Chaos at Vuelta a Colombia as stage winner crashes into wife after finish line

VeloNews.com
·2 min read

This article originally appeared on Velo News

There were chaotic scenes at the Vuelta a Colombia as race leader Luis Carlos Chia (Supergiros-Alc.Manziales) crashed into his wife after winning stage 3 in Monteria.

Chia's wife had run out to congratulate him following the stage victory, but the 25-year-old was unable to stop -- due to the large amounts of water he'd had to ride through in the final kilometer -- and collided with her.

Fortunately, both Chia and his wife escaped with minor injuries after what looked to be a heavy impact.

"I don't really know what happened in this moment, I was beyond the finish line," Chia told Win Sports after the incident. "I tried to brake, but the bike didn't respond... Thank God she never lost consciousness, they are checking her, and more than anything, it was a scare."

The finale was already hugely challenging and dangerous with rain leaving large pools of standing water along the road causing several riders to crash. Large sprays of water were also kicked up into the riders' faces by the motorbikes ahead of the group.

Chia, who had won the opening stage and held a four-second lead in the overall classification, navigated the large puddles and launched his sprint from a long way back to overhaul an attacking rider in the final meters.

Footage from the race shows Chia celebrating before going out of sight of the finish line camera. The following image just seconds later shows Chia lying on his side in the road with his wife a couple of meters before him.

Another video shows the aftermath of the incident with both Chia and his wife sliding along the rain-soaked ground as a result of the impact, before cutting to footage of Chia walking to the podium with cuts to his right arm and leg.

Despite the chaos at the end of the stage, Chia extended his lead over Nelson Soto (Colombia Tierra de Atletas) to 10 seconds.

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