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A mountain biker was left bloodied after he rode face-first into barbed wire stretched across a popular woodland track.

Trevor Young suffered cuts to his eye and mouth after the accident while riding at Spa Wood, near Guisborough.

The 52-year-old mountain biker from Guisborough said: “It caught me right in the eyelid and mouth.

“If it had been an inch lower it would have been my eye. Luckily, I was going uphill so I wasn’t going particularly fast. I’ve looked up and that’s when it caught me.

“If it had been a piece of chicken wire, that would be one thing. But barbed wire is designed to cut.”

After the incident, Trevor posted the images of his bloodied face on Facebook along with the message: “WARNING up in Guisborough woods people, top of concrete road, BARBED WIRE across track, as you can see face height - well for me.

“Got me right on the eyelid and mouth.”

Within minutes the post had been shared thousands of times.

Trevor said: “I put it on Facebook just to warn my friends but it’s went wild since - I just wanted to warn people.

“I don’t know who has put it there or what for.

“I’ve been using that route for about three and a half years - it’s used by everybody - walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders.

“If a horse went into it, it’s going to jump. It could be very, very dangerous.

“It was a brand new piece of barbed wire about four or five feet from the ground. I’m 5ft 5, if I was 6ft tall it could have been my throat.”

Trevor, who works for Redcar and Cleveland Council and volunteers for Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team, isn’t going to let the incident put him off riding.

“I like road bikes, but this time of year, mountain biking is a way of keeping fit,” said Trevor.

“I recently did a Pier to Pier cycle route from Blackpool to Saltburn to raise money for Cleveland Mountain Rescue Team.

“I am hoping to make it a yearly event and hopefully getting lots of people involved.”

A Cleveland Police spokeswoman said the force had not received a complaint about the barbed wire and was not investigating.