Cyclist seriously injured after squirrel gets tangled in spokes – but the poor animal came off worse

Many years ago doping a circuit race at Crystal Palace – this was back in the days when aero wheels and bladed spoke wheels were still allowed in bunch racing and the 4-spoke Spinergy wheels where very popular. 4 razor sharp bladed spokes per side - these ones:

Anyway, a squirrel ran into the bunch as we were descending the hill, the bunch doing probably 30mph or so. It went right into this guy’s front wheel and when it emerged, the squirrel was in three neat sections; the blades had just gone right through it. Rider barely noticed until the end when he had to clean squirrel guts off his downtube.

I get this almost daily

A friend has ran over a pheasant before, it wasnt very happy and ran into the bushes lol

Ive ran over rats a couple of times breaking their backs, had owls swoop down along side me (that scared the s**t outta me)

a few squirrels too, they generally turn and run back up the tree though

I ride through a heavily populated rabbit area twice a day and have taken to barking like Brian from family guy to scare them out of the way do get a few funny looks from fellow cyclists lol

once run over a squirrel when it crosses my path. I was on a mountain bike. Not sure which part of the body the bike wheel over, but I sure feel a small bump. How bad is it? I don't know, it just disappear into the woods. Poor little thing.

At least we can be thankful that we don't have bears to contend with, our north american friends in some states must always have a bit of energy saved for a sudden sprint.

Did this a couple of years ago, hit some kind of weasel thing and aye, had bladed spokes on the old style bontrager racelite wheels. I crashed when the beast tried to extrude it's self through the front brake and it exploded. Literally. Pushed the bike to the tourist popular public bogs at the falls of foyers to clean off the blood/ stringy bit matrix amongst fairly horrified french persons. Lovely.

I've had a few close calls with wildlife over the years, deer, rabbits, dogs and so on but I bet no-one else here has ever been chased by a spitting cobra.

A roe deer emerged from the woods and ran clear across the road just as our 15 strong chain-gang was cycling down a hill at 35ish mph this summer. It missed the front riders by about 10 feet which at that speed is about a 1/4 of a second or so?

It would have been utter carnage. We all laughed like hell. Gallows humour, cannae whack it...

I once got baulked by a Blue Whale in Richmond Park. Ended up missing its huge baleen teeth and getting fired out its blow hole rather unceremoniously. He seemed very grumpy. Probably couldn't go sub-20 minutes a lap. Gorged on krill, no doubt.

Lost my mini-pump.

This hits a nerve. I ran over a squirrel on Wednesday. It ran off, so hope its alright. Oh several years ago, I ran over two cats mating in the middle of the road at night. I've also had a pigeon fly in to my front wheel, but I didn't come off, and it seemed ok as well.

I was descending 35+ and a large bird of prey (perhaps a buzzard) landed on the verge just in front of me to my left. I thought it was game over, I decided to speed up and hope for the best, it seemed poised to fly off in front of me. Thank God it decided not to and just stayed put spreading it's wings over it's kill. Perhaps it didn't want to share

Nearly got squished by a herd of deer in Windsor Great Park once.

My score so far is, two blackbirds through the front wheel (both decapitated), similarly one sparrow (miraculously unscathed), one adult hare under the bottom bracket (both of us were at speed) leaving blood and fur on the chain-rings and one chicken appearing from nowhere and acting as a speed hump (twice).

Almost every day I almost hit some suicidal squirrel or rabbit. Had a funny confrontation with a baby woodchuck once (I stopped for him, and this tiny little thing looked up at me menacingly and "peeped"). Was riding with a friend once when a squirrel ran out right in front of him- just as he was about to hit the squirrel, a cat pounced on the squirrel. He hit the cat- the squirrel ran one way, the cat the other. I gave him an award for saving the squirrel.

I was out for ride once and got a face full of tit.

A Eurasian Blue Tit to be precise.

On the first day of my first year at uni I ran over a rat on the cycle path in Portsmouth. On the first day of my second year at uni I ran over a rat on a different cycle path in Portsmouth. The first day of my third year I avoided the cycle paths and was hit by a car. Take from that what you will.

Hit in the face by a bat one night a few years back, and on another night a small bat flew into my left hand and got caught up in mm track mitt!
Club guys have had several quite bad crashes involving badgers - bit like riding into a bag of cement!

I've had various UK mammals run out and get a close shave but I've been lucky and not come off. One of the more interesting ones I've had was while cycling in Majorca where I had a Hermann's Tortoise wandering across the road. I had plenty of time to spot this one so stopped and took a photo.

Pheasant. Squirrel. Mole. Snake.. Met 'em all. No fatalities so far.

Rats along the danube river... and it freaks me out every +#§$%&** time!

On an early morning ride a couple of years ago I nearly hit (or was nearly hit by) a white peacock dashing across the road. Most rides have been uneventful since then.

I've been felled by a badger, which seemed fine, and a pigeon which was effectively minced.

I went out on a twilight run and killed about 10000 midgies who ran in to my sweaty napper.

I've hit a sheep, a few snakes and very nearly a couple of kangaroos that would not have been a good result.

Nearly came off the bike once when a pheasant flew out of a hedge as I passed.

Worst thing I ever saw was a Jack Russell in a street close to where I grew up. Was dreadful for chasing bikes and nipping at cyclists' ankles. One day got its snout caught between the chain and chain ring on a friend's bike. Not nice.... He came off the bike with cuts and grazes; so much damage to the dog's jaw it had to be put down.

Nearly came off the bike once when a pheasant flew out of a hedge as I passed.

Worst thing I ever saw was a Jack Russell in a street close to where I grew up. Was dreadful for chasing bikes and nipping at cyclists' ankles. One day got its snout caught between the chain and chain ring on a friend's bike. Not nice.... He came off the bike with cuts and grazes; so much damage to the dog's jaw it had to be put down.

Some hilarious/ horrific stories here. Rabbits the worst for me, yet to see a lion though like those back in the day of Raleigh bikes... Blatant plug ahoy
http://humancyclist.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/animals-and-cycling/

I prefer to deal with road kill as cycling man dealt with road kill as he evolved during the Paleolithic period = to eat it. Since I have begun my Paleo Road Kill diet, I have lost tons of weight, and my sprinting has improved as otherwise I wouldn't be able to hit anything to eat.

I had a rabbit bounce off of my front wheel as it tried to run through, seemed fine, we both looked at each other slightly blankly dazed for a second and then carried on, good reason for higher spoke count wheels, less room for critters to get through.

Along the river near where I used to live in Colchester used to have a lot of bats flying around, even though I know there's no chance of them crashing in to me, it's still a bit of a shock when they fly in front of the light just inches from your head.

Squirrels are definitely a hazard. I was almost taken out by one a few weeks ago. They jump out in front of you and run around with their tails in the air. They look like a ball of fur darting around.

Three of us riding down a country lane last summer, rabbit with mixi ran out in front of us staggering all over the road front rider managed to avoid it, I rode over it's back and unfortunately broke it, 3rd went back and put it out of it's misery!