Omega Pharma-Lotto rider suffering the after effects of stage one crash
Jurgen Van de Walle (Omega Pharma-Lotto) has become the first rider in this year’s Tour de France to abandon the race. The Belgian climbed off in the early kilometres of the fourth stage, between Lorient and the Mûr-de-Bretagne, still suffering the after effects of a crash on stage one.
With the first week of the Tour generally peppered with crashes, it’s unusual for it to have taken so long for the first rider to give up; this time last year, the peloton had already been reduced by nine.
The 34-year-old came down in a strange incident as the peloton passed through the seaside resort of Les Sables d’Olonne. He was signalling to those behind him to warn them of a traffic island in the middle of the road when he overlapped the rear wheel of Lithuanian chamopion Ramunas Navardauskas, who was leading the peloton.
Van de Walle remounted and could be seen, with jersey ripped, on the front of the peloton working hard for eventual stage winner Philippe Gilbert.
According to the Omega Pharma-Lotto team though, the Belgian super-domestique is sustained a strained hamstring and abductor muscle in his left leg and, although he has been receiving treatment, the injury has been getting worse.
Van de Walle, in his first year with Omega Pharma-Lotto after spending five years with Belgian rivals Quick Step, is to return home to Belgium for further examinations to hopefully exclude a muscle tear.
As one of Omega Pharma-Lotto’s strongest riders on the flat, Van de Walle’s presence will doubtless be missed by the Belgian team. With Jurgen Van Den Broeck hoping to make the podium in Paris, André Greipel fighting for the sprints, and Gilbert chasing stage wins, the super-domestique’s strengths and experience would have been very useful indeed.