Stag takes out competitor cycling during Dublin City Triathlon

A man competing in yesterday's Dublin City Triathlon in the Irish capital's Phoenix Park was left with a headache - and a sore shoulder - after a stag crashed into him during the bike leg of the event.

The dramatic incident was captured by photographer Erik Scaggs, whose picture accompanies this BBC report.

"As I was standing waiting for a group of cyclists to approach, I heard a rustling behind me and I turned to see a couple of stags ruining parallel to the road," he said.

"I had a feeling they might make their way across the cyclists' path, so I tracked them though my lens.

"I never envisaged that they would actually try and leap over the cyclists. It all happened so fast, It was a really heavy crash.

"It was a relief to see the competitor get back to his feet and continue."

Some 500 deer live in the park, and triathlete Shane O'Reilly from Blackrock - who landed head-first, but went on to finish the event in a time of 2 hours 25 minutes - said: "The helmet definitely saved me.

"Apart from that, my shoulder was a bit sore and I had a headache," he added.

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If you're wondering about the picture we've used, that's from the Bicycle Taxidermy collection of artist and RCA graduate Regan Appleton, which we featured on road.cc back in 2012.