The Tour de France is one of the most grueling and physically demanding sporting events on the planet, and spectators often make things even more dangerous for the competitors. Before the event even officially began, one of the sport’s top cyclists suffered a horrible injury as a result of a collision with a spectator.
As European sports journalist Danny Kelly reported on social media, elite cyclist Jan Hirt suffered a pretty terrible injury during the warmup ahead of the first day of the event after he was knocked from his bike by a spectator’s backpack.
“Before the 3500km have even started, in the warm-up, Jan Hirt knocked from his bike by a spectator’s backpack. Cut lip, broken teeth. He’s started, but already struggling. No other event like it,” Kelly said in a post on X, the social media website that was formerly known as Twitter.
Day 1 @LeTour. Before the 3500km have even started, in the warm-up, Jan Hirt knocked from his bike by a spectator's backpack. Cut lip, broken teeth. He's started, but already struggling. No other event like it. pic.twitter.com/94yoNPOLE1
— Danny Kelly (@dannykellywords) June 29, 2024
Hirt is one of the top cyclists in the sport after just winning the 2022 Tour of Oman and recently finishing in eight place at the prestigious Giro d’Italia.
It seems like he’s going to try to continue to compete at the Tour de France despite the grizzly injury. We’ll have to see how he performs.
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