Bad day for Bahrain-Merida as Rohan Dennis quits Tour de France and bus crashes at parking zone
Jul 19 2019 01:33 am CET
Bahrain-Merida © Mary Cárdenas / CyclingPub.com
Bahrain-Merida has had a strange day at the 12th stage of the Tour de France as Rohan Dennis withdrew from the race without further notice and its bus hit another team's van at the finish line.
The 12th day of competition of the French grand tour wasn't good for Bahrain-Merida. Although Dennis was seen attacking in the first part of the stage to create the breakaway, not soon after he seemed to 'disappear' and the team didn't seem to know his whereabouts. "Our priority is the welfare of all our riders so will launch an immediate investigation but will not be commenting further until we have established what has happened to Rohan Dennis," stated the official account of the Bahraini team in a Tweet that was later removed.
Later on, reporters at the finish line posted pictures on social media of Dennis' bike and claims by 'staff members' of the team that the rider was fine and inside the bus. Shortly after, the rider left the bus along with his agent and a press officer, who said that he wasn't going to give any statements.
After the finish of the stage, Bahrain-Merida's Sports Director Gorazd Stangelj talked to the media about the situation. "We’re also confused," he said to the microphones of media from all over the world. "I’m disappointed about what happened with Rohan because we expected a big effort from him tomorrow. It was his decision to stop. We tried to speak to him. He said I don’t want to talk and just abandoned the race."
To finish off the day for the team, as the bus was leaving the parking zone, it crashed with a Jumbo-Visma van that was transporting Wout van Aert.
Things are even going BOOM for both @Bahrain_Merida and @JumboVismaRoad after the stage. BM team bus side swipped the Jumbo van. The Tour circus, how I've missed you. pic.twitter.com/vJl0yyBWo1
— Dave Everett (@ShoddyCycling) July 18, 2019
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