That could have ended very badly. A woman with a walker met with an accident during the cycling race around Cologne. The professional cyclists involved were also very lucky.
The elderly woman crossed the street with her walker. She used a zebra crossing. But unlike usual, the pedestrian there didn’t actually have priority on that day and at that moment.
Because the one-day race around Cologne was taking place at the same time, a group of drivers arrived at the zebra crossing at exactly the same moment as the woman crossed the street. The scene happened about 115 kilometers, just before the Agathaberg in Wipperfürth.
A sigh of relief for everyone involved: Since the zebra crossing was directly behind a roundabout, the race participants were not at full speed at that moment.
While most of the – certainly equally surprised – professional cyclists drove past the woman on the left and right, Ole Theiler (21) was no longer able to avoid it. The Team Storck driver slammed into the walker, involuntarily pulled the vehicle along for a few meters and was slowed down.
Theiler stayed on the bike and at first glance remained as uninjured as the woman. It ended up being on the other side of the street – but without a walker.
You can see the video of the scene here at X:
“How can no one have fallen? “Not even grandma?” asked a stunned user at X in English. “Hello, young man?! That’s a zebra crossing! I have to get over here!” commented a German user, referring to supposedly typical scenes on German streets.
Others didn’t find the scene funny. They wondered why there had been no marshals at that point to stop the woman from crossing the road.
Casper van Uden took the win. The Dutchman won the sprint on Sunday after 194.8 kilometers ahead of favorite Biniam Girmay from Eritrea. The Belgian Louis Blouwe came third. Pascal Ackermann was the best German in fifth place. This means that Nils Politt’s victory in 2022 remains the only German triumph in the past decade. (with dpa)
The original of this article “Woman with walker crosses the street in the middle of a cycling race – and is incredibly lucky” comes from Express.de.
