Tour De France rider Daniel Oss is out of the race after he broke his neck following a collision with a fan along the route. Footage of the crash was caught by another fan, who uploaded it to social media. Thankfully, the 35-year-old Italian rider for Team TotalEnergies is going to be okay.
Get well soon my friend @Daniel87Oss ! We will all miss you here at @LeTour
Bon rétablissement mon ami @Daniel87Oss ! Tu manqueras à nous tous ici sur @LeTour #AllezTotalEnergies 📸 @blaisou85 pic.twitter.com/obXkHxbe7f
— Peter Sagan (@petosagan) July 7, 2022
- The crash happened on the cobbles. The rider was part of a group cycling from Lille to Arenberg in the fifth stage of the Tour De France on Wednesday when he crashed into a fan who moved too far into the riding path while trying to film the race on her phone.
- The fan was also thrown to the ground. When Oss collided with the woman at high speed, she was pushed to the ground while Oss was thrown off his bike into another rider, who also fell. It’s amazing people weren’t more seriously hurt.
- Miraculously, Oss managed to finish the stage. Despite the severity of the crash, Oss finished the stage 13:07 behind eventual winner Simon Clarke. However, once it was over, it was clear he had suffered significant injuries and would need to pull out of the Tour de France. Team TotalEnergies said in a statement: “Additional examinations revealed a fracture of a cervical vertebra requiring immobilisation for a few weeks. Daniel Oss is therefore forced to leave the Tour de France. The whole team wishes you a good recovery Daniel.”
- The second rider in the crash also withdrew. Austrian Alpecin-Fenix rider Michael Gogl suffered a broken pelvis and collarbone and also had to drop out of the Tour de France to recover.
- Fans have been warned to be careful while watching the race. Tour race director Christian Prudhomme urged fans in June to be “careful” not to interfere with riders along the route. “The public of the Tour de France is very enthusiastic. Of course [the race] is 3,500 kilometres long and what we really need is for the media to pass on the message and keep on reminding the public to be careful,” he said. “We will have on the Tour de France 29,000 police and fireman. It is difficult to have one policeman behind each person so we also have security guards to give information to the public that they should not cross and hold their children’s hand and stay on one side of the road. The public can move their hands, but they have to stick to their place.”
Sector 3 chute spectateurs @TeamTotalEnrg @Daniel87Oss pic.twitter.com/dkExu8NNwl
— Victor Loy (@LoyVictor) July 6, 2022
