Juan Ayuso pulls out of Critérium du Dauphiné as teams assess damage from high speed crash

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) is the highest profile rider to pull out of the Critérium du Dauphiné after teams assessed the damage from the mass high-speed crash on stage 5.

The Spanish rider had signed on in Hauterives with bandages aplenty on his body and completed the team presentation but after testing his injuries, decided against starting the 174.1km stage.

“I did a small ride around here to try and see if the pain goes down and it’s not the case so I think probably I won’t start today,” said Ayuso as reported on CyclingProNet.

“It’s on both of my hips [the pain]. To be honest, yesterday, I have to laugh about it because I don’t think there are many guys that can say in the same crash they crashed two times. I was sliding and I was scared people from behind were going to hit me so I tried to stand up and I fell again on the other side. 

“So I have both sides quite banged up but the worst without doubt is the left side which was the first one when we all slipped.”

Six of the seven UAE Team Emirates riders at the Dauphiné went down in yesterday’s crash, four of whom are due to be part of Tadej Pogačar’s support squad for the Tour de France - Ayuso, Nils Politt, Tim Wellens and Pavel Sivkov.

Ayuso and Politt were the two most visibly injured after the incident, taking much longer to get back to the neutralised pack who waited further up the road. The team laid out their injuries on social media late last night.

“Fall onto left hip and knee with moderate abrasions. Also hit left lateral 4th-6th ribs on handlebar. No pulmonary injury and no clear rib fracture on ultrasound, only soft tissue. Haematoma. No concussion/spinal injury,” was how UAE characterised Politt’s injuries.

Ayuso revealed that Politt was the first to go down in the UAE train when they crashed as he was leading the line, but that the German could do nothing about it after he "got onto the black tarmac which was like an ice rink".

The full team were all provisionally cleared to start stage 6 by the doctor with no fractures but Aysuo’s abandon made him one of seven non-starters on the day.

Teams assess the damage after around 50 riders crash

The other six riders to not start stage 6 are Kobe Gossens (Intermarché-Wanty), Jasha Sütterlin, Kamil Gradek (both Bahrain Victorious), Odd Christian Eiking (Uno-X Mobility), Harry Sweeny and Lukas Nerurkar (both EF Education-EasyPost). However, the latter two are out due to respiratory illness and COVID-19 respectively.

Despite stage 5 finishing under neutralised conditions after the crash, the likes of Dylan van Baarle, Steven Kruijswijk (both Visma-Lease a Bike), Laurens Huys (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Axel Mariiault (Cofidis) were taken to hospital in ambulances and DNFed stage 5.

Both Visma riders left the Dauphiné and were also ruled out of their planned participation at the Tour de France as the Dutch team's run of rotten luck continues, prompting team boss Richard Plugge to question safety on X, formerly Twitter.

Aside from those who sustained more serious injuries and fractures, the peloton was brutally affected with close to 50 riders coming down on the wet road 21km from the finish in Saint-Priest.

Bahrain Victorious started stage 6 with just three riders after Sutterlin sustained a fractured hip, Gradek a fractured hand and Rainer Kepplinger was forced out of the race due to concussion protocol and sent for scans at the hospital.

Lidl-Trek started the day with a full complement of riders but Alex Kirsch has since pulled out “as a precaution to prevent any further injury after yesterday’s crash”. GC leader Tao Geoghegan Hart also revealed to reporters pre-stage 6 that he had sustained a heavy impact to his ribs in the crash.

“I was actually modulating my speed quite well. Saw directly the guys in front of me slip out and crash and I was finding some space on the right aiming for the grass or in an ideal world, to stop,” he said.

“Then I think someone hit me from behind, probably also not trying to break, and I just went flying into the electricity pylon. So I have zero cuts or anything which is positive but I hit the pylon around 45kph on my bicep and my side.

“Ribs is always pretty complicated because even if you don’t have fractures, you can suffer a lot with the breathing.”

Alpecin-Deceuninck were also badly hit with five of their riders at the Dauphiné coming down in the crash. Thankfully, the injury summary posted to their Instagram revealed that it was mainly bruises and abrasions sustained by Xandro Meurisse, Juri Hollmann, Jason Osborne, Jensen Plowright and Luca Vergallito, with the latter also experiencing head trauma but without concussion.

There were many bandages throughout the wounded peloton at the start location of stage 6 with Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Oliver Naesen (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) among those clearly left with superficial injuries. But they and many riders decided to soldier on ahead of the Collet d'Allevard summit finish.

Race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) avoided disaster after going down front flipping over his bars onto his head and shoulder. But he thanked his helmet after the stage and was in good spirits after not injuring himself too badly, leaving him able to start stage 6 in yellow.

Second-placed Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) also said he crashed onto a shoulder he injured previously but escaped largely unscathed and started stage 6, however, stated this morning that today came without a focus on the GC or the result.

The impact of the crash is not only injury-related in that riders were forced to pull out but it is likely to have a huge effect on how the rest of the Dauphiné pans out in the final three stages.