Court proceedings begin in Giant-Alpecin mass collision

A British pensioner has been formally charged by Spanish police with ‘imprudence and reckless driving’ in a collision that injured six Giant-Alpecin pro cyclists in January.

Six Giant-Alpecin riders, including Degenkolb (GER), Warren Barguil (FRA), Fredrik Ludvigsson (SWE), Chad Haga (USA) and Ramon Sinkeldam (NED) were involved in the collision, which the team CEO, Iwan Spekenbrink, said has set the team back months.

​Degenkolb, whose left index finger was badly damaged in the crash, was unable to defend his Milan San Remo and Paris-Roubaix titles with his recovery "extremely difficult to predict”.

Spanish police in Alicante have not released the name of the 73 year old woman, and have warned that the charges may yet change, but say she was responsible for crossing over the CV-720 provincial road leading to Alicante, near Benigembla, and colliding with the cyclists head on, according to Sportz365.

At the time, team physician Anko Boelens (NED) said: “John’s left index finger was damaged in the accident and he will have additional surgery in Germany. As a professional athlete, he needs the functionality back in his finger, and the recovery time for that is extremely difficult to predict.” - See

But this week, Degenkolb announced he would make his return to racing tomorrow, at the Frankfurt GP, after just a month of recovery work.

Chad Haga, who had reconstructive surgery on his neck, chin and eye socket, returned to racing on April 17th with the Amstel Gold Race.

Haga had surgery on his neck and chin and faces more work on an eye socket fracture.

It is understood that the woman was driving a British car, and routinely spends half the year in Spain. Forensic reports are ongoing.