Sports

Driver of medical motorcycle hits pro cyclist, sends him brutally crashing to the ground

The driver of a medical motorcycle struck a cyclist from behind and sent him crashing to the ground in a bike race in Belgium on Sunday.

The rider, Belgian Stig Broeckx, 25, was taken to the hospital, his team said.

The motorbike driver, part of the official race support, did not stop.

Broeckx was left sitting upright on the ground and in shock.

It was not immediately clear what his injuries were.

Broeckx had been riding on the front of the peloton before drifting over toward the right side of the road.

The motorbike driver, who could be seen coming up behind Broeckx, failed to stop or to move around the cyclist.

Broeckx rides for the Belgian Lotto Soudal team and was racing in the Kurne-Brussels-Kurne semi-classic, one of the opening races of Belgium’s famed cobbled-classic season.

Here’s the moment the driver hit Broeckx:

Sporza/YouTube

It’s the latest in a number of dramatic crashes involving riders and cars and motorcycles.

Last year, a motorist driving an official race-support vehicle struck a cyclist in the Tour of Flanders, one of Belgium’s largest annual sporting events:

Poor @jessesergent knocked down by car at #RVV. pic.twitter.com/TpRMxb6Dnm

— daniel mcmahon (@cyclingreporter) April 5, 2015

In the 2011 Tour de France, a French television car crashed into riders, sending one of them flying into barbed wire:

At the 2015 Tour of Spain, cycling star Peter Sagan was struck by the driver of a race motorbike. Sagan finished the stage but then quit the three-week race.

You can watch a little more of Broeckx’s crash below:

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