The Tour's Stage 10 Injury Report
The 2010 Tour de France has been plagued by crashes, which have thrown off many early predictions and left many pre-race favourites out of the running for a podium finish. As of the 10th stage, 14 riders have been forced to withdraw due to injury, and some other top contenders ride on, despite having lost their chance to make their mark in this year's Tour.
The tenth stage, a medium mountain stage and the last day in the Alps, added to the list of crashes, but only three riders were involved today. Robbie Hunter had a painful crash early in the race, but finished the stage with a replacement bike. A second crash involved Brent Bookwalter and Team RadioShack's Yaroslav Popovych, who managed a 66th place finish despite the pain.
Three-time stage winner David Millar has announced that his rib injuries suffered early in the Tour continue to spread and develop, but he is determined to keep riding as long as possible.
"I saw myself out of the Tour de France,” said Millar, riding for Team Garmin. “But I could not face going back to the hotel and facing my teammates being out of the Tour. I decided to go to the finish, even if it meant finishing hors delais.”
Stage 9 saw the end of Cadel Evans’ bid for the podium. His shoulder was heavily strapped while he rode in the yellow jersey, having fractured his elbow early in Stage 8. He spent the rest day with a physiotherapist, who has said Evans will continue to ride so long as he doesn’t risk any permanent damage. The team chose not to announce the injury before Stage 9, to keep morale high.
"I'm not at my normal level, but when you're in yellow at the Tour de France, you've got to be there," said Evans. “Normally today was a chance for the stage win and it wouldn't have an effect on the GC. Now I'm pretty sure it's all over for this year."
Three riders from Stage 8 did not begin the ninth stage. The latest permanent losses include Australian Simon Gerrans, Vladimir Karpets, and Fabio Felline.
"I hasn't been a good week for me, a Tour de France I would prefer to forget," said Gerrans. "These things come in threes. When it rains it pours – I've got soaked in this race."
The Australian cyclist, riding for Team Sky, broke his arm in his third crash during Sunday’s eighth stage. Gerrans left the French Alps with a broken radius bone, a black eye, and a face full of skin abrasions, the second Australian casualty of the 2010 Tour.
The Team Sky rider’s first crash involved fellow Australian Evans, who went on to win the stage and take the yellow jersey despite the crash, but suffered the injury which would ruin his chances overall. Lance Armstrong also fell out of the running in the 8th stage, after a series of mishaps left him over 13 minutes behind the race leader.
Karpets had been riding with a broken palm since the second stage, until it finally caught up to him in the eighth and forced him to abandon the race.
"I am very disappointed because I have been preparing for this race for months,” said Karpets. “But I can do nothing - the hand is broken and I cannot hold the handle bar at all.”
20 year-old Felline, the youngest rider in the Tour, has suffered contusions from an 8th stage crash, which forced Team Footon-Servetto to withdraw him after the Tour’s first week. The full list of lost contenders so far in the race is below.
AG2R-La Mondials - David Le Lay
Omega Pharma-Lotto - Mickael Delage
Team Sky - Simon Gerrans
Euskaltel-Euskadi - Juan José Oroz, Amets Txurruka
Team Saxo Bank – Frank Schleck
BMC Racing Team - Mathias Frank
HTC-Columbia - Adam Hansen
Garmin-Transitions - Christian Vandevelde
Katusha - Vladimir Karpets, Stijn Vandenbergh
Footon-Servetto - Fabio Felline, Manuel Cardoso
Milram - Niki Terprstra
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