This large group of riders came down at very high speed after a touch of wheels. Many hit a large lamp post at the side of the road, with the racing stopped for a time as a result.
A bad crash on stage 3 of today’s Tour de France resulted in the very unusual development of the racing being stopped on the road and then neutralised for a period.
Several riders abandoned, and though yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) was one of the fallers and looked very dazed, he remounted and got back into the peloton.
However, when the riders set off again and were neutralised to the top of the next climb, the Côte de Bohissau; Cancellara soon lost contact once the racing proper started.
And he would lose yellow to Chris Froome (Team Sky) who was second on the stage to the top of the Mur de Huy, won by Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha.
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The pile-up was massive, with many riders really seriously injured. Let's hope a quick recovery is in store for all.
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Ireland’s Dan Martin was 4th; the Cannondale-Garmin man perhaps denying himself a real chance at victory by starting the final ramp too far back, although it was a savage run-in to the feared ascent.
The crash that caused the racing to be briefly stopped occurred 55km from the finish resulted from William Bonnet (FDJ) touching wheels with another rider.
He came down hard and the speed the field was travelling at at the time meant a huge group of riders were on the road cut to pieces with a second or two.
Some hit a large lamp post at the side of the road.
The decision was taken to stop the action because so many medics were needed to attend to the injured there was no medical cover for those who stayed upright.
Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and first to fall Bonnet were among those forced out.
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