Tom Boonen, Etixx-Quick-Step’s Belgian sprinter, is likely out of the Abu Dhabi Tour after a crash during the second stage of the inaugural race.
Boonen was part of a multi-rider crash 70 kilometres into the 129km stage on Friday thatalso saw the end of Theo Bos’s stage.
“[Boonen] sustained traumatic brain injury with a few seconds loss of consciousness that required hospitalisation for further assessment,” the race doctors said in a statement.
Boonen lay on the road, entangled in his bike, for a bit before race doctors rushed to him. He eventually got up and walked into an ambulance.
Bos sustained lacerations and bruises to his left forearm and shoulder and also was taken to hospital for treatment.
Boonen, who finished second in the first stage on Thursday, is a former UCI World Road Race Champion.
Jim Songezo, of MTN-Qhubeka and the winner of the white jersey in the first stage, was also involved in the crash but managed to get back on the cycle and finish the stage.
“There was a lot of crosswind going out and coming back, but nothing to cause any trouble. I was just behind him and I saw him hit something on the road,” Songezo said.
“I’m OK, just that my hand is not so good. I managed to finish the stage, so it is OK. Tom looked really bad but I really couldn’t see what happened.”
Boonen’s teammate Stijn Vandenbergh managed to avoid the crash.
“We were riding on the left side of the road because there was wind from the right, and there was some debris on the road,” he said. “Tom and I passed the peloton but then I think Bos of MTN crashed and I just missed him but Tom couldn’t avoid it.”
Boonen, 34, won a world championship in 2005 and is known as a strong sprinter. He has won six stages in the Tour de France as well as a pair of stages in the 2008 Vuelta a Espana.
Boonen has shown an affinity for racing in the region with Four Tour of Qatar wins, most recently in 2012.
The day was not over for Etixx-Quick-Step as Fabio Sabatini finished third in the stage.
“We did the lead-out, because Boonen crashed and Sabatini finished third. So, in the end, a good day after all that happened,” Vandenbergh said.
There was another crash during the race, at the 42km mark between Michael Schwarzmann and Iain Paton, though that was without significant injury.
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