"I don't dare think of what would have happened if I'd had to cycle uphill," Larsen told newspaper Aften. "I probably wouldn't have been able to have enough speed."
The drama began when the active 83-year-old was cycling on one of the gravel roads leading into the forest beyond Skansebakken in Sørkedalen. Skansebakken is the last stop on an Oslo bus line and a popular starting point for skiing in the winter and cycling or hiking in the summer.
Larsen had heard some mysterious grunting noises from behind trees along the road but only later realized it must have been a moose cow irritated by his cycling. Female moose with calves are highly defensive at this time of year, because offspring born in May or June aren't yet able to fend for themselves.
"Suddenly the moose was standing before me on the road, demonstratively, as if she'd decided that she wasn't going to let me ride by," Larsen said.
Larsen, closing in fast on the moose, tried to scare her off by yelling "go back to the woods," but that only made the moose more angry.
"I shouldn't have done that, because the moose snorted, tramped her foot on the ground and started coming at me," Larsen said. He quickly turned around "and just started cycling for my life."
He said he kept cycling as fast as he could for around 10 minutes before he dared to look behind him. Then the moose was gone.
Lasse Henriksen of the local parks and recreation agency (Friluftsetaten) said the moose attack was probably due to the presence of a young calf in the area. "Moose cows will always stand and defend her calf," Henriksen said. He thinks Larsen unknowingly came between the calf and its mother.
He agreed that Larsen shouldn't have tried to scare off the cow. "If you provoke a moose, it will probably go on the attack," Henriksen.
