Huge flood surprises causes big crashes in final sprint
Chaos ensued
The cycling season has begun in Argentina, but a race in Bragado, a city a few hours southwest of Buenos Aires was not held in exactly ideal conditions. For some of the locals who were making it their first race of the year, it did not go as planned.
The weather is always unpredictable this time of year, and following a massive deluge, the organizers decided to shorten a local race by an hour.
However, that wasn’t enough. They decided to try and still have a race with a finish, which was not an entirely perfect idea.
When the final sprint for the victory began, the peloton was surprised by very deep puddles less than 100 m from the finish line. Riding in the rain can be tricky as it is. Your wheels can slide around corners and your stability is greatly reduced. Even worse, it’s hard to see what’s in front of you. In this case, it wasn’t just raining, it was a complete downpour. And as you can see, the depth of some of the watery patches is really dangerous, especially if you’re going full tilt at the end of a race. The riders came into the finish at speeds above 50 km/h.
Once the riders hit the wet, all hell broke loose. Several riders fell as they swerved and lost control on the soaked pavement. There was still a race at stake, so those that could make it through could still take the victory. As you can see, that was a big risk but some managed to keep upright. Some, however, certainly did not.
Three riders were taken to the hospital, with one rider suffering a concussion. All of the injured riders are in stable condition but they may want to skip riding in the rain for a while.
Check out the crazy finish below.
