“A fall downhill usually has serious consequences” - Jens Voigt on the horrific crash on stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country

A terrible crash on the descent of the Olaeta climb on stage 4 of Itzulia Basque Country saw the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič abandon the race, with both the Dane and the Belgian suffering serious injuries that could jeopardise their Tour de France preparation.

A rider who had his fair share of crashes over his 18-year career, including a horrific crash on the descent of the Col du Petit Saint Bernard on stage 16 of the 2009 Tour de France, was Jens Voigt.

Speaking in an interview with Eurosport, the former German rider said “it made me think of Richie Porte’s violent fall at the Tour de France 2017. How Vingegaard was carried away was dramatic. A fall downhill usually has serious consequences. That’s why it quickly became apparent that it was bad. I’m also anxiously waiting for news and updates on the health of the riders”.

On what caused the crash, Voigt went on to say “at first it was incomprehensible to me that such a fall could happen there. Wonderful sunshine, the road was dry and relatively wide, not a hairpin bend, but a normal bend in the road. That's why I was surprised. There must have been a lot of unfortunate things going on there. One slips, another crashes, the others panic and brake too hard. Mikel Bizkarra said that tree roots may be pushing up the road surface”.

Many criticised the fact that there was nothing to break the fall of a rider in a dangerous corner, but Voigt feels that these criticisms are not valid, as he said that “nobody expected an accident to occur at this point. You could possibly have secured it with a bale of hay or something similar. But no, in this case I don’t blame the organiser. This couldn’t really have been avoided”.