Over 40 riders on the sidelines after spate of early-season crashes – Pro cycling injury list 2026

WILLUNGA, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 24: (L-R) Antoine L'Hote of France and Decathlon CMA CGM Team and Vegard Stake Laengen of Norway and UAE Team Emirates crash during the 26th Santos Tour Down Under 2026, Stage 4 a 130.8km stage from Brighton to Willunga / #UCIWT / on January 24, 2026 in Willunga, Australia. (Photo by Con Chronis/Getty Images)
Big crashes have hit the opening races of the season (Image credit: Con Chronis/Getty Images)

Professional cycling is a brutal sport which can rule out anyone, from the world's best rider to a Continental-level domestique, for months in just a split second.

Crashes are part and parcel of racing and training, which means that every team in the peloton has a list of injured riders to look after at some point during the season. 2026 is no different, with plenty of riders suffering various fractures and injuries in the month and a half since top-level racing began in Australia.

"It’s just so dangerous now, and it’s getting worse and worse, with the speed of the racing and the aggressive way they’re racing," Sean Kelly wrote in his most recent Cyclingnews column. "Everybody seems to be fighting for every centimetre of road, and nobody is backing off at all. So you get all these crashes and all these broken bones. The issue has to be looked at immediately."

Injuries in the men's peloton

Injuries per team in the men's peloton.

Bahrain Victorious

  • Vlad Van Mechelen – Fractured collarbone, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Feb 28)

Cofidis

  • Oliver Knight – Fractured hand, training (Feb 10)
  • Damien Touzé – Ruptured spleen, abdominal trauma, fractured femur, Tour of Oman (Feb 10)
  • Sergio Samitier – Fractured radius, scaphoid, Tour of Oman (Feb 9)

Decathlon-CMA CGM

EF Education-EasyPost

Euskaltel-Euskadi

  • Txomin Juaristi – Fractured collarbone, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (Feb 4)

Flanders-Baloise

  • Henri Vandenabeele – Fractured collarbone, Vuelta a Analucía (Feb 18)

Groupama FDJ-United

  • Josh Kench – Fractured ribs, Tour of Oman (Feb 8)
  • Oliver Le Gac – Fractured femur, training (Jan 2)

Ineos Grenadiers

  • Ben Swift – Fractured pelvis, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Feb 28)
  • Tobias Foss – Fractured shoulder blade, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (Feb 4)

Lidl-Trek

Lotto-Intermarché

  • Taco van der Hoorn – Knee surgery (Feb 13)
  • Lionel Taminiaux – Fractured collarbone, Cadel Great Ocean Road Race (Feb 1)
  • Lars Craps – Knee surgery (Jan 31)

Movistar

NSN

  • Jake Stewart – Fractured collarbone, Tour Down Under (Jan 24)
  • Stevie Williams – Quadriceps tendinopathy (Jun 17, 2025)

Picnic-PostNL

  • Warren Barguil – Fractured pelvis, ribs, collarbone, Tour des Alpes-Maritimes (Feb 22)
  • Gijs Leemreize – Fractured collarbone, training (Feb 14)
  • Nils Eekhoff – Iliac artery surgery (Jan 8)

Pinarello-Q36.5

  • Chris Harper – Fractured collarbone, UAE Tour (Feb 22)

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

TotalEnergies

  • Lorrenzo Manzin – Concussion, Classic Var (Feb 21)

Tudor

  • Stefan Küng – Fractured femur, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Feb 28)
  • Marius Mayrhofer – Fractured collarbone, ribs, shoulder blade, Tour Down Under (Jan 21)

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

  • Tim Wellens – Fractured collarbone, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (Mar 1)
  • Mikkel Bjerg – Fractured shoulder, hand, Tour Down Under (Jan 26)
  • Jhonatan Narváez – Fractured vertebrae, Tour Down Under (Jan 24)
  • Vegard Stake Laengen – Rib injury, Tour Down Under (Jan 24)

Unibet Rose Rockets

  • Rory Townsend – Fractured tibia, Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (Mar 1)

Visma-Lease a Bike

  • Niklas Behrens – Fractured collarbone, training (Feb 23)
  • Bart Lemmen – Fractured wrist, Tour of Oman (Feb 10)

No team

  • Chris Froome – Pericardial rupture, fractured ribs, collapsed long, vertebrae fracture, training crash (Aug 27, 2025)

Injuries in the women's peloton

Injuries per team in the women's peloton.

FDJ United-Suez

  • Marie Le Net – Lumbar hernia, Feb 25

Liv-AlUla-Jayco

  • Silke Smulders – Fractured vertebrae, Setmana Valenciana (Feb 13)

Movistar

Ma Petite Entreprise

  • Léa Stern – Fractured collarbone, training (Feb 4)

VolkerWessels

  • Quinty Schoens – Fractured collarbone, shoulder, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Feb 28)
TOPICS
Dani Ostanek
Senior News Writer

Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.

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