"A long walk home": Norwegian pro left stranded with broken bike after crashing in Paris Olympic race, as team car ignores him calling for assistance and drives past

Amidst the late drama and chaos of yesterday's Olympic road race in Paris, Norwegian pro Søren Wærenskjold, who won the under-23 word time trial championship in 2022, had to endure a torrid time after crashing on the Parisian street circuit, and perhaps even worse, being left helplessly stranded after being overlooked by his country's team car.

The 24-year-old who rides for Norwegian pro team Uno-X Mobility eventually managed to finish the race in 63rd position, however after the broadcast camera showed him crashing in the technical descent of the 18.4km long street circuit — the riders doing three laps through the narrow streets with many twists and bends, and of course, the cobbled climb up Butte Montmartre, the hill in the French capital with its summit home to the spectacular Sacré-Cœur.

Footage shared on social media by fans has shown that Wærenskjold broke the fork on his Dare cycle after an alleged brake failure, thus not being able to slow down to make a corner and going straight into the barriers.

Søren Wærenskjold lost his brakes, crashed into the fence, broke the front fork and was overlooked by his own service car. Understandably, he was frustrated.#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/pPi3Xz8dEx

— Vegar Kulset (@VegarKulset) August 4, 2024

A dejected figure dragging the pulverised bike alongside him, he stood by the side of the road waiting for his team car to come for almost a minute, the delay perhaps made worse due to the narrow streets as well as the lack of radio communication, something which the teams heavily rely on during the UCI WorldTour one-day and stage races to communicate with the riders.

However as the driver made their way around the bend, spurred on by a cheering crowd and Wærenskjold who held up his hand to signal his misfortune, he seemed to have been missed by his own team, much to the shock of the crowd, whose cheers turned into jeers, as well as to the rider who took his first pro win last year, whose misery turned into rage as he lifted the bike into air and slammed it back to the ground, alongside letting out some heated Scandinavian curses.

Jeux Olympiques compliqués pour Søren Wærenskjold, après sa chute et son abandon sur le contre la montre, le Norvégien est à nouveau tombé sur la course en ligne mais sa voiture ne s'est pas arrêtée pour le dépanner... #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Yfa79AHvAG

— Cycling Legend (@CyclingLegend_) August 3, 2024

Vegar Kulset, manager of the Norwegian's Uno-X Mobility team, wrote on Twitter: "Søren Wærenskjold lost his brakes, crashed into the fence, broke the front fork and was overlooked by his own service car. Understandably, he was frustrated."

Wærenskjold — who last year was touted by UAE Team Emirates, one of the strongest teams in the pro peloton with three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, but ended with the Norwegian rejecting their advances citing "moral and ethical" reasons — was then seen carrying the bike on his shoulder, before presumably getting a change of bikes and coming home to take 63rd position out of the 88 riders.

> Remco Evenepoel survives last minute bike-change scare to make history by winning Paris Olympics 2024 cycling road race

There was more bike change drama further up the road in yesterday's enthralling men's road race, with Remco Evenepoel, who had dropped everyone else after time trialling his way through the pack and was destined for a dominating win in Trocadéro, suffered a rear puncture less than 4km from the finish line.

But thanks to more than a minute's gap on the chasing home hero Valentin Madouas, who eventually finished second (with Christophe Laporte coming in third for bronze, rounding a double French podium), Evenepoel still managed to come home victor and pose for an iconic shot in front of the Iron Lady from the 16th Arrondissement of Paris, an image surely down to go in the history books.

One for the history books... Remco Evenepoel poses with his bike in front of the Eiffel Tower after winning 2024 Paris Olympic road race (Zac Williams/SWpix.com)

And with that win, Evenepoel emulated Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel, winning the gold medal in both the time trial and road race at the same Olympics, after the Dutch rider had achieved the same feat in the women's competitions in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Speaking of other dramatic news, German rider Nils Pollitt pulled a 'Van der Poel in the Glasgow road race' — not by pummelling the field and winning the race, but instead stopping for an emergency toilet break at the iconic Café des Deux Moulins, made famous after the 2001 French movie Amélie.

> Mathieu van der Poo-el: World champion’s visit to Scottish couple’s toilet during protest makes front page news

While many tourists visit the Parisian cafe, located at the bottom of the Montmartre ascent and was the workplace of the film's titular character, we can assume Pollitt didn't have film history or Instgrammable pain au chocolat on his mind, with the UAE Team Emirates rider fighting his way through the large crowd looking for a toilet stall.

 

 

 

 

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Once relieved of his internal struggles and everyone else realising what was going on, Pollitt made his way out to the crowd's cheers perhaps a few grams (or kilograms) lighter and jumped on the barriers, remounting his bike and continuing with the course, eventually finishing 70th and 20 minutes down on Evenepoel.

He later told the reporters: "I did not count how much time it took me. It was really warm, we were drinking a lot of water, ate a lot of gels and normally I don't have problems. But today I had an upset stomach."