The moment when Remco Evenepoel crashed. Photo / Screengrab
The cycling world held their collective breath this morning after a horror crash saw young sensation Remco Evenepoel fly over a bridge at Il Lombardia in Italy.
With 40 kilometres to go in the race, the 20-year-old was part of the leading group of riders, which included Kiwi George Bennett, when he misjudged a corner and went tumbling over a bridge and into the ravine below.
The images left fans stunned, with the drop to the ravine looking significant, and the race doctors rushing to the scene.
Fortunately, Evenepoel was conscious, and was immobilised as a precaution and taken to the hospital, with his team reporting that he had suffered a fractured pelvis.
The crash comes just 10 days after Evenepoel's teammate Fabio Jakobsen was placed in an induced coma, of which he has since come out of, after a sickening crash at the Tour of Poland.
Evenepoel went on to win that tour - paying tribute to Jakobsen - and has taken cycling by storm this year, winning all four stage races he had entered, despite only being in his second season as a professional.
He was favoured to win his first monument this morning as well, and was well in the mix before his disastrous accident, with Jakob Fuglsang going on to take victory, and Bennett finishing in second - the first New Zealander to claim a podium finish at a monument.
There was still more drama to come before the race concluded though, with farcical scenes as a car entered the course in the final kilometres, riding into the path of German champion Max Schachmann and causing a crash.
Schachmann got back up and finished in seventh.
A three-week inquest in Hamilton is investigating the Olympian's death in 2021 aged 24.