"We wanted to stop the race": Tour of Poland camera motorbike rider crashes into fans, four taken to hospital

Four people including two children were injured and taken to hospital after a camera motorbike, being ridden as part of the support to the Tour of Poland WorldTour race, crashed into fans on the roadside of yesterday's fifth stage.

Organisers confirmed the incident happened on the final lap and saw two adults and two children "immediately taken to hospital as a precaution", although none of the injuries suffered are thought to be "significant".

"Three have already left the hospital, while the last one will remain under observation overnight," the race said in a statement released on social media.

Official statement. pic.twitter.com/HjHx2KTX75

— Tour de Pologne (@Tour_de_Pologne) August 2, 2023

The motorbike rider and cameraman are both from France and are said to have "many years of experience" riding alongside WorldTour events. They both suffered minor injuries in the crash.

"We wanted to stop the race"

Bahrain Victorious, whose rider Matej Mohorič won the opening stage of the race and is currently leading the overall standings ahead of today's time trial, described the incident as "dreadful" and said the motorbike rider had "careered into supporters at 70km/h", and had "trapped a small girl under the machine".

"We didn't really want to sprint," Mohorič said afterwards. "We wanted to stop. But the last time over the climb it seemed that the race went on so I still had to go for the bonus seconds.

"What happened with the motorbike shook us all; we wanted to stop the race. My heart sank, and I wasn't thinking about the sprint at all, I was thinking about the people that were involved and I just hope everybody is alright."

After the stage, the race's organiser reportedly said the motorbike rider had been trying to get in front of the lead group when the bike's wheels slipped.

Earlier in the week we shared footage on our live blog of a three-car pile-up that happened when one of the drivers in the convoy stopped to swap a rider's bike. When the driver of the Human Powered Health vehicle stopped suddenly the driver of the Vittoria neutral service car and the race's medical car driver then smashed into the rear of eachother

The week-long stage race has been the scene of several serious incidents over the years. In 2019, 22-year-old Bjorg Lambrecht died following a crash during a stage from Chorzow to Zabrze.

A year later and the race was overshadowed by the terrifying downhill sprint crash that saw Fabio Jakobsen fighting for his life and Dylan Groenewegen banned for nine months.