A major accident during stage 5 of the women’s Tour de France on Thursday (28) left a female rider in need of hospital care.
With 50km to go before the longest leg of the race, an incident on a straight stretch of road between Bar-le-Luc and Saint-die-des-Vosges quickly turned into a massive accident that took half of the bikes out of the race.
With dozens of people involved, it took several minutes for the cyclists to disentangle themselves from each other’s bikes.
Many riders had bumps and bruises, with SD Worx’s Chantal van den Broek-Blaak having to have her right arm bandaged by the medical staff in the team car while riding and former Italian national champion Marta Bastianelli fighting back tears to continue. .
However, the massive pile-up spelled the end of the run for Movistar’s Emma Norsgaard after she was forced to withdraw from the injuries she sustained.
Although she could stand, the Danish cyclist had to leave in an ambulance. The team said on Instagram that the 23-year-old “hit her head, neck and left shoulder in a pile-up and had to be transferred to a hospital in Épinal”.
On Friday morning, Movistar announced that, after undergoing tests, Norsgaard had no fractures and “will remain under medical observation and rest for 24 hours, to monitor any after-effects of the incident”.
“Thanks for all the messages. It’s really nice of you all,” Norsgaard said. “I’m fine, I’m coming home to Girona and I just need to get some rest, but the rest is fine.”
Former British cyclist Dani Christmas said such things can happen on long stretches of road.
“This is the danger when drivers get relaxed in the group and you can almost be fooled by a false sense of security,” she said on Eurosport.
“If you are too relaxed, if the drivers are not focused, accidents can happen. The group speed must have been so high for so many riders to have been impacted.”
And at the end of the 175.6km stage, the longest in the modern history of women’s World Tour racing, Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes finished first.
The Dutch, also winner of the shortest stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, showed why she is the best sprinter in the world, while world champion Elisa Balsamo was second and Marianne Vos third.
However, Vos’s bonus four seconds saw her extend her lead in the overall leaderboard to 20 seconds.
Source: CNN Brasil
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