The crashes took a considerable toll on stage 2 of Paris-Nice on Monday, with medical updates from the teams revealing that Australian national champion Luke Durbridge (Jayco-AlUla), Florian Sénéchal (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural-RGA) had all walked away from the stage with collar-bone fractures.
Sénéchal was caught up in a mass fall at around 45km to go, his teammate Arnaud Démare, who came second in stage 1, was also involved but able to return to contest the sprint. Still the loss of Sénéchal took a toll, with Démare finishing seventh on stage 2.
The crash occurred on straight section of road but was just after the peloton had swept through a right hand bend. It was around a third of the way down the bunch and saw around a dozen riders touch-down, with others managing to stay upright by taking to the grass on the road side.
However, in the next crash the Australian road champion was not so lucky.
The crash occurred nearer to the back of the bunch this time as the pace picked up during the run to the intermediate sprint. As the rest of the peloton who were held up by the fall cleared Durbridge and also Sorarrain could be seen propping themselves against the barriers, both evidently in pain and nursing shoulders. Caja Rural-RGA confirmed in a medical update that Sorarrain had also fractured his clavicle in the fall.
