Prologue crashes too much for the duo
The Tour de France was already incomplete at the start due to the Cervélo TestTeam pulling its rider Xavier Florencio. The prologue cost two more riders a chance of reaching Paris, as the peloton of the remaining 195 riders took the start of the first stage of the Tour de France shortly after noon today.
Mathias Frank and Manuel Cardoso were the two crash victims of yesterday, as Velonation already reported. Both riders had to give up any small hopes of continuing the race.
Cardoso fractured his jawbone and his right shoulder bladebone. He was still in hospital in Rotterdam Sunday morning. Despite having won stage three of the Tour Down Under, Cardoso had an unlucky season so far. He crashed heavily in the Volta ao Algarve, which made him miss several weeks of competition.
Frank suffered a broken right thumb, a torn muscle in his left thigh and a badly cut lip in a high-speed crash during Saturday’s prologue. Racing on rain-soaked streets in his first Tour, the 23-year-old Swiss rider crashed on a broad-sweeping, right-hand curve on the 8.9-kilometer course. “My back wheel slipped away on the painted lines,” Frank said. “I thought I could get control again but I was too close to the barriers and hit the barriers going pretty fast.” He is expected to be off the bike for at least a week.
BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said losing a rider in the Tour is always big, especially so early in the three-week race. “It’s a loss for the team and a loss for Mathias because the Tour de France is always a dream for every rider,” he said. “We know we have still have a strong team around Cadel (Evans) and we are already focusing on the next stages.”