cycling
Drama in the fourth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country. The great tenors Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic all fell and had to give up. Louis Meintjes eventually won the stage.
Remco Evenepoel went straight in a bend, just managed to avoid a tree and then crashed. Afterwards, Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic, among others, also fell, as did Quinten Hermans. Evenepoel immediately grabbed his collarbone and left the race, the same for the Danish Tour winner.
Vingegaard remained on the ground for a long time with medical staff around him and was taken away on a stretcher. His Visma-Lease a bike team has now confirmed that he is conscious. Evenepoel was taken to hospital by the team management. Roglic seemed to be in the least serious condition, but also fell hard in a ditch and got into a support car. Also involved in the crash were: Jay Vine, Sean Quinn, Alexander Cepeda and Natnael Tesfatsion. The latter was the first to hit the asphalt, just behind Evenepoel.
The passage on the Untzilla was canceled and the course has been neutralized up to the Eskoriatza, according to the race organization. However, the peloton did not want to resume the race and rode in group to the finish. The leading group of six men went for the overall victory, Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) was the first to cross the line.
“It looks serious”
“It could have been much worse for Remco, because there were rocks and trees everywhere. I don’t know exactly what he slid into, I don’t know what’s under that grass. But it does look serious,” said sports director Patrick Lefevere at a press conference in the run-up to Paris-Roubaix.
For now we have to wait for the verdict. “Grabbing the shoulder is never a good sign for a cyclist,” he said. “It is also the worst possible time to have this happen. We will have to wait for the medical report first. And now? Give up and no breaks, Liège is still fourteen days away. A lot can happen in that time. But if you’re dealing with a breakup, it stops here. The Tour? I don’t think this will mortgage that one. It may be a setback, after all the effort. But as a rider you always have to get up and move on. We are in the corner where the blows are falling, but it is difficult for us to put the bicycles aside.”
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