Mathew Hayman crashes out of Worlds after incident with convoy

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Mathew Hayman's (Australia) World Championships were cut short when the Australian was taken out of the race in a crash caused by the motor convoy.

The rider was taken to the medical trucks for check-ups and received five stitches just under his chin. The incident occurred inside the opening 70 kilometres of the race and Hayman lay the blame for the fall on the drivers in the convoy.

"I'm not sure if I actually hit the car. I came pretty close. I was coming back from a stop and I have the feeling that a lot of the guys here in the convoy don't drive the rest of the year at races," Hayman told Cyclingnews after his medical examination.

"I tried to hold it up. All the cars were stopped in the second corner before the descent before going into the tunnel. They seemed to all misjudge it. They stopped quickly and that pushed me onto the wrong side of the road. I had no where to go."

On the eve of the race Hayman sat down with Cyclingnews to preview the course here in Bergen. He used the opportunity to state how he hoped the race convoy wouldn't play a part in the race. Earlier in the Championships the Finnish rider, Joni Kanerva, was taken down by a car in the race convoy during the U23 race.

"I saw the footage of the U23 rider and it was along the same idea. All the cars stopped in the middle of the corner, people were moving and I had no where to go. A whole bunch of cars just stopped and no one seemed to want to give the riders the right of way. Maybe I expected too much from the convoy. Normally the guys I'd race with, the drivers you're with, in these races, they know when a rider is coming back and they give way."

The vehicles at the World Championships are driven by a mix of national federation and WorldTour staff. Cyclingnews has approached the UCI for comment on the matter, but for Hayman his championships are over and these could be his last Worlds.

"The bike was a bit of write-off and by then I was behind and there wasn't much chance of getting another bike. I was resigned to getting into the Shimano car and coming back to the pits. That's possibly my last World Championships and not way I wanted to end it. I'm bitterly disappointed."