The final day of the 2026 UCI World Tour nearly ended in disaster after an errant marsupial toppled not just a chunk of the peloton but very nearly the title hopes of Australia’s Jay Vine. The dangers of which Vine made sure to warn about afterward.

The incident occurred with around 96 km left on the 169.8 km Stage 5 course, when two large kangaroos leapt onto the road during the high-speed stretch, right into the main group. Vine’s teammate, Mikkel Bjerg, collided with one of the kangaroos and fell. The impact sent the kangaroo directly into Vine’s path, knocking him off his bike as well.

But Jay Vine got back on his feet quickly. He switched bikes with his teammate and fought his way back to seal the overall win. Afterward he even joked, “Everyone asks me what’s the most dangerous thing in Australia, and I always tell them it’s kangaroos.”

“They wait and they hide in the bushes until you can’t stop, and they jump out in front of you. Point proven today. Two of them blasted through the peloton when we were doing about 50 kph. One stopped and went left, right, left, right, and I ended up hitting its backside,” he added.

By the end of the race, British rider Matthew Brennan crossed the line first, ahead of Finn Fisher-Black and Tobias Lund Andresen. But while Brennan took the day’s victory, Vine secured the overall victory and the ochre jersey for UAE Team Emirates-XRG.

He finished the Tour Down Under with a 1-minute, 3-second lead over Switzerland’s Mauro Schmid, with Australian Harry Sweeny in third, marking Vine’s second Tour Down Under title in three years.

This win mattered even more because of his team’s unlucky break earlier. During Stage 4, Jay Vine’s teammate Jhonatan Narvaez, who had been second overall, crashed and had to leave the race with vertebrae injuries.

Another teammate, Vegard Stake Laengen, also pulled out with an injury, while another teammate, Juan Sebastian Molano, abandoned the final day due to fatigue, leaving Vine with only two teammates in the finale.

Certainly, the recent kangaroo incident at the Tour Down Under is pretty unusual for a major race, but cyclists have had wildlife interruptions before.

Cycling encounters that left riders stunned

In 2015, Bronwyn Carver, a cyclist from Australia, was sent flying off her bike when a kangaroo dashed across her route while she was riding on Canberra’s Adelaide Avenue. A video captured the collision, showing her being thrown to the ground. Carver later wrote that she “escaped relatively unscathed,” though she did require eight stitches in her knee.

Wild animals have also created havoc during professional races. In Stage 8 of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana, a group of wild deer ran on the road ahead of the peloton. Riders and vehicle team cars had been taken by surprise, and Giulio Ciccone and Txomin Juaristi were among those who crashed. The deer broke bicycles and even knocked the roof rack on a team car out of position.

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And in the 2010 Tour de France, when the riders ascended the popular Col du Tourmalet, a herd of sheep was wandering on the road. There was no crash, but the animals made the peloton slow abruptly, which practically brought the race to a halt.

This has since turned out to be one of the more memorable and oddest stories in cycling history.