Richie suffered road rash but escaped any broken bones in his crash. Initial tests cleared him of a concussion, but our medical team will continue to monitor him in the coming days.

Richie’s teammates decided to support the former Olympic champion in the race. Ben Healy and Neilson Powless, both tired, chose to work together to set Richie up for the finale.

“We had high hopes with three big riders coming into the race,” said Head Sports Director Charly Wegelius.

“For Ben, it was obviously one week or one race too long after a long, long season with a lot of highs, including his Tour de France stage win, days in the yellow jersey, and recent third place at worlds. Neilson was also struggling a little bit. Going for goals like this late in the year, you always run the risk of running out of gas, and that's what happened. Richie was handling a bit of fatigue as well. We tried to keep his week as light as possible. He was performing well late in the race, and then he had that crash, and that was the end of it. That’s cycling. We hoped for more, but I am glad that Richie’s injuries don’t seem to be as serious as they could have been and he shouldn’t be held back this winter.”

Our squad will now rest up for the final races of the season. Tomorrow, our young riders will take on the Trofeo Tessile & Moda - Valdengo Oropa. We soon have squads heading to the Tour of Guangxi and the Japan Cup.

Wish them luck!