This post contains graphic imagery.

After being stabbed in the head, a South African cyclist wasn’t going to wait around for an ambulance—and perhaps another assault. Instead, he rode his bike to a nearby doctor’s office, the knife still protruding from his skull.



Shaun Wayne was biking to his restaurant job in Strand, a seaside resort near Cape Town, last month when two unknown assailants jumped him on Gordon’s Bay Drive, a major road by the shore. Wayne, 34, managed to fend off his attackers after being stabbed, then pedaled nearly half a mile to his doctor’s office. Though startled, other patients in the waiting room were nice enough to let him cut the line.

“He asked very politely if we had a doctor free to see him,” Wayne’s doctor, Brendan Venter, told the Daily Mail. “He was very calm and lucid, although bleeding a lot.”

Wayne was transferred to a nearby hospital, where the knife was removed during emergency surgery. Miraculously, Venter said, the six-inch blade “bent on impact with the bone and went down his face outside the skull.” It’s believed Wayne will make a full recovery and won’t suffer any long-term physical effects from the stabbing, his friends told the Sunday Times.

Wayne’s family refused further comment. His attackers remain at large, though South African police said they are investigating.

Shaun Wayne in his doctor’s office, with the knife still stuck in his head. Wimpie van der Merwe

Less than a week before, two other cyclists were attacked along the same stretch of road. Former amateur world champion Wimpie van der Merwe and masters champion Elize Jansen van Rensburg were riding together when they came across three men blocking most of Gordon’s Bay Drive with their bodies. The setup forced van der Merwe and van Rensburg through a narrow opening, and the men pounced.

The pair attempted to sprint past, but the men managed to throw van Rensburg off her bike to the ground, fracturing her hip, pelvis, and tailbone. One of the attackers held a knife to her body as he rifled through her pockets, grabbing her cell phone. Meanwhile, the other two started running off with her bike. Now dismounted, van der Merwe ran after them.



“I must have looked very aggressive,” van der Merwe, 61, told Bicycling. “The two of them probably thought if I got hold of them, I would put them into the hospital, so they let go of the bike.”

He and van Rensburg had to act fast. “I tried to get Elize back on the bike, because we were still in a dangerous situation,” van der Merwe said. “The three men were regrouping for a second attack. When I realized that she was too badly injured, I started waving down cars.”

Passing motorists did stop, and the attackers retreated while van Rensburg was taken to the hospital. Although three suspects were later arrested, van der Merwe said he and van Rensburg still feel traumatized. A day after the attack, he said, he began shaking uncontrollably and his emotions “went haywire.”

“It does affect you, and you feel violated and invaded,” van der Merwe told In the Bunch, an African cycling blog. “You just think of the fact that somebody really wanted to do you physical harm [or] kill you.”

After undergoing counseling, van Rensburg said she will likely return to the bike after her injuries heal. A military veteran, van der Merwe said he’ll continue riding his route, but is now advocating for additional security cameras along the way, as well as access to GPS trackers on bikes in case they’re ever stolen.

Robert Annis After spending nearly a decade as a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, Robert Annis finally broke free of the shackles of gainful employment and now freelances full time, specializing in cycling and outdoor-travel journalism. Over the years, Robert's byline has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Afar, Bicycling, Men's Journal, Popular Mechanics, Lonely Planet, the Chicago Tribune, and Adventure.com

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