Clavicles and concussions: EF Education-EasyPost lose two riders in one crash

EF Education-Easy Post lost two riders in one crash on stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve after Rui Costa and Marijn van den Berg were both forced to abandon the race.

The pair were neatly tucked into the peloton in the second half of the stage when Costa appeared to hit a pothole and then crash. Van den Berg was close to the former world champion and was unable to avoid the spill.

Costa was immediately treated at the side of the road and taken to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures of the right scapula and clavicle. He was also diagnosed with a concussion.

Read more: Riders top a jaw-dropping 118kph on Volta ao Algarve descent

Van den Berg was also assessed by the roadside and was initially cleared to race by the team and the race medical staff but, after a few kilometres of racing, the team noticed that the Dutch rider appeared to be struggling with concussion-like symptoms and pulled him from the race as a matter of precaution.

The team later released a press release that stated: “Van den Berg was initially cleared to continue by race medical staff and the team. After several more assessments over the following 10 minutes, the team removed van den Berg due to concussion-like symptoms.

"He is now in the team’s internal concussion protocol and will return to light training when cleared. We wish them both safe and swift recoveries.”

The incident left the team with just five riders remaining in the race. At the finish in Tavira, sports director Ken Vanmarcke spoke to GCN about the day. It must be pointed out that he was not in complete knowledge of the full diagnosis of both riders at that moment in time and was still awaiting information from the medical team and the hospital. 

“Rui was aware, and conscious, but other than that, he was complaining about pain in his right shoulder. I saw that he was awake and that he could answer my questions, but I don’t know more than that,” Vanmarcke said.

“Marijn fell on his chin and I don’t know more than that. He was okay, and he started riding again. But we saw that he wasn’t like he should have been, so I decided to take him out.

Read more: Volta ao Algarve stage 3 race report and results

"First of all, I checked on him with the doctor as well, but then I decided for safety it was better to take him out. They’re doing another check on him in the bus now but we’re waiting on the results. It was a shit day.”

The American squad still have options for the final two days of racing in Portugal. Stefan Bissegger is a contender for the stage 4 individual time trial but he will be up against it with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) both vying for the win.

Ben Healy will target the final uphill stage and a possible GC result. The Irish rider is currently in 16th place, 36 seconds down on race leader Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe).

“We have Bissegger for stage 4 and then Ben and Mikkel Honoré are fighting for the GC," said Vanmarcke. "We’re going to keep our focus, that’s for sure. It’s just a bad day.”