All three cyclists work at the Cairns hospital, with two of the men training for a triathlon. The rider who filmed the incident wished to remain anonymous for fear of public backlash and said the incident seemed to be premeditated. "The bottle actually was aimed right at us but didn't miss us by that much, they had intent to harm, then they just kept driving," he said. "It was a bit scary, we were riding pretty fast."

The emergency doctor said they contacted police to ensure the roads were kept safe and said Cairns was "pretty good" in terms of abuse from drivers. "It maybe happens every three to four times on the big rides. You might get someone yelling at you but I have never had anyone throw anything until now," he said. "There is an undercurrent of a small minority and it is pretty scary." The Cairns man said he bought the camera a while ago after a few near-misses. "I have had a few incidents where I have wanted to report it to police," he said.

"Most of the incidents happen from a car approaching from behind." Australian Cycle Alliance Facebook administrator Ed Hore, who posted the attack on Saturday, said if the bottle had hit one of the riders, they could have been killed. "Those riders would have been doing close to 40 kilometres an hour, so if they had of come off it could have been the death of one of those riders," he said. "They would have smashed into that gravel very hard very fast. If they weren't dead they would have been in hospital for a very long time." Mr Hore said at least two incidents similar to the one shown in the video were reported to Australian Cycle Alliance each week, with most riders asking if it was worthwhile reporting the incident to begin with.

"This is not an isolated instance, this is just one that was captured on camera," he said. "We advise riders to report it to Environmental Protection Agency and the police because it is quicker to get them fined for littering than it is for them almost killing you." Mr Hore said a lot of the aggression directed towards cyclists was bred from shock jocks and television shows demonising cycling and said better representation and tougher laws were needed to stop violent attacks on the roads. "These are just stupid people doing stupid things because they think they are justified in their hatred," he said. "More and more people are carrying cameras these days; we will find you and we will capture you."