An unusual incident. The final stage of the Tour Down Under, the first event of the 2026 UCI World Tour, was disrupted this Sunday following the surprise appearance of two kangaroos 95 km from the finish line.
The two animals burst onto the side of the road and disrupted the fifth stage of the cycling event while the riders were traveling at around 50 km/h. If the first stopped at the side of the road, the second, probably panicked, appeared in the middle of the peloton and was hit.
Australian Jay Vine, who led the race and eventually won, was among the runners who hit the animal and ended up on the ground. Fortunately, he was able to get back on his bike and finish the stage to win the race organized on his land. Mikkel Bjerg, his Danish teammate at UAE, was less lucky and was forced to retire.
“I always get asked what the most dangerous animals in Australia are and I always say: kangaroos. They hide in the bushes and suddenly they appear right in front of you. We saw it again today,” said Jay Vine after the race, in comments reported by Domestique Cycling.
One of two kangaroos euthanized
“We were traveling at around 50 km/h. One of the two kangaroos stopped, but the other zigzagged, and I could do nothing to avoid it. It was like a pinball ball being thrown into the peloton. I didn’t fall too violently, but we lost Mikkel,” regretted the leader of the team, two riders of whom had already abandoned the day before.
“I looked to my right and saw this big animal. I said to myself: You have nothing to do there. They were really big! », Commented the Briton Matthew Brennan, winner of the day’s stage who was able to escape the fall. “The second kangaroo threw himself into the pack. It was quite chaotic, it caused a lot of waves… But the team did an excellent job and I’m happy to have been able to win,” he said.
Unfortunately, one of the kangaroos had to be euthanized due to its serious injuries, reports local media The Advertiser, while the other escaped unscathed.
