Three Bora-Hansgrohe riders in hospital after driver crashes into training ride

Three Bora-Hansgrohe riders were taken to hospital in Italy yesterday after a driver crashed into them while they were taking part in a ride during a training camp.

The injured riders were Wilco Kelderman, third at last year’s Giro d’Italia with his previous team, Sunweb, plus Rudiger Selig and Andreas Schillinger.

The team confirmed today that Kelderman had sustained concussion and fractured vertebrae, and that Schillinger had also broken some vertebrae, saying that it aimed “for conservative treatment with both.”

It added that Selig was left concussed, but did not sustain any fractures.

FURTHER UPDATE:

Wilco has sustained concussion and a fractured vertebrae, while Andreas has broken vertebrae in the cervical and thoracic spine. We aim for conservative treatment with both. Rudi has concussion, but no fractures.

Details: https://t.co/Sb4uw9uQu6

— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) January 17, 2021

The trio were among a group of seven riders who had decided to extend their ride on the final day of the training camp near Lake Garda, with team mates including Peter Sagan having already called it a day ahead of the team’s planned departure for Gran Canaria today.

According to Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, the crash happened at  Ronchi di Castelnuovo del Garda, which lies at the south east corner of the lake, around 10 kilometres west of Verona.

The driver of the Mercedes SUV involved in the incident, which happened as the riders were within sight of the hotel where they were staying, is said to have ignored a stop sign and pulled out into the cyclists’ path.

The other four riders involved, each of whom sustained minor injuries not requiring hospital treatment, were Marcus Burghardt, Anton Palzer, Maximilian Schachmann and Michael Schwarzmann.