Major crash before the start of the 8th stage of the Vuelta a España; two riders withdraw

The eighth stage of the Vuelta a España really couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. What was supposed to be an uneventful sprinter’s stage was disrupted by a major crash even before the official start. About ten riders went down, causing the start to be delayed briefly. In the end, the crash also claimed several victims.

Things went wrong even before the zero-kilometer mark. About ten riders crashed in Puçol, including Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Floris Van Tricht (NSN), and Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step). Because so many riders were on the ground and the medical staff were busy, the start was postponed.

After more than ten minutes without any racing action, the race finally got underway. It turned out that several riders were more affected by the crash than had been hoped. First, Uriarte gave up after trying to continue. Van Tricht held on a little longer, but had to drop out shortly afterward as well.

A week ago, Uriarte was the first rider to roll off the starting platform in Monaco. The 24-year-old Spaniard was riding his first Vuelta a España. The same was true for Van Tricht: the 25-year-old Belgian, brother of Stan Van Tricht, had just like Uriarte begun his first Grand Tour, but now has to head home early after the nasty crash.