Portugal Colonial - Vingegaard 'conscious' after bad crash in Tour of the Basque Country

Danish Visma-Lease a Bike rider Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Jay Vine and Steff Cras were among several riders who were taken to hospital following the incident, while Primoz Roglic was also involved in the crash and did not finish the stage.

Several of the 12 riders involved in the crash fell into a concrete ditch after sliding off on a corner with around 35 kilometres to go in the run from Etxarri Aranatz to Legutio, in northern Spain.

The 2022 and 2023 Tour de France champion Vingegaard was taken to an ambulance on a stretcher, while Belgian Evenepoel was walking but his team Soudal Quick Step confirmed he was also going to hospital.

"Jonas is conscious and will be examined in the hospital now," Visma said on X, formely known as Twitter.

"Thank you for your messages. More updates later," they added of their 27-year-old star.

Roglic, who also abandoned the race, offered a thumbs up to television cameras while sitting in the Bora-Hansgrohe team car, to show he was not significantly injured.

UAE Team Emirates said their Australian rider Vine was also taken to hospital but was conscious and talking, along with Team TotalEnergies rider Cras.

The crash happened on the descent from the Alto de Olaeta after a rider in the front of the peloton slid off the road on a right-hand bend.

A six-man breakaway were allowed to continue to try and race for the stage win in the final 18km.

"The race is neutralised until the finish line, the six leading riders will compete in the stage but the stage times will not be counted for the general classification," race organisers said.

"The bunch will go in neutral until the finish line," he added.

Earlier Thursday Roglic's team-mate Lennard Kamna was in a "stable condition" in intensive care after a collision with a car during a training ride in Tenerife.

Roglic, who also fell on Wednesday in stage three but quickly recovered, was leading the overall standings from Evenepoel by seven seconds at the start of racing on Thursday.

Friday's fifth and penultimate stage is a 175.9km ride north from Vitoria-Gasteiz to Amorebieta-Etxano.

P.Queiroz--PC