Sept. 14 (UPI) -- A British cyclist has been branded the "cow whisperer" online after a viral video showed his encounter with a herd of wayward bovine on a narrow roadway.

Andrew O'Connor said he had paused to change the batteries on his GoPro camera on his way to ride his bicycle up Great Dun Fell, near the small village of Knock, England, when he spotted a herd of cows ahead.

O'Connor said he turned the camera on to record video of the cows, but he suddenly found himself in an unexpected situation when the herd breezed past the gate they had been intended to go through.

"They went past the open gate," O'Connor told Cycling Weekly, "and the farmer at the back just started screaming. I didn't have a clue what to do."

O'Connor said he feared he might be in danger from the cows, as he was on a narrow road between two stone walls.

The cyclist's video shows the farmer shouting instructions to O'Connor, showing him how to hold his hands up to give instructions to the cattle.

"A bit out of my comfort zone here," O'Connor says in the video after the cows comply with his calls to "stop."

O'Connor's video went viral, and the farmer's daughter reached out to him on social media to say her father was amused by the fame of his cows and grateful for the cyclist's help.

He said he learned a valuable lesson from the experience.

"Fake it until you make it, just put a brave face on," he told ABC News.