‘We all signed a waiver.’ California cyclist encounters bull on off-road race course

It’s fairly normal for Tony Inderbitzin to encounter cows when he’s cycling off road.

He lives on property in North Fork in rural Madera County and comes across open range cattle on most of his weekly rides. He’s never had a problem.

“To me, that’s normal,” says Inderbitzin, one of four cyclists reportedly attacked by a bull during Rock Cobbler, an off-road gravel race, outside Bakersfield last Saturday.

“It wasn’t until a second before impact that he turns and then I see that it’s a bull,” Inderbitzin told The Bee on Tuesday.

Cell phone video captured by other cyclists shows Inderbitzin riding directly toward the animal before it turns and charges, throwing him from his bike. The bull rushes again as Inderbitzin is trying to get to his feet.

“And then he wandered off,” he says.

Inderbitzin, who got his first bike in 1988 at the age of 30 and is part of several local cyclist groups including the Fresno Cycling Club, was checked out by paramedics on the course but was not taken to the hospital. He decided to not finish the race.

He escaped with some major muscles aches and an abrasion on his calf. The bruises really started showing up Sunday, he says. The other cyclists were “safe, unharmed if you can believe it,” event organizer Sam Ames told SF Gate on Monday.

This was Inderbitzin’s first time riding Rock Cobbler, a Bianchi-sponsored event that bills itself as “a stupidly hard ride bordering on a race.” Each year, the route is filled with what organizers call “shenanigans.”

One year, the course actually ran through someone’s house, Inderbitzin says.

Another year, there was an area where people threw beach balls at the riders.

It’s all done in good, well-organized fun, and with knowledge of the dangers, Inderbitzin says.

“We all signed a waiver,” he says.

Two waivers, in fact — one from the event organizers and one from the owner of the property through which the course ran.

So, while some on social media want to blame event organizers for the encounter, Inderbitzin blames himself for assuming it was safe to ride so close to the animal.

“This was a cow when I approached it.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 11:10 AM.