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Lizzie Armitstead 2015 Women's Tour crash YouTube stillUpdated: Video: Lizzie Armitstead may race tomorrow despite Aviva Women's Tour crash
UPDATED: Lizzie Armitstead may continue to ride in the Aviva Women's Tour despite a heavy crash after winning today’s opening stage of the race in Aldeburgh, with some reports claiming that she had broken her leg and her injuries initially believed to be serious.
The Boels-Dolmans rider appeared to lose control of her bike after raising her arms to celebrate her win, veering left and crashing into race director Mick Bennett and a group of photographers positioned inside the barriers after the finish line of the 112.6km stage from Bury St Edmunds.
She was treated for more than half an hour after the crash, and was taken to hospital by ambulance, with her team mates collecting the leader's jersey on the podium on her behalf.
Shortly before 6pm this evening, James Burridge, sports reporter at BBC East, tweeted that the Yorkshire rider was "up walking & discharged from hospital. She is battered & bruised & off to team hotel."
He added: "Decision on whether she will ride in rest of tour to be made tomorrow."
Earlier, a spectator quoted in the East Anglian Daily Times said: “As she crossed the finish line, she put her arms up but then just collided with someone.
“All the bikes piled on top of her and more came off.
“She looks seriously injured. They’ve put a neck brace on and she’s on a drip. It was awful.”
The description of this video of the crash posted to YouTube by radio station Heart News East says that besides Armitstead, who was treated for more than 30 minutes before being taken away, at least four other riders received treatment from paramedics.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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31 comments
Nobody should be inside the barriers.
Have you lot never wobbled, never mind wobbling when winning a race and (ever so briefly) going hands free?
Get well soon Lizzie, then have strong words with the organisers.
I've got limited sympathy. It sucks when a rider gets hurt, but what the juddery fuck did she think she was doing there. Ah well lesson learnt, get well soon.
Hurrah for all the sad comments from people who've never won a race....
Have to agree - sadly she only had herself to blame as she was too busy celebrating and not looking at the road ahead. Quite frequently you see the road narrow or bend sharply after the finish of a stage for whatever reason, yet crashes like this are very very unusual
I do hope she makes a full recovery and the others she crashed into / caused to come off are also OK.
If she hadn't had her hands aloft, but had concentrated on bike control, this wouldn't have happened.
Avoiding those narrowing the road must have been a much less challenging task than many of the bends on the course, had she been concentrating.
Not to condone the actions of people on the course, but, prevention lay in her own hands, and it is unfair to put blame elsewhere.
And, furthermore, it looks if she came pretty close to losing the stage through an early celebration.
[[[[[[ Thanx, SIMON E., most illuminating, and if Lizzie A. crashed into Mick Bennett, was he unscathed?
On ITV you could see that the road narrowed on Lizzie's left shortly after the finish, then the small group of photographers narrowed the road further. No margin for error.
Photo accreditation & numbers allowed vary hugely between sporting and other event organisers. I have heard of pooling of work by photojournalists in the days of film but with the decline of staffers, picture editors and with costs slashed (it's far harder to make money from newspapers now), I think it's far more cut-throat these days. The papers want it for free, just like the punters do.
It doesn't help that every Joe with an iPhone thinks he's a gifted artist, though in fairness there are also many talented people who would never have made the effort in the days of film & darkroom.
But just how many 'togs do you need behind the finish line? If they're all standing in the same spot then they'll all want the same image. Photographer 1 won't opt for a wideangle image while snapper 2 goes for the tight crop and 3 the panning shot, partly because 1 and 3 are probably in the wrong place for that image to work but mainly because the tight crop of winner with arms aloft is the one that sells.
Women just can't ride in a straight line!!!!
Shite remark
Just seen the replays on the local news, (About Anglia), and it would seem that Lizzy lost control and collided with the race director, who was on the left of the road.
The Anglia pictures were filmed from well beyond the finish line, looking directly back to the line and show a lot more clearly what happened than the you tube clip you have above.
Crap happens, hope all the riders involved make a full and speedy recovery.
Having seen this from two angles now (It's on ITV also), it does look as though she immediately veers left as she celebrates, taking her into the gaggle of photographers/officials. As others have mentioned, it's pretty normal for photographers to be in such a position at the end of a race. Perhaps if they hadn't have been, she'd have stacked it into the barrier.
Alas, hope she's okay!
She does veer over to the left. You can see in the still that she's just about to run full on in to the older gentleman with gray hair (I presume, race organiser Mick Bennett). he appears to be a good way in to the road as there's also motorcycle inside the barriers (the rider has a black helmet on) and he's on the road side of that. It looks a pretty daft place to be that close to the finish. He was perhaps trying to keep the riders away from the motorcycle.
yep it certainly wasnt a member of the public as the course was sealed off about 10mins before the riders arrived and only pass holders were allowed there after that
basically they just put a line of masking tape on the road,not too far from the finish, but theres usually enough space for riders to navigate safely around them, which all the photographers are supposed to stand behind and a race official may well have been ensuring they did so as the road wasnt the widest for a bunch sprint which the whole stage was designed to produce, and there were alot of photographers trying to fit in there.
why they dont nominate just a couple of photographers to be pool photographers for the finish and share those photos with everyone, I dont know, because theyll all have got photos from the same angle, and the only shot they want is the winner lifting their arms, it makes no sense having multiple photographers all standing or crouching there taking the same photo, appreciate some teams hire photographers specifically to capture their own riders finishing for sponsors and so on, but its an obvious safety hazard.
I just hope Lizzie isnt badly hurt, as the other riders who came down were up and about quite quickly, albeit bashed and bruised,but they took the best part of 30mins before they even attempted to move Lizzie off the course.
I agree and have often thought the same about the huge number of photographers on motorbikes in some races. Why not put all those that have applied for accreditation in a hat and pick out a select few. At the finish line one photographer on each side of the line would be enough with a recess in the barriers for them to step into before the riders pass.
Because that's not how it works. Taking photos costs money (time, travel, equipment, etc) and few organisations are prepared to stump up the outlay nowadays. There will be the odd staff photographer from stock agencies like Getty but they are in business to sell the images for more than it cost to capture them. The rest will probably be freelance photographers who will be paying their own costs and also trying to make a living. No-one is interested in 'sharing' their images because they wouldn't be able to recover their costs. (I am a freelance stock photographer myself btw).
It's not the case that 'all the photos will be the same' anyway, even if shot from the same area. A tiny fraction of a second difference in pressing the shutter button can easily make the difference between an ordinary shot and an extraordinary shot, especially in a high-speed event like cycling. Sometimes it's skill and sometimes it's luck. You've probably got a window of about 2 seconds to capture the win. You can only use one camera/lens ... so are you going to go wide-angle from a low position ... or zoom in on the closing pack ... or big-zoom in on the head & shoulders of the winner and capture their expression? All very different images from the the same fraction of a second.
Well there were certainly some good photo opportunities with this crash ………… to sell on.
Looks like they were finishing into a funnel. As said above, I'm amazed this doesn't happen more often. Cycle race organisation always looks a complete shambles to the uninitiated (me).
Hope she's alright.
Whatever caused the fall. How does her back wheel come out and roll into the path of other riders? Inch forward and just after she can be seen on the deck you can see her rear wheel roll past her to bring down four riders.
It's not her back wheel, but her entire bike that crashes into and wipes out the other riders.
The back wheel must fall off as a consequence.
Watching it back there are 5 crashed bikes and four fallen riders in the top of the shot.
It's not her back wheel, but her entire bike that crashes into and wipes out the other riders.
The back wheel must fall off as a consequence.
Watching it back there are 5 crashed bikes and four fallen riders in the top of the shot.
There's a definite change in her direction once she's crossed the line, that doesn't look intended.
In my (wholly uneducated!) opinion it looks like she would have collided with the barrier if no-one had been stood there.
In any case, it looks to be a terrible accident & i hope everyone involved is OK.
She did veer to the left, but why are there people standing inside the barriers so soon after the line, don't they realise the speed that the riders will be travelling at?
Get well soon!
Photographers stand in such positions at most bike races including men's races where riders are travelling even faster. At big races such as the Tour de France there are huge groups of them. It is suprising these incidents don't happen more often. Photographer Taz Darling was seriously injured when riders crashed during a wet finish to Schelderprijs in 2012 and the regulations don't seem to have changed since.
Looks to me like she does a 'fist pump' to celebrate and then veers left and collides with the people (who are presumably officials).
If you step through around 3 secs she's clearly in a leftward trajectory.
Its kind of off-camera, but I would guess marshals and officials. I don't think they should take the blame for this one.
unlike.
Get well soon.
If you pause at 4 seconds it looks like a direct hit with a pedestrian. I just can't fathom some people's stupidity.
Lizzie hit race organiser Mick Bennett, who was presumably there to prevent the photographers encroaching further into the road and causing such an accident.
It's questionble whether the photographers should have been so close to the finish line on what looks like a narrow road, although Lizzie definitely seems to drift to her left. Fingers-crossed that she and the others affected are ok.
It amazes me that there aren't many more accident over the finish line. Why does there have to be so many wandering bodies at the line? I hope she is ok
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