The ongoing thread about dogs and bikes made me remember some of my fondest and most painful moments when cycle met fauna. So, let’s hear your most memorable stories.
I’ll start.
A squirrel shot out from the left side of the road and before I could react he ran under my bike and between the wheels. So, going full speed up the road I looked down and there was a squirrel under my bottom bracket. Timing was perfect, as he ran the gauntlet, got through untouched, and scurried off to the right.
My favorite is still Sabrina Oui hitting a bear on the Boulder Peak bike course last year, and then getting up to finish the race.
A women hit a deer at a sprint tri I did this summer. She flipped head over heels off her bike, over the deer. She got up and finished the race too!
Three guys I know were out riding in the mountains. One of them was on a new Madone (first ride). They were coming to the bottom of a long hill when a deer ran out in the road. The guy on the trek hit the deer and was thrown clear but the bike stuck on the deers antlers. Well the deer took off running thru the woods with the bike, the guys gave chase and recovered the bike about a 1/2 mile into the woods. The new trek was scratched pretty bad and covered with deer hair. Would have made a great commercial.
We came to the top of a hill, and a bull had gotten out of a nearby pasture - we basically rode up right up to it before we noticed it was there. It was VERY interested in us - and looked quite pissed off.
Then, one of the girls in our group did the classic ‘oh shit, I can’t get unclipped’ fall to the pavement. We chose this point to rip around the bull, leaving her helpless on the road (not really) - the bull then trotted off and away we went.
About three weeks ago I was staying at Big Meadows Lodge (3,500 ft) on top of Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah Nat’l Park in Virginia. I hop on my bike at 6 a.m. and round the first corner going down a slight grade. There is a huge black bear sitting in the middle of the road. I put on the brakes pretty hard and stop about 20 yards behind him. He must have either heard my brakes or smelled me (the smell of fear), but he turned his head around to look at me and then darted into the woods like a cannonball. Talk about learning how to piss yourself while on the bike!
I stood there amazed and waited to make sure one of his buddies wasn’t going to come across the road to follow him (or eat me). So I clip back in and start down the hill and see a skunk on the road, I just tucked in and scooted by him hoping not to get sprayed. I also rode through five or six deer who were grazing and taking a morning stroll and they didn’t seem to be the least bit scared of me, even though I hoped they wouldn’t knock me over. I also passed a group of 10-12 wild turkeys (butterball eatin size).
Fantastic riding up and down the hills there, and beautiful, but I always had to wonder whether the wildlife was going to shoot out of the woods and make me wreck.
I was on a training ride early in the a.m. I was on a road closed to car traffic at the time, so riding relaxed in the aero position. I take a peak up and right in front of me a big object in the bike lane. Swerved at the last moment to avoid it. It was an alligator. My heart rate has finally recovered back to normal.
At IMLP06, I was cut off at the turn to the out-and-back and fell off my bike quite severely. After laying in the road for a while waiting to see if the pain would go away, I got back on and kept riding. My bell had been rung pretty badly…
As I make the turn to start the climb back into Placid, just past the A&W burger, a wolf-looking crazy coyote runs out of the woods on the right side, and right across the road, 3 feet in front of my wheel. I almost brushed his tail as he passed… I thought I was hallucinating, until a guy with an Australian accent pulls up beside me and says ‘Well, he almost got you, mate.’ We cracked up laughing. It was surreal…
Riding out on the back roads of Texas, the group took a wrong turn. We discovered our error a few miles down the road, after we ran out of pavement, turned around, and headed back. On the ride back to the main road, a truck passed us, pulled over to the side of the road, and the driver (let’s call him “Bubba”) got out, fumbling with something in his hands. I paid Bubba no mind and continued my conversation with the rider to my left. That’s when I heard the ‘plop.’
Apparently, Bubba had a rattlesnake in his truck and thought it would be funny to throw it at some cyclists. In retrospect, it was.
No one was hurt, and, when we finally made our way back to the main road and the Quick Stop for drinks, we reported the incident to the police. Afterwards, a patron of the store apologized for Bubba, saying, “Every village has its idiot. He’s ours.”
"A squirrel "
I had the exact same thing happen, squirrel ran beween my front & rear wheels and was unscathed. Another time a deer ran in front of me.
On a group ride a moose ran across the road just behind a guy. He still doesn’t believe it really happened.
A friend was cycling over a small bridge on a rural back road when a big black bear stood up to have a look at him. He was scared sh*tless but said “nice bear, nice bear” and kept on riding. Fortunately the bear didn’t follow.
I’ve had a bird try to fly through my front spokes just to get chopped up into a puff of feathers. I was also riding with a friend and a squirrel ran in front of my. It somehow hit my friends front tire and got sucked up on the outside of the tire. It was stuck between the tire and the downtube up near the fork. We had to stop and roll the bike backwards and the squirrel jumped off and ran. I bet he had a nasty burn.
In June I was riding the Steelhead course when around mile 40 a gigantic, snarling rottweiler came out of nowhere and tried to attack the cyclist in front of me. We were flying and the dog just missed her rear wheel and ended up between us cutting me off so fast I had no time to brake, or even stop pedalling! I can’t get over how fast it all happened. My front wheel plowed into the dog’s side and the bike stopped dead while I went airborne and landed on my head/shoulder. It was a crazy wipeout…my helmet cracked and I am amazed I didn’t mangle myself worse than I did.
When the dust settled I had some road rash, a lot of bruises, a sprained right shoulder and a shattered left hand. The first week of July I had to have some metal plate and screw action put in to repair the hand…therapy is going well and I can almost make a fist! Unfortunately my season was brought to an early close, which really sucks.
Miraculously my bike doesn’t have a scratch on it. For some reason my shoes didn’t come unclipped so when i flipped over the aerobars the bike flipped too and landed on me; I had cool bruises on my right thigh and calf from the frame. Even more miraculous was that I wasn’t hurt worse.
I love dogs, but if your yard isn’t fenced keep 'em on leashes people! And always wear your helmet, I don’t doubt it saved my life.
I encountered a squirrel who was on track to pull off the under the bottom bracket/between the front and rear tire trick EXCEPT, in classic squirrel fashion, at the last minute he didn’t have the balls to go through with it. So he started backpedalling hard about 2 feet before our paths crossed. He slowed down just enough to get run over by my back tire. He would have lived if he had just keep going and not chickened out. I think there is a life lesson there. I can still hear his little claws desperately trying to get traction on the asphalt . . . . . I think of it every time I get scarred and want to hit the breaks.
A friend and I were out for a ride I ran over squirrel with front tire, squirrel appeared to have expired. My friend went back and attemped C.P.R. (I kid you not) Squirrel did not make it.
Its very rural where I live, lots of wlidlife. The most unusual encounter was one ride where two peacocks walked out on the road in front of us, tail feathers spread. They were just beautiful, and they are quite large! They were from the farm we were passingby, not sure why this farm had peacocks, but they did.
My three favorites:
Riding on Skyline Drive in Virginia, I see a bear sitting in the road, my first thought was to take my camera out, slow down and snap a picture…then my brain switched on so I just road by and snapped a pic behind me at a safe distance. Nice pic, but what was I thinking at first!!!
Riding in a group ride when a dog in a yard starts barking and giving chase behind the fence, well I was on the far side and near the back of the pack so I got a great view of the dog moving at full speed past the fence (one of those ones that is not fully enclosed) and head first into the mailbox post! Ouch.
Riding down a road outside of Louisville, I get next to a huge field with deer in it. When they spot me they all scatter with two of them taking an angle ahead of me to cross the road. As I prepared to have to take evasive action the deer get about three feet to my side, change course and run along next to me for about 500 yards. Every time they got ahead of me they would look back as if they were asking me to go faster. We got near a fence and they turned back into the field I looked back, yelled “thanks for the ride guys” and they started happily bounding back to their friends. It was very cool.
Hmmm, several come to mind:
-Riding a few years back on a long spit of land that extends out from the city. Keep in mind I’m 10 minutes from the business district of downtown Toronto, and as the sun is going down I see something waddling across the road…looks like about the size of my Labrador. I stop 5 meters in front, and it isn’t a dog. It’s a beaver. My absurdist inner voice is thinking “What a clichéd Canadian joke, ‘Why did the beaver cross the road…’”
-Deer that ran parallel with me earlier this summer, as I was warming up the day before Muskoka on the roads.
-The herd of deer that ran across the road at dusk at IMC in 2005 right in front of me. I distinctly remember thinking there wasn’t enough money in the world I wouldn’t have given for some of that speed at that point (I was walking). Given the light, and the pain I was in it was a surreal experience.
I was just getting the feel of my new tri bike stuggling up a pretty good climb when a moth flew up next me going in the same direction. A tailwind came up and the moth pulled away, continuing up the road. I wasn’t racing him but nonetheless, I couldn’t keep up. I was shelled by a moth.
Last week I was attacked by a hawk. I dropped out of mid-air and nailed me in the back of the head. This is yet another reason why it’s always a good idea to wear a helmet!
A drive behind me saw and stopped to ask if I was okay. No damage to my head or helmet, but I was pretty dumbfounded that I got hit. I kept on asking the driver if he saw what happened.
I’ve ridden past the same spot since. The hawk is still there and has swooped down on me a couple of times. Yelling and waving my arms seems to scare it away.
IMC: Deer out on the run course out by the Lake late in the day. The deer are on their way to the lake for water. They cruise right by the runners . If you want to test your brakes, drive the run course at night.