Another casualty of stage 2’s crashes was Rabobank team leader Robert Gesink. The 24-year-old Dutchman, who won the toughest stage of last month's Tour de Suisse, sustained a fracture to the ulna bone of his left arm in yesterday’s mass pile up on the descent of the Col de Stockeu. He feels the injury is not serious enough to him to abandon though.
“Abandoning is not an option,” confirmed Rabobank’s team doctor Dion Van Bommel, “but we will look at him closely every day.”
Gesink travelled to hospital in the nearby Dutch city of Maastricht, where x-rays confirmed the fracture. He took the start in Wanze, Belgium this morning with his wrist strapped heavily and expects a hard day on the cobblestones of northern France.
“It hurts a lot less this morning,” Gesink told the Dutch media at the start this morning, “but it will be a very painful day.”
“Yesterday evening I wasn’t sure if I’d continue,” he continued, “we will just have to see what happens today. I will ride on the cobbles a little differently to how I would have done.”
Should Gesink be forced to abandon the race with his injury, it would be the second year in succession that a broken bone sustained in an early stage crash has ended his Tour de France. Last year he came down on the exposed Mediterranean coastal stage between Le Cap d’Adge and Perpignan, breaking his wrist. He was shepherded to the finish by teammate Grischa Niermann but was unable to start the next day.
If however the Dutchman manages to get through today’s tough stage without incident, he may be able to use the flat stages of the rest of the week to recuperate before the race hits the Alps.