Miguel Ángel López crashes into road sign after riders neutralise racing on descent at Tour de France
Astana decided to ignore the will of the peloton and up the pace, but quickly slowed when their rider crashed
Miguel Ángel López collided with a road sign after the peloton opted to temporarily neutralise the racing on stage one of the Tour de France 2020.
Treacherous weather conditions around Nice for day one have resulted in countless crashes in the peloton, with riders unilaterally opting to temporarily call off the aggression as they descended the day's major climb.
As the peloton reached the crest of a climb at Aspremont with around 50km left to the line, Jumbo-Visma's Tony Martin gestured to the peloton to call for a neutralisation on the upcoming descent, to avoid further crashes.
While most teams were on board with the neutralisation, Astana appeared to disagree with the decision and they accelerated on the downhill section.
After stringing out on the road, the Kazakhstani team quickly regretted their decision when their general classification leader López lost the rear wheel on a gentle left-hand turn.
The Colombian was able to keep the bike upright by unclipping his inside foot, but he was still carrying too much speed and ran wide on the corner as his brakes didn't slow him in the wet conditions.
López ran off the road and went head-first into a road sign.
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Fortunately he appeared to escape any serious injury, while his team-mate Ion Izagirre handed him his bike to continue the race.
Earlier in the stage, Lòpez' compatriot Nairo Quintana showed some rapid reflexes when he crashed on a wet right-hand turn.
The Arkéa-Samsic rider was taken out when a rider went down in front of him and slid along the floor.
But he was quickly back on his feet and was able to re-attached his chain and get pedalling once again before the remains of the peloton had even passed.
>>> How to live stream the Tour de France: watch the Tour de France 2020 from anywhere
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) have also been caught in crashes.
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.