Mikel Landa forced out of Itzulia following medical car crash

Mikel Landa has reported no long-term injuries following his crash at Itzulia Basque Country on Tuesday, but his Soudal Quick-Step squad has confirmed that he will not start stage 3.

Landa was a faller with 10km of stage 2 remaining, and Soudal Quick-Step CEO Jurgen Foré said afterwards that the crash had been caused by a close pass from the race doctor’s car.

After the stage, the commissaires ruled that the driver of the medical car, Santiago Blanco, would be removed from the race, fined 500 CHF and handed a yellow card for breach of vehicle movement regulations.

“We do everything for safety, and then something like this happens,” Foré told Het Nieuwsblad. “As a team, you are left with nothing, yet you take the consequences.”

Landa was part of a group chasing the day’s winner Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) when he crashed heavily on the descent from San Miguel de Aralar. The Basque later remounted and completed the stage, coming in more than 13 minutes down on Seixas. 

“Following an incident on Tuesday’s stage 2 of Itzulia Basque Country, Mikel Landa was taken to the hospital for medical examination,” read a statement from Soudal Quick-Step on Wednesday morning.

“Thankfully, the results did not show any breakages or long-term damage, and Mikel was able to have a peaceful night’s rest. However, it has been decided that is best that he withdraws from the race in order to allow his body to recover fully.”

Landa was lining out in his second race of the season after placing 15th overall at the Volta a Catalunya last month. The next race on his schedule is the Giro d’Italia, where he suffered a race-ending crash on the opening day in Albania a year ago.