Will there ever be a medical report like this in the official bulletin of the Vuelta a España, or any other bike race for that matter? “At 140km: fallen bike, hit noro deer, numbers 42 and 211, several bruises, race continuing”

The explanation given for the crash of Julio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Tsomin Fuaristi (Euskatel-Euskadi) on stage 8 is that they were injured on the day. It was an eye-catching addition to the usual list of medical checkups for the riders injured that day.

“Fuaristi was knocked down by the impact of a herd of deer crossing the road,” a team press release later announced.

“While the Vuelta's medical car was responding, a second herd crossed the road, and in the third herd a deer became entangled in the roof rack of Euskaltel-Euskadi's second race vehicle, causing significant damage to the two team bikes.

“A medical check by the team revealed that Juaristi has minor injuries to his back, left shoulder, and lower back. He is in good condition but will need to be reassessed overnight.

Marc Wauters, sport director of Lotto Doustony, told Nieuwsblad: “I saw something I had never seen before. About 15 km from the finish, three deer suddenly appeared out of the olive trees: the first jumped smoothly over the team doctor's car and the second landed on top of Euskaltel's second car.”

Wilfried Peters, sport director of T-Rex Quickstep, added: “The deer were very serious animals. They were serious animals."

No updates are available on what injuries the deer itself sustained in its encounter with bike racing; Marco Pantani's crash at the 1997 Giro d'Italia when he hit a black cat is one of the most famous incidents in cycling. Sometime in the 1980s, the famous American team Motorola collided with a group of cats during the Giro's team time trial, causing several riders to fall.

Large animals have also been involved in crashes and near-misses, with Eric Zabel being chased by a runaway horse in Ghent-Wevelgem and Davide Formolo suffering a wrist injury in 2022 after colliding with a wild boar during training. The Vuelta has also had near-misses and near-chases in open areas where cows and bulls graze, but this is the first time deer have been involved; at a triathlon in Dublin in 2016, a wild deer knocked a participant off his bike.

The incident occurred late at night in the Sierra de Cazorla, one of Andalusia's most remote areas, where signs dot the highway warning drivers about stray lynx crossing the road, in addition to deer. Other wildlife is abundant in the area, with wild boars and mountain goats also frequently spotted.

However, until the third week when the Vuelta a España reaches the mountains of northern Spain and Lake Covadonga, it is possible to pass wolves and brown bears, which are known to roam near the Vuelta's most sacred summit finish.

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