Crash involving multiple cyclists at Pune Grand Tour, race resumed after medical intervention

Patrice Robustelli, Sports Director of Thailand-based Grant Thornton Cycling Team, said two of his riders were injured and two cycle wheels were damaged in the crash. He told The Indian Express, “The race was very nice and the crowd was seriously amazing… Today’s crash is a part of racing. The road is a bit narrow with a lot of riders at very high speed. A little bit of movement and you go down. We have two of our riders down and two wheels broken. But it’s nothing to do with the organiser. It’s a part of bike racing.”

Eugene Cross of the UK-based Schils Doltcini team suffered a few scrapes in the crash. “I have no idea how the crash happened. I just had people slamming on. I was quite far forward, I almost got through. But people started slamming on to the side of me and I went down, and one rider landed on top of me. And then my bike got tangled in one of the wires from the video cameras. I was bound to go down,” he said. Cross added that narrow roads and riders’ eagerness to perform well in the first race of the year may have contributed to the incident.

In a statement, Edward Park, President of the UCI Commissaire Panel for the Pune Grand Tour, said, “There was a crash in the middle of the peloton. This is quite common in road cycling races with large peloton and changing race dynamics, high-stake, high-speed environment. As a protocol, the race was neutralized for 23 minutes. Riders involved in the incident were immediately attended to with first aid by the medical staff in the convoy, and were allowed to change the bikes. No serious injuries and no one required hospitalization.”