Race favourite Remco Evenepoel suffered a bizarre crash moments after securing victory in the third stage of the Vuelta a Espana.
Belgian Evenepoel, who is bidding for a second consecutive general classification win at the Spanish grand tour, sprinted away from a group of favourites to take the stage win in an early show of strength.
But having carried significant speed through the finishing area, the Soudal-QuickStep rider careered into a throng of people, colliding with a woman and hitting the deck.
Evenepoel was left with a significant amount of blood on his face after the incident after falling heavily.
The mishap spoiled what was an otherwise impressive day from the 23-year-old on the first summit finish of this year’s Vuelta.
Evenepoel took the race leader’s red jersey after acclerating away from a condensed group largely comprised of team leaders after a tough 158.5km route between Suria and Arinsal in Andorra.
Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard, who is attempting to do the Tour de France/Vuelta double, kicked to outsprint Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) for second place, with Vingegaard’s teammate Primoz Roglic also in the top five at the end of the first Pyrenean stage of the race.
A win for either Vingegaard or Roglic would make Jumbo-Visma the first team to complete a sweep of all three men’s grand tours in a single calendar year in the modern era.
The race continues with stage four tomorrow, with the riders starting in Andorra la Vella before ducking back into Spain on a hilly route to the port city of Tarragona.
The next significant test for the GC men is set to be on Wednesday’s Stage Six, with a tough final climb up to the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre.
