Barcelona (Agencies)
Two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel were taken to hospital after a mass crash also involving Primoz Roglic and UAE Team Emirates’ Jay Vine, which resulted in stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country race being paused on Thursday.
Vingegaard was taken to the hospital following a mass crash in stage four of the Tour of the Basque Country race, his team said in the aftermath.
“Jonas is conscious and will be examined in the hospital now,” Visma Lease a Bike said of the Danish rider, one of several taken to hospital after the incident.
Several of the 12 riders involved in the crash fell into a concrete ditch after sliding off on a corner with around 35 kilometres to go in the run from Etxarri Aranatz to Legutio, in northern Spain.
Danish rider Vingegaard was taken to an ambulance on a stretcher, while Evenepoel was walking but his team Soudal Quick Step confirmed he was also going to hospital.
Roglic, who also abandoned the race, offered a thumbs-up sign to television cameras while sitting in the Bora-Hansgrohe team car, to show he was not significantly harmed.
The crash happened on the descent from the Alto de Olaeta after a rider in the front of the peloton slid off the road on a right-hand bend.
Earlier, Roglic’s teammate Lennard Kamna was left in a “stable condition” in intensive care after a collision with a car during a training ride in Tenerife. The 27-year-old’s condition will be monitored for the next few days.
“He is in a stable condition, he is awake, responsive and able to communicate,” Bora-Hansgrohe said in a statement, adding that he was surrounded by members of his family and the team.
According to initial accounts as relayed by his team, “the driver of an oncoming vehicle turned left” into Kamna’s lane and collided with him while he was out riding with several teammates. No one else got hurt.
“The whole team feels for him, and we all wish him a speedy recovery,” said team manager Ralph Denk. Kamna was the German national time trial champion in 2022. He has also won a stage on the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.
Roglic, who also fell on Wednesday during the third stage but quickly recovered, was leading the overall standings from Evenepoel by seven seconds at the start of racing on Thursday.