Tour de France: Jack Bauer taken down in crash involving team car and motorbike
New Zealand rider and Nils Eekhoff both fall at pinch point along course.
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Jack Bauer was left angered and shaken by a bizarre crash during stage 18 of the Tour de France, with the BikeExchange-Jayco rider coming down while he was chasing back onto the bunch.
Bauer was caught out by a freak combination of events with just over 95 kilometers left to race. A sudden narrowing of the road and a decision by a race motorbike to suddenly stop combined to throw the Dutch rider Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM) to the ground.
Bauer was a couple of seconds further back, close behind a media motorbike. The latter jammed on when a UAE Team Emirates car slowed suddenly at that same pinch point, filling a gap that Bauer would otherwise have been able to slip through.
He hit the back window of the car and clattered to the ground, then rose to his feet and gesticulated angrily at the motorbike.
It drove off, with Bauer then walking several paces down the road in apparent shock and frustration, then turning around to walk back towards his bike.
He shouted as he walked past the TV camera, addressing either the departed media moto or the UAE Team Emirates car.
“My gosh, is this the first Tour de France you have driven in?” he said.
Bauer and Eekhoff both received medical treatment from the doctor’s car after their falls. Fortunately, their wounds appeared to be superficial.
The two motorbikes were later confirmed as being expelled from the race.
Jack Bauer kan hard remmende auto niet meer ontwijken #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/juiiJXCsda
— Sporza 🚴 (@sporza_koers) July 21, 2022
