Took this years ago, on climb as well just to make sure it was hard enough
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Also been well and truly bonking until I passed a farm and heard the familiar sound of nails on tarmac, funny how fast you can climb when there’s a Doberman following you
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I was chased by two dogs when I was about 14 on my old MTB. I literally rode for my life and it’s the only time an effort has ever made me sick.
I wish I could muster up that intensity for races.
I was racing at IM 70.3 La Quinta Indian Wells in 2018 and along one of the farm roads there were two big aggressive dogs on an unfenced property that were darting back and forth on the road. This was on a long flat fast section so I was down in aero position going 40+ km/h. I had to make a quick evasive maneuver. I’m surprised no one got hurt (that I know of).
I’ve also had a dog start chasing me while going up a long climb. There’s no outrunning a dog uphill, at least not with my Clydesdale build but a squirt of the electrolyte mix between the eyes made the pup back off.
Once while riding on a back road by a farm house I managed to spook a dog into running away from me. Another group of riders passed by the house just before me stirred up the dog so it saw me coming down the road and started trotting my direction barking. I was approaching decently quick, but getting ready to slow down to try to pass by him when I stood up to stretch my legs for a moment. He must have thought I was coming for him when I stood cause he immediately stopped, so quickly in fact that his back legs slipped out from under him, tucked tail and ran back to the house. When I road by the house he didn’t chase, and just sheepishly came back out to the road once I had passed to make sure I left.
This November a great Pyrenees chased me back down the gravel road in which I came… out and back sounds just fine friend… He surprised me with his tenacity, they usually back off much quicker (I live near a lot of farms that use these intimidating dogs to protect house and herd.) This one thought I didn’t need to be on the road at all. Same ride I had a near miss head on collision with a group of moto riders. She fell, I did not. I stopped and made sure all was well. It was. Be safe out there!
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Been bit once, sprayed a few with the water bottle, and been chased a good number of times. The one dog that I just said to myself “sprint away now” from was a Saint Bernard, not the easiest move mid threshold interval but something that big provides extra motivation. The dog broke the leash to a tree to go after me with the owner trying to recall from their pickup in a corn field once they saw the excitement. Didn’t see the dog the rest of the year but hopefully they just moved where they tied it up.
Usually stopping to dismount and/or spraying them with the water bottle backs them off. Haven’t had any problems with other animals…yet.
Just a couple months ago I took a few buddies out for a socially distanced gravel ride. I had ridden this route with all but one of them before and never had an issue.
On this day we were chased by dogs three different times. We decided our buddy must be the dog whisperer. I had to snap pretty quickly to get away from one that I didn’t see until he was much closer than I wanted.
So, 4 weeks ago I was around 5 miles from home when out of nowhere I was knocked off my bike by a muntjac deer incoming from my left hand side. Never even saw it until I was on the deck. My ride includes the obligatory high speed GPS trace as the wife collected me in the car to go to the local hospital…
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I can’t find the segment in Strava any longer, as it’s been 4 or 5 years, but I found a little backroad that looked promising where I encountered one of the most persistent, angry dogs I’ve ever dealt with. After the ride uploaded, and I went back to admire the huge power spike, I noticed someone had already created a segment there “Dog Sprint”. Now I tend to scout new areas on Strava first, to locate any dog sprints in advance.
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In Istanbul there was a long segment that translated to Beware of packs of dogs. It was a pretty common sight on few of lesser traveled roads. On one I was stopped by to packs of dogs fighting.
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Chased by wild Turkey 
in the woods, it sounded terrifying! Couldn’t find the ride file, so here’s a little Doberman I encountered instead:
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I was also chased by dogs in Portugal lol three of them in a group actually. As you may know in the tiny villages there the dogs just roam free and generally don’t cause trouble but i must have been the exception!
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Had a red wing black bird land on my helmet. Tried to peck at my head. Laid down some power and it flew away.
I’ve had several close calls with Moose. Thankfully, have not yet been chased.
This was a big guy. Good thing we came across him in the open.
This was a young moose. Was very close to him, but he was more interested in eating.
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Three short stories (but no data pics):
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Angry Dog vs. Semi Dilemma. Going up steep long hill on narrow country road. Nearing top. Big angry dog erupts and chases, closing, its skittering claws on tarmac sounds getting louder fast. I accelerate, and drift right to left to gain space. Just then a semi truck going way too fast bursts over the hilltop right at me, as I am now well into its travel lane. I make an adrenaline surge sprint up and right and feel the huge truck rip by maybe 1 foot off my left shoulder. I survived, and the semi peeled off the dog for me.
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Turkey Missile Inbound. Beware young dumb “Jake” turkeys by the side of the road (many field turkeys are around on my rides). The young males often react to a sudden road bike appearance by making a mad and unexpected sprint across the road . . . right in front of the road bike.
Before I was aware of this tendency, a Jake did just that while I was pushing it down a hill ~28 mph. Seeing him rushing at me sideways on a vector to collide with my chainring, and knowing that a turkey insertion into my rotating chainring would create an instant lockdown sending me arse over teakettle with painful results, my thankful insta-reaction was to bunny hop the bird. I felt a big bump on the hop but kept it upright and then feathered the brakes to bleed speed and get control. When I came to a stop, a long rather beautiful turkey feather was sticking straight out and up of my rear derailleur like a quill pen. Sadly, the Jake appeared down and immobile maybe 100 meters back. His demise was confirmed to me the next day, when I took that same route and found his by then well picked over roadkill remains at the fateful spot. A sad moment. -
My Brief Bird Friend. Wearing a jersey with black and bright yellow markings. Hot summer day. Going down a hill about 30 mph when I sense a presence near me. I look right and 2 feet away a beautiful male gold finch is flying right next to me, both pacing me perfectly and matching my kit color perfectly. We share the special moment, and fly/ride together as a flock for 30 seconds or so down the long hill before he veers into a meadow.
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I ride in the back way to work and there’s a small-ish farm with two dogs that are out most mornings when I ride this route. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME the older (I’m guessing-he/she looks old) one barks first. Then the younger one (assuming again but this was has more energy) will growl and bark and then “chase” me the entire length of the road.
But…there’s a fence between us. So it’s kind of funny.
Old Dog: "BARK! (here he comes!)
New Dog: “BARK” (oh shit!) GRRRRRRRR (His legs look so juicy) BARK-BARK-BARK! (if this fence wasn’t here I’d eat your entire family)
Me: Awwwwwwww so adorable! Look at the widdle puppers…here boy! whistles fast Good Boy!
I also have an old friend that greeted me on the MUP (zero dark thirty rides into work on the MUP through a state park) I saw him about a dozen times over two years but I’ve not seen him for the last few. It was a waddley little porcupine. Always around the same area, and usually at the same time. Miss that guy.
Sorry, no horror stories.
I ended up having 2 chases this year. The first was while out running the grid roads in the spring and this dog started barking and chasing me from across a field–luckily I had enough of a head start to bump the run speed to get far enough away before he made it to the road that he didn’t pursue further.
The second was while I was on a cooldown ride after doing a 90km hard ride for one of the Ironman VR series races in July. Coming back up one of the quiet rural roads (into the wind) past a dairy two large dogs came ripping out of the yard with the first one coming at me hard first and the other one a little further in front of where I was–I was afraid he’d cut in front of me and I’d run into him, but thankfully he gave up on the thrill of the chase pretty early and that didn’t happen. The other guy was more relentless zooming just behind me as I sprinted hard, then he kept the chase on through the ditch and up behind me. With him not backing off I gave a couple loud “Hey!” shouts which was eventually enough to get him off my tail. That was the closest I’ve come, but it definitely freaks me out every time–especially when I’m out running which limits my ability to zoom past/get away if needed.
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I need to search for the power file but it was back when I was on a PowerTap so it’s definitely not on a current PC…
I was in Scottsdale for a triathlon training camp. I rode out Beeline and somehow got lost coming back. I ended up in an area that did not seem safe (at all) and was starting to bonk because I was out of calories at 4 hours into a 3 hour ride. I was riding through a neighborhood when a pitbull started running at me. He took the tangent across the lawn so I laid down every watt I had…full on fight or flight. I think it was 800-1,000 watts for 30-45 seconds but I would need to verify because I have definitely told the story enough that my embellishments may have gotten the best of me.
It was terrifying. But he did not catch me.
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Who was it ?
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