73-year-old British woman charged for Giant-Alpecin road crash

Spanish police in Alicante have charged and released a 73-year-old British woman who was involved in the Giant-Alpecin training crash incident on Saturday. With an investigation currently underway, the police would not release her name.

The incident left six professional cyclists and their bikes scattered and broken on the local road. The scene inland from the Costa Blanca looked like a “battlefield,” according to the team's Ramon Sinkeldam.

He was injured in the incident with 2015 Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix winner John Degenkolb, Warren Barguil, Chad Haga, Fredrik Ludvigsson and Max Walscheid.

Degenkolb and Haga remain in hospital. The former underwent surgery on his arm and hand to save his finger and Haga had surgery on his neck and chin and faces more work on an eye socket fracture.

>>> “The group panicked, a car came straight at us, there was a lot of shouting”

On the sunny Saturday afternoon, the woman crossed from the opposite side of the CV-720 provincial road leading to Alicante, near Benigembla, and collided with the cyclists head on. A source working on the investigation said that she was driving a British-style car with the steering wheel on the right side.

Alicante police charged her with imprudence and reckless driving but said that the charges could yet change.

Though not releasing her name, police explained that the woman lives in Spain six months of the year and six months at home in Great Britain. Guardia Civil de Tráfico de Alicantes said in a brief statement: "We can't released information with the investigation open."