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Tour de France stage 3 paused as Cancellara caught up in mass crash

By Cycling News

published 6 July 2015

Dumoulin, Gerrans out of the race

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Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) was caught up in the crash

Christian Prudhomme halts stage 3 of the Tour de France

A race judge stops the race

Johan Van Summeren (Ag2r-La Mondiale) was one of the riders who crashed

Riders were forced to stop for close to 10 minutes

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) waits with his bike for the stage to restart

The riders wait for the stage to start again

Fabian Cancellara (Trek) after signing on(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)

Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) in the race ambulance(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)

The riders crashed into a ditch near a pole(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)

The crash from side on via television images(Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)

An arial shot of the crash (Image credit: Twitter / Radsport)

Riders crash during stage 3 at the Tour de France

William Bonnet (FDJ) lost a lot of skin

Yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) was involved in the stage 3 crash

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), William Bonnet (FDJ), Dmitrii Kozonchuk (Katusha) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) have abandoned the Tour de France during stage three after a high-speed crash with approximately 65km to go.

Shoulder dislocation forces Dumoulin out of the Tour de France

Prudhomme defends decision to neutralise stage 3 of the Tour de France

Race leader Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) also crashed hard but managed to continue racing. Numerous other riders also crashed and were battered and bruised, including Michael Mathews (Orica-GreenEdge), Greg Henderson (Lotto Soudal) and Johan Van Summeren (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Laurens ten Dam (LottoNL-Jumbo) was initially listed as having abandoned the race but is reported to be in the peloton. His team said he dislocated his shoulder but that it popped back in, enable him to ride on.

Race director Christian Prudhomme first neutralised and then stopped the race to allow the race medical staff to complete the treatment of injured riders and rejoin the peloton. The riders were stopped in the road for close to ten minutes before starting again behind a race car that neutralised the race until the summit of the Côte de Bohisseau, with 50km to go.

The crash happened on a long straight section of road. Bonnet seemed to touch wheels with a rider in front, sparking the crash. Riders went down like skittles, many falling into a ditch on the side of the road.

More to follow.