Another year, another rider hit by a motorbike. This time, Belgian rider Stig Broeckx fell victim to a medical bike during the closing 35km of Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
It appeared the Lotto-Soudal rider was just moving out from the front of the peloton and looking back towards the other riders to assess the race situation, when the bike approached from the right hand side.
Broeckx clearly didn’t see the motorbike coming and the drive looked only to swerve round the 25-year-old rather than slow down as he approached him.
Reports suggest that despite getting back on his bike, he quickly abandoned and was taken to hospital to assess his injuries.
The incident comes after another high-profile collisions between riders and race vehicles in 2015, with Jesse Sergent being hit by a Shimano neutral service car at the Tour of Flanders, Peter Sagan being taken down by a motorbike at the Vuelta a España and Greg Van Avermaet suffering a similar fate at the the Clasica San Sebastian.
