Tirreno-Adriatico - Pedestrian causes Bora-hansgrohe's crash, close call for Mitchelton-Scott
Mar 14 2019 03:14 am CET
Photo by ASO/A.Broadway
Pedestrians caused chaos in Tirreno-Adriatico as one made two riders of Bora-hansgrohe crash and another one almost did the same with Mitchelton-Scott.
The Italian race opened with a 21.5-kilometre team time trial and teams were already tense because of the rain that hit the course earlier on the day leaving puddles and slippery roads. The Bora-hansgrohe riders, including Slovak champion Peter Sagan, had barely started the race against the clock when a pedestrian crossed their way.
Text continues below the video.
What an idiot #TirrenoAdriatico pic.twitter.com/omX1dPHTpO
— The Puncheur (@thepuncheur) March 13, 2019
A man crossed the road on a zebra seemingly unaware of the race taking place and without looking or hearing the warnings from the other side, caused Rafal Majka and Oscar Gatto to crash against him. The rest of the riders kept going but being only five, they couldn't go as hard as they were expecting with the seven of them.
In the end, Bora-hansgrohe crossed the finish line at 1 minute and 57 seconds from the stage winner Mitchelton-Scott. "We had an unlucky day, marred by a bad crash," said team doctor Jan-Niklas Droste.
"Oscar Gatto has quite a lot of bruises while Rafa? Majka went down hard. He has hematomas and abrasions on his head and we will have to run additional tests and diagnostics in order to evaluate whether the impact caused a concussion or not."
Later on the day, Mitchelton-Scott was approaching the last kilometre of the course when a woman with a dog attempted to cross the road despite clear indications that the event was happening. She could save herself, and the dog, centimetres away from being hit by the Australian team.
Get off the bloody road #TirrenoAdriatico pic.twitter.com/O24b1RzsfK
— The Puncheur (@thepuncheur) March 13, 2019
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