An early mass crash on stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps led to the race being briefly neutralised and forced several riders to abandon due to injury.
Well ahead of the live TV broadcast of the key climbing day from Laces to Arco, the race organisers' social media announced that after just 2km of racing, "A big fall in the peloton led to the momentary stop of the race," in their live updates, with no clear cause.
It's understood to have involved upwards of 30 riders, with pictures from the race showing a chaotic scene of riders and bikes on the floor, several ambulances and medical staff on hand to help, and many riders in visible pain.
Joining the Italian in withdrawing were Damien Howson (Pinarello Q36.5), Daniel Federspiel (Austria), Lorenzo Nespoli (MBH Bank), Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco Alula), Manabu Ishibashi (Team UKYO), and Ulrik Tvedt (Picnic-PostNL).
Based on the Tour of the Alps live updates, racing was stopped for around 20 minutes before the peloton got going again. At the time of writing, the race is now onto the long first climb of the day, the Hofmahdjoch/Passo Castrin (22.4 km at 5.7%).
While he has lost a key teammate in Finn, who was pictured clutching his hand after crashing, Giulio Pellizzari remains in the overall lead of the race after two stages. Ineos Grenadiers' Thymen Arensman sits in second, six seconds back on the Italian.
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Max Bock among the riders on the floor after the crash (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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