At the Ironman in Hamburg there was a serious accident on Sunday, a motorcyclist collided head-on with a cyclist
Photo: NDR
From the BZ editorial team
Horror crash at the Ironman in Hamburg!
At 8.45 a.m. on Sunday, a camera motorcycle crashed head-on into a cyclist on the Gauerter Hauptdeich in the Hamburg district of Spadenland.
The motorcyclist died as a result of the accident, the cyclist was seriously injured. 20 rescue workers and a rescue helicopter are in action, the police have closed the section of the route. According to “Sportschau” there are three seriously injured.
Police operations manager Curt Wenzel on ARD: “It’s a sad situation for such a big sporting event.”
Race goes on for now
Only nine athletes were able to continue the race as usual. All other participants first had to pause behind the scene of the accident. After the accident, the race was about to be stopped. A shortening of the race was then considered.
But: The race goes on anyway, the Ironman route will not be shortened. On the second lap of the bike race, the riders had to dismount in front of the scene of the accident, push the bike over a dyke and were able to continue the race from there.
It is not yet clear whether the race will be canceled after all.
Jan Frodeno (41) is also there. At his first Ironman race in almost two years, the Olympic champion and world record holder bids farewell to the German audience in Hamburg.
The broadcaster announced that Frodeno “most likely” does not want to end the competition. Accordingly, he could not imagine how he “should cross the finish line with a happy face in downtown Hamburg”. The ARD then broke off the live reporting.