'It was just pinballing inside the group there' - kangaroos cause chaos at the Tour Down Under

There was around 100km left of the final stage of the Tour Down Under when two kangaroos jumped into the peloton from the roadside bush.

“Oh, it’s a kangaroo!” Shouted Phil Liggett from the commentary box. “Never seen that before!”

Race leader Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was among those knocked off their bike, along with Menno Huising (Visma–Lease a Bike), Lucas Stevenson (Tudor Pro Cycling) and Alberto Dainese (Soudal Quick-Step). The latter were forced to abandon the race due to injuries, along with several other riders.

"Everything was going according to plan up until that point," Vine told reporters after the stage. "Sebastián [Molano] was doing a great job. The breakaway was well within reach. And then, unfortunately, we lost Mikkel, and he knocked the kangaroo into me. So it was just like pinballing inside the group there. But I didn't fall too hard."

After crashing, Vine swapped bikes with teammate Ivo Oliveira and worked his way to the front of the race as the bunch sat up to wait, ultimately finishing in 26th, with Visma–Lease a Bike’s Matthew Brennan sprinting to finish first in the stage. Vine emerged the overall winner of the 2025 Tour Down Under.

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“You can’t really predict two kangaroos jumping across the road - I hope everyone is alright,” Brennan said after the race.

“They were quite big - I wasn’t expecting that. I just looked to the right and I saw this big animal. I thought ‘oh, you’re not meant to be here’.

“All the Aussie boys were like ‘they come in pairs’ and then all of a sudden the second one comes along and decides he’s going to throw himself in front of the peloton. So we had two sacrificial kangaroos today.”

While one kangaroo escaped unharmed, the other was euthanised after breaking its leg, an injury it would be unlikely to recover from in the wild.

"Everyone asks me what's the most dangerous thing in Australia and I always tell them it's kangaroos,' two-time race-winner, Vine, told ABC Australia.

'They wait and they hide in the bushes until you can't stop and they jump out in front of you. Point proven today."