This is Dan Martin's back wound today, some six weeks after his Tour de France stage 8 crash on July 14th.

Dan Martin lingering back wound six weeks after Tour crash

Ireland's Dan Martin has taken to Twitter to show the back wound he still has from his crash at the Tour de France.

The Irish rider is now racing the Vuelta with UAE Team Emirates. He is targeting stages rather than the general classification.

Fans have probably long forgotten his crash last month. And most would assume he was fully recovered by now.

But it's a mark of what these riders must endure that he still has quite a nasty lingering wound some six weeks later.

He came down on stage 8 of the Tour, landing on his back and injuring it, quite badly by the looks of things now.

Martin jumped back on his bike and rode hard to limit the time loss. However, he would lose 1:16 that day.

He continued with the race, placing 8th overall. And since then he has recovered at home and healed up.

When posting the photo today from the Vuelta he said the one advantage of crashing on his back was that he'd never seen the wound.

Vuelta stage 3 winner Viviani and overall leader Kwiatkovski.

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Dan Martin expressed sympathy to his wife - who is expecting twins - as she tended to his injury while he was resting between Tour and Vuelta.

But while Martin shrugged off the injury today, the European Cycling Union has questioned whether there was a link between riders' race radio packs and back injuries in crashes.

The solid race radio packs are worn on riders' backs. A number of pro cyclists have suffered spinal fractures in crashes of late.

They include Tony Martin, Mikel Landa, Pierre Latour, Vincenzo Nibali and Matteo Trentin.

Riders like Martin, who fractured his spine in last year's Tour, have also suffered soft tissue back wounds.

The European Cycling Union has said it has not allowed race radio in its championship races because of safety concerns.

It wants more research into a possible link between the radio packs and the back injuries.

Latest from Vuelta

Today on the Vuelta, Elia Viviani (QuickStep) won the stage in a bunch sprint after 178.2km from Mijas to Alhaurín de la Torre.

Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) finished in the bunch; in 77th places. Furthermore, he is still 50 seconds off race leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky).

Dan Martin continued to lose time; coming home in 138th place some 4:09 down. His time losses now mean he should get leeway to target stage wins when he rides himself into this race.

And the Irish climber is already 85th in the overall standings. He is 6:02 down on the race leader.