A Motorbike Crashed Into a Group of Spectators and Sent 4 to the Hospital
Another week, another bike race, another incident involving a moto. Only this time, it wasn’t the riders involved.
During stage 5 of the Tour de Pologne, a seven-stage race across Poland, a television moto crashed into a group of spectators on the roadside, sending two adults and two children to a local hospital.
The moto, which was trying to get ahead of the lead group, deviated from its path along a turn due to its wheel slipping. The driver lost control of the bike, colliding with a road sign and subsequently crashing into the fans.
According to the official statement tweeted by the Tour de Pologne’s organizers, “none of them suffered significant injuries.” The statement added that three of the four victims had already left the hospital by the time organizers posted about it.
The crash happened late in the day, as the peloton made their third and final lap around a seven-kilometer circuit in the southern city of Bielsko-Biala.
Though the crash didn’t affect the riders at all, some, including race leader Matej Mohorič of team Bahrain Victorious, signaled to race organizers that they wanted to stop the race, which was neutralized following the crash.
“What happened with the motorbike shook us all. We wanted to stop the race,” Mohorič said after the race. “My heart sank and I wasn’t thinking about the sprint all.”
“I was super-switched on and motivated before but then I didn’t really want to race, and the other guys also not, so we wanted to almost like stop the race,” Mohorič, who finished the stage in second place behind EF Education-EasyPost’s Marijn van den Berg, added. “But some teams pushed on in the last climb, and then I needed to go because I need to also fight for the race, because of my team. But I was not really switched on, I didn’t think about the sprint, I couldn’t get my mind off what I saw. I hope everyone is all right.”
This is hardly the first black eye the Tour de Pologne has suffered over its last few iterations.
Just a few days ago, a video of a three-car pileup of support vehicles circulated online. Luckily, the cars were behind the hard-charging peloton.
In 2019, 22-year-old Lotto-Soudal racer Bjorg Lambrecht was killed after a crash on the race’s opening stage.
The following year, Fabio Jakobsen was nearly killed in a downhill sprint crash caused by a dangerous move by Dylan Groenewegen. Jakobsen, who suffered a fractured skull, a broken nose, facial lacerations, and the loss of several teeth, was put into a medically induced coma for two days following the crash.
For his part in the wreck, Groenewegen was banned from racing for nine months.
You Might Also Like
