A number of riders crashed heavily at the World Race Championships today after Australian rider Luke Durbridge was forced to stop pedaling due to a mechanical issue.
There were 164 kilometres left to race when the incident took place, which saw both Fernando Gaviria of Colombia and Slovenia’s Luka Mezgec collide with Durbridge.
The race had just split into a number of echelons with the various groups racing at high speed. Durbridge suddenly slowed and Gaviria was unable to avoid the Aussie, hitting him with his shoulder. Durbridge’s Orica-BikeExchange team-mate Mezgec who had been on Gaviria’s wheel then collided with Durbridge, which saw both riders crash to the floor.
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Despite managing to stay upright, Gaviria who recently won Paris-Tours came off the worst of the three. He pulled in a few hundred metres after the collision in pain. The Colombian rider was holding his arm with an initial diagnosis of a dislocated shoulder being reported.
Durbridge later explained what had happened as he tweeted: “All ok. My chain was off so I couldn’t pedal.I tried to get out of the way but when it’s going so fast can be hard to react.”
Mezgec responded soon afterwards showing that there were no hard feelings as he said: “@luke_durbridge1 shit happens brother.. we put ourselves down hard ”
