Alice Toniolli, 19, a promising young Italian cyclist, is hospitalized in serious conditions at the Treviso hospital after a bad fall during the Circuito dell’Assunta in Ceneda di Vittorio Veneto. The professional athlete – who last year won the gold medal at the European Road Mixed Relay Championships in Drenthe, Holland – is not in danger of life.
The accident occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14, when the race was about halfway through. The cyclist of the Top Girls Fassa Bortolo, originally from Mezzocorona, in the province of Trento, was on the outside of the group, which was traveling at about fifty kilometers per hour on a straight.
Toniolli suddenly lost control of her bicycle and fell, hitting a low wall along the road. The young woman suffered multiple fractures to her head and chest.
Alice Toniolli, 19 year old champion cyclist from Trentino
European is hospitalized in serious conditions after violently hitting her head against a wall during a women’s race in the province of Treviso pic.twitter.com/4Nz88JNWfb— Tg3 (@Tg3web) August 15, 2024
The cause of the fall is still unclear. It is thought that the 19-year-old touched the wheel of another cyclist, perhaps distracted while trying to grab her water bottle.
The athlete was transported by helicopter to the hospital in Conegliano but, following the worsening of her conditions, she was transferred to the one in Treviso.
The race was interrupted to allow for rescue operations, then it resumed with only one lap of the circuit instead of the three still to be completed. Elisa De Vallier, Toniolli’s teammate, won, dedicating the victory to her teammate.
The Cycling Federation has announced that national president Cordiano Dagnoni is in close contact with the sports director, with the girl’s parents, and is constantly following the evolution of the situation.
“I have been organizing the Circuito dell’Assunta for 52 years, three of which for women too, and I have never seen an accident like this,” he told SkyTg24 Giacomo Salvador, president of Cicloturistica and organizer of the race. “Luckily we had an exceptional doctor on site who provided the first, essential care. I immediately realized that it was terrible, now I expect her to recover soon and with the doctor we will go and visit her”.
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