Tour de France Women: A spectacular accident involving several riders forces a rider to be hospitalized

Tour de France Women: A spectacular accident involving several riders forces a rider to be hospitalized

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50 km from the longest stage of the race, an incident on a straight stretch of road between Bar-le-Luc and Saint-die-des-Vosges quickly turned into a huge accident which saw half the peloton off their bikes.

With dozens of people involved, it took several minutes for riders to disentangle each other’s bikes.

Many riders suffered bumps and bruises, with SD Worx’s Chantal van den Broek-Blaak having to have her right arm bandaged by medical staff in the team car as she rode and the former national champion Italian Marta Bastianelli fighting tears to keep going.

However, the massive pile-up spelled the death knell for Emma Norsgaard’s run from Movistar after she was forced to retire with the injuries she sustained.

Although she could stand, the Danish cyclist had to leave by 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 mornings, Movistar announcement that after undergoing CT scans, Norsgaard did not have any fractures and “will remain under medical observation and rest for 24 hours, to monitor the after-effects of the incident”.
“Thank you for all the messages. It’s really nice of you”, Norsgaard said. “I’m fine, I’m going home to Girona and I just need some rest but the rest is fine.”

Former British racing cyclist Dani Christmas said these things can happen on long stretches of road.

“That’s the danger when riders relax in the peloton and you can almost be fooled by a false sense of security,” she told Eurosport.

“If you’re too relaxed, if the riders aren’t focused, crashes can happen. The speed in the peloton must have been so high for so many riders to be impacted.”

And at the end of the 175.6km stage, the longest in modern Women’s World Tour history, Team DSM’s Lorena Wiebes finished first.

The Dutch rider, also winner of the shortest stage of the Tour de France Women on Sunday, showed why she is the best sprinter at the moment, while world champion Elisa Balsamo came second and Marianne Vos third.

However, Vos’s four bonus seconds allowed him to extend his overall lead to 20 seconds.

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