Another heavy crash at Vuelta a San Juan – this time caused by a dog

The second stage of the Vuelta a San Juan was marred by another avoidable crash.

This time the breakaway were the riders affected when a dog darted out across the road.

Footage of the incident has been circulating on Twitter, showing two riders falling badly in their attempts to avoid the dog.

The incident follows a chaotic final to stage one, in which a spectator caused a fall by getting in the way of the peloton inside the final 5km.

Stage two of the Vuelta a San Juan, from Pocito to Pocito, was eventually won by Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), who will be relieved to take an early victory after a mixed 2019 season.

The 168.7km stage looped around the Pocito department of San Juan with a rapid and wide run to the line perfect for the pure sprinters.

But with around 30km to race, the nine-rider breakaway were caught up in the incident when a dog ran in front of them.

The first rider in the line managed to avoid the incident but second wheel, Robinson Ruiz (Peru) wasn’t so lucky. He wasn’t able to miss the dog and went down, causing the rider behind him to also fall and land on top of him.

Ruiz was able to get back on his bike, but finished the stage back in the bunch.

TV coverage also showed the dog appeared to be fine, retreating to the side of the road after the misadventure.

This incident followed a huge crash on stage one with around 3.5km left to race.

The dash for the line was marred by a major collision from the line, when a fan stood too close to the peloton clipped a rider and sent him across the peloton.

The chain reaction saw a large group of riders go down as the bunch was split in half.

Among those who crashed was Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck – Quick-Step).

Evenepoel finished 1-16 down on the stage winner after the crash, but the race jury later decided to neutralise the time gaps caused by the fall.

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Vuelta a San Juan is a seven-stage race around the San Juan province in western Argentina.

The 2.Pro-ranked race attracts cycling stars, including Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step) who notched up two stage wins in last year’s edition.