A triathlete who was forced into a van and kidnapped in Austria has opened up about how she sweet-talked her way to freedom.
Cycling champion Nathalie Birli was knocked off her bike by a red delivery van before being snatched while training near her home.
Opening up in apost to Facebook after escaping the ordeal, the 27-year-old explained how her attacker beat her with a stick and bound her hands with duct tape.
"I was hit, beaten, caught up and brought to a small house off the road — like in a bad movie," she wrote.
"He bound my hands with electrical insulation tape and threw me on to the back seat. I must have been unconscious for a while.
After noticing his house was full of orchids, Birli began to build a rapport with her captor by complimenting him on the flowers and managed to talk her way to freedom.
"All of a sudden the culprit was nice to me," she said.
"He said he was a gardener and he told me all about his messed-up life — that his father had died, that his mother had become an alcoholic and that his girlfriend had cheated on him.
"I made him a suggestion: 'Let's just say it was an accident and you can let me go now.'
"He accepted the deal and cut the tape. I was allowed to get dressed and then he drove me all the way to my front door."
Police reportedly used GPS data from Birli's racing bike to track the man's house before arresting him.
It has not been confirmed whether or not Birli knew the 33-year-old man before the horrific attack.
Birli has won titles at under-23 level in triathlons and short-distance duathlon. Local newspapers reported she has also won her country's national women's cycling league.
