Vincenzo Nibali is to meet with prosecutors in France regarding the crash which ended his participation in this year’s Tour de France, according to press reports in Italy.
Initially it had been thought that the Bahrain-Merida rider’s crash fall had been caused by a police motorbike during the Stage 12 ascent of Alpe d’Huez.
But video footage subsequently emerged that showed a spectator’s camera strap becoming entangled in the Bahrain-Merida rider’s handlebars, causing him to hit the deck.
Nibali remounted and finished seventh on the stage – won by eventual overall champion Geraint Thomas of Team Sky – and in fourth place on the general classification.
However, it was discovered after the stage that the 2014 Tour de France winner had fractured a vertebra and he was forced to abandon the race.
The injury put paid to Nibali’s two main objectives for the season, the Tour de France and the world championships, which he rode but not at full fitness.
Last Saturday, he finished a season in which he won the opening Monument, Milan-San Remo, with second place in the fifth and final one, Il Lombardia.
Nibali and his lawyer Fausto Malucchi formally reported the unidentified spectator to the French authorities and next month the 33-year-old is due to travel to Grenoble to be heard as the injured party.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.