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Zoidl fractures collarbone, Cancellara crashes hard during Trek training wipeout on Wednesday

Trek Factory Racing team's first training camp ended with a bit of calamity for riders, including Fabian Cancellara and Riccardo Zoidi, after a crash less than thirty minutes into Wednesday's first ride as the squad prepares for the season in Spain.

December 10, 2015
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On-board YouTube footage captures the crash as Fabian Cancellara experienced it.

Trek Factory Racing team’s first training camp ended with a bit of calamity for riders, including Fabian Cancellara and Riccardo Zoidl, after a crash less than thirty minutes into Wednesday’s first ride as the squad prepares for the season in Spain.

According to a release published by the team and posted to its website, Zoidl seems to have suffered the worst of it.

Zoidl’s injuries will ultimately send the Trek rider back home to Austria, having fractured his collarbone in four places as a result of the wipeout. “Our team doctor told me we can fix it with a pin and this way I can get back to training faster,” said Zoidl from the team’s hotel, adding that he hopes to be back to training in around a week. “I am fairly confident I can return to training and be back on the bike in one week, and then you don’t lose so much [fitness].”

The crash itself, reports say, was thanks to some wet, slick late-autumn conditions on the Spanish roads.

As the ride progressed, the team split into three groups, with an earlier crash reported among the forward riders. The slickest segment of the team’s planned ride, apparently, was a particular roundabout that prompted warnings, advising caution. But despite approaching the turn slowly, it was still too much for riders to remain in control, including Zoidl and Cancellara. Staying upright, the release said, was nearly impossible.

Cancellara quickly got up, seemingly without pain, but things were definitely much worse for Zoidl. “I was sliding a little bit,” he recalled, “but I could handle it and thought I was safe and then my teammate next to me crashed and went directly into my front wheel and I flipped over. We were not going fast, maybe 10-15 km/h, but it was really, really slippery. I think a total of 10 of us crashed there.”

Still, Zoidl is trying to stay in good spirits about everything, he says—or at least not let it discourage him about the season for which the team is training. “I was super disappointed in the first five minutes after it happened,” he said, “but now I have come to terms with it. This is the second time for me and I was really nervous the first time I broke my collarbone, but now I know what to expect with the rehab.”

“It’s a shame that it was a short training camp for me,” he said, “but everything in life has a reason.”