Chris Boardman slams road race course

Former Olympic champion Chris Boardman has labelled the Rio 2016 road race course "dangerous" after Annemiek van Vleuten was taken to hospital following a crash on Sunday.

The Dutch rider suffered severe concussion and three small fractures in her lower after coming off her bike on a bend, the 33-year-old flipping over her handlebars as she led the race.

Van Vleuten's crash came at a similar point on the descent of Vista Chinesa that ended the races of Geraint Thomas, Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao in the men's competition 24 hours earlier.

And Boardman - who commentated on both races for the BBC - was furious at the danger posed to the peloton.

"I am past commenting - I am angry about it," the 1992 individual pursuit Olympic champion said.

"I went down and had a look at the course and saw those edges. We knew it was way past being technical; it was dangerous.

"The people who designed the course and said what safety features were needed had seen it as well and left it.

"We knew the descent was treacherous. I looked at that road furniture and thought, nobody can crash here and just get up. It is really bad and that is what we have seen."

Van Vleuten later tweeted to say she "will be fine", with her compatriot Anna van der Breggen going on to take gold.