MADRID — Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard has been taken to hospital along with leading Australian rider Jay Vine after some of the world’s best cyclists suffered injuries in a mass crash at high speed in the Itzulia Basque Country race in Spain.
The injuries leave Vingegaard abd Vine doubtful to compete in the Tour de France on June 29.
The crash happened at high speed on the descent from the Olaeta climb with 35.9-km remaining when one rider went down causing a chain reaction, and Vingegaard was still on the ground receiving medical treatment several minutes later.
“It was a nasty crash, but fortunately he is stable and conscious. He remains in hospital as a precaution. Thank you for all your messages,” Vingegaard’s team Visma-Lease a Bike said in a statement.
Six riders went to hospital after the incident, including the Australian Jay Vine, who was diagnosed with a fractured cervical vertebra and two fractures in his thoracic spine.
“The stage has been neutralised. Jonas is on his way to the hospital,” Vingegaard’s Team Visma-Lease a Bike said on social media platform X. Only the original breakaway of six riders were allowed to contest the stage win.
Vingegaard, 27, was taken away on a stretcher wearing a neck brace.
“Examinations at the hospital have revealed that he has a broken collarbone and several broken ribs. He remains in hospital as a precaution,” Team Visma-Lease a Bike later said.
“Fortunately, there were no neurological problems and there are no other serious injuries or skull injuries,” Vine’s UAE Team Emirates said in a statement.
Evenepoel’s Soudal-Quick Step team said the Belgian had abandoned the race and he was taken to hospital in the team car, with Slovenian Roglic of Bora-Hansgrohe also forced to withdraw.
Soudal-Quick Step later confirmed that Evenepoel had sustained a fracture to his right collarbone and his right shoulder blade and would have surgery in Belgium.
Australian Jay Vine of UAE-Team Emirates was another rider taken to hospital by ambulance, with his team saying he was conscious and talking.
There were no ambulances left to follow the race and the stage was stopped for an hour before the organisers decided to continue.
“The race is neutralised until the finish line, the six leading runners will compete in the stage but the stage times will not be counted for the general classification. The peloton will go in neutral until the finish line,” race organisers said according to Reuters.
South African Louis Meintjes of Intermarche-Wanty won the stage, but his victory was overshadowed by the crash.
“It’s a sad day. I wish all the guys who crashed all the best and wish them a fast recovery,” Skjelmose, who took the overall race lead from Roglic, said at the finish.
“It’s not the way you want to win,” Meintjes said.
“I felt good and if there was a chance for the breakaway I would have been ready to fight for the stage, but it takes a bit of the pleasure out of it. It’s maybe a victory but it doesn’t really feel like it. You want it to be fair for everyone.”
Roglic came into stage four with a seven-second lead over Evenepoel, with Vingegaard a further seven seconds behind in fifth, but with the main contenders out of the race, Dane Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek now holds the overall lead.
The crash, which featured three of the world’s most outstanding riders in Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Roglic, was also a huge blow for 25-year-old Vine, who has graduated from riding a turbo trainer in his living room to being a peloton star.
He had begun the week-long race on Monday with an exceptional time trial that had left him second behind only Roglic at that stage and revealed afterwards that the Itzulia had been only a late addition to his schedule.
Roglic’s teammate at BORA-Hansgrohe, Lennard Kamna, was reported to be in a “stable condition” in intensive care after he had collided with a car during a training ride in Tenerife.
