Mass crash leaves riders battered in Tour de France stage 12 finale
A large crash in the closing kilometre of stage 12 brought much of the Tour de France peloton to a standstill, with more than ten riders going down as the sprint trains accelerated towards the finish in Chalon sur Saône.
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Fernando Gaviria (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) was the first rider to crash near the front of the group after making contact with Vlad Van Mechelen. In the closing metres, the Belgian moved across the road and Gaviria’s front wheel touched his rear wheel, sending the Colombian to the ground and setting off a chain reaction behind.
Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) managed to avoid the incident and stayed in contention, but those further back had almost no room to escape.
Pavel Bittner (Team Picnic PostNL), Dorian Godon (Netcompany-Imeos), Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarché), Jenno Berckmoes (Lotto-Intermarché), Soren Waerenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) were among those caught in the incident.
Several others were forced to brake sharply or put a foot on the ground as fallen riders and bicycles blocked much of the finishing straight.
The disruption left only a reduced group able to compete for the stage victory. Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) avoided the crash and launched his sprint from behind to take the win ahead of Kooij and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech).
Most of the peloton crossed the line some time later, although the delays will not affect the general classification. Under the race regulations, riders caught behind an incident inside the final five kilometres are awarded the same time as the group they were riding with when the crash occurred.
All of the riders involved eventually made it to the finish, but Gaviria and Berckmoes have since been diagnosed with broken collarbones.
The full extent of the damage suffered by the other riders remains unclear, with teams expected to provide further medical updates following examinations after the stage.
After the race, Van Mechelen was relegated by the race jury for deviating from his line.
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