eyes,” he said.
“That was the most annoying part because it’s gritty.
“Everything that sticks out is bruised, especially my elbows, and I’ve got a bit of a stiff neck.”
Praising the “brilliant” emergency response, he said: “They’re absolute heroes, in my opinion, every single one of them.
“I was just delighted I wasn’t dead. It was beautiful to experience firsthand these people who care so much about others.
“They said, ‘You’re the luckiest person we’ve ever recovered because, basically, you’re unharmed’ and, ‘With luck like that, you should go and buy a lottery ticket’.”
He continued: “It’s lucky the bike didn’t come down on top of me. I could have landed and thought, Oh, that’s not so bad, and then the bike hits me.
“I agree with them that I’m very, very lucky. Lucky bastard doesn’t begin to describe it!”
An ex-competitive cyclist and time trialist, Glenn has come a cropper before and, although not in as dramatic a fashion as last Thursday, been more badly hurt.
He broke his collarbone in a collision with a pedestrian at Christchurch, and broke his thumb in a fall in Southampton.
“They’re bloody dangerous, these bikes,” he quipped.
“But it’s the endorphin addiction – you get so used to it, and it’s so lovely to go cycling around here.”
Glenn was due to get his bike back this week, and vowed to get back to cycling on the cliff soon.
