The Italian bike professional Filippo Baroncini was transferred to an artificial coma after its severe fall on the third stage of the Poland tour. Tour-de-France winner Tadej Pogacar’s teammate suffered several facial and collarbone fractures in the fall on Wednesday. It is now to be flown to Italy for an operation, as the Cyclingnews portal reports. For this, Baroncini, who was initially conscious, was put into the artificial coma.
On the third stage, a small group had fallen a good 22 kilometers before the finish. The jury then neutralized the race for 15 minutes. In addition to Baroncini, the Polish veteran Rafal Majka and the Italian Antonio Tiberi were also affected by the fall.
Bad falls in the past
In the past, several bad falls had overshadowed the tour. The Belgian talent Bjorg Lambrecht died in 2019 after a fall against a concrete construction.
A year later, a worse crash caused horror in the finish sprint of the first stage when Dutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen had pushed his compatriot Fabio Jakobsen into a barrier at high speed. Jakobsen was in the artificial coma in the meantime, lost almost all of the teeth and had to be operated on several times. Groenewegen was blocked for nine months.