Wout van Aert’s participation at the Tour of Flanders is in severe doubt after he fell heavily in a high-speed mass crash 67km from the finish of Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Mads Pedersen, Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) also fell in the same crash, which took place shortly after the climb of Berg ten Houte and on the fast approach to the key Kanarieberg climb.
“They were passing us to accelerate on the left side, so Wout shouted at me to accelerate, which I did, but I think Wout touched my wheel. I feel really shit about it,” teammate Tiesj Benoot revealed.
“I was on Wout’s wheel at the time of the crash, just before the Kanarieberg climb,” eventually race winner Matteo Jorgenson said.
“It was a decisive moment in the race but it was a racing incident. We had two lead out trains: Lidl-Trek and us and basically we came together, I think Wout an Alex Kirsch came together and it was a really ugly fall. I saw the whole thing and knew that Wout was going to be out of he race.”
Van Aert was in visible and audible pain as he sat on the roadside after the incident, with his ripped jersey and the abrasions on his back and shoulder clearly demonstrating the impact of the crash.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider was helped onto a stretcher shortly afterwards, his race over.
Stuyven sustained an apparent collarbone injury in the crash, and he also abandoned the race. His Lidl-Trek teammate Pedersen, another Tour of Flanders contender, was able to remount, albeit after a long pause. He rode to the Lidl-Trek team bus, with road rash visible on several parts of his body.
Girmay was also forced to abandon the race due to his injuries, and the Eritrean’s Tour of Flanders participation is also in doubt. However his Intermarche-Wanty team later said he had not suffered any fractures.
Sporza in-race reporter Renaat Schotte was among the first people to arrive on the scene of the crash. “This is one of the worst falls I have seen,” he said.
“Not only because of the impact, but also because of the emotions afterwards.”
Visma-Lease a Bike were left shocked by the crash and so struggled to celebrate Jorgenson’s victory. But directeur sportif Grischa Niermann tried to rally his riders.
“It’s very unfortunate because our spring campaign is about the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, they’re the two races we want to win,”…
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