Spanish brothers Gorka and Ion Izagirre both came down in a nasty crash during the Ormaiztegi cyclocross race.
Making their debut in Astana colours, the Izagirre brothers rode the Basque CX event on Sunday ahead of the start of the 2019 road season.
Both brothers retired after the crash, with Gorka needing treatment for a facial injury.
Their Astana team tweeted: “Despite a hard crash during a cyclocross race today, Ion and Gorka Izagirre are not seriously injured.
“Gorka only has four stitches in his eyebrow, but this won’t affect his start of the season.”
The crash appears to have been caused by Gorka as he rode onto a tight bridge from a muddy descent, as Ion is unable to avoid being caught up while riding behind.
Video from the collision shows that Gorka’s wheel seems to slip on the wet approach to the bridge, causing him to swerve into the wall and hitting his face on the brick.
Estreno accidentado pic.twitter.com/SQvqmWGkmp
— Mikel Sangroniz (@sangroniz_mikel) January 6, 2019
Ion tries to bail out to avoid hitting his brother, losing his wheel and sliding to a painful halt on top of the bridge.
Javier Ruiz de Larrinaga won the race, held in the birthplace of the Izagirre brothers, Ormaiztegi.
Bizarrely, the crash is not the first time the Izagirre brothers have pulled each other down in recent months.
During the final stage of the 2018 edition of Paris-Nice the brothers both crashed on a descent and their bikes became tangled, taking them out of the battle for the overall win.
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The Basque duo join Astana for 2019 from Vincenzo Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida team.
Both are due to open their road seasons at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in February.
Ion’s race calendar is expected to include a return to Paris-Nice and a tilt at the Giro d’Italia in May.
Gorka is believed to be also taking a swing at Paris-Nice but will focus on the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España during his 2019 season.
