A cycling race ended in a horror crash when a rider collided with a hapless spectator glued to her cell phone

• A woman looking at her phone caused a horror crash at the finish line of a Spanish cycling event.
• The spectator crossed the race track just in front of the finish line, stepping out in front of a rider.
• Unable to stop in time, the rider collided with the woman, knocking them both painfully to the ground.

A woman who was looking at her cell phone as she crossed the road during a cycling event caused a horror crash which led to the rider being taken to hospital.

The pedestrian, a spectator at the Cicloturista Condaca Salmor Bike event in Spain's Canary Islands on Saturday, crossed the road just in front of the finish line as a rider approached.

She was looking down at her phone, while the rider had his head down in concentration as he pushed to the line.

The rider, who was coming towards the end of his 88-kilometer (54 miles) race, had no chance to slow down and crashed violently into the woman.

Both of them went tumbling to the floor with the woman being knocked clean off her feet, and the cyclist crashing hard to the ground.

As she fell, the woman's cell phone flew into the air before her face dragged across the tarmacked road.

According to Canary Islands local news outlet Canarias 7, the rider came off worse from the crash, suffering a moderate head injury and memory loss.

You can watch footage of the crash below:

Spanish media outlet Cope reports that the Spanish Civil Guard is looking into the case but no charges have yet been issued.

A spokesperson for the region's emergency services confirmed the cyclist had been taken to hospital.

"An injured cyclist in El Hierro has been taken to hospital following a collision with another person," the statement read, as reported by Cycling Weekly.

"The information we received was that the cyclist had run over another person during a sporting event. The cyclist appeared from a first evaluation to be suffering from non-serious head injuries.

"The woman who had been knocked over was treated at the scene by medical services covering the event.

"A police investigation into the incident is underway."

The incident had echoes of a violent crash at the Tour de France earlier this year when an oblivious fan caused a major pileup by running along the road holding a sign saying hello to her grandparents.