French climber comes down in bad weather; will miss first Saur-Sojasun training camp
Brice Feillu (Leopard Trek) has ended an indifferent season with yet another bit of bad luck. The French climber, who will quit the Luxembourg team at the end of the season and return to France with Professional Continental Saur-Sojasun, crashed in training and fractured his collarbone.
“Today I had a bad crash while out training,” the Frenchman wrote on his personal website. “The result is that my right collarbone is fractured and slightly displaced. Things could have been worse, I’m doing okay.”
Luckily for the 26-year-old though, the injury is not too serious, and should not hamper his preparation for the new season too badly.
“It doesn’t need an operation, just two or three days weeks immobilisation will be enough,” he said. “During that time I’ll still be able to do a lot of physical activities, including ride my home trainer.”
Feillu, who comes from the Loir-et-Cher department in the north of the Loire valley region of France, seems to have fallen victim to one of the common hazards of winter training in northern Europe.
“It was raining and there was poor visibility,” he explained, according to tuttobiciweb.it. “I ended up in a hole and I was catapulted to the ground.”
Having spent a year at Dutch team Vacansoleil, then one at Luxembourg team Leopard Trek, Feillu has said that he is looking forward to returning to France, even though Saur-Sojasun is a step down from WorldTour to Professional Continental. His joining the team will have to wait a while longer though, with his injury preventing him from attending a pre-season training camp.
“I will skip the first meeting of the team but I will try to get in touch with my teammates for at least a couple of days,” he said, “just to begin to familiarise myself with them.”
Feillu shot to fame in 2009 when, as a 23-year-old riding for ProConti Agritubel, he won the Tour de France stage to Andorra-Arcalis. He missed out on the Tour in 2010, through Vacansoleil’s non-invitation, then again this year as he was not part of Leopard Trek’s plans.
As one of the biggest French ProConti teams, Saur-Sojasun has a good chance of a wildcard to the race next year though – just as it had in 2011 – which should see Feillu return to the biggest stage of all once more.