Conor White had a close encounter with a police motorbike on his way to a prestigious road race win in Spain on Sunday.

White won a 148km stage of the Catalan Cup in Olot after coming out on top in a two-man sprint finish, but his race nearly came to a crashing halt halfway down a tricky descent when he came into contact with a police officer not paying full attention.

“I tried to attack a few times mid-race but I had a scary encounter with a police bike that was not going fast enough through one of the corners as I was attacking,” White said.

“He was in the middle of the road and I was going to take the shortest route on the inside but he failed to see me and basically moved into my path. It was wet, so I didn’t want to hit my brakes or I would have slid out, so I basically threaded the needle between the guard rail and him. I probably had about two feet of space to get through and my heart rate shot up.

“I basically shouted a few rude words at him and he apologised and we were on our way again. I was really annoyed as it was harder for him to be in the way than out of my way, but that’s part of bike racing.

“He knew he was in the wrong and apologised but it could have been a whole lot worse, I was so close to sliding off right into his bike. It could have been bad but based on experience I have had over the years I know that when you are in a corner and it’s wet you are better not pulling on your brakes and just riding it out.”

So with collision averted, White focused on the rest of his race as the 143 starters were whittled down to just two by the time the stage came to an exciting conclusion.

“I made it into what I thought would be the winning break of the day and the guys in there did make it into the final selection, but it ended up being about 15 guys,” White said.

“On the last lap on the downhill section there were these two guys that got away and nobody was pedalling very hard, so I attacked the downhill into the climb and caught the two guys right before it.

“One of the guys I ended up going to the line with attacked and so I followed him. Over the top there was a King of Mountains trophy and I knew it was there so I sprinted round him and got that.

“On the final circuit on the steeper sections he was trying to attack as he was a smaller guy so probably knew he didn’t have a chance in the sprint.

“He managed to drop me but I held the gap on the climb, started to recover, managed to get back to him and then we started working together.

“Coming into the sprint he knew I was probably the best sprinter so he stopped pulling and he tried to go with 500 to 600 metres left, but I reacted quickly, got onto his wheel and once I was there I was pretty sure that was it. I was able to leave him in the sprint and the last 100 metres I was able to soft pedal as he had accepted defeat.“

White picked up three trophies for winning the stage and will be carrying them in his luggage as he flies home for a short Bermuda stay before having his first race in the UK for his new team.

“The first race I will do with my team is April 13, so I will fly back home tomorrow,” White said.

“I will jump in the national mountain bike championships just because I am home as that should be fun. Then I will leave again to race with the team for six weeks in the UK and France.