The riders raced hard from the start into Gorey today but were stopped in their tracks by a suspected fatal accident near the finish. Above is the scene where the field was halted and waited for news of developments before the stage was abandoned.
A road traffic accident in Gorey Town, Co Wexford, has halted the opening stage of the Gorey Three Day today, Saturday.
The riders had completed around 21km of a 24km finishing loop having reached the Wexford town, and with only around 3km remaining to the finish a road traffic accident was discovered on the race route and led to the race being stopped.
Exact details of the crash were unclear at the time of writing. However, stickybottle understands it was unrelated to the race and effectively occurred on the race route ahead of the riders on the Carnew Rd (R725) at Carrigbeg.
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A number of sources on the race said their understanding was that a Garda on a motorbike working on the Gorey Three Day came across the crash in Gorey on the race route as he was ahead of the race. The same sources said the crash appears to have involved a fatality.
Because of the seriousness of the incident and the fact the road was blocked, the race was halted with 3km remaining.
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The riders did not sprint for any hastily arranged new finish line, as is sometimes the case when race routes are forced to be shortened or otherwise altered at short notice.
Instead, the field was simply stopped on the road by the race officials.
A breakaway of some 11 riders was clear at the time and had a gap of just under one minute on the main peloton.
At the time of the writing the race officials and commissaires were meeting to decide what result, if any, will be applied to the general classification though it appears almost certain there will be no stage result.
“There is talk that maybe the 11 riders would be given a time 54 seconds up and that everyone else in the race would be given the same time at that margin,” said one official.
Stickybottle would like to stress that the exact circumstances of the crash were not clear at the time of writing and that the information presented here is provisional. Reports from the scene that the crash involved a fatality were unconfirmed by the Garda at the time of writing.
We will bring you a clearer picture as soon as we can.
