Six riders from the German National track team needed hospital treatment after a car collided with their training group during a ride in Mallorca.
According to a statement issued by the team, some of the riders were badly hurt and suffered fractures. However, medics who went to the scene of the incident and subsequent hospital checkups reported none of the injuries are life-threatening.
Initial reports in multiple sources of how the mass crash happened suggested that the driver, said to be an elderly man, collided with the riders after he failed to see them.
The incident had unpleasant echoes of a mass training crash in Valencia back in 2016, when six riders from the Giant-Alpecin were hit by a car, several suffering serious injuries.
It also closely follows the death of an Italian Continental rider, Sara Piffer, last Friday, when she was out training and was reportedly struck by the driver of a vehicle.
Although each rider's specific injuries have not yet been published, two of those caught up in the incident were named by the Federation as Benjamin Boos and Bruno Kessler, both bronze medallists in last year's World Track Championships in the team pursuit.
A third, Tobias Buck-Gramko, is a former multiple Junior World Track Champion. The others injured were named as Max-David Briese, Moritz Augenstein and Louis Gentzik.
The riders were part of a bigger training group which had just left their hotel in Palma, the island's capital on Monday morning, when the incident happened on a quiet backroad near an industrial estate, local newspaper Ultima Hora reports. Their bikes were also reportedly destroyed in the crash.
The German riders were preparing for next month's European Track Championships, set to take place on February 12-16 in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium and had planned to leave the island on Thursday.
