A chaotic day for Soudal-QuickStep at the Critérium du Dauphiné saw Remco Evenepoel crash in the final kilometre, and one of his likely domestiques for the Tour de France fracture his collarbone in an earlier spill.
The race leader went down after a tricky U-turn led into the final sprint with 700 metres to go, but Evenepoel was uninjured and smiling on the podium post-race, with the 5-kilometre rule applied on stage 5 meaning he lost no time for the crash.
Evenepoel rolled to the finish in Mâcon after teammates helped him to his feet, and what just looked like abrasions to his jersey and small cuts to his hand. Speaking post-race, he confirmed it was just a minor incident.
"I actually don't know [what happened], maybe I just started to pedal too early, or I slipped my hand off the handlebar, because I had quite sweaty hands at the finish in the humidity, maybe I just slipped away with accelerating in the corner," said Evenepoel as reported by CyclingProNet at the finish, unsure exactly what caused him to go down.
"I really don't know, but in the end, nothing huge, so just happy that the injuries are not bad. It looks worse because they put some stuff on it, so it's now leaking out, but I think it's nothing, actually, just some skin off.
"I think this one will not affect at all, nothing bad, not in bad places as well, really small injuries, nothing bad, so I think it was an unlucky moment."
A tough opening half of the stage saw Soudal-QuickStep's Louis Vervaeke crash heavily at an innocuous moment, shown in fan videos, with communication from the team confirming that the 31-year-old, who was likely to accompany Evenepoel at the Tour, had broken his collarbone.
The bad news of Vervaeke's injury compounds the damage to Evenepoel's Tour support squad already dealt by Mikel Landa crashing out of the Giro d'Italia and fracturing his back in May.
"Following his crash on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Louis Vervaeke was taken to hospital, where examinations revealed a fracture of his left clavicle," said the team, with the Tour not ruled out, but likely impossible for Vervaeke now.
"Louis will be transferred to Belgium tomorrow, where he will undergo further assessment at the hospital in Herentals, and a recovery plan will be put in place."
Without Vervaeke, Evenepoel will immediately be one rider down for the first summit finish of the Dauphiné on stage 6, with a difficult day to Combloux serving as the first GC test in the mountains of the 2025 race.
It will prove vital for deciding the overall race, but also pits Evenepoel against fellow favourites Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) for the first time since last year's Tour de France.
"I think it will definitely be a first test, probably there will already be a big fight for the breakaway, and then it will be a nice all-out summit finish," added Evenepoel.
"Nothing comparable with Saturday, of course, but every summit finish is important, as are all of the next three days. Already tomorrow is going to be an important one to see who is in really good shape, and who is a bit less, and for GC it's going to be big already."
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