Alex Zanardi was involved in a car accident in the province of Siena, during one of the stages of the relay race of "Obiettivo tricolore", a competition of Paralympic athletes participating in handbike, bicycle or Olympic wheelchair.

The accident happened along the state road 146 between Pienza and San Quirico d'Orcia. The race was supposed to finish in Montalcino, but the Italian former F1 Champion was hit by a truck.

On the site, a helicopter intervened to transfer Zanardi to a hospital in Siena. His condition immediately appeared very serious. At the time of the accident he was in the company of another cyclist that suffered multiple traumas.

From initial reconstructions of the accident, it seems that the Bolognese champion slipped into the opposite lane where a truck was passing by. The route of the relay race departed from Sinalunga (Siena), with the arrival in Montalcino (Siena), in the hamlet of Castelnuovo dell'Abate, where Zanardi should have been a guest of the Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona winery. 

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