Greig Leach

Both Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo Visma) looked back to try and see what had happened. A rider can hear a crash happening behind them and can usually tell how bad it was by the sound. These two had Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) on their wheel as the trio rode away from the chasing peloton. As they caught a bit of a draft off of one of the race offical motos and then flipped around to pass, Alaphilippe had a momentary lapse of atention. That split second of talking to his team car on the radio meant that he ran his shoulder into the motorcycle or his driver and flipped his bike head over heals. That is him lying on the road where he came to rest after somersaulting over himself and his bike. He wasn't going to be rejoining the race. Normally, I don't paint crashes, and I really am focusing on his competitors reactions rather than his obvious pain, but this one change the profile of the remaining 35 kilometers of the Ronde Van Vlaanderen. And not to my preferences.