Tejay Van Garderen out of Tour de France with a broken hand
Jul 13 2019 05:39 am CET
EF Education First (c)Jojo Harper
Tejay Van Garderen has withdrawn from the Tour de France with a broken hand. The rider of EF Education First finished the seventh stage of the race but further examinations revealed the fracture.
The American crashed in the first kilometres of the seventh stage of La Grande Boucle, just outside the start town of Belfort, after he hit a traffic island. The rider fell heavily on his hand, face and front of his body, in an incident in which Jumbo-Visma's Mike Teunissen was also involved.
"The crash was a result of a personal error," said van Garderen. "I was looking down at my bike because I saw something caught up in it, like a piece of paper, so I was looking down and I hit a median. I have no one to blame but myself, and I really hope that no one else got hurt because of me."
The rider finished the stage and just after he received a medical examination by the team's head doctor Kevin Sprouse and a Tour de France doctor. They both determined that he needed an X-Ray in the hand, which revealed a fracture.
"After today's stage, Tejay had his wounds cleaned and bandaged," Sprouse explained. "We then went for an X-ray. In addition to multiple abrasions, it was determined that he has a nondisplaced fracture at the base of his first metacarpal on the left hand. He has been placed in a splint and will not start stage eight."
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