Home > News

Watch: Uninvited ostrich joins group ride, doesn’t even pull through

The bird had no trouble keeping up with cyclists

Photo by: Youtube/dailymail

In Canada cyclists might encounter a moose on the their rides, in South Africa, ostriches are more common.

In a hilarious video, a group of cyclists were riding through Cape Point National Park when an ostrich popped up onto the road and decided to join the fun.

Daniel Sass, who captured the video, was not expecting another participant to join the group ride. “As we rolled through the hills and took in all the beauty we noticed a strange bird running with the peloton,” Sass told Daily Mail.  “I then realized that an ostrich was chasing down our strongest rider, Ben. Nobody can catch Ben. But then I though ‘wow have you seen the quads on that ostrich!'”

“I manoeuvred my way past other riders and captured this Ben/Ostrich Showdown. As I tracked the bird with my phone with one hand on the handlebars I was in absolute awe of its awkward running style.”

The pattering of the creature’s large feet can be heard even in the windy footage. Ostriches, the world’s largest birds can sprint at speeds of up to 72km/h on average and have been recorded peaking at 96km/h. At one point in the video the ostrich cut across Sass, who said he was worried that it might knock him off his bike.

This isn’t the first time an ostrich has chased cyclists in South Africa. The big birds tower over the cyclists—an average male ostrich is 2.1m to 2.8m tall and 330 lbs. These cyclists were lucky the Struthioniformes weren’t feeling provoked, a few kicks from an ostrich’s strong taloned foot could kill a large predator.