Cyclist hurt after hitting barbed wire strung across trail

A 55-year-old cyclist is nursing scrapes, injured ribs and a damaged titanium bike after flipping over her handlebars when she hit a strand of barbed wire tied a foot above the ground between two posts along a trail in Littleon.

Jacquie Carpenter, an avid road and mountain biker for more than 25 years, was riding on the Mary Carter Greenway Trail in South Platte Park on Sunday evening when she hit the wire.

A passerby tried to warn her about the hazard, but it was too late.

Carpenter said she was grateful a man biking behind her, pulling children in a trailer, didn't hit the wire first.

"We are obviously very concerned," said Littleton Police spokeswoman Kim Ferber. "We need to make people aware that this has happened."