Tour of Flanders crash: 'Awful' - Most of peloton wiped out in horror moment after Filip Maciejuk hits puddle
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Updated 02/04/2023 at 12:53 GMT
Filip Maciejuk misjudged an off-road manoeuvre and it had devastating consequences at the Tour of Flanders. The Bahrain Victorious rider ran out of tarmac on his escape route, hit a puddle and veered across the front of the peloton – wiping out scores of riders. The Pole was duly disqualified from the race after the incident, which caught out Julian Alaphilippe amongst others.
'Awful' - Most of peloton wiped out in horror crash at Tour of Flanders
The majority of the peloton was wiped out in a horror crash at the Tour of Flanders after a rider hit a puddle and veered into his rivals.
Polish rider Filip Maciejuk (Bahrain Victorious) was attempting to move up in the pack with 140km remaining by taking an off-road route but ran out of room, hitting a sodden grassy bank and careering into the bunch.
A concertina effect was sparked in the peloton, causing dozens of riders to hit the deck and sparking a shocking tangle of limbs and carbon fibre.
Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) were among the big names caught up in the carnage, while Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) was forced to abandon through injury.
“That is bad. That is awful. It’s not what you need,” said Adam Blythe on Eurosport commentary.
“You can see the Bahrain rider moving up, realising he was running out of space, went into basically a swamp, back onto the road… bang. That shouldn’t have happened.”
Alaphilippe was seen wincing as he shook his wrist following the crash, which also caught up Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) and Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies).
The crash was a big blow for Wellens’ team-mate Tadej Pogacar, who was left without a key lieutenant in his bid to unseat the fancied Van Aert and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin–Deceuninck).
Maciejuk was disqualified for causing the crash.
He tweeted later: "I’m really sorry for my mistake and causing the crash today. I hope all those involved are in good health and safe. This should not happen and was a big error in my judgement.
"I had no intention of causing this. All I can do now is apologise for my mistake and learn from this in the future. Sorry again to the peloton, my team-mates and the fans."
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