Lance Armstrong was brought down by a cat on a training ride Thursday, but other than some road rash the RadioShack rider sustained no injuries. Armstrong was on a four-hour ride when he got interrupted by the cat.
Armstrong described the ride as nice and easy on his twitter account. "Well, it was nice until that cat decided to run out right in front me and I go ass over bandbox," Armstrong wrote. " Wasn't even a black cat. And for all you cat lovers, the cat was fine. At least I never saw it again. Bad kitty."
Armstrong was relieved that he didn't have a repeat of last year's collarbone fracture. He will able to continue his training as scheduled.
Four-leggers have caused other crashes in the past. Marco Pantani fell in the 1997 Giro d'Italia over a cat (that one reportedly was black). In the 2007 Tour de France Marcus Burghardt, who is now riding for the American BMC Racing team, went down when he crashed into a dog. The dog and Burghardt were fine, something that couldn't said about Burghardt's front wheel. That same edition of the Tour also saw Frederik Willems and Sandy Casar crash after a dog encounter as well.
The most unusual encounter with a four-legged friend was during Gent-Wevelgem in 2000. Team Telekom sprinter Erik Zabel was in a chase group that was 40 seconds behind with 25 kilometers left to race. A black pony was galloping in his field alongside the peloton when he decided to run out onto the road. It went straight for the German and knocked him into a ditch on the side of the road.
At the time, Telekom director Walter Godefroot said he knew Zabel wasn't hurt when he emerged from the ditch "cursing like a sailor". Zabel ended up with a bruised thigh and scraped elbow, but went on to finish the race.
Marcus Burghardt
Casar and Willems