Many might associate Oman and its neighbouring countries in the Middle East with flying carpets – ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ and all that – but it turns out that there is another unusual mode of transport more popular these days: flying mattresses.
Danish cyclist Matti Breschel had just completed the six-day Tour of Oman, in which he finished 57th, and was pedalling back to his hotel. The race was long over, but the 29-year-old was still travelling quickly: an estimated 70 km/h on a descent.
And then, out of nowhere, the Team Tinkoff-Saxo cyclist was knocked clean off his bike by a flying mattress.
No serious injury
Fortunately, the Dane escaped serious injury, although a photo he uploaded to Twitter afterwards revealed that he had taken quite a battering.
“A mattress flew into my front wheel and brought the bike to a standstill,” he told Metro newspaper.
“I hit the asphalt pretty hard and lost a lot of skin an my legs, and the wound on my knee had to be stitched up.”
It still remains unclear how the mattress ended up becoming airborne.
