Shocking footage has emerged of the lead rider in a Brazilian road race being hit by a car, after the driver reportedly ploughed through a road block that wasn't being monitored by authorities. In protest, the whole peloton subsequently abandoned the stage and laid their bikes in the road.
Isso foi hoje na Volta de Garulhos. Agentes de trânsito não receberam horas extras, carro furou o bloqueio de cones e aconteceu isso. Absurdo. pic.twitter.com/Xa4YuGOYVc
— País do Ciclismo (@DoCiclismo) October 28, 2019
The incident happened on the fourth and final stage of the Garulhos Tour, with the impact destroying the rider's bike and badly damaging his knee according to Mundo Bici. Look closely in the background, and you can also see a policeman checking his phone, seemingly oblivious to what's about to happen.
The peloton then collectively decided the stage wasn't safe to continue with roadblocks not being policed, and abandoned the stage; therefore, the overall victory was awarded to Rodrigo De Melo of Team Cycling Funvic based off the first three stage results, and the first 52km of what should have been a 70km final stage.
Many Brazilians on social media claim the crash was an accident waiting to happen, and applauded the solidarity of the riders for downing their bikes and saying enough is enough.
After cobbling together a few hundred quid during his student days off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story), Jack bought his first road bike at the age of 20 and has been hooked ever since. He joined road.cc in 2017 having previously being Staff Writer at 220 Triathlon magazine, and reports on all things tech as well as editing road.cc's live blog. He is also the news editor of our electric-powered sister site eBikeTips. Jack's preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking (the latter being another long story), and on Sunday afternoons he can often be found on an M5 service station indulging in his favourite post-race meal of 20 chicken nuggets, a sausage roll, caramel shortbread and a large strawberry milkshake.