With the important hill zone approaching, the crashes suddenly piled up on Sunday afternoon in the Tour of Flanders won by Mathieu van der Poel. Just after the Oude Kwaremont there was a heavy fall at the tail of the peloton, where a young woman collided with one or more riders. The woman was seriously injured, but her injuries are not life-threatening. It was not the only incident between spectators and riders.
Just before the first passage on the Oude Kwaremont, Matej Mohoric suffered the first crash of the day. The Slovenian ended up in the ditch without too many injuries.
But ten minutes later, just after Kwaremont, there was a much heavier crash at the tail of the peloton. The worst victim was a spectator on the side of the road. A young woman had a serious collision with one or more riders and required medical attention. She is seriously injured, but not in danger of life.
A little later there was another incident with a spectator. Cees Bol hooked a bystander, fell and took Brent Van Moer, Stefan Küng and Alessandro Covi with him in his crash. That last grip on the elbow: a broken collarbone?
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Brother of woman who was hit responds
There were again many spectators along the route – estimated at around 1 million. This sometimes led to dangerous scenes when everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of the oncoming riders. Earlier there were calls not to stand on the road.
The brother of the woman who had to go to hospital after the collision responded via Facebook. “This could have been a lot worse.” He indicated that his sister is not to blame. ‘We have been racing with the whole family for YEARS, we have ridden in the peloton or come into contact with it every day for our work. Anke – together with mom – stood neatly next to the road, on the side verge. The police are currently investigating and several witnesses – including the paramedics behind the peloton – have clearly stated that the fall was not caused by her, but by another spectator who was standing on the road, which caused riders to swerve and hit Anke. .’
He continued: ‘How all these people dare to pass judgment in the comments, without having seen anything and even respond by saying ‘no pity’, it makes me sick (sorry for the word).’
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Organization wants to punish beer throwers and spitters
There were even more painful images during the Tour of Flanders. During the last climb of the Oude Kwaremont and also in the last straight line to the finish, Mathieu van der Poel received beer spit at his head from some fans, as well as a lot of boos. The organization would like to see the guilty punished.
“There were some downpours, yes,” Van der Poel responded coolly to Sporza afterwards. “I was actually so focused on my effort that it didn’t bother me much,” said Van der Poel, who in recent years has also regularly had to deal with Belgian fans in cyclo-cross who want to take him out of his concentration with cursing, spitting and throwing.
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Organizer Flanders Classics hopes for punishment. “If the beer throwers are identified, we will file civil proceedings,” says Tomas Van den Spiegel. “We also did that in the Omloop. Beer was thrown at Marianne Vos on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. The beer throwers there were identified and we filed civil proceedings there.”
Joost Duhamel, chief of the Flemish Ardennes police, is willing to cooperate. “We have not determined this ourselves, but it can be seen on images of the match. Based on this, an official report is drawn up and the suspects can be identified.”
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Tags: Spectator injured collision riders Flanders organization punish beer throwers Cycling
