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news
Bull charges riders at Rock Cobbler California (screenshot via YouTube/Cowboy State Daily)Frightening footage of moment cyclists were charged by rampaging bull at California bike race
Shocking footage from California shows the moment a bull charged multiple riders, giving one whiplash, at the Rock Cobbler off-road sportive on Saturday.
The animal was seen ramming at least two riders off their bikes, in both instances then returning to throw the cyclists in the air a second time.
Perhaps fortunately considering the size and aggression of the bull, one case of whiplash was the most serious injury reported, after the animal rampaged through the field at the Bianchi-sponsored 80-mile off-road event in Bakersfield.
In one clip a competitor can be seen trying to ride past the animal, only to be rammed off their bike and thrown into the air in front of horrified onlookers.
Spectators could be heard shouting "oh s***" and "goddamit" before trying to whistle the animal away from the injured cyclist.
Cowboy State Daily reports the man involved, Tony Inderbitzin, is sore but relieved to have escaped relatively unseverely injured.
"I’m sore all over, mostly the neck from the second throw, I got whiplashed," he explained.
"The list of what doesn’t hurt is my left arm and head. I was worried I would be sorer today, but pretty much the same as yesterday, so that’s a relief."
A nearby competitor stopped to help Mr Inderbitzen and said "he was in shock and not doing so hot. We chose to wait a while until Mr Bull went on his way."
Another video shared on Twitter shows a group of cyclists hurridly scrambling past the animal as it charges after another rider, ramming the competitor off their bike.
The cyclist is then seen running down the hillside away from the bull.
Multiple cyclists were charged by a bull at the Rock Cobbler event in California today. As far as I know no serious injuries but absolutely terrifying!! pic.twitter.com/PnBxoOlKmI
— Remko Rinkema (@RemkoRinkema) February 13, 2022
The Bianchi Rock Cobbler is described by the event's website as a "stupidly hard ride bordering on a race [...] conceived by drunken madmen" and involves riders covering close to 2,000m of off-road elevation over 80 miles of dirt and gravel.
The organisers certainly did not have dodging dangerous animals in mind, but did promise "adventure", short steep climbs, hiking your bike and "shenanigans galore" for the 500 riders on the start line.
Animal attack encounters in the United States are terrifyingly more serious than here in the UK. In October a cyclist in Alaska survived being charged and mauled by a brown bear.
The 500lb animal mauled the cyclist inflicting lacerations and puncture wounds. The rider, who had a gun but opted not to use the weapon, was taken to hospital for treatment.
In July, a grizzly bear that killed bikepacking cyclist in Montana was shot dead.
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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41 comments
The word that comes to mind is gormless.. what was the twit thinking? I'll just ride straight at the bull.. he should get out of my way; well, he's learnt a lesson.
And that's why you should wear a lid every time you ride your bike...
Red Bull: " The Red Bull Rampage has become the truest test of skill and mental toughness on a mountain bike"
Rock Cobbler organiser: "hold my beer..."
Wow..as someone who's grown up around large animals like this, I must say that it was incredibly [brave/stupid/both] of the riders to approach a two ton plus prey animal with horns from that direction....or indeed any direction. Still, they did it for our entertainment....
I'm extremely cautious about the tailend of horses on the road for the same reason....
I cycled past a threatened/threatening swan once and that was scary enough. It was protecting some cygnets and this was on a cycle lane by a small river in Avonmouth so there wasn't much space to get around it. There was already a pedestrian (happened to be a colleague of Mrs Hawkinspeter as she was working near there) waiting anxiously trying to figure out how to get past. I just put on my best non-threatening face and slowly went past which seemed to work and then Mrs Hawkinspeter and her colleague judged that it was okay to go slowly.
I don't think I'd be happy cycling straight at a bull.
Swans are proper scary. Some people think they're like dogs and that it's just that they're worried by unfamiliar humans. Such misconceptions always backfire. For example if you wear a shirt with your name in big letters on they'll think you're a cygnet-chewer.
Bulls are mostly OK as long as they don't think you're being aggressive. So for maximum points it's best to avoid the bull's eye.
Yes - for maximum points, maybe go for 10.5cm directly above the bull's eye.
When they stand up and open their wings to make themselves look big, you realise they are actually really big.
This. Bit like the "small ... far away" from Father Ted I didn't really understand that elephants are very big until I got close to one and realised it was big. (Even asian elephants. I was feeding a baby one bananas and a parent moved behind me silently and suddenly took the entire hand of bananas from over my shoulder. REALLY BIG!)
Elephantine, even.
To be fair, most people expect an elephant to be really big.
I was more surprised by the size of dolphins - their tail fins are hugely powerful and very solid. Luckily they present less of an issue to cyclists.
Unless they're in the Critérium du Dauphiné.
We've a regular puddle which forms on a roundabout which could fit an orca...
jumbo sized
I see your elephant, and raise you a giraffe.
Now those beasts are f-ing ENORMOUS
I was considering teaching a giraffe some resurrection magic yesterday, but in the end it was too much neckromancy
that joke was a bit of a stretch..
Have you any stats to prove that? Ideally with a chart or giraffe?
I once saw an advert about some missing pets. Turned out that someone's rabbit and giraffe had escaped. Everyone was looking high and low for days.
According to this chart, their size has been rizing sharply.
Some of those bigger birds anre really, scarily big.
I was watching Winterwatch with the kids a few weeks ago, and they were talking about white-tailed eagles. The presenter was holding a replica of one's foot, and it was MUCH bigger than the presenter's hand. And then he said they had a (IIRC) eight foot wingspan.
Eight. Foot. Wingspan.
We have had many stories on road.cc about dickhead drivers and this is a fine example of a dickhead on a bike. Beggars belief.
Some people don't realise just how puny they are compared to many animals.
Thankfully we're well informed about this on road.cc thanks to pioneering nature photography by our regulars.
Always be careful if they're around their young or sometimes they can get aggressive when finding food
Hey Ted, you're never gonna guess what happened to me today...
You are riding in the country and an enormous bloody great bull is blocking your path. Do you:
A) Stop a way off and assess the danger
B) Ride round giving it a wide berth
C) Keep on riding straight at it and see what happens
C) if you're wearing a helmet.
More like C) if you are a helmet.
Didn't want to give up on the strava segment?
This is literally a case of "f*ck around and find out."
D) "Hi I'm Johnny Knoxville, welcome to Jackass"
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