French stage race Etoile de Bessèges was halted for a period on stage 2 today after a major pile-up on a narrow bridge involving between 20 and 30 riders. One of the riders - Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) - was left hanging off the side of the bridge, though thankfully he did not fall from it.
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As the bridge was so narrow, the route was blocked due to the crash with a large number of riders requiring varying degrees of medical treatment. Because the ambulances and medics were called away to treat those riders, the race could not continue as no ambulances became available to follow.
The crash occurred after the riders had tackled a climb and descent, with the field having broken into several groups. The stage, some 169km from Bagard to Aubais, was restarted after a time but only in a neutralised manner because no following medical support was available for the final 22km.
More to come.
