Mauri Vansevenant and Rémi Cavagna recovering after car hit them at training camp

The French road race champion suffered a fractured L1 vertebrae with the Belgian breaking his thumb

Rémi Cavagna
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rémi Cavagna and Mauri Vansevenant are recovering after being injured when they were hit by a car at the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl training camp in Spain on Wednesday, December 8.

Cavagna has undergone surgery, which was successful at the IMSKE Hospital in Valencia with the French road race champion now having to stay in hospital for a while to be monitored.

On the other hand, Vansevenant was flown back to Belgium from the camp in Calpe. However, he is already back riding his bike on the turbo trainer with his thumb bandaged.

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"Unlike Rémi, the damage is all in all not too bad for me and I don't have to undergo any surgery," Vansevenant told Het Laatste Nieuws.

"We had just taken some group photos in our new 2022 outfits and were continuing on a slightly downhill two-lane track.

"Suddenly a small car was ignoring the right-of-way rules and coming onto the main road from a side path. We had to close everything but three riders, including Rémi and I, could no longer avoid a crash."

The 22-year-old described the crash as "disappointing" but hopes he will be back soon.

"Luckily my legs were not hit and I can more or less maintain my condition. The second team internship, at the beginning of January, will certainly not be in jeopardy."

Both riders had a solid season with Vansevenant riding his first full season with the team in 2021 after joining in July the year before. He completed his first Grand Tour at the Vuelta a España

He also rode the Olympic road race, Tour de Suisse and just missed out on a top 10 at the Tour of the Basque Country as well as his first career win at GP Industria & Artigianato.

Cavagna has a few top 10s come his way in some big races such as the European Championship time trial, three stages at the Giro d'Italia and a second place at Paris-Nice as well as wins at the Tour de Romandie, French road race and the Tour of Poland.

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Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.