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 hard in a bike race in Belgium on Sunday.

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

He suffered a fractured collarbone, a fractured rib, and a bruised hand, his team said in an update Monday.

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

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

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 scary moment the driver hit Broeckx:

UPDATE (Monday, February 29, 1:48 p.m.): Broeckx's team issued the following statement, saying Broeckx underwent surgery and will miss the spring races (emphasis added):

Stig Broeckx crashed hard yesterday at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne after he was hit by a motor at about 30 kilometres from the finish. The Lotto Soudal rider has a fractured collarbone, a fractured rib and a bruised hand. Yesterday evening Broeckx underwent surgery in Deinze. This afternoon he could already go home. The rider will miss out on the spring races.

During the chase on the front group Lotto Soudal rider Stig Broeckx moved to the right of the road after pulling at the front to take a look at the riders in the group, when he got hit by a motor rider that was passing by the group of riders. Lotto Soudal regrets the collision and the speed of the motor while passing by the group of riders. The team emphasizes that the road was wide enough and wonders if the motor rider should have been on that place at that time.

The team loses an important rider who was part of the Classics core and who did a great job on Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday evening Lotto Soudal filed a complaint. The team and rider await the further investigation.

Lotto Soudal hopes that after the succession of events the past few months and because of what happened yesterday during Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne the theme ‘safety’ won’t only be further discussed between organisations, teams and their interest groups, federations and the international cycling union, but that soon also concrete measures will be taken to increase the safety of the riders.

The race organizer apologized, saying it would try harder to ensure that there were safer racing conditions in future races, Nieuwsblad reported, but refrained from making any further comments about the circumstances that led to the accident.

Here's Broeckx racing in 2014:

Fellow pro cyclist Manuel Quinziato tweeted that riders should not be passed at high speed:

UPDATE (Monday, February 29, 11:44 a.m.): The general manager of one of the sport's biggest teams, BMC Racing, wrote an open letter to the International Cycling Union (UCI) calling for improved safety for riders:

On September 1, 2015, less than one year ago, I wrote a similar letter after an alarming number of crashes involving vehicles had taken place in the peloton since the beginning of the 2015 season. Despite my reaching out for help at that time, the problem became even more prominent as the season went on and we watched in disbelief. Now here I am again asking the powers to be to take notice.

This weekend we saw two serious incidents take place that involved vehicles on the race course taking down riders on live television at La Drôme Classic in France and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in Belgium. Incredible! The riders deserve far more respect than what they are receiving from those who are responsible for protecting their safety. We all understand that there exists an element of danger in the sport of cycling from a number of places and conditions but no rider expects to be run down from behind by an over-enthusiastic pilot on a closed race course. Disgraceful!

This has got to stop before the headlines in the future are of a more disturbing nature than what we have seen in 2015 and now again in 2016.

To the UCI, I am turning to you for answers and solutions.

Respectfully,

Jim Ochowicz

President/General Manager, BMC Racing Team

Sunday's crash was wthe 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:

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:

Via Sporza.be >>

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