French amateur Amandine Muller, 17, was in contention to win a national road title on Sunday 12 May, when she was hit and knocked down by a rival’s team car at the 2024 French National Championship road race in Altkirch, France.

The scary crash took place 31km from the finish when the junior racer for Grand Est/VC Eckwersheim was hit by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes team car while director sportif Julien Guiborel was giving instructions to his rider, Celia Gery. Muller then crashed hard to the pavement, but luckily was not run over by the car. Gery was unable to avoid Muller and crashed into her.

Both riders were able to remount and continue racing, with Gery then attacking and dropping her banged-up breakaway companion to win the race solo – with a 3:42 advantage over Muller.

“I’m happy to win anyway, but I hope we didn’t hurt each other”, Célia Gery told Ouest-France. “It’s a shame that this happened between the two of us.”

Amandine Muller, who held on to finish in second place, did not comment on the incident.

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Director Sportif Guiborel, apologized for his role in the crash. “Personally, it spoils my joy of victory. I would have blamed myself even more if Amandine [Müller] had not finished 2nd. I can’t apologize enough to both of them. Everyone tells me that it can happen, I don’t know if it’s a mistake on my part or a small deviation from Amandine, but it hurt them and I apologize again to them and the staff. I know them both, I blame myself a lot.”

Photo Credit: France 3 Alsace 

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