Video: Australian cyclist (and former Australian cricketer too) brought down by kangaroo while cycling home

Here in Britain, cyclists face their fair share of hazards, but kangaroos are not among them. Former Australia cricketer, Bronwyn Calver, captured the moment when a marsupial took out her front wheel while riding home in Canberra.

Calver, who made 37 appearances for the Australian women’s cricket team and was a member of the 1997 World Cup winning side, was cycling back from work on Adelaide Avenue near Capital Circle when the incident happened reports The Canberra Times.

"I commute four days a week depending on how lazy I'm being. I was on my way home from work in the on-road cycle lane coming off Capital Circle onto Adelaide Avenue. I saw this kangaroo about to hit my front wheel. I tried to brake and swerve but he just collected the wheel and I got thrown off over the side."

Calver says this was the first kangaroo she’d seen near Parliament House in her 18 months of commuting from Kambah to her work at the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development in Civic.

"I do see them on the lower slopes of Mount Taylor, so you ride slower because they're a bit erratic, but I totally wasn't expecting to see one so close to the Lodge and Parliament House. I'm very lucky."

Three cars stopped to help and an ambulance was called immediately. Calver spent the night in hospital and while she has a large gash in her knee, she considers herself lucky not to have been more badly injured. "It's about 11 centimetres long, very straight, very deep. I've obviously hit a road join."

Unfortunately for the kangaroo, it fared rather worse. A man who stopped to assist said that it seemed  a bit disoriented and was shortly afterwards hit by a car.

Last month, a cyclist in California had a nasty crash as he descended towards the coastal town of Sausalito when a deer jumped out in front of him and we’ve also reported on a similar incident involving a woman out bikejoring with her dogs.

But it’s not just large animals which can bring down a cyclist. Even an encounter with a squirrel can result in serious injury.