(Reuters) - French rider Nicolas Debeaumarche of Cofidis suffered serious back injuries after being involved in a crash on stage three of the Tour of Poland on Wednesday.
Debeaumarche went off the road on a descent and collided with a concrete water duct, with 54 kilometres remaining in the 156.5km ride from Walbrzych to Duszniki-Zdroj, when the rider was part of a 10-man breakaway group at the front of the race.
"Nicolas was taken to hospital, he suffered vertebral fractures and remains in hospital," a Cofidis spokesperson said.
Belgian Thibau Nys won the stage, with Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard in the overall lead. Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike finished second in this year's Tour de France after a three-month layoff following a crash at the Tour of the Basque Country.
There have been a number of serious incidents at the Tour of Poland in recent years. Belgian Bjorg Lambrecht died after a crash in 2019.
In 2020, Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen was put in a medically-induced coma after crashing into the barriers at the finish line after a collision with compatriot Dylan Groenewegen, who was disqualified from the race for dangerous behaviour.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
