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Calling the doctor - a medical round-up

By tgsgirl

Jesus Christ, a lot of our beloved bikeboys went down today. And, unfortunately, not everyone got back up in one piece. And, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty confused as to who hurt what and who lost what time. So, for your convenience, a wee round-up.

A perhaps unnecessary word of warning: a lot of riders lost a lot of skin today, so if you're squeamish you may not want to click the link to all the pictures.

BMC RACING TEAM

Moinard and Quinziato lost some time, but are both unhurt. All good for team Evans.

RADIOSHACK

Fränk Schleck crashed and finished 0:02:09 down. Medical bulletin: ""A bunch of riders were going maybe 70kph and there was a crash on a big road – when it’s that speed you can’t really avoid it. I don’t think I have anything broken. Just some pain in my shoulder, some pain in my hip and we’ll check my knee. So we’ll see. If there is nothing broken I will be there tomorrow."

Team RadioShack decided not to wait for Frank, who had to make it back all on his own. At the finishline, he apparently yelled so hard he made a little girl cry. Popovych lost 6 minutes, but didn't crash.

LOTTO-BELISOL

One rider went down in the big crash: Francis De Greef, but the Lotto unluck prize of the day goes to André Greipel. Even though he came in second today, he also crashed twice. JVDB crashed at the start of the day, but is ok; Jelle Vanendert didn't crash but lost 0:02:09 today. No biggie, he says, he isn't going for GC anyway.

Medical bulletin: in the first crash, Greipel most likely dislocated his shoulder, a shoulder he already hurt before. In the second crash, he got smashed against the barriers. Summary: contused right shoulder, contused right wrist, stitches in his dumb, contused left shoulder, abrasions to left knee, elbow and shoulder. He was not involved in the megacrash.

Cisse De Greef also crashed twice: contusion to the attachment (?) of the right quadriceps, haemorrhage below the right knee, abrasions to the left knee and elbow, contusion to the left hip, burns on the inside of both thighs (ouch).

Jelle Vanendert agrees with Phil Gilbert though: it's always the same guys causing crashes, today no exception.

GARMIN

Oh boy. The argyle armada got hit hard today. Very hard. Tom Danielson had to quit the stage (photo: Laurent Cipriani for AP). Two separated shoulders and bruises everywhere were too much even for bubble boy. DNF. Below is his bike. Guess it's DNF for the vehicle as well.

Here is what happened to my bike. on Twitpic

Johan Vansummeren - holy shit. Summie went down well. He finished dead last, 0:16:12 down on Sagan, all alone and with his entire kit shredded to bits. "I don't know what happened, really", he told Sporza radio. "It just kept going. Crashing, sliding, bikes in my neck. A battlefield, pretty much." But he made it to the finish line, so he'll get to the start tomorrow. "But I would appreciate it if we could maybe start slowly tomorrow", he asks nicely. His wounds are not too severe, only his right shoulder worries him a bit. (photo: Reuters)

Only Zabriskie, who was in the break today, finished at the head of the race, everyone else was 13 minutes or more down. Hesjedal crashed hard and looked pretty hurt.

RABOBANK

"How much pain can a cyclist take? Wynants rides alongside me. 'Do you reckon I have a collapsed lung, am in so much pain?' No man, then you wouldn't be on your bike." - Bram Tankink.

Well, Wynants is a hard cookie. He broke two ribs and has a collapsed lung - it goes without saying he won't start tomorrow.

He wasn't nearly the only Rabo to suffer today, though. Bauke Mollema - "only abrasions, but a lot of abrasions" - lost 0:02:09; Robert Gesink - little pain - and Steven Kruijswijk finished 0:03:31 behind Sagan.


KATUSHA

One major victim, but oh sob, it's everyone's favourite dreamer, Oscar Freire. Medical bulletin: "Oscar Freire, which suffered for a bad crash in the early part of the route of today’s stage, the sixth. In the fall, the three times World Champion broke the third rib in his right chest, and the fracture opened a wound in his pleura."

Menchov finished in group 1.

VACANSOLEIL

Another team that got hit badly. Wout Poels (picture: AFP) crashed hard, got put into an ambulance, got out of the ambulance, climbed back on his bike, rode for 10 kilometres and then gave up. The fact that they let him back on his bike is absolutely irresponsible if you ask me: Poels has a ruptured kidney, a ruptured spleen, bruised lungs and three broken ribs. He is stable now.

Hoogerland, Westra, Larsson and Ruijgh were all involved in the crash as well, but seem to be largely ok.

EUROPCAR

Pierre Rolland, Vincent Jerome and Giovanni Bernaudeau all crashed. Rolland, Europcar's big hope Rolland suffers pain in his back, shoulder and elbow;one side of his body "hurts very much." He lost 0:02:09. Voeckler lost 0:06:02.

Only one Europcar was not held up by the crash, Malacarne. He was in the break-away.

EUSKALTEL

Albertina, you may wanna skip this chapter. Or, just remember this: Samu is fine.

Mikel Astarloza and Amets Txurruka will not start tomorrow. Poor little Ametxa broke his collarbone (he looks so sad in this picture), Astarloza has - so say the gnomes - 'a dislocation without fracture of the left elbow'. Gorka Verdugo has a very deep cut to his leg (warning: this is a not a pretty picture). It's doubtful he'll continue the race.

LAMPRE

Davide Vigano quit the race immediately after the crash, not surprisingly if you see some of the photos (picture: Reuters). According to teammate Hondo, he may have been the one who caused the crash: "Viganò was put Petacchi’s shoes covers in his jersey, when some riders ahead slowed down. Davide had only one hand on the handlebar, so he could not brake properly and he felt in the ditch on the roadside, then all the resto of the group crashed, Scarponi too". Vigano was taken to hospital with pain to his shoulder.

Scarponiface lost 0:02:09.

SKIL-ARGOS

Only Roy Curvers finished in group 1. Tom Veelers, Albert Timmer, Matthieu Sprick, Johannes Fröhlinger and Koen de Kort all went down, but the damage is limited: just a lot of abrasions.

LIQUIGAS

Liquigas has the most useless website in the world. Jesus.

Also, three riders suffered crashes for Liquigas today. Daniel Oss, Frederick Canuti both have bruises. Dominik Nerz got nine stitches to his forearm. Basso and Nibbles both finished in group 1. Sagan finished as number 1.

AG2R

Two major vicims. Péraud lost time, Dupont got hurt. Hubert Dupont has a broken right leg, and a fractured vertebra. Oh, and a twisted ankle. But when you fracture your vertebra I don't think your ankle is your biggest worry.

GREENEDGE

No one hurt, and as they don't have any GC guys, time lost doesn't matter.

OPQS

Everyone at OPQS escaped harmless, except for my beloved Dries Devenyns. Medical bulletin: "I have pain, for sure," Devenyns said. "I went down at a really high speed, 55km/h an hour. There was a crash in front, and I don't know what happened. I saw everyone braking and crashing in front of me. I had the reflex of protecting my head, and I was on top of Van Summeren (Garmin-Sharp), and then a few more fell on top of us. So far so good, but I have some bruises on the right side of my body and then my shoulder. It could have been worse."

ASTANA

Everyone on Astana lost time, but no one got seriously hurt. Brajkovic finished 0:02:09 down on Sagan.

SAXO

Nicki Sørensen and Anders Lund crashed, but should be ok tomorrow.

MOVISTAR

Movistar had a bad day today: Imanol Erviti abandoned, he had to be operated on a deep wound on his right leg, and he'll stay in hospital for 48 hours. There is loss of muscular mass, which sounds freaky. José Ivan Gutierrez took a deep blow to the right knee, and it's doubtful he'll start tomorrow. The team says he can barely walk. If you can barely walk, can you cycle?

On top of that, Cobo and Ally Vally lost time: 0:02:21 and 0:02:09 respectively.

COFIDIS

To the Cofidis team, nothing happened today. No news on their website. So, we know Fouchard, Ghyselinck, Mate, Moncoutie and Edet all lost time. Edet is rubbing his leg in this Belga picture, Fouchard's legs are bloody in this PhotoNews picture. What else happened? Who knows?

SAUR

This is starting to be like the time I profiled the entire TdF peloton. Jesus I started this a long time ago.1631 words.

Coppel got by unscathed, so Saur is pretty happy you know. Still, Anthony Delaplace and Guillaume Levarlet crashed. But they will be at the start tomorrow.

SKY

Biggest victim of the crash was, weirdly enough, Mark Cavendish. Weirdly, because he didn't crash. Cav punctured, and rode 3k on a flat tire because the team car was stuck behind mega-chute.

I'm not sure what happened to Richie Porte, but this doesn't sound too fun.

The website says he "escaped with cuts and bruises". Boss Hog got caught behind the crash and dropped from the top 10. But hey, if not today, he would've been gone tomorrow.

FDJ

Roy was the only one who did not lose time. What happened to the rest remains unknown, because their website again gives us no info at all.

Civetta kindly points us to this article, in which Fédrigo admits to having more fear than pain.

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