An early mass crash on stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps led to the race being briefly neutralised and forced several riders to abandon due to injury.
Well ahead of the live TV broadcast of the key climbing day from Laces to Arco, the race organisers' social media announced that after just 2km of racing, "A big fall in the peloton led to the momentary stop of the race," in their live updates, with no clear cause.
It's understood to have involved upwards of 30 riders, with pictures from the race showing a chaotic scene of riders and bikes on the floor, several ambulances and medical staff on hand to help, and many riders in visible pain.
Among those to abandon the race are under-23 World Champion Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), who had started the stage in sixth overall.
Joining the Italian in withdrawing were Damien Howson (Pinarello Q36.5), Daniel Federspiel (Austria), Lorenzo Nespoli (MBH Bank), Victor Langellotti (Ineos Grenadiers), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco Alula), Manabu Ishibashi (Team UKYO), and Ulrik Tvedt (Picnic-PostNL).
Based on the Tour of the Alps live updates, racing was stopped for around 20 minutes before the peloton got going again. At the time of writing, the race is now onto the long first climb of the day, the Hofmahdjoch/Passo Castrin (22.4 km at 5.7%).
While he has lost a key teammate in Finn, who was pictured clutching his hand after crashing, Giulio Pellizzari remains in the overall lead of the race after two stages. Ineos Grenadiers' Thymen Arensman sits in second, six seconds back on the Italian.
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