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The fifth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné was marred by a massive crash on Thursday, with about half of the peloton hitting the ground. In this article, which is constantly updated, IDLProCycling.com keeps track of the medical updates.
First off: what exactly happened? About 25 kilometers from the finish, the peloton was about to catch the breakaway group and entered a descent, but the road was extremely slippery. Several riders at the front slid out, leading to a chain reaction like no other: riders crashed all the way to the very last positions. Due to a shortage of ambulances, A.S.O. wisely decided to neutralize the race until the finish.
Read more below the video.
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Many of the involved riders managed to walk away from the scene without serious injury, but unfortunately, that was not the case for a duo from Visma | Lease a Bike. Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan van Baarle were left behind in pain and had to be taken to nearby hospitals by ambulance. Kruijswijk was loaded into the ambulance on his side, while Van Baarle was placed in a sling for his arm.
The team initially reported that the two riders were 'severely battered' and that team director Grischa Niermann sees it as a 'major, new setback' for the team. Later in the evening, the verdict came: a broken collarbone for Van Baarle, a hip fracture for Kruijswijk, and no Tour de France for either of them...
Leader Remco Evenepoel was also involved. The Belgian from Soudal Quick-Step was left dazed, lying on the wet asphalt, but eventually managed to continue his ride. Mikel Landa and Ilan Van Wilder, also from the Belgian team, were involved in the crash, but at first glance, they seemed to have escaped major injuries. "Overall, it's okay: a scrape on the right side and a scrape on my head, but my helmet saved me," Evenepoel reported.
When there's a fall, you can almost guarantee that Primoz Roglic is affected too. This time, the Slovenian from BORA-hansgrohe was one of those involved, but the same holds for him as for Evenepoel: normally without too much harm. The same was true for domestique Jai Hindley, although the Aussie did end up with a bloodied leg. The German team announced that it would provide an update on the fallen riders after the race. Roglic himself already noted that he is okay under the circumstances, but that he still needs to undergo further checks.
Shortly afterward, BORA-hansgrohe indeed provided an update: all seven riders (!) went down, but none were injured so severely that they couldn't continue. No broken bones, but several abrasions and bruises were reported.
Moving on to UAE-Team Emirates, which had several of its Tour team members on the asphalt. Juan Ayuso had to be helped up by some teammates but eventually got back on his bike. Nils Politt, Michael Vink, and Tim Wellens were also involved, with the German shaking his head towards the camera with a large abrasion.
Politt reportedly fell first and took his teammates, including leader Ayuso, down with him. According to Spanish media, he suffers from injuries to his hip and knee and is unlikely to start on Friday.
Two teams were leading at the moment of the crash. On one hand, there was Lidl-Trek for Mads Pedersen, which reported having no casualties in the crash. For Decathlon AG2R’s sprinter Sam Bennett, it was a different story: Bruno Armirail limped away from the crash, while Oliver Naesen sat with large abrasions on his leg.
Lotto-Dstny saw Milan Menten abandon - the also affected Andreas Kron and Jonas Gregaard were able to continue - after the crash on the slippery asphalt, while Axel Mariault (Cofidis) and Laurens Huys (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) had to leave the race via an ambulance. INEOS Grenadiers rider Michal Kwiatkowski later voiced on social media, "The roads were slippery, but I'm relatively okay."
The same was true for Bahrain Victorious's Fred Wright, who noted he slid for a few hundred meters. His team later reported the other injuries, which were not minor. Only Jack Haig remained upright from the team, while Rainer Kepplinger (concussion) and Jasha Sütterlin were taken to the hospital.
Uno-X had multiple riders involved in the crash. The Norwegian team saw Adne Holter - who had already dropped out of the breakaway earlier - among the victims in the major crash, and we also saw stage winner Magnus Cort and GC contender Andreas Leknessund among those affected. Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) even went down twice.
Additionally, at least Carl Fredrik Hagen, Filippo Conca, Mark Donovan (Q36.5), Ide Schelling, Santiago Umba, Harold Tejada, Michele Gazzoli (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Antonio Pedrero, Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Hugo Toumire (Cofidis), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Remy Rochas, Quentin Pacher, Clément Russo Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), and Romain Combaud (dsm-firmenich PostNL) were also down, but that’s still just the tip of the iceberg of this crash.
Dylan van Baarle (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Steven Kruijswijk (Visma | Lease a Bike)
Milan Menten (Lotto-Dstny)
Laurens Huys (Arkéa - B&B Hotels)
Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ)
Axel Mariault (Cofidis)
Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain Victorious)
Adne Holter (Uno-X)
This post is being updated.