The last few minutes of the Vuelta España Femenina second stage featured plenty of drama as a number of riders hit the deck across multiple crashes in the run-up to the final sprint, won by Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale).
Shortly after the peloton passed the all-important 3-km-to-go marker, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and Mischa Bredewold and Niamh Fisher Black of SD Worx-ProTime were among those to go down as the peloton closed in on a handful of riders still up the road. Less than a minute later, there was another pileup at a roundabout, with Movistar’s Emma Norsgaard and Liane Lippert both going down.
Given where the crashes occurred, those who remounted and finished were credited with the same time as stage winner Jackson, but it took time after the dust settled for teams to offer further health updates on those who had hit the deck.
Visma said in a post-stage press release that Anna Henderson was taken to the hospital for further evaluation following a crash; she was the day’s lone DNF. Vos does not appear to have sustained any lasting damage from the fall.
Movistar provided an update noting that Norsgaard had “numerous scratches on her arms,” but that she was “OK,” while Lippert did not have any issues after the crash. Another Movistar rider, Mareille Meijering, came down in a crash earlier in the stage, but the team said that she too was “OK.”
After Deignan finished the stage, Lidl-Trek posted a video of her at the finish noting that “a further medical check is required.” Deignan’s crash was the second major incident to befall a Lidl-Trek rider so far at the Vuelta, as Ellen van Dijk crashed heavily during the stage 1 team time trial. The Dutchwoman did start Tuesday’s stage 2, however, and finished without incident.
As for SD Worx, the team has yet to provide an update on the status of their riders involved in the crashes as of publication time. In any case, it was not all bad news for the Dutch squad, at least, as stage 2 runner-up Blanka Vas will wear the race leader’s jersey on Tuesday’s stage 2.
This is a developing story and may be updated with significant news from teams like SD Worx.
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