A terrified cyclist kept his cool as he was chased by two giant pit bulls, showing off the muscular dogs’ terrifying speed as they followed his bike.
Ed Hack, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, was cycling through remote California as part of a community ride to raise awareness of mental health when, out of nowhere, two large dogs appeared.
Footage the 28-year-old managed to capture on his phone shows the aggressive animals charging at Ed at high speed as he exclaims “woh, woh, woh”, before repeatedly telling them to “s ‘go away’ and ‘relax’.
One of the dogs can be seen creepily approaching the front of his bike, trying to bite him while pushing him closer and closer to the wrong side of the road.
Ed said: “Normally I don’t get that scared, but it really was the scariest dog attack.
Ed Hack filmed himself being chased by two giant pit bulls while cycling in California
Pitbulls can reach speeds of 30 mph and this one seemed to be able to maintain that speed.
“This dog just kept getting closer and closer. I think it was a pit bull.
“This dog was pressuring me to get off the road and I had to put the pressure back on him.
“It pushed me to the left and I veered into the opposite lane of oncoming traffic. Fortunately, no cars were arriving.
“I almost had a real dog fight over who was going to push who off the road.
“The dog clearly wanted to bite me. I had to lift my leg and thought maybe it was the dog biting me. I have only been bitten by a dog on a moped.
Pitbulls have an average speed of between 20 mph and 30 mph.
Ed turned the camera to show another dog on his heels, and he can be heard saying “look, there’s another one!”
At the last second, Ed manages to get past the animals and to safety, but he is left panting and exclaiming “oh my god!”
Posting the video to her social media account, she has since received almost 245,000 likes and comments.
The cyclist warns his fellow riders that the worst thing to do in a dog chase is to accelerate too fast.
One of the dogs can be seen creepily approaching the front of his bike, trying to bite him.
Ed said: “Be careful if you are far away and try to cycle faster.
“The best advice is to stay on your bike. Don’t let the dog push you off your side of the road.
“Also make sure you’re not going to fall and try to ignore the dog unless it’s really chasing you.”
However, in the heat of the moment, Ed was forced to break with his own advice.
Ed said: “That dog wouldn’t stop. I just had to try to pass the dog.
‘I walked away and just thought thank you damn! I felt immense relief.
“The real problem would have been if the dog had bitten my leg or if I fell off the bike and it attacked me.
“It changed my mind and made me more aware of wild animals.” It put their power into perspective.
Ed leads the Soluna Cycle Tour, a 1,200-mile journey from the northern border of California to the southern border near Mexico, in partnership with the mental health app Soluna.
Toward the end of his trip, the cyclist promotes youth well-being by sharing with his social media followers the mental health stories of Californians he met along the way.
Ed explained that dog chases are not uncommon in more remote areas.
That’s when the chase began as the two dogs ran out of a property and after the bike
Ed said: “People don’t expect cyclists to be there, so they leave their doors open and the dogs can run away.
“The dogs are a little confused as to what cyclists are. It is in their nature to hunt.
Despite this scary moment, Ed doesn’t want to scare people from cycling.
Ed said: “It’s very rare that it ends this badly.
“You come out of these situations with a new confidence in yourself.
“Some of the remote areas are the most beautiful.”