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The Coppa della Pace U23 race was the scene of a serious accident on June 5. Keagan Girdlestone of continental Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka was competing at the UCI 1.2 Europe Tour race in Italy when he was involved in an accident with his team car on a descent.

Girdlestone broke the rear window of his team car in a high-speed collision. The accident occurred at 4:20pm local time with four laps of racing to go reports tuttobiciweb.it who spoke to race director Raffaele Babini. Girdlestone was trying to get back into contact with the field after going down on a descent. He suffered serious injuries to his face when his team car reportedly slowed down abruptly after 105-km of racing with Gridlestone hitting the car at full speed. The race medical team and a helicopter were immediately on the scene of the accident. Girdlestone was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Rimini and is reported to be in serious, but stable condition. The race was cancelled following the accident.

Dimension Data for Qhubeka is the development team for the WorldTour team of the same name. Girdlestone distinguished himself with wins at the l’Ain’Ternational Valromey Tour, the Ronde des Vallées and the Prix de la Saint-Laurent Espoirs.

The incident is one in a series of accidents at European races this season. Belgian rider Antoine Demoitie tragically died after a crash with a race motorcyle at Gent-Wevelgen. Stig Broeckx of Lotto-Soudal was involved in a serious accident at the Tour of Belgium and remains in an induced coma after undergoing surgery.