No fractures for Mads Pedersen after brutal sprint crash at Tour de France

Yesterday's sprint at the Tour de France was, literally, historic. Mark Cavendish soared to a stage win that sets him up in the record books for years (or decades) to come, but behind all other sprinters battled for their own results. One who did not manage to make it to the line unscathed was Mads Pedersen, who crashed at high speed against the barriers. But the Lidl-Trek leader has not suffered injuries.

It was an unfortunate consequence of a very chaotic sprint. At this Tour de France the quality of the leadouts is such that ultimately, the sprint trains end up cancelling each other, and sprinters enter the final meters of the stage isolated with few exceptions. Lidl-Trek managed to enter with Jasper Stuyven and Ryan Gibbons into the final 500 meters in the head of the peloton but their leader was nowhere to be seen. As Mark Cavendish launched his sprint he and several others moved to the left side of the road. About 10 positions Pedersen was already on the absolute left side of the road and couldn't avoid riding straight into the barriers. Luckily, safety measures with the barriers were into place, and this did not lead to a catastrophic incident as in the past.

"Mads Pedersen suffered heavy impact to his left shoulder and back in the crash at the end of Stage 5, but initial x-rays revealed no fractures," Lidl-Trek communicated. "He will continue to be monitored overnight and a final decision on whether he can start Stage 6 will be taken tomorrow morning.

Luckily for Pedersen and the rest of the peloton, he was actually the only rider involved. The crash took place at around 60Km/h but besides road rash and bruises, the Dane is fit to continue the race - as the team confirmed in a post this morning. Axel Zingle definitely took the spotlight in that moment simultaneously, as he managed to somehow bunny hop over Pedersen successfully after the crash.