Wout van Aert out of Tour de France following TT barrier crash
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is out of the Tour de France following a high-speed crash in which he caught a barrier near the end of stage 13’s individual time trial.
Van Aert was removed from the course in an ambulance with a deep gash in his right thigh.
Van Aert appeared to catch the inside barrier halfway through the corner, a detail that was confirmed to by a spectator who witnessed the crash. When CyclingTips visited the corner, shortly after van Aert was taken way in an ambulance, a small patch of blood was still visible on course and a larger one mixed with water on the sidewalk, where van Aert was treated.
The racing line took riders very close to the barriers, which use large U-shaped latches to connect each segment. In a tight corner, the barriers don’t line up end-to-end, but overlap slightly.
The racing line took riders very close to the inside barriers, which overlap instead of joining end-to-end. Photo: Iain Treloar / CyclingTips
Van Aert won the Tour’s 10th stage, into Albi, in a reduced bunch sprint ahead of Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), and was also part of the winning TTT squad in Brussels on stage two.
Prior to his crash on Friday, he had set the best time at the first time check by six seconds.
His Jumbo-Visma team Tweeted about van Aert’s injury but has not released further information.
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.@WoutvanAert unfortunately has to abandon the race after his crash. He is conscious and has a flesh wound at his right upper leg.— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) July 19, 2019
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