Tour de France Femmes: Dramatic crash in peloton sees flurry of riders wiped out on Stage 5

An enormous crash wiped out a chunk of the peloton on Stage 5 at the Tour de France Femmes, with Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) leaving the race in an ambulance. As the race ambled from Bar-le-Luc to Saint-die-des-Vosges, an incident in the middle of the bunch caused a domino effect that took out a flurry of riders. Ad/> It left dozens of riders in a mass pile-up, with those involved having to untangle themselves from bike frames to break free.

Tour de France Femmes'A huge step forward' — Deignan hails Tour de France Femmes opportunity for women's cycling8 HOURS AGO Norsgaard, a key lieutenant for pre-race favourite Annemiek van Vleuten, was among the wounded. Although she was able to stand, she was in significant discomfort and was forced to head to hospital. SD Worx duo Lotte Kopecky and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak were also caught up in the crash, with the latter having her right arm bandaged and treated by the medical car while riding.

‘You have to be realistic’ – Vos under no illusions over keeping yellow jersey How Ten Hag inspired Jumbo's masterplan to topple Pogacar at Tour /> “This is the danger when riders become relaxed in the bunch and you can almost be fooled into a false sense of security," said Dani Christmas on Eurosport commentary. «If you’re too relaxed, if riders aren’t concentrating, then crashes can happen. The speed in the bunch must have been so high for so many riders to have been impacted.” Stage 5 was both the longest of the race and interestingly, longer than the designated maximum distance for women’s races set by the UCI.

— — - Stream the Tour de France Femmes live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk. Tour de France FemmesTDF Femmes: How to watch