Wallonie-Bruxelles rider clips barrier feet, crashes across the finish line
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The tour leader Justin Jules (Velo Club-La Pomme Marseille) was an up-and-coming tennis player back in France before he took up cycling four years ago.(Image credit: Shane Goss/licoricegallery.com)
Christophe Laporte looks back to see Jules on the floor(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Justin Jules crashes at the line(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Justin Jules (Wallonie-Bruxelles) on the ground(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Justin Jules on the podium after winning Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Pays de la Loire(Image credit: Jean-François Quénet)
Scott Thwaites, Kris Boeckmans and Justin Jules on the podium.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The Frenchman was lining up for a run up along the barriers to try and get past race leader Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) when he clipped the extended feet of the barriers and crashed heavily head-first into the corner of the next barrier across the finish line.
His team confirmed on Twitter that he was conscious after the fall and was taken to the hospital for examinations. The team later announced that Jules had no fractures, but needed stitches to close wounds on his face.
Extended barrier feet have sparked numerous crashes in pro cycling, and it has been five years since Zdenek Stybar appealed to the UCI to ban this style of fencing after he suffered serious facial injuries in a similar crash at the Eneco Tour in 2014.
The same style of barrier was blamed for a mass crash in the opening stage of the 2016 Tour de France that took out Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), and again in a crash from Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) on the Kwaremont in the 2017 Tour of Flanders.
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