‘His bike has catapulted down the ravine’ - Lucas Hamilton avoids ‘awful’ outcome from crash at Itzulia Basque Country

Updated 08/04/2022 at 14:56 GMT

Australian Lucas Hamilton was involved in a crash into a road barrier during Stage 5 of the Itzulia Basque Country, avoiding a serious incident when his bike 'catapulted' down a ravine. Hamilton’s bike collided with the barrier, throwing the cyclist over the top - but he landed safely on the other side of it, with his team saying he is okay and back in the race.

‘That could have been awful’ - Hamilton goes over crash barrier and down a ravine

Lucas Hamilton avoided a tragic accident during Stage 5 at the Itzulia Basque Country, after colliding with a road barrier which threw his bike over the top into the top of a ravine.

The Australian misjudged a sweeping corner, hitting the barrier side on and flipping over the side of the road. But the impact meant his bike caught between his leg, flipping his equipment further down the gorge before landing on his backside.

Team BikeExchange-Jayco confirmed Hamilton is okay shortly after the incident, with the Australian rejoining the race - though he was out of the breakaway.

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“Thankfully he looks okay but his bike has catapulted down the ravine, blimey,” said Eurosport commentator Matt Stephens.

“Clearly he’s got one of those corners wrong. That could have been absolutely awful, but another stark illustration of the dangers of professional cycling sometimes."

“As much as we have some of the maps on the devices, it’s not rally driving, it’s not on a circuit,” said co-commentator and former cyclist Nicolas Roche.

“We don’t always know where we’re going and some corners are trickier than others and you could see it was quite a fast portion, all of them went a little bit wide. Really lucky. I think the way the bike wrapped itself around the barrier kind of saved his leg.”