Strade Binache winner Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) have crashed in the finale of stage 4 at Tirreno Adriatico today.
The incident, with the two big names the only fallers, occurred near the front of the bunch as the pace was ramping up for the finish just inside the final 5km.
Pidcock drifted back in the group a little and when Van Aert moved to his right slightly, the two riders tangled and came down quite hard. Both appeared to land on their backsides and helped each other dust themselves down before shaking hands to signify there was no hard feelings over the incident.
They then remounted and began riding to the finish, assessing the damage to the rear of each other's shorts. Both will likely be left with some road rash, but beyond that there was no obvious sign of serious injuries and the British and Belgian riders finished the stage.
Advertisement
Related News
Up ahead, the question of stage victory into Tortoreto came down to an uphill sprint from a reduced peloton after 212km of racing. Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) won, looking very sharpe while Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) were 2nd and 3rd.
As race leader Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was one of the many riders dropped as the road kicked up just before the finish, he has lost the leader's jersey Lennard Kämna as the Bora-hansgrohe rider was 2nd overall starting this morning following his 2nd place, behind Ganna, in the opening TT on Monday.
Roglič, who took a 10-second stage win bonus today, is now up into 2nd place overall, just six seconds down on Kämna with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 3rd at eight seconds.
