Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider Daan Olivier suffered a hard crash during Thursday’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race criterium. After only two kilometres into the Race Melbourne, the 25-year-old Dutchman violently came into contact with a pole on the course and had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance.

After a CT scan, it turned out that he had sustained an avulsion fracture in the medial collateral ligament of the right knee. Moreover, he is also suffering from back aches. Olivier has to spend a night at the hospital. Tomorrow, it will be decided how to treat him.

“I looked to the right to move up in the bunch and forgot about the obstacles on the road. When I heard people warning me, it was already too late and I fully crashed into this pole”, Olivier explained. “Of course this is a setback for me, but the hunger for racing will only be bigger afterwards.”

Despite the crash of his teammate, George Bennett became part of the first escape. In the Tour Down Under, the New Zealander already showed to be in good shape with the eleventh place in the general classification. Today, he proved again that he’s in good shape. It took until the last lap before the escapees were caught by the fast racing peloton.

Bennett said that he had had a good time in the breakaway: "It was fun, but very heavy. In the last lap I thought for a moment that the peloton had miscalculated and that we could stay ahead, but we became tired from racing at a high pace. It was a good test towards Sunday's race.” The bunch sprint was eventually won by Sam Bennett. Robert Wagner sprinted to ninth place.