Piece of wet road causes crash of Jumbo-Visma and UAE-Team Emirates in Vuelta a España
Aug 25 2019 07:24 am CET
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Two teams crashed in the same spot at the course of the team time trial at the opening stage of the Vuelta a España.
Jumbo-Visma and UAE-Team Emirates hit the deck in exactly the same curve at the team time trial of the Spanish race. The Dutch team reports that there was water on the course that the race said was caused by a broken inflatable swimming pool in a nearby house and caused Nielson Powless, Primoz Roglic, Lennard Hofstede and Steven Kruijswijk to fall.
"We were riding at full speed towards that bend when things went sideways," explained Tony Martin. "There was no way to avoid it. We couldn't react in time, and the guys in the front slipped away on the wet road surface. Luckily everyone was able to continue their ride. Now we will have to see how things go, day by day. For now, this is a blow to our morale."
In UAE-Team Emirates all the riders were affected by a crash in the same place and because of the same conditions, including Fabio Aru and Fernando Gaviria. "There was a water leak on one of the bends and it was what caused us to go down," said the Italian.
"Once we were on the ground, we got up immediately and did what we could until the end. Obviously, it's not an ideal start, but we plan to fight on as usual."
"There was a big patch of water on one of the bends," added Gaviria. "We were going too fast into the corner to be able to react and we all ended up on the ground. This crash won't affect our desire to win here at the Vuelta and we'll live to fight another day. I stay with my hopes intact and aim to continue on until Madrid."
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