Dutchwoman Eva van Agt, who fell heavily in the final of the second stage of the Tour de France Women on Tuesday in Mauriac, suffers from a concussion, according to the medical press release for the race. Breaking away 40 kilometers from the line with her compatriots Yara Kastelijn and Anouska Koster, the runner from the Jumbo formation missed a downhill turn to violently hit a metal slide, four kilometers from the line.
Conscious, she was taken care of by a medical team before being evacuated to the Mauriac hospital center. The second stage of the Tour de France Women between Clermont-Ferrand and Mauriac was marred by a series of falls, less spectacular and less serious than that of Van Agt however.
Capricious weather and cascading waterfalls
The winner of the stage, the German Liane Lippert fell without consequences even before the real start, in the peloton following the fictitious start. A little later, it was the defending champion and favorite of the event, the Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten, who found herself on the ground in the ascent of the Côte des Plaines, the main difficulty of the day at mid-race.
But it was especially during the last hour of the race that the falls increased due to a road surface made very slippery by heavy showers. Race doctors were called in seven times to treat minor injuries, most often to the arms and legs.