Wednesday’s WorldTour race Dwars door Vlaanderen, the penultimate race in Flanders Week, was marred by a horrible crash that injured favourites Wout van Aert, Jasper Stuyven and Biniam Girmay.
🇧🇪 #DDV24
We’d rather not mention it, but we have to.. 😔
Wout has to abandon the race after a big crash. Let’s hope he is okay. 🍀
We’ll keep you posted. pic.twitter.com/KnKm1vyzkS
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) March 27, 2024
The crash came soon after the Berg Ten Houte climb. With crosswinds at play and Lidl-Trek massed at the front, splits appeared in the field, and the climb itself further streamlined the group. The big crash with about a dozen riders involved came hard on the heels of one involving two riders. Sixty-eight kilometers remained.
Wout van Aert’s skin suit was in tatters and his plaintive cries of pain were unnerving. He was loaded into an ambulance. Stuyven, Girmay and Astana’s Michele Gazzoli also abandoned.
Guillaume Boivin and Riley Pickrell are flying the Canadian flag in the race.
Flanders Week concludes on Sunday with the Tour of Flanders, the season’s second Monument.
You can see the crash below:
All the work done for months is now out of the window. Sad day today for all cycling fans. 😢 #DDV24 pic.twitter.com/TTJChaYDfo
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) March 27, 2024
This is the second crash for Wout van Aert in a week. He struggled after a crash on the Paterberg during the E3 Saxo Classic. When he hit the deck, Mathieu van der Poel attacked with 44 km remaining to win Friday’s mini-Tour of Flanders E3 Saxo Classic, the sixth one-day race of the 2024 UCI WorldTour. It was van der Poel’s first victory in the E3 after two podiums and his first road triumph of the season. Van Aert tried in vein to catch van der Poel, but ultimately finished third.
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