Tour de France Femmes 2022: Marta Cavalli out of race following horrific Stage 2 collision involving Nicole Frain

Marta Cavalli (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) has abandoned the Tour de France Femmes next a crash on an incident-strewn Stage 2 of the race.

What may have initially appeared a rather meek 136.4km flat stage from Meaux to Provins exploded into life with around 30km to go when the initial set of riders went down.

Soraya Paladin (Canyon/SRAM Racing), Ursa Pintar (UAE Team ADQ), Anya Louw (AG Insurance plan-NXTG) and Morgane Coston (Emotional.fr–Tornatech–GSC Blagnac) ended up among a group of riders to strike the deck in a messy collision though all had been in a position to remount.

Not very long just after, there was a different significant crash, this time involving Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange–Jayco) for the duration of which a slowing Cavalli took a vicious strike from a speeding Nicole Frain (Parkhotel Valkenburg) who had been desperately chasing the pack following the preliminary crash, seemingly unaware of the accident forward of her.

Following staying taken out, Cavalli lay on the street clutching her helmet and essential consideration but was thankfully ready to at some point remount and end the stage.

Talking later on, crew manager Stephen Delcourt confirmed that Cavalli was out of the race and absent to clinic to have her accidents witnessed to.

“She hesitated and preferred to proceed but the team said no,” he admitted. “We really don’t want to play with the daily life of a rider. Cycling is just aspect of daily life, not the priority.

“Now the health care provider and physio are with Marta and they have long gone to clinic for a scan and we want the best for her.

Describing the incident, Delcourt additional: “Marta was not in a fantastic placement, she did not want to take challenges at that period.

“One rider [Frain] came again after a crash, she failed to see Marta in the 2nd crash, and she arrived at 50kph even though Marta was at 5kph, and growth! I have no words. When you see photos like this, it is really difficult in my eyes.”

A even further crash noticed yet another FDJ rider Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig taken out as the bunch unsuccessfully tried to navigate a narrowing street on the technique to Provins.

Whilst not suffering any accidents like that of her workforce-mate, Uttrup Ludwig shed a important total of time on the GC leaders and now sits 1’38” off the tempo, all but ruling her out of contention in the race.

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