A motorbike caused a crash at the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, bringing multiple riders to the ground in the early phases of stage 4.
The vehicle belonged to the race convoy and was moving up alongside a tightly-packed peloton when it suddenly clipped a piece of roadside furniture and came down.
A few riders were following the motorbike, which fell into the bunch and brought several riders down while forcing numerous others to stop.
The incident clipped around 30 riders off the back of the bunch, although there were still 160km remaining and none had any trouble getting back in.
Roger Kluge (Lotto Soudal) appeared to collide directly with the motorbike, having been riding behind it. Video replays show the German rider being jolted violently to the ground, and then remaining there as other riders picked up their bikes.
The German was sitting upright and appeared to have avoided serious injury, remounting and carrying on in the race. Many riders went through unscathed while some, including two from Bardiani-CSF, required mechanical assistance to fox broken bikes.
The crash was the second in quick succession as the Giro headed towards its first summit finish on Mount Etna. Simon Yates, second overall after winning the stage 2 time trial, was caught up and later went to visit the race doctor’s car.
Miguel Ángel López also abandoned the race shortly after the crash, but it appears he was not involved, but instead was suffering from a persistent hip injury.
The clip below shows how the motorbike incident unfolded.
It’s been a nervous start to the day at the #Giro, with a motorbike involved in an early crash at the rear of the peloton.#giroditalia pic.twitter.com/RdcFkDmWYTMay 10, 2022
