Although he overcame his injuries to complete yesterday’s sixth stage of the race, Christian Vande Velde’s final Tour de France has come to an end this morning, with the American rider coming down in yet another crash.
The Chicagoan fell with several others approximately eleven kilometres after the start. While Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Dani Moreno (Katusha) and others were able to continue in the race, Vande Velde has been forced to stop.
The crash adds to injuries he suffered when he fell fifteen kilometres from the finish on Wednesday. In that accident, he jolted a screw loose from a previously-inserted collarbone plate.
“Christian suffered his second crash in three days today and unfortunately his injuries have forced him out of the Tour,” Garmin-Sharp doctor Prentice Steffen told LeTour.fr today.
“The multiple contusions and abrasions he suffered in today's crash, compounded with the injuries he sustained [during] stage five - which included a blood clot in his neck muscle, a loosened screw in his clavicle plate and upper back injuries - made it impossible for him to finish today's stage. We'll examine him closely tonight and continue to evaluate his injuries.”
Those previous injures prompted concern about him being able to start yesterday, but he ultimately was given the green light to do so and was able to compete the stage.
Speaking afterwards yesterday, Garmin-Sharp director sportif Charly Wegelius said he was proud with how he coped. “Christian is still in pain and dealing with the all of the effects of his injuries so we will continue to take it day by day and see how he does here, but he showed today how strong he is physically and mentally.”
Unfortunately his latest accident has brought his Tour campaign to an end. Vande Velde had previously confirmed that this would be his last year in the peloton, and so it seems a Tour career which included overall finishes of fourth, seventh and sixteenth has concluded with today’s unfortunate DNF.