Riders and bikes fly everywhere even during what is a relatively low speed crash that spread into the crowd of spectators by the side of the road in north Co Dublin.
The video below captures a crash at Lusk, north Co Dublin, on Sunday’s stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia from Armagh to Dublin’s city centre.
The peloton enters the village at a roundabout and when coming off it they are divided down the middle by traffic islands in the centre of the road.
Most of the peloton splits to the right as the bunch becomes squeezed on the narrow carriageways both sides.
Kazakhstan rider Andrey Zeits from the Astana team locks with another rider and loses control, leading to the crash and pile-up.
The initial spill creates ripples that spread back through the field and results in another larger spill just yards back the road.
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Luckily none of the riders or spectators was injured. One young girl next to the cameraman suffered a scrape to her shin from one of the bikes.
Andrey Zeits explained after the race what had happened with the first collision you'll see below: "On a roundabout I locked wheels with the guy in front of me, and when he broke free I flew off into the road.
“My whole right side scraped on the asphalt and I knocked my head into a curb. My helmet saved me; without it my crash would have been a lot worse."
When you examine the video, you see that luckily his head had not hit the kerb. But it must have hit the road so hard that he thought he’d made contact with the kerb.
One interesting element of this clip is how calm all of the riders are. Most of us in the amateur bunches immediately panic and inject a stressful level of urgency to get back on the bike and back up to the bunch as quickly as possible.
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Because so few of the pros are riding for time overall or have a chance of winning a bunch sprint like that which unfolded in Dublin, getting back on or not is not treated as a matter of life and death the way many amateur riders tend to instinctively react to any mishap.
The pros also know they have a massive cavalcade of vehicles to use to get back on which aids them greatly in the pursuit after a crash or mechanical as long as the field is not going full gas.
Of course, if a big favourite crashes, they and their teams may not be so relaxed!
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