Wild scenes at Vuelta a España as herds of deer crossing the road jump over race cars and cause crash in the peloton, bringing down two riders

This was not your average day of pro cycling, as there was stag-gering drama on stage eight of the Vuelta a España on Saturday. Unknown to the broadcast cameras, a deer from a herd that was crossing the road hit two riders and brought them down, with two more herds wreaking havoc by jumping over a medical car and then directly on the roof of a team car, causing “significant damage” to its bikes.

With the peloton around 2 minutes behind the breakaway just 15km from the finish line before the steep final climb of Sierra de Cazorla in Andalucía, the cameras cut to a crash in the back, with Lidl-Trek’s Giulio Ciccone and Euskatel-Euskadi’s Txomin Juaristi down on the narrow road.

The commentators speculated it could be a “touch of the wheels or the handlebars” that might’ve brought the two down, with spectators completely unaware of the cause of the crash until yesterday when the race’s medical write-up mentioned that they were “hit by a roe deer”, suffering “several contusions”, although thankfully they were able to continue in the race.

¡Y otra caída más! 🤦‍♂️

Los nervios empiezan a estar a flor de piel y Ciccone, Juaristi y Umba se han ido al suelo a 15 km para el final.#LaVuelta24 | #LaCasadelCiclismo pic.twitter.com/dAjKbWOLPr

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) August 24, 2024

A press release from the team Euskatel-Euskadi later revealed that there was more to follow, as while Juaristi was being attended to by the Vuelta medical car, two more herds crossed the road, with a deer becoming entangled on the roof of one of its team cars, causing “significant damage to two team bikes”.

The team added: “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.”

> Remco Evenepoel crashes after loose dog runs into Giro d'Italia peloton

Speaking after the stage, the Spanish rider said: “I was racing at kilometre 144 or so and out of nowhere a deer appeared and I took the full blow and I fell. Then when I was with the medical car more deer jumped out, they came at us from the left, I’ve already gone crazy. I saw a deer on top of the car, between the bikes and they broke two of the car's bikes… I got a hard blow but for the moment I’m fine.”

Other teams were equally in shock from the surreal turn of events, with Lotto-Dstny’s sports director Marc Wauters telling Het Nieuwsblad: “Now I have seen something I have never seen before... About fifteen kilometres from the finish, three deers 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."

Soudal (going by T-Rex, for La Vuelta) Quick-Step 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.”

The stage was eventually won by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Primož Roglič, who gained almost a minute on leader Ben O’Connor but still trails the Australian rider for Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team by almost four minutes after yesterday’s stage nine.

> Pro cyclist misses opening classics due to “quite extensive damage to private parts” following dog attack

This isn’t the first time animals have caused crashes in the peloton. Just last year, Olympic time trial and road race champion Remco Evenepoel hit the deck on the sodden fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia after a loose dog ran into the bunch, causing riders to brake suddenly.

There have been similar instances in the past too, with Marco Pantani’s crash at the Giro d’Italia in 1997 after he hit a black cat and was forced to abandon the Giro after the stage, perhaps one of the most famous in cycling. And in another bizarre event, former German rider Erik Zabel was chased by a horse that had escaped its paddock while racing at Gent-Wevelgem.