How often can a medical-write up like this one have appeared in the official bulletin of the Vuelta a España - or indeed any other bike race? "Km 140: Fall, being hit by a roe deer, riders 42 and 211, with several contusions, continuing in race."
The explanation of what had reportedly caused Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Txomin Juaristi (Euskatel-Euskadi) to crash on stage 8 certainly made for an eye-catching addition to the usual medical checklist of riders injured on the day.
"Juaristi fell thanks to the impact of a deer from a herd that was crossing the road," a team press release said later.
"While being attended by the Vuelta medical car, a second herd crossed the road and in a third herd, a deer became entangled in the roofrack of the Euskaltel-Euskadi second race vehicle and caused significant damage to two team bikes.
"A medical checkup by his team revealed Juaristi had minor injuries in his back, left shoulder and lower back. His condition is good although another evaluation will have to be carried out after he gets through the night."
Lotto-Dstny sports director Marc Wauters told Nieuwsblad: “Now I have seen something I have never seen before... About fifteen kilometres from the finish, three deer suddenly appeared from between the olive trees. The first animal jumped smoothly over the team doctor's car, the second animal landed right on the second Euskaltel car."
T-Rex-QuickStep sports director Wilfried Peeters added: “The animal struggled to free itself, one bike fell off the roof and that’s how it was able to free itself. They were serious animals.”
There was no update available on how the deer themselves were injured in their encounter with a bike race. Road races have been affected by domestic animals in the past, particularly dogs and cats, Marco Pantani’s fall in the 1997 edition of the Giro d’Italia after he hit a black cat being one of the most famous in cycling. Some time in the 1980s, too, the famous American team Motorola had a mass collision with a cat during a Giro team time trial, causing multiple riders to fall.
Larger animals have also played their part in crashes or near-misses, with Erik Zabel being chased by a runaway horse during one edition of Gent-Wevelgem and Davide Formolo crashing into a wild boar while training back in 2022, hurting his wrist. The Vuelta, too, has had near-misses or close pursuits with cows and bulls left to graze on open terrain, but this is reportedly a first involving deer. In Dublin in 2016, though, a wild deer knocked a participant off his bike during the capital’s annual triathlon event.
The incident happened late on in the sierras of Cazorla, one of the most remote regions of Andalucía and where, apart from deer, signs warning drivers about stray lynx crossing the road dot the highways. Other wildlife abound in the area, with boar and mountain goats are often spotted.
But the Vuelta a España will have to wait until the third week when it reaches the mountains of northern Spain and the Lakes of Covadonga before possibly crossing paths with wolves - well-known for roaming near some of the Vuelta’s most hallowed summit finishes - and brown bears.
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