Falls are unfortunately part of cycling, but some are more serious than others. Julian Alaphilippe knows this better than anyone. His last accident this Sunday in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège monument will probably keep him away from the roads for a while. The Saint-Amandois indeed suffers from 2 broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade and a hemopneumothorax (effusion of blood between the lung and the pleura, the organ that covers the lung) indicated his Quick-Step team, specifying in a more reassuring tone that the world champion was in stable condition even if he remained under observation at the hospital. A Berrichon teammate, the Belgian Ilan Van Wilder suffers from a broken jaw.
Alaphilippe had already had a particularly eventful season, side falls, so far with a spectacular but fortunately harmless accident during the Strade Bianche on March 5th and, more recently and painfully, during the Flèche Brabançonne on April 13th, without however preventing him from resuming competition the following days.
This time the toll is much heavier. And the seriousness of the situation immediately became apparent to Romain Bardet, the DSM rider, also caught in the fall, immediately came to the aid of his compatriot and team-mate in the France team, who fell into a ditch at the foot of a tree. “I was very scared, I was really very scaredtestified Bardet, I fell on his side, I saw him three meters below. He told me ‘I can’t move, I can’t move’. The gesture full of altruism and composure of Romain Bardet was also welcomed by the Alaphilippe team.