- Quick-Step Floors’ Laurens De Plus crashed terrifyingly during Il Lombardia
- On the Sormano descent he misjudged a bend and went over a roadside barrier
- His team later confirmed he escaped serious injury despite the horrific fall
- The race was won by home favourite Vincenzo Nibali with a late solo break
Quick-Step Floors have confirmed that Laurens De Plus was not seriously injured in a horrifying crash during Il Lombardia.
Belgian rider, De Plus, was part of the breakaway at the season’s final monument. The group were still clear on the Sormano descent when De Plus misjudged a bend whilst chasing Mikel Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale), going straight over the barriers and down a steep drop on the other side.
The descent was once described by De Plus’ team-mate Dan Martin as ‘one of the most dangerous downhills of any WorldTour racing’. Fortunately for De Plus his fall was not as steep as it seemed from the terrifying TV pictures.
Laurens De Plus was not seriously injured in a horrifying crash during Il Lombardia
Fortunately for De Plus his fall was not as steep as it seemed from the terrifying TV pictures
The Belgian was taken to hospital to be checked out but did not suffer any serious injury
Quick-Step later confirmed that De Plus was speaking and was not hurt too seriously.
On Saturday afternoon, the Belgian team posted a short statement on Twitter, it said: ‘We just talked with Laurens De Plus, who fortunately has no serious injuries after that earlier crash and is on his way to the hospital.’
In the race itself, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) delivered a home victory for the Italian crowd.
in the race, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) delivered a home victory for the Italian crowd
The Shark of Messina attacked on the penultimate climb of the day to take a solo win in Como.
Nibali had bridged across to a move by Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) on the climb to Civiglo, before distancing his French rival on the descent and holding off the chasing pack on the run in to the final climb.
Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) took second place with an attack from the chase group, with Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) sprinting to third place.