Remco Evenepoel crashes on descent at Vuelta a España
It appeared the Vuelta race leader was not seriously injured and he chased back to the main GC group.
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ESTEPONA, Spain (VN) — Remco Evenepoel crashed Thursday on a descent on a sweeping right-hander late in the 12th stage at the Vuelta a España.
The race leader appeared to lose control of his front tire on a dusty, oil-slicked surface on an otherwise wide road as the main GC bunch rode at a relatively controlled pace at 10 minutes behind a big breakaway.
Evenepoel slammed hard onto his right side, and there were light cuts and scrapes to his jersey. Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider Ilan Van Wilder also crashed.
…and the red jersey is down! ⚠️
Remco Evenepoel will be hoping this doesn’t affect his race as he gets back up after a frustrating crash 💥#LaVuelta22 | @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/GyagnGucFr
— Eurosport (@eurosport) September 1, 2022
The incident happened as the main GC bunch descended off an unclassified climb near Ojén, and Evenepoel was riding near the nose of the peloton.
A big breakaway group of 32 riders was clear up the road to dispute for the stage victory, so the pace was not very high when Evenepoel crashed.
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Evenepoel swapped bikes and was able to chase back on to regain contact with the main GC bunch with about one hour still to go to the base of the final climb up the Cat. 1 summit at Peñas Blancas.
It appeared Evenepoel was not seriously injured.
The incident comes a day after Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl lost Julian Alaphilippe to a crash and injury Wednesday.