Taylor Phinney crashes out of Eneco Tour
The BMC rider leaves the race after a second crash
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Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) crashed out of the Eneco Tour on Saturday.
His team reported that Phinney hit the deck with about 60km to go in stage 6, a 150km leg from Riemst to Aywaille via La Redoute. The crash took down several teammates — among them world champion Philippe Gilbert, who suffered a deep cut to his left knee — and at least a dozen riders all told.
The spill was Phinney’s second of the race, following a crash on Wednesday’s stage 3. He had been sitting fourth overall after five stages, eight seconds behind race leader Lars Boom (Belkin).
“The team was all lined up on the right, trying to move up and the crash happened in front of all of us,” Phinney said via team press release. “It started with Alessandro Petacchi and Gabriel Rasch and sort of dominoed out into the middle of the road.”
Phinney said he landed hard on his left knee, but tried to continue.
“But I couldn’t bend my leg,” he said. “It was too painful.”
Gilbert was able to finish the stage, but will not start Sunday’s seventh stage, said team doctor Giovanni Ruffini.
“Like Taylor, there was no problem with Philippe’s tendons or muscle, but he needed some stitches,” Ruffini said. “He will have to stay quiet for four days.”
David Lopez Garcia (Sky) won the stage ahead of Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Maciej Paterski (Cannondale). Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano) took the overall lead by eight seconds over Stybar and 23 over Andriy Grivko (Astana).