After 65 kilometres in what was supposed to be the deciding stage in the Ardennes, two motorriders part of the caravan tried to pass the peloton during a descent by using a cycling path. When that cycling path suddenly stopped they both crashed into the peloton, taking 19 riders with them.
Ludvigsson, Asselman, Guardini and Skjerping were taken to hospital. Pieter Jacobs broke two vertebrae.
But Stig Broeckx is worst of. The young Lotto-Soudal rider was flown to hospital in Aachen, where he is in coma in the ICU. During KBK this year, Stig Broeckx also got hit by a motordriver.
After what seems like the gazillionth moto-crash this year, the peloton went on strike. The rest of the stage was cancelled.
UPDATE via Sporza
Two bleeds in his brain, a fractured eye-socket.
"It was clear immediately after the crash that Stig had a head injury and needed to be taken to a neurological centre", says Lotto team doc Servaas Bingé. "In Aachen they took a scan, that showed that Stig has two bleeds in his brain. He's in a non-artificial comatose condition,but at this moment he does not require surgery. He doesn't have a skull fracture, but he does have a fractured eye-socket. That'll need to be looked after later."
"At this moment it is very difficult to give a prognosis as far a full recovery is concerned. His condition will be very closely monitored the following 24 hours."