Stuyven wins acccident strewn 8th stage of Vuelta

Belgian sprinter Jesper Stuyven won an accident strewn eighth stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycling race on Saturday.

The Belgian, who rides for the Trek team won a bunch sprint to end a day, which saw several important accidents, which forced several riders out of the three week race.

Saturday's stage was a relatively straightforward ride into Alejandro Valverde's hometown of Murcia, complicated by two ascents of a third category climb outside of the city in the south-east of Spain.

Those climbs looked certain to invite riders to attack in search of a stage win in the closing kilometers, although a sprint finish looked on the cards and the job of controlling the day's breakaway of six riders was down to the sprinters' teams.

The main drama came in a crash which saw Teejay Van Garderen's bad luck continue as he broke his collarbone in an incident which also saw Dan Martin hit the tarmac and abandon the race, while overall leader Esteban Chaves suffer a delay.

There was another foul in the closing kilometers when sprinter Peter Sagan was knocked off his bike by an official motorbike, while Juan Jose Rojas also suffered a fall on the last descent.

With so many riders involved it was always going to be a bunch sprint and Stuyven finished ahead of Pello Bilbao.

Meanwhile Chaves was able to catch up to the main group and remains in red for Sunday's ninth stage which takes the riders to another hilltop finish at the Cumbre del Sol. Endi