Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez crashed directly into a roadside sign yet finished the first stage of the Tour de France, a rainy day full of crashes in Nice.
Lopez, the team leader for Astana, lost control of his bike at the start of a curve and skid on wet pavement into the sign on the other side of the road. Moments later, race footage showed Lopez standing next to the bike and the sign.
Teammate Ion Izagirre lent Lopez his bike to return to the race.
Lopez, a 26-year-old nicknamed Superman after fending off knifewielding thieves who tried to steal his bike during a training ride at age 16, finished third in the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana in 2018. He is making his Tour de France debut.
Other high-profile riders who crashed Saturday included top Frenchmen Julian Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot and Russian Pavel Sivakov, one of the top young riders for Team Ineos Grenadiers supporting defending champion Egan Bernal.
All of them finished the stage.
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