Tour de France Femmes 2022: Marta Cavalli out of race after horrific Stage 2 collision involving Nicole Frain

Marta Cavalli (FDJ Suez Futuroscope) has abandoned the Tour de France Femmes following a crash on an incident-strewn Stage 2 of the race.

What might have initially looked a relatively meek 136.4km flat stage from Meaux to Provins exploded into life with around 30km to go when the first set of riders went down.

Soraya Paladin (Canyon/SRAM Racing), Ursa Pintar (UAE Team ADQ), Anya Louw (AG Insurance-NXTG) and Morgane Coston (Emotional.fr–Tornatech–GSC Blagnac) were among a group of riders to hit the deck in a messy collision although all were able to remount.

Not long after, there was another heavy crash, this time involving Amanda Spratt (BikeExchange–Jayco) during which a slowing Cavalli took a vicious hit from a speeding Nicole Frain (Parkhotel Valkenburg) who had been desperately chasing the pack following the initial crash, seemingly unaware of the accident ahead of her.

After being taken out, Cavalli lay on the road clutching her helmet and required attention but was thankfully able to eventually remount and finish the stage.

Speaking afterwards, team manager Stephen Delcourt confirmed that Cavalli was out of the race and gone to hospital to have her injuries seen to.

“She hesitated and wanted to continue but the team said no,” he admitted. “We don’t want to play with the life of a rider. Cycling is just part of life, not the priority.

“Now the doctor and physio are with Marta and they have gone to hospital for a scan and we want the best for her.

Describing the incident, Delcourt added: “Marta was not in a good position, she didn’t want to take risks at that period.

“One rider [Frain] came back after a crash, she didn’t see Marta in the second crash, and she arrived at 50kph while Marta was at 5kph, and boom! I have no words. When you see images like this, it’s really hard in my eyes.”

A further crash saw another FDJ rider Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig taken out as the bunch unsuccessfully attempted to navigate a narrowing road on the approach to Provins.

Although not suffering any injuries like that of her team-mate, Uttrup Ludwig lost a significant amount of time on the GC leaders and now sits 1’38” off the pace, all but ruling her out of contention in the race.

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