Nacer Bouhanni and other riders collide with pedestrian on course at the Tour of Turkey

Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic) was one of several riders to crash as a result of a collision with a spectator who was walking in the road and not paying attention to the riders coming behind him at the 2022 Tour of Turkey.

A roadside spectator tried to pull the pedestrian who had his back turned to the peloton from the course before riders contacted him, however, neither fan was able to flee the course in time.

It is unclear why the pedestrian was walking well out into the road as the race bore down in the same direction.

The first pedestrian was hit by an Eolo-Kometa rider, while the second person, who had walked onto the course to try to pull the other fan out of the way, was also struck by cyclists, including Manuel Peñalver (Burgos-BH), and the French sprinter Bouhanni.

Bouhanni was transported to a hospital in Izmir, and his team later confirmed he had fractured his first cervical vertebrae. AFP reported that according to Arkéa-Samsic, “he will soon be repatriated to France.”

While “Nairoman” was able to remount his bike and continue racing — and made his way back to the main bunch — after the first fall, his second fall came just outside of the 3km to-go mark, and he ultimately lost 1:44, knocking him out of overall contention.

Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) won the bunch gallop to the line, ahead of Jasper Philippsen (Alpecin-Fenix) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), through some challenging winds at the conclusion of the stage.

Bouhanni finished in 17th place on stage 1.

VeloNews will continue to update the information about Bouhanni as Arkéa-Samsic makes it available.