Organizers of the Tour de Bretagne called off the racing on Sunday's stage 6 after a massive crash on Sunday.
The peloton was on a stretch of mud-covered road in the UCI 2.2-rated stage race in northwestern France when a rider near the front of the pack went down, leading to a massive pileup. The crash saw dozens of riders hit the deck.
Organisers initially neutralised the race and then decided to maintain the neutralised state of affairs through the finish in Plancoët.
Social media video taken at the race shows the peloton racing along at high speed downhill before several riders slid out on the mud, leaving dozens more with nowhere to go.
Riders who were able to continue went on to complete a procession lap of the closing circuit. Some weren't so lucky, though, including Jasper Dejaegher of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty U23 squad Circus-ReUz-Technord, who suffered a fractured wrist in the pileup.
In total, four riders were taken to local hospitals, and with all the race ambulances in use, the stage couldn't continue.
With that, the Tour de Bretagne GC remains unchanged after stage 6, with Simon Pellaud (Tudor Pro Cycling) sitting atop the leaderboard. Racing at the Tour de Bretagne will resume on Monday for the seventh and final stage from Piré-Chancé to Châteaugiron.
DirectVelo spoke to race director Christophe Fossani after the incident, with the Frenchman calling it "a case of bad luck".
"No, I don't regret it. It was a nice little road. I only regret that there were 10 metres of mud. Ten metres! It was a nice, dry little road," he said.
"I reported the danger on Radio Tour. The police had signalled the danger and put up a yellow flag to warn everyone. Everything was reported. But without radios, it's more difficult. This is a case of bad luck. Unfortunately, it was one of the first riders in the peloton who fell. If it had been one of the last riders in the peloton, the story would have been different.
"I got in touch with the prefecture quickly, yes. They told me that we made a very good decision. It's a decision that you don't take on the spur of the moment. You sit down, think about it, discuss it with the main players in the race and agree on a plan.
"Of course, I am disappointed for everyone, for the spectators, for the city. But it is still heart-warming to see the riders applauded as they cross the line. It will remain one of the facts of the Tour de Bretagne.
"It's a fact of racing, we could do without it, that's for sure, but it happens in the biggest races in the world… There were choices to be made, it was necessary... But yes, of course, when you see how many people were there today, it's a shame. It was the queen stage of the Tour de Bretagne, but that's how it is."
