Crash knocks Kruopis out of Langkawi
Orica GreenEdge sprinter involved in early fall on Stage 8
A crash in the opening kilometres of Stage 8 has ended Aidis Kruopis' Tour de Langkawi campaign. The Orica GreenEdge sprinter went down hard in the early part of the 164.5km stage from Kuala Terengganu to Tenah Merah and was forced to pull out.
Little information was available about the extent of the Lithuanian's injuries apart from some brief information supplied by the team. He was also seen picking himself off the ground holding a bloodied arm, clearly in a lot of pain.
"He [Kruopis] was forced to withdraw. He's okay. Just a bit battered and bruised," wrote his team.
Kruopis had been enjoying a consistent run of results in the bunch sprints at the 10-day Malaysian race despite having been involved in a fall earlier in the race.
The 26-year-old achieved his best biggest result to date at last year's Tour of Poland when he won Stage 4 and had picked up three third-place stage results at Langkawi before being forced out of the race.
The team still has Allan Davis in the race who finished in fourth-place, one spot behind his teammate Kruopis on Stage 7 with the team also looking to protect Pieter Weening's second-overall on the general classification.
Cyclingnews will update Kruopis' injury as more information comes to light.
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