Nacer Bouhanni's Tour of Turkey came to an end on Monday after the Arkéa-Samsic rider crashed into a spectator during stage 2.
In a dramatic video posted on Twitter, a man is seen walking on the course with his back to the oncoming peloton. Spectators on the sidewalk shout at him in alarm before another fan in bright yellow rushes to pull the man off the road.
It was too late, however, and Mirco Maestri (Eolo-Kometa), coming between the two pedestrians, crashed first, sending both to the ground. Behind him, Bouhanni, teammate Kevin Ledanois, and Manuel Peñalver (Burgos-BH) crashed hard.
Bouhanni was taken to a nearby hospital, with his Arkea-Samsic team later confirming he suffered a fracture of the first cervical vertebra. He is currently being treated at Izmir Hospital but will soon be repatriated to France for further medical treatment.
Burgos-BH confirmed that Peñalver suffered a broken elbow that required surgery, while Ledanois and Maestri were able to continue. The Italian posted a photo of himself covered in road rash to his social media page, saying, "Sometimes you just have to get up and push harder than ever ... thinking it doesn't hurt".
Team Arkéa-Samsic's bad luck continued later in the stage when Nairo Quintana crashed twice in the closing kilometres of the sprint finish, won by Kaden Groves (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), and lost 1:44 and any hopes of contesting the overall classification.
The team said Quintana suffered from severe skin abrasions on his left side and back but said he would start stage 3 on Tuesday.
According to Cyclingnews' sources, Bouhanni was already sick overnight with stomach issues and started the stage to see how far he would make it.
