Matthew Busche, Trek Factory Racing’s leader for the Tour of Utah, was caught up in a nasty high-speed crash in a descent and was forced to withdraw Wednesday.

The crash occurred on a straight, fast downhill off the Trappers Loop climb with some 70 kilometers left in the 176-kilometer third stage, causing numerous riders to go down. 

It was an incident that occurs regularly in bicycle racing with cyclists closely knitted together, hurdling down insanely steep grades at breakneck speeds that reduces reaction time to a nanosecond. A moment’s touch of wheels between Busche and teammate Fränk Schleck - which on a flat road under normal speeds a pro cyclist can brush off easily – at nearly 80km/h left him with no chance.

Busche took the worst of the melee that left him sitting in the road, bloodied, shorts shredded, and he was the only rider unable to continue.

Early reports from race radio were Busche sustained a broken collarbone, but later x-rays revealed nothing fractured.  Busche did bear a lot of road rash and bruises after hitting the tarmac at high-speed, and his recovery time is unknown, but the hope is he will bounce back in time for Colorado’s USPro Challenge.

“It was not a fun crash, “Busche said after finally being released from the hospital after numerous x-rays and CT scans. “It was one of the worst, most painful crashes I’ve had, but thankfully it looks to be mostly topical and bruising.

“It really stinks to crash out of a race I hoped to do well in, but hopefully I can bounce back for Colorado.”

Stage three featured four categorized climbs, including two brutal ascents in the local finishing circuit, resulting in another reduced bunch of 46 riders that arrived at the finish.

In a photo finish, 20-year-old American Logan Owen (Axeon Cycling) narrowly eked out the win. Fränk Schleck and stagiaire Leonardo Basso arrived with the decimated peloton with Basso finishing in 14th place and Schleck 20th. 

“I was car number 13 in the caravan and didn’t see the crash,” said Trek Factory Racing director Alain Gallopin. “It was a bad crash and thankfully nothing is broken. In the beginning, they said collarbone, but x-rays at the hospital gave us the better news. We don’t know at this time what his recovery will be  – he crashed at a very high speed and he will be very sore in the next days. We hope that he will be ready for Colorado, but it’s too early to know anything.

"We had Fränk and Leonardo in the front group and Julien [Bernard] was missing just a little bit and finished a little behind. It was a hard final, really hard final.

“Fränk was strong over the last climb and looks good. His saddle-sore is the same – not better, but not worse.  So we will see day by day.”