Dylan Sunderland says he was lucky to walk away from an 80km/hr crash which ended his stint in the Tour de l'Avenir before it had really begun.
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The Inverell cyclist was competing with the Australian under 23 team in the French race last Friday, when a sponsor car caused him to careen into a 10 metre ditch. His bike was snapped into five pieces, but Dylan was amazed to come away with no broken bones.
“I was in a group of about six guys and we were chasing back the front group. They were probably 15, 20 seconds ahead of us. We probably would have caught them,” he said.
Reaching around 80km/hr in a downhill stretch, just 10km from the end of the stage, the riders scattered when a guest car – in what Dylan describes as “an act of stupidity” – suddenly pulled out in front of them.
“There was nowhere to go,” Dylan said. Two other cyclists sideswiped the car, but managed to stay on the road.
“I tried to get around the side of the car, but couldn’t get around and ended up down a 10 metre ditch.”
“I actually walked away from it pretty lucky,” he said.
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While he escaped broken bones, Dylan did end up with a severe cut across the front of his right ankle, which required 14 stitches. The injury caused ligament damage and the cyclist is stuck in a ‘moon boot’ for two weeks to isolate the ankle.
“It’s more annoying than anything,” he said.
He also has a few stitches on his left leg and a nasty scratch on his forehead. Dylan will take a break from riding for a while as he recovers, but plans to get back on the bike by the end of the year.
He admitted it was a disappointing end to his tour.
“It’s the biggest tour in the world for under 23 cyclists, and one of the most renowned tours for showing future riders. To end on the second mountain stage like that, with three more stages to go pretty much ended the tour before it really started for myself.
“So I didn’t really get an opportunity to even show what I could do or anything like that,” he said.
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The Australian team had bad luck throughout the tour, and only one rider finished the race without crashing.
“Just being in the under 23 racing, it’s really hectic and no one’s got any real respect for anyone else, because everyone’s just trying to get a result. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff going on. There’s not a whole lot of thought sometimes into people’s actions,” Dylan said.
“It’s a very bitter note to the end of the year, but it’s cycling and these things happen, and you’ve got to put it behind you and move on.”