Cofidis' Nicolas Debeaumarché suffers spine fractures after terrifying Tour de Pologne crash

The Tour de Pologne is unfortunately known for bad crashes over the past few years and one in particular put a lot of tension in the peloton on stage 3. Cofidis' Nicolas Debeaumarché crashed whilst riding in the breakaway of the day, seemingly against a road culvert, and has been taken to the hospital with spine fractures as a result.

Cofidis provided an update in the hours following the crash: "Victim of a fall at the Tour of Poland, he was taken to hospital. He suffers from vertebral fractures and was hospitalized. Additional examinations, conducted jointly with the Cofidis medical staff, will take place again tomorrow. We wish Nicolas the best very quickly".

The hard crash took place in a moment of the race where the pace was fast but nothing indicated that a major set of crashes were to happen. He and Quick-Step rider Pepijn Reinderink both crashed from the group that led the race. Notably, the Cofidis rider was laying in the ditch badly injured whilst his bike was on a dirt road outside of the race course. Race radio did not spot the French rider and only alerted to Reinderink's crash. Calls for help for the Cofidis rider led to a very stressful situation, which has since calmed down with the update.

In a series of tweets, prominent pundit Benji Naesen shared messages that he received from riders in the Polish race, who tell that after the breakaway, the peloton also saw riders go down in the very same spot as the lack of radios meant most did not know of the danger: "There was a crash in the breakaway, and the information didn't circulate in the peloton fast enough so there was a crash in the peloton, in the same corner. This was avoidable." The UCI is implementing a trial in this race where only two riders in each team can carry race radio.