The ghost of the fall in Itzulia, which suddenly ruled out Jonas Vingegaard – who has not yet returned to the competition -, Roglic and Evenepoel, also appeared in the Dauphiné, again in a descent, that of the Bel -Air, 21 kilometers from the Saint-Priestés finish line; It caused two victims who had to retire, Steven Kruijswijk and Dylan Van Baarle, evacuated by ambulance, both from the Visma team, and involved fifty cyclists, who rolled on the asphalt or fell into the ditch, fortunately on the grass.
With the asphalt very wet and with pockets of water on the left side of the road, a brake at the front of the peloton caused a chain reaction. Most of those who were traveling on that side also hit the brakes, fell to the ground and dragged the other cyclists. The speed was not as high as in Itzulia, precisely because the ground was much worse, and that meant that, apart from the two retired, the rest of the fallen only suffered blows and scratches, sheet metal and paint in the jargon of the platoon. .
⏪ La kicke la descente de la côte de Bel-Air qui a entrainé de très nombreux coureurs et la neutralization complète de l’étape.
⏪ The crash on the descent of the coast of Bel-Air which involved a large number of riders and led to the complete neutralization of the stage.… pic.twitter.com/blRfrlhBio
— Critérium du Dauphiné (@dauphine) June 6, 2024
Among those affected were the leader, Remco Evenepoel, and another of the favorites, Primoz Roglic, and also the Spaniards Mikel Landa and Juan Ayuso, confirmed by Tadej Pogacar as one of his praetorians for the Tour that begins in Florence on June 29 . In the images offered by television, initially, a suffering Evenepoel was seen, sitting on the ground, touching the shoulder of the one who underwent surgery for the fall in the Basque Country, some scratches on his knee, but moving his arms and legs . Later, after the scare, he joined the rest of the peloton to take the neutralized start of a stage that had no winner. “In general I’m fine,” noted the leader of the Dauphiné upon reaching the finish line. “I have a scratch on the right side and also another on my head, but the helmet saved me,” he confessed. “There are others who are in a worse situation and I wish them all a good recovery,” he said. “Now it’s about thinking about the next stage, so let’s not dwell too much on what happened.” However, he acknowledged that, “my shoulder is bleeding and we will have to wait to see what the doctors say and if the plate they put on me is okay. We’ll see tomorrow, but there is no other option but to continue.”
Evenepoel recounted his fall like this: “Everyone was looking for position, because it was the last difficult point of the route. Some runners started slipping right in front of me. I was close to avoiding them, but a bicycle passed behind me and I fell when it hit my wheel.” Mikel Landa, his lieutenant, pointed out: “It was a bit of bad luck. The runners in front started to skid, it was strange, because it was not a dangerous curve, but it was very slippery. I hope everyone recovers well.”
The organizers only awarded the combativeness prize to the two cyclists who maintained a half-minute advantage over the peloton, Mathis Le Berre and Tobias Bayer.
Among the fallen, Roglic also soon rose from the ground. He checked that all his joints were working well and then took advantage of the moment to take an energy gel and discuss the scare with his teammates at Bora. Then, upon reaching the finish line, he was cautious: “I fell on my shoulder, which is not the best thing. I had surgery on that area a few years ago, so I’ll have to take a look. But other riders have been in worse situations today and it’s a bummer. “I have to see the doctor.” Ayuso, with a strong blow to her knee, had a harder time getting up. He walked helped by two companions until he apparently recovered and got back on the bicycle. Meanwhile, the race was suspended: “According to the jury of UCI stewards it has been decided that, because there are no ambulances that can take care of the safety of the runners because they are all busy going to different hospitals, the race will be neutralized,” the organization announced via radio return. “The race is neutralized and the cyclists will ride all the way to the finish line accompanied by the Republican Guard. The times will not be taken into account, nor will there be a winner.”
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