Merida rider crashes heavily

Manama : The second of the Tour of Slovenia started in sunny weather at the green park Tivoli in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, but for Bahrain Merida Team it ended on a grey note as was the sky colour at the finish line in the centre of the capital after 169,9 km.

The stage should have been easy with two Cat. III climbs and a flat finish. In the middle of the stage, on the climbs, the Merida riders tried to do selection between sprinters and the race became interesting and dynamic. 

Unfortunately, on the descent from the second climb, Kanstantsin Siutsou badly fell and he was urgently taken to hospital. After the last climb, selection between sprinters was done. Sprinter Sonny Colbrelli stayed in front with the favourites for General Classification (GC). But all the other sprinters managed to neutralize advantage in the last 20 km. 30 km before the end of the race there was a storm with such heavy rain, that riders hardly even saw the road. 

Heavy rain lasted until the final lap and because of slippery road there were many crashes. Colbrelli barely avoided one crash, about 500 metres before the finish line, and so he lost his top position and finished seventh.

Unfortunately, Luka Pibernik was involved in one of the crashes at the very end of the race and he needed three stitches on part of the left shinbone and one at the elbow. Pibernik will most probably be able to continue the race on the queen stage.

After the return from the hospital, Bahrain Merida team doctor Marjan Koršič announced that Kanstantsin needed to be urgently operated on. He has a complicated fracture of the left femoral bone. In the next few days more information about the surgery and prospective view for the future will be given.

Siutsou’s injury will have consequences not only for this race but most of all for the Tour de France and the team wished Kanstantsin a speedy recovery and a return to racing as soon as possible.