Stage five of the Criterium du Dauphine in France had to be neutralized after two huge crashes on a treacherous descent with just over 21km to go.
Race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) were among the riders who suffered injuries after around 50 riders crashed during the slippery, wet run-up to the finish in Saint -Priest.
Some riders escaped relatively lightly. Roglic was back on his feet quickly, Evenepoel was slower to get up and there will be some concern at QuickStep as he appeared to have hit his head and the same shoulder he broke in Itzulia Basque Country two months ago. It remains to be seen whether the Belgian will continue in the yellow jersey on Friday, although team boss Patrick Lefevere suggested he would.
“I got an update from our team doctor and it looks like the bumps and bruises will remain. From our team, only Antoine Huby still needs some stitches, but that is not super urgent,” said Lefevere in an interview with Sporza. “But it’s not fun. You can also imagine that Remco would immediately be afraid after such a fall, after what he experienced in the Basque Country, and would grab his shoulder. But it looks like it’s going to be okay.”
The Visma-Lease a Bike couple of Dylan van Baarle and Steven Kruijswijk both had to retire due to injuries sustained. It is the latest misfortune to befall the Dutch team, who won all three Grand Tours last year but had a miserable few months with injuries to stars Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard.
After much discussion, the organizers announced that, due to the lack of remaining ambulances, the peloton would ride the final kilometers to Saint-Priest together, but there would be no stage winner and no time allocated for the general classification.
“In agreement with the jury of commissaires of the UCI, it has been decided that because there are no ambulances to ensure the safety of the riders as they are all busy going to different hospitals, the race will be neutralized,” said one declaration. “The race will be neutralized and the peloton will ride all the way to the finish under the guidance of the Garde Republicaine. The times are not taken into account, there will be no winner for today’s stage.”
Meanwhile, British champion Pfeiffer Georgi and two-time race winner Lizzie Deignan finished third and fourth respectively in Stage 1 of the newly named Tour of Britain Women.
Georgi (Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNl) and Deignan, who is riding for the Great Britain national team this week as her Lidl-Trek team did not take part in the race, were part of an elite breakaway of nine riders who escaped en route to the final in Llandudno, at the end of a bumpy stage from Welshpool. Deignan’s teammate Anna Henderson also made the group.
Ultimately it was Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) who outsmarted world champion Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) on the Welsh coast to take the race lead. But the British trio are well positioned overall, with the escapees entering Friday’s second stage with a 3min 50sec lead over the rest of the field.
This year’s race, the first following the appointment of former Team Sky and Ineos Grenadiers deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth as race director of the Tour of Britain, was reduced to four stages to give the race a better chance of going ahead going after the collapse of the old race. promoter SweetSpot at the end of last year.
British Cycling decided to take charge of both the men’s and women’s events, and although there were times this year when it looked like both might be in trouble, the governing body has managed to get them going.
The recent injection of around £20 million into the coffers of British Cycling from Lloyds Bank, which has taken on the title sponsorship of both races, has been described as “game-changing” by the governing body’s chief executive, Jon Dutton.
Dutton says the hope is to expand the women’s event to six days again next year, when all the major World Tour teams should be involved again. The uncertainty this year caused many of them to choose to compete elsewhere.
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