Riders walk away without serious injury but TTT equipment damaged and unusable
WNT-Rotor (Image credit: Getty Images)
WNT-Rotor were forced to pull their five-rider team out of Saturday's Women's WorldTour round at the Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden TTT after crashing heavily during their recon of the course on Friday. The riders were training on the 36km course when a vehicle took their right of way causing the team to crash.
"Unfortunately during our team time trial training this morning ahead of tomorrow's @UCI_WWT, a car took our right of way and consequently our riders crashed heavily. Currently, all riders seem ok and will undergo further medical checks throughout today," the team reported on their official social media channels.
WNT-Rotor's team included former world champion Lisa Brennauer, Franziska Braube, Claudia Koster, Clara Koppenburg and Sarah Rijkes. The riders underwent medical checks and there were no serious injuries, however, their time trial equipment was so damaged due to the incident that they were left unusable and the riders were not able to compete in the next day's event.
"With the damage sustained to our bikes in the crash we regret to say we are unable to start tomorrow‘s race. We will keep you updated," the team wrote.
The Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden TTT course is 36km that starts and finishes in Vargarda with a turn-around point in Herrljunga. The course is undulating and the last kilometre is uphill to the finish line in Vargarda. The route is six kilometres shorter than last year and so many teams were out previewing the race route using their time trial equipment on Friday, a day ahead of the team time trial.
WNT-Rotor reassured that their riders were medically cleared to compete and will be on the start line for Sunday's Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden Road Race.
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Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
