Tour de France: Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana unhurt in crash
Yellow jersey hopefuls escape late stage six pile-up unscathed
Thursday 9 July 2015 21:07, UK
Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Tejay van Garderen have all confirmed they escaped serious injury in a late crash on stage six of the Tour de France.
The trio were brought down when race leader Tony Martin clipped the wheel of the rider in front of him and triggered a domino effect across the width of the road.
While Martin fractured his collarbone, Nibali, Quintana and Van Garderen – who are all hoping to challenge for the yellow jersey – each revealed they had received only minor knocks.
Nibali said: “The teams always want to be at the front. It's difficult to be well positioned. I don't quite understand how we found ourselves in such a mess. I don't understand.
“Personally I'm OK. I only slightly hurt my leg and shoulder. It's always a problem to crash. I really don't know what happened. I know it went from left to right and I fell over [Chris ] Froome, who was on my right. I think [Warren] Barguil is the one who fell over me. I don't know for sure.”
Quintana was knocked over by Nibali and was the first to get up and remount his bike.
The Colombian said: “It’s a superficial knock and I hope the elbow is all right tomorrow. I’m fine right now in the immediate aftermath. I’m not noticing anything, but I hope I will be OK."
Van Garderen was also back on his feet quickly and is now second overall after Martin, who had been the race leader, was forced to quit the race.
He said: "The people doing the lead-out were coming back and maybe they were looking behind them, a touch of wheels. It’s always dangerous with finishes like this.
“Uphill there are going to be gaps. The GC [general classification] guys want to be up there and sprinters still want to go for the stage, so getting that mix in together is always pretty dangerous.”
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