Down in unfortunate incident at Canadian classic

Portuguese rider from Movistar Team suffers fracture to right-hand collarbone after sliding while trying to avoid dog entering the course early in the race. Arcas, Castrillo very active in final laps.

A more-than-unfortunate incident left Nuno Bico out of activity on Friday while making part of the Movistar Team’s seven-man squad at the 9th edition of the Grand Prix de Québec (201km) in Canada. During lap six of the sixteen scheduled, around 70km into the race, a dog entered the course and forced Bico to try and brake while abruptly turning his bike in order to avoid it. The combination of those moves made him slide and fall against his right-hand side, his leg hitting the ground first before a harder blow to his shoulder.

Quickly transferred by ambulance to a medical center in Québec City, the exams undergone by the Viseu native confirmed a right collarbone fracture, which will keep him out of the Blues’ lineup for Sunday’s GP Montréal and jeopardizes his remaining racing schedule in 2018. On a strictly competitive sidenote, Jorge Arcas and Jaime Castrillo -very much active into the last three laps of the race- were the Movistar Team’s most notable performers in a race coming down to a broad group’s sprint. Australian Michael Matthews (SUN) was the winner.