Quick-Steps Floors rider Laurens De Plus escaped without serious injuries after he suffered a horrendous crash at Il Lombardia, flying over road-side barriers after misjudging a corner.
The second rider on the road on the descent off the Muro di Sormano, De Plus was chasing hard on the technical descent as he attempted to make contact with Mickael Cherel, the lone leader who was 20 seconds ahead.
However disaster struck when the Belgian rider badly misjudged a left-hand corner midway down the descent with 35km left in the race.
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De Plus carried too much speed into the corner, before hitting the breaks, locking up the back wheel, hitting the roadside barriers and going somersaulting over the top and out of view of the cameras.
With his bike flying off in the other direction, the fall looked bad, but thankfully medical services were quickly on the scene with team-mate Dries Devenyns also stopping to help care for his team-mate.
Remarkably De Plus suffered no serious injuries in the crash, and was taken to hospital for further checks.
