It was on a downhill with 17 km left of the stage with the finish in Puerto de Anceres that the accident occurred. At high speed in a curve, the American slid off the road and continued into the terrain under a metal barrier.
He was able to get on the road and continue the race alongside UAE Team Emirates stablemate Jay Vine, who also crashed and had to change bikes.
They finished twelfth (Vine) and 14th in the 175 km stage won by Canadian Michael Woods.
“Everyone suffers in the Vuelta”
The UAE stable got a podium place through Marc Soler, who finished third.
– The idea was to work with Brandon and Jay to win for the team but unfortunately they crashed and the plans changed a bit. Especially Jay was in such good shape that we wanted to do something for him in the sprint. Everyone is suffering in this Vuelta, it has been very difficult and we have a tough weekend ahead of us but we will try again, Soler says.
Overall leader Ben O’Connor dropped almost two minutes off his lead and is now 1.21 ahead of Primoz Roglic who won the race three years running in 2019–2021.
– It was very tough but I still have the leader’s jersey so it is at least a good thing, says O’Connor according to Reuters.