Awful! Dozens of people injured at bicycle race accident in Hungary – VIDEO

Krisztián Lovassy, Olympian, was amongst those who were badly injured in a mass fall while competing in a race between Tótvázsony and Balatonszőlős. The olympian has never seen so much blood at a race.

Around 200 people competed in the race, which is a quite a lot for a mainly amateur race, 50 of the racers fell in an S-curve, going almost 70 km/h, and 19 people, 17 men and 2 women, were injured in the mass fall, reported 444.

Lovassy was held in hospital for two days after the accident, as he needed to be observed due to a head injury. He stated on Monday, that he had never been in such a racing accident before, not in Hungary and not abroad.

Lovassy and his team were only able to join the line up around 150-200th places, so they were among the last people to arrive. “I did not hear any good about the track, its layout, designation, and it was pointed out that the slope was almost life-threatening, as it had been re-paved and it is easy to go 80-90 km/h.”

The professional cyclist and his team tried to get as far ahead as possible, as they knew the slope would surely result ina mass fall. They managed to get to around 20-30th place, but Lovassy was behind in his team, and did not manage to escape the fall, despite trying to go down the slope as carefully as possible.

Lovassy also noted that he did not believe many of the amateur racers had gone with such speed before. “Many probably thought that this is a race, they need to give it everything. Even on a slope, where due to the partial close-offs, the arcs of the curves could be cut  off, and an even faster speed can be let on. But when someone is not prepared, and has never gone so fast, they will not be able to take the turn.”

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Lovassy heard a snap, before seeing people sliding in the S-curve, along with broken off parts of the bicycles. He also added that on one side of the road, there was two meter deep rocky ditch and on the other there were iron bars every 1.5-2 meters with wire mesh stretched onto them.

“I got out of it with almost no scratches, but two of my fingers broke, my wrist bruised, I hit my hip, I pulled my neck, my thigh suffered a bigger hit as well and I got a concussion,” Lovassy detailed his injuries. He still counts himself lucky, as many were taken away by ambulances and choppers.

“I have never seen so many people bleeding at a bicycle race.”

He also added that the mass fall could have been avoided, if the race was the other way around, or if cars led the cyclists to the bottom of the slope and start the race – which was going to consist of five rounds – from there.

“The amateurs would have fallen in the next round, because simply they are not familiar with their abilities, as most of them have surely not gone with such speed, not even at practice.” But Lovassy believes the professionals could have gone ahead this way.

Source: https://444.hu/