Tour de France: Broken neck forces Daniel Oss to abandon race after colliding with fan on cobbles in Stage 5

ByMichael Hincks

Updated 07/07/2022 at 09:32 GMT

Footage captured Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) collide with a fan at high speed on the cobbles of Stage 5. The supporter appeared to lean forward to capture footage on their phone. Remarkably, Oss finished the stage but is now out of the Tour de France. Stream the Tour de France live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.

Daniel Oss (TotalEnergies) is out of the Tour de France after suffering a broken neck when colliding with a supporter Stage 5.

The Italian rider crashed at high speed when a fan appeared to be filming footage and leaned forwards to capture the race on the cobbles in Sector 3.

Remarkably, Oss was still able to finish the race, won by Australian veteran Simon Clarke.

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TotalEnergies, who also saw Peter Sagan and Anthony Turgis crash but finish in a chaotic race on Wednesday, confirmed Oss had been taken to hospital for further examinations.

Those tests revealed Oss has a “fracture of a cervical vertebra”, which is a bone in his neck.

TotalEnergies said the injury requires “immobilisation” for a few weeks, forcing Oss to abandon the Tour.

• ‘We've been robbed’ – Wiggins questions cobbles after Roglic disaster
• 'Most animated cobble stage in Tour history' - Wiggins on stage 5 'carnage'
• Clarke takes last-gasp Stage 5 win in chaotic day on the cobbles

“The whole team wishes you a good recovery Daniel,” TotalEnergies said on Twitter.

Wiggins questions the cobbles

Eurosport expert Sir Bradley Wiggins questioned the inclusion of a cobbled stage.

“So I was thinking today Matt, we have Paris-Roubaix and for obvious reasons people choose that. We have cobbled specialists for that,” Wiggins said after the stage on his Eurosport podcast, The Bradley Wiggins Show.

“You kind of have to think after the start we had and with the potential damage that could have been caused on the bridge, we had a rainy prologue, we’ve got our first summit finish on Friday in this race…

'Carnage!' Bradley Wiggins on Stage 5 of the Tour de France

“As much of a spectacle as the cobbled stages are to the viewers and to us we see the carnage it causes and we see the damage it does to people who prepare for this race all year long.

“And I ask the question: is it a necessity to have one stage like this in the first week with everything else that we have that is so specific and so much for a specialist that, I mean yes we could argue that Tadej [Pogacar] comes through it and the best all-around riders come through it but there is a lot of luck involved isn’t there?”

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Stream the Tour de France live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.

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