Miguel Angel López (Crew Medellin) crashed out of the Tour of the Gila early on stage 2 whereas main the race. In accordance with the race organisation, the Colombian suffered abrasions and didn’t require transportation to hospital.
López claimed the lead with a storming journey on the stage 1 summit end at Mogollon, and went into the second out-and-back stage to Fort Bayard with a lead of 55 seconds over Torbjøn Røed (Above and Past Most cancers) and 1:04 on Venture Echelon’s Richard Arnopol.
Nevertheless, the customarily treacherous descent from Piños Altos, the place the ultimate stage concludes on a loop raced in the wrong way, claimed López and at the least three different riders who have been transported to the hospital with accidents: Matteo Dal-Cin and Theodore De Groote (Toronto Hustle) and Orion Youngster (Aevolo).
The crash occurred round 30 kilometres into the stage as López’s teammate Oscar Sevilla was in a breakaway round one minute up the street.
Organisers neutralised the race as a result of greater than half of the sector had been concerned within the wreck, which got here on a descent simply after the primary mountain dash. Riders completed the lengthy, difficult descent to Lake Roberts – 19km with the race in – earlier than racing resumed.
Whereas such accidents are widespread within the race, the tough street surfaces, rugged terrain and generally fairly steep gradients can result in critical accidents. In 2014 an identical crash knocked 14 riders out of the race on the opening stage, with two riders needing to be airlifted from the course. Each recovered.
The identical was not the case for Chad Younger, who crashed whereas attempting to chase again to the peloton on a steep descent close to the Continental Divide throughout the out-and-back stretch of the ultimate stage from the Gila Cliff Dwellings Nationwide Monument and every week later died on account of his accidents.
López, who has 12 Grand Tour begins, a podium within the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España together with three Vuelta stage wins, a Tour de France stage win, and general wins within the Tour de Suisse and Volta a Catalunya is racing with Crew Medellin after being sacked from Astana over alleged hyperlinks to a physician who was charged with doping athletes.
Whereas he awaits his wrongful dismissal attraction to the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport to be resolved, López has been racking up victories all throughout South America, profitable the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina, the Colombian time trial title, the Vuelta al Tolima and yesterday, the opening stage of the Tour of the Gila.
