Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) broke his collarbone on stage 1 of the Renewi Tour, crashing closely on the road with Tim Merlier after the Soudal-QuickStep rider swung towards him as they sprinted throughout the Bilzen end in fourth and fifth.
Merlier ā who could possibly be seen placing his fingers up in what regarded like remonstration as Groenewegen lay on the bottom in ache and distressed ā was relegated to the again of the lead bunch by the race jury for the transfer within the dash. That shifted him from fourth to 83rd place on stage 1 however there can be extra alternatives for Merlier. His crew expects that he’ll have the ability to begin on Thursday, escaping the laborious fall that left him snarled with Groenewegen with ‘some abrasions’.
The race, nevertheless, is over for Groenewegen who was spearheading Jayco-AlUla’s stage profitable hopes on the 5 stage Belgian tour.
“Sadly following the crash on the end line of stage 1 Renewi Tour, an x-ray has confirmed that Groenewegen has fractured his collarbone and he’s prone to have surgical procedure within the coming days,” mentioned Jayco-AlUla in a medical replace.
The Renewi Tour marked Groenewegen’s return to racing after the Tour de France, the place he gained on stage 6 and continued a run of success which noticed his safe victory at Ronde van Limburg in Could, a stage on the Tour of Slovenia and the Dutch street race championships in June earlier than snagging the Grand Tour stage win in Dijon in July.
He was trying to proceed his prime step visits at Renewi, however on what turned out to be his first and final alternative on the 2024 version of the race Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) swept up stage 1 forward of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis), whereas Groenewegen was moved as much as fourth after Merlier was relegated.
The Jayco-AlUla crew’s most important purpose earlier than the crash had been stage wins with Groenewegen, although one other was to see if they may assist Kell O’Brien to a excessive general putting. That agenda additionally did not go precisely as hoped on Wednesday because the Australian misplaced 28 seconds on stage 1, although at the very least there was higher information for the squad in Spain with Eddie Dunbar sweeping up the stage 11 victory on the Vuelta a EspaƱa.
The Renewi Tour now strikes on to a 15.4km particular person time trial on stage 2.
_1701721107.jpg "Xander Zayas understands that a title shot is more than a win away")