The peloton was descending at full speed towards Saint-Priest, when suddenly, a slip turned everything upside down. On the 5th stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné this Thursday, a collective fall of rare magnitude disrupted the end of the race, finally neutralized and finished in step by the riders who still could. The images of the runners scattered on the road and the warning from Romain Combaud (dsm-firmenich) delivered to our antenna – “There are sprinters who have fallen on their heads…” – did not bode well.
Martin explains the massive fall: “Everyone wanted to be at the front”
More than 50 riders on the ground, Visma injured
As a philosophy enthusiast, Guillaume Martin tried to put forward reasons for the accident once the stage was over. “The human spirit being what it is, instead of collectively saying that we were all going to be a little careful, we all wanted to get in front to avoid a fall. And this is what caused the fall.” The Cofidis runner, who did well by his own admission, was already managing to joke about his long slide. “I honestly think I slipped 100 meters… And I couldn’t see myself decelerating. The only thing that stopped me was another runner I hit.“
This terrible mess caused a lot of damage to several teams, starting with Visma – Lease A Bike. Dylan Van Baarle and Steven Kruijswijk quickly threw in the towel, and they might not get back in the saddle anytime soon. “Steven and Dylan might not be at the Tour as they were being prepared for this goal“, regretted Grischa Niermann, one of the team’s bosses at the finish. Rémy Rochas also abandoned at Groupama-FDJ, while his companions who fell (Valentin Madouas, Clément Russo, Quentin Pacher) will be well at the start Friday morning for the 6th stage According to Thierry Gouvenou, around fifty riders were involved in the accident. The medical bulletin has been gradually expanding over the past few hours.
Evenepoel: “I took a hit on the hip, the knee, the shoulder…”
Evenepoel gets away with it, Roglic should be able to continue
At the top of the general classification, however, the situation does not seem to have been reshuffled too much. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) rubbed shoulders with the bitumen and admitted to having injured himself in several places, but the Belgian was sure to continue the adventure as soon as Saint-Priest joined. “I came out with minor injuries. (…) I saw other guys who were more injured than me, my thoughts are with them.”
The alarm signal was more intense red for Primoz Roglic (Bora-Hansgrohe), in bad shape when leaving and a little worried about his left shoulder at the finish. “Not the best thing, I had surgery on this shoulder a few years ago. I’ll have to take some tests to be sure.delayed the Slovenian. But for the rest, I’m doing a lot better than a lot of guys.” His team then explained in the evening that it had not detected any fracture in one of its riders. The duel between the two favorites should therefore take place during the long-awaited weekend in the mountains, which will decide the winner of this Critérium du Dauphiné 2024. Enough to make Remco Evenepoel laugh: “The hard weekend is about to begin. It will be even a little harder after this fall.”
Roglic: “I fell on my shoulder, it’s shocking…”
