Como (Italy) (AFP)
The young Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, big favorite of the event, suffered a very impressive fall on Saturday in a descent during the Tour of Lombardy, falling over a parapet and into the void.
“Remco Evenepoel fell in the Sormano descent. We'll give you more details when we have them,” tweeted his Deceuninck-QuickStep team.
Images taken by an AFP photographer show the young Belgian (20) conscious and grimacing, below the bridge from which he fell.
About twenty minutes after his fall, he was evacuated by ambulance, in which he was carried on a stretcher. He wore a neck brace around his neck.
"He was taken care of by doctors and is currently being taken to hospital," confirmed the Deceuninck-QuickStep team, still on Twitter.
Evenepoel, the greatest hope of world cycling, was part of a group of seven riders left alone at the top of the terrible wall of Sormano, about fifty kilometers from the finish of the Tour of Lombardy.
The descent was made at high speed under the leadership of Vincenzo Nibali and Evenepoel was at the time of his fall very slightly off the hook.
© 2020 AFP