Distracted team director almost runs over his own rider at Vuelta a España

Stage 5 of the Vuelta a España featured a three-man breakaway composed of Burgos-BH teammates Ángel Madrazo who wears the blue polka dot climbers jersey and Jetse Bol along with José Herrada of Cofidis. Towards the end of the stage as the breakaway enjoyed a gap of 10-minutes to the peloton, the Burgo-DH team car gave two of the riders in the break a real scare.

Oof. That was a close one ? #LaVuelta19 pic.twitter.com/cnAAL4uXAV

— FloBikes (@flobikes) August 28, 2019

As Bol took a feed from the car, the distracted team director did not notice he was fast coming up on Madrazo. In a heart-stopping moment, the car collided with the back wheel of Madrazo’s bike sending him skidding to the right onto the shoulder of the road. Herrada was fast to react to avoid colliding with the KOM leader. Madrazo also reacted fast unclipping with his right foot to balance and catch himself as he skidded into Herrada. Both riders luckily were able to avoid hitting the deck with their quick reactions.

Stage 5 was the first real mountain test of this year’s race with the 11 km climb to Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre capping the stage off. Despite being dropped on numerous occasions on the ascent, Madrazo fought on and joined his break companions near the last kilometre just in time to launch a race winning attack. It was Madrazo’s first career WorldTour win and extends his lead in the KOM competition.