THE partner of a motorcyclist left laying dead in a ditch half-a-mile from his home for more than 14 hours said “he died doing one of his favourite hobbies”.

Craig Coleman was only minutes from his home at Willow Farm, Whittlesey Road, March, when he left the road at about 9pm on Sunday.

The Whittlesey Bike Club member went to March to use a cashpoint and was coming home when his blue and white Suzuki TLR crashed through a tree and a barrier near Truman’s Farm and into a water-filled ditch.

Police discovered the 38 year old at about 11am the next morning with his hands still gripped tightly round the handlebars after what his partner dubbed “a scene you see in the movies” with “helicopters and police cars everywhere”.

Celine Stabler had called the Fengrain site manager throughout the night as she worked a late shift to find out where he was because his disappearance was so out of character. The 43 year old said: “Everyone is completely shocked by his death. Every time I hear a bike I think it is Craig coming home.

“He was such an easy-going man who loved his job and loved his bike. People can’t believe that this could happen to someone so happy and so young.”

The biker’s death is said to have rocked everyone close to him, including his Fengrain colleagues who were said to see him “as one of the lads, not their boss”.

His father has flown into Fenland from his home in France to lay flowers by the scene of the accident and visit his son’s workplace in Wimblington.

Mr Coleman started life as a mechanic but spent two decades working in the grain business before landing a top job.

He boasted that he had never missed a harvest in 20 years but his partner said: “The thing he will really hate is missing this year’s harvest.”

When he wasn’t working he would go out on motorcycle rides for pleasure and even took Ms Stabler for a holiday to Scotland on the bike.

An inquest has now been opened into his death, which happened just 12 days before his 39th birthday. Ms Stabler said they had been planning to go scuba diving for his 40th birthday.

? Anyone with information about the collision should call Sgt Chris Huggins on 0345 456 4564.