Jonas Vingegaard has been hospitalized along with prominent Australian cyclist Jay Vine after some of the world’s best cyclists suffered injuries in a massive high-speed crash at the Itzulia Basque Country race in Spain.
Reigning double Tour de France champion Vingegaard was reported to have suffered a broken collarbone and several ribs but was “conscious” after the alarming accident which threatens his hopes of a famous treble in July.
Vine, winner of last year’s Tour Down Under, also ended up crashing heavily in a concrete ditch and was taken away by ambulance.
His UAE team later reported that “Vine is conscious and talking. We will give an update later after further medical checks.”
It was also a disastrous day for another modern-day great: Remco Evenepoel, the 2022 world champion, managed to emerge unscathed from the accident despite suffering what his Soudal-Quick Step later confirmed was a fracture to his right collarbone and the right. scapula.
He will need surgery on Friday in Belgium.
Giro d’Italia champion Primoz Roglic, who had been the overnight leader, also abandoned the race after giving a thumbs up to the team car cameras to show he was fine.
In total, 12 riders near the front of the peloton were involved in the crash, which occurred about 35 kilometers from the end of the fourth stage between Etxarri Aranatz and Legutio, in northern Spain.
The leaders were making a wide right turn on a slight but fast descent, some slipped and others went off the road into the ditch.
Dane Vingegaard, who has been in spectacular form and was favorite for the 2024 Tour de France, had to be transferred to the ambulance in a neck brace and required oxygen after being treated by doctors on the road.
The race was then neutralized until the end, and only the six riders who had been in the lead were able to race towards the end to try and win the stage, with victory eventually going to the disappointed South African Louis Meintjes, who admitted it had been a triumph. empty.
“It’s a sad day. I wish the best to everyone who fell and I wish them a quick recovery,” Mattias Skjelmose, who took the overall lead of the race from Roglic, said at the end.
“My mind is on the guys who crashed and right now I’m not thinking about the leader’s jersey.”
The accident, which involved three of the world’s most prominent riders, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Roglic, was also a hard blow for Vine, 25, who went from riding a turbo bike in his living room to becoming in a star of the platoon.
He had started the week-long race on Monday with an exceptional time trial that had left him second behind Roglic on that stage and later revealed that the Itzulia had only been a late addition to his calendar.
Early on Thursday, Roglic’s BORA-Hansgrohe teammate Lennard Kamna was reported to be in a “stable condition” in intensive care after colliding with a car during training in Tenerife.
AAP
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