Damien Shaw was a casualty of the crash that forced the third stage of the Fleche de Sud in Luxembourg to be cancelled. The Irish national road race champion suffered cuts and swelling but nothing that will keep him out of immediate action.
By Brian Canty
The Irish riders involved in yesterday’s horrific crash that saw the third stage of the Fleche de Sud abandoned have spoken about the carnage that unfolded.
National road race champion Damien Shaw was sent hurtling into the melee when he was swiped from behind by a rival rider which resulted in him sustaining a nasty injury to his right hand.
The Mullingar man required medical attention afterwards and was unable to start today’s fourth stage.
“The crash happened ahead of me and some lad cleaned the bike under me and sent me flying into it,” said Shaw.
Advertisement
“It was pretty nasty; the fact the stage was cancelled says it all really.”
The peloton was descending a steep section of road less than 10 kilometres in when riders at the front went down in slippery conditions.
“We were travelling really fast and a wall on the right did the damage.
Related News
“There was lots of confusion about who was involved or what was going on but I abandoned in the end.”
Fellow Irishman Connor McConvey was also present at the time but wasn’t immediately aware of what had happened.
“I didn’t even know there was a crash until they stopped the race, I was following the moves at the front.
"But when I heard what had happened the organisers were obviously right to do what they did.”
McConvey was 48th on today’s penultimate stage, crossing the line in a large group over 10 minutes down on stage winner Sergio Sousa of Team Vorarlberg.
Only 99 riders finished the stage today with over 20 not starting and a similar number not finishing.
McConvey is 50th overall (at 10:45) with just tomorrow’s fifth and final leg to complete.
The 136-kilometre has four categorised climbs and with just 30 seconds separating the top three on GC it should make for a nail-biting finish.
Aaron Gate is best of the Irish-registered team in 28th, some 3:17 back on race leader Sousa.
Topics
