La Vuelta 2021 cycling - 'Absolutely enormous!' - Huge crash wipes out 'most of the field' on Stage 5

ByDan Quarrell

Updated 18/08/2021 at 16:18 GMT

On what had been a pretty uneventful and incredibly flat 184.4km Stage 5 between Tarancón and Albacete, an enormous crash floored a large number of riders in shocking fashion. Jasper Philipsen won a reduced sprint finish to take victory while Kenny Elissonde took the red jersey but the finish was very much overshadowed by the crash which preceded it.

A huge crash wiped out a large number of riders in a hugely dramatic incident on what had been a pancake-flat and very uneventful Stage 5 of La Vuelta.

The largely subdued 184.4km stage between Tarancón and Albacete on Wednesday suddenly witnessed wild scenes with just 11.7km remaining as an enormous bunch of riders fell to the ground in a seemingly innocuous stretch of flat road.

Among the victims of the massive pile up were Rein Taaramae, who had been wearing the red jersey, Romain Bardet, Mikel Nieve, Kevin Van Melsen, Mads Wurtz and many, many others.

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As noted by Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby, "most of the field" were involved in some way as the huge crowd got swept up in the incident on what was a straight and flat piece of road.

"Oh! Big one! Enormous... absolutely enormous!" came Kirby's reaction on commentary.

Most of the field... oh my goodness!

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"Well, we said it was a big compression here, and we've got some big names caught up here. A lot of contenders are in a very bad place.

"Oh my goodness - there's the leader, Taaramae, down again. There are so many riders on the deck."

Jasper Philipsen won a reduced sprint finish to take victory while Kenny Elissonde took the red jersey but the finish was very much overshadowed by the crash which preceded it.

While the majority of the riders floored did manage to get back on their bikes, for Taaramae the gap to the racing group proved too much to reel in as the Estonian relinquished the red jersey in very unfortunate fashion.

It was also a nightmare day for France's Bardet of Team DSM, the highest profile of the riders in the pile-up, as he eventually came in over 10 minutes down, having started the day in 14th place and very much in the GC battle.

'You could play snooker on this!' - Aerial footage shows how flat 'pancake' Stage 5 is at Vuelta

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