Fabian Cancellara withdrew from the Tour de France after crashing in the third stage, which was neutralized for about 10 minutes on Monday following a pile-up of about two dozen riders.
FDJ rider William Bonnet of France was put in a neck brace after falling off his cycle when it apparently touched a wheel, and others around him were also brought down in a flurry of flying bikes and bodies.
Swiss Cancellara, who started the day with the leader’s yellow jersey, was one of several top names to hit the tarmac, along with Australian Simon Gerrans and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin, who had to abandon the race.
Photo: Reuters
“Just left the hospital with a huge disappointment #TDF2015 is over,” Cancellara wrote on Twitter.
His Trek Factory team said he broke two vertebrae in his lower back.
When organizers neutralize part of a stage, it means riders must move at minimal pace and no breakaways or time gains can be attempted.
Photo: AP
Bonnet was conscious when he was taken away by medical staff on a stretcher.
“He’s lucid, he’s wearing a neck brace out of precaution,” FDJ sports director Thierry Bricaud said.
FDJ said that Bonnet suffered a broken cervical vertebra.
“This fracture means he needs to undergo surgery quickly to stabilize the vertebrae and avoid neurological consequences, but the fracture in itself is not serious,” FDJ said in a statement.
At one point, Team Sky riders accelerated before Cancellara made his way back to a bunch who were riding at the minimum pace required when a race is neutralized.
Organizers then decided to stop the race altogether and the peloton came to a halt 55km from the finish before resuming the stage.
“Due to the extraordinary circumstances of the crash at a very high speed, the race was neutralized to allow the injured riders to get back in the peloton,” organizers said in a statement. “Twenty-five minutes after the crash, a new start was given at the top of the Cote de Bohisseau with 50km to go.”
Sky manager Dave Brailsford said: “It was a good decision. I think [race director] Christian [Prudhomme] did the right thing.”
“I like to see people who look at the rules and understand the situation and contextualize their decisions based on the current situation that they’re in,” Brailsford said.
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