Will Barta managed to snap his bike in half on a tricky corner during a wet descent on stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia on Tuesday.
The Movistar rider appeared to collide with a wall on the descent from the Passo delle Radici, in the same crash as Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), with 81km to go of the day.
Barta seemed to be free of serious injury, but his Canyon Aeroad CFR came off worse, with the front fork snapped clean off the frame, with the bike only held together by the internal cables.
Broken bikes are usually quickly hidden from sight in order to please sponsors, but a race photographer grabbed the above shot of the apart Canyon on the roadside.
In footage shared by Eurosport, Barta can be seen stood at the side of the road, presumably after sliding out and his bike at least colliding with a wall on the corner. Vine remains on the ground, picking himself up, presumably after sliding out himself. A spectator then drags the Canyon off the road in the video. Movistar then came to Barta's rescue.
Jay Vine e Will Barta cadono in curva e la bici è distrutta 😶…come documentato dal video - che continua a registrare - dello spettatore 📹😁#EurosportCICLISMO | #GirodItalia | #Giro pic.twitter.com/qIJlaMwqU1May 16, 2023
Both Vine and Barta remounted to race the remaining kilometres of a stage which was dominated by wet weather.
Another Movistar rider to crash was Fernando Gaviria, about 10km after his teammate, as the peloton contended with tough conditions throughout the 196km from Scandiano to Viareggio.
Three riders were forced to pull out of the Giro during stage 10: Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Martijn Tusveld (DSM) and Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), reducing the field to 150 riders.
Other crashes on Tuesday on wet roads included Warren Barguil and Michel Ries (both Arkéa-Samsic), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Trek-Segafredo) and Lukas Pöstleberger (Jayco AlUla).
In the aftermath of the latter's crash, a member of staff attempting to help Pöstleberger out of the road collided with Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), bringing him down to, much to the Italian's displeasure.
All of these riders were able to remount their bikes, although the extent of injuries in the peloton is not clear.
It is not the first time that crashes have dominated the action in inclement weather in this Giro. On stage five, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) were all involved in incidents, with the latter hitting the deck twice.
