Trek-Segafredo says its rider Fabio Felline has fractured his skull and broken his nose in a fall at the start of today’s Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands.
The race, won by Wanty-Gobert’s Enrico Gasparotto, was still in the neutralised zone when the 26-year-old was involved in what his team described as a “freak solo crash.”
Video posted to Twitter shows the moment the incident happened, with Fellini thrown over his bike’s handlebars, the rider appearing to use his left hand to carry out some kind of adjustment close to the front fork immediately beforehand.
Did Felline hit something? What’s that sound? #AGR pic.twitter.com/QjNrJj6Y1N
— CyclingHub.tv (@CyclingHubTV) April 17, 2016
Team doctor Jens Hinder said: “Fabio crashed with his face directly into the ground. He sustained a broken nose and cuts to his face and the radiologists also found a fracture at the base of the skull.
“He needs further examination to determine if it is stable or unstable and this will determine what treatment is required for recovery. It is too early to know until he undergoes further tests.”
The team added that further examinations will be needed to assess the length of time the 26-year-old Italian, who recently returned to racing following a virus, will need to recover from his injuries.
20 thoughts on “Video: Fabio Felline fractures skull in freak Amstel Gold crash”
Yikes!
Yikes!
Look like he was faffing near wheel and got his hand caught in spokes. Hand then got shoved into back of fork, locking wheel up and pitching him over bars.
Ouch, looks like he didn’t
Ouch, looks like he didn’t get his hands out and legs flipped over his head. Fractures at base of skull can easily be fatal, lucky lucky. Odd crash though…
No disc brakes involved????
No disc brakes involved????
#bandwagon
I remember doing something
I went through frame by frame. He’s fiddling with the QR, then starts to fall left off the bike, left hand tries to stabilise himself but hits spokes and is drawn forward into fork, trying to pull hand out, then starts to overbalance left and the front wheel locks up and over he goes. Can’t get his hand out of behind the fork to stop himself Horrible.
I remember doing something like that in about 1966. I was trying to straighten the front mudguard with my foot, got it in the spokes and went over the bars into the tarmac in a swallow dive. Incredibly quick escalation like that. Fortunately I was going a bit slower than this chap and was able to break my fall.
Ow. Poor guy hope he heals
Ow. Poor guy hope he heals well. Silly crash.
I remember noticing one of my bar plugs was loose. So I smacked it back in. Imagine my surprise when the bike veered wildly!
You only do silly things like that once.
fenix wrote:
You’re not alone in doing that, did the same with about a mile to go of ride London last year whilst going over 30kph. Still not sure how I stayed upright.
Hang on, don’t all the helmet
Hang on, don’t all the helmet obsessives tell me that a helmet will prevent head injuries? And will most definitely prevent skull fractures?
Oh, sorry, that must have been some other universe.
burtthebike wrote:
They can “mitigate” some injury, they only “prevent” minor injuries. Being dropped face first onto the road is probably not minor.
But you already know this…
burtthebike wrote:
That would be the universe where someone falls on their head not on their face.
Yes it looks like his hand
Yes it looks like his hand got jammed in the front wheel!!! Unluckily gets a Fractured skull but i’m suprised he didn’t loose any fingers in the wheel going at that speed!! Do they use aero spokes in the peleton? They are sharp!
He won’t do that again. The
He won’t do that again. The UCI should make the peloton use front and rear disc wheels so skinny Bez roadies don’t put their hands in their wheels. Hope he’s better soon.
Time for full face helmets in
Time for full face helmets in the peloton….and ban those pesky rim brakes, that was ‘obviously’ the cause…and ban fingers too…was he a qualified mechanic? Might need to ban ‘sunday mechanics’ too!
I wonder when the UCI will
I wonder when the UCI will step in to ban riders adjusting bikes whilst on the fly?
Rapha Nadal wrote:
Maybe they’ll let the moto riders do it for them?
After all they get close enough and they is bugger all chance of them banning them
My Winter trainer has had a
My Winter trainer has had a rattly front mudguard for the last three months. I’ve got into the habit while riding of slipping my hand in under the down tube just behind the top of the forks to temporarily re-adjust the bracket. I think I may review this particular maintenance policy.
I did wonder how the hell
I did wonder how the hell someone crashed in a neutralised zone when I heard the news.
Hope he recovers quickly, but I bet he’ll get some ribbing when back in the peloton.
I’ve done it once when a branch somehow lodged in the front wheel.
A club member also went over when he decided to cycle over an empty coke can. It promptly moulded itself around the tyreand rim and then wedged in the fork crown. He had great black eyes from that.
Butty wrote:
I think every one see’s or does that once with a coke can… I was luck it only acted like a brake
If he got his fingers caught
If he got his fingers caught in the spokes, isn’t he now missing a couple of digits?
I hope he makes a full
I hope he makes a full recovery and is getting lots of pain relief that looked horrible.
In the meantime, we should definitely ban disk brakes on Sportives. Probably on the road too.
A flimsy lid like that will
A flimsy lid like that will not offer much protection, especially around the sides including the face! I’ve worn tougher helmets based on a lid like design and seen/felt what happened during a crash, so upgraded to one not based on a lid like design and had no issues during a later crash.
You want less weight and loads of venting, you pay for it with less protection.