Soudal Quick-Step loses 3 riders in first 2 km of E3 Saxo Classic
Gil Gelders, Dries Van Gestel and Jordi Warlop crashed and were taken to hospital
Photo by:
Sirotti
Not the way you want to start a bike race! Soudal Quick-Step lost three riders in the early kilometres of the E3 Saxo Classic. Gil Gelders, Dries Van Gestel and Jordi Warlop crashed and were taken to hospital.
It’s been a tough start to the year for the team. Remco Evenepoel lost weeks of training and race preparation after being doored in December 2024. Paul Magnier had to skip Milan-San Remo, and Tim Merlier crashed out of De Panne. Plus, Martin Svrcek had a bad crash during Milan-San Remo on the descent of the Cipressa.
Three of our riders are out of the race after a big crash in the opening kilometers of #E3SaxoClassic: @GilGelders, @VgDries and Jordi Warlop.
We’ll come back with an update as soon as we have one.
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) March 28, 2025
Cycling is a tough sport! There was a whole host of crashes and sickness after the first two major stage races, Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice. At Paris-Nice, Cofidis lost Stanislaw Aniolkowski and Aimé De Gendt to illness after stage 6, while EF Education-EasyPost’s Kasper Asgreen (stage 1) and James Shaw (pre-race) also fell sick. UAE Team Emirates had Brandon McNulty (stage 7) and Juan Sebastian Molano (stage 6) withdraw due to illness. Jonas Vingegaard crashed in Stage 5. He would not start the next day.
Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) suffered a concussion (stage 4), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) injured his wrist (stage 2), and Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla) broke his collarbone (stage 2). Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) had the worst fall, injuring his elbow, knee, hip, and back (stage 7).
Tirreno-Adriatico
Tirreno-Adriatico was just as brutal. EF Education-EasyPost lost Rui Costa (knee, stage 5) and Michael Valgren (collarbone, stage 2), while Alberto Bettiol battled illness. Israel-Premier Tech’s Pascal Ackermann (knee, stage 3) and Hugo Houle (illness) also struggled.
More injuries included Mikel Azparren (Q36.5, concussion), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ, fractured hand), and Florian Sénéchal (Arkéa-B&B, collarbone). Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quick Step) and Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) suffered bruises in the final stage. Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) were also sidelined by illness.
To watch the race, you can go to FloBikes.com