Dan Martin is out of the Critérium du Dauphiné after he was diagnosed with a fractured bone in his back due to his stage 2 crash yesterday.
The Irish cyclist was among a number of fallers when a
crash occurred in the peloton with just under 25km remaining on the stage to
Col de Porte.
While he remounted after a time and finished the stage,
after also being forced to stop on the road due to hailstones, his team said
last night he had taken a heavy fall on his back.
Medical examinations after the stage concluded showed he
had suffered "non-dislocated sacral fracture (S3)” and Israel Start-Up
Nation announced on Friday morning the 33-year-old was out of the race.
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A sacral fracture occurs when a bone
called the sacrum, a large triangular bone at the bottom of the spine, breaks. The
sacrum, located between the hip bones, is made up of the sacral vertebrae which
are fused together.
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While the crash is a disaster for Martin coming as close
as it does to the start of the Tour de France in just two weeks, he was putting
a brave face on it saying he believed he could still make the Tour.
"I am really hopeful that I will be ready for the
Tour De France. It's a shame as I felt I was in great shape - but I'm a fast
healer and I have reason to remain optimistic," he said.
It’s not the first time Martin has suffered back injuries as he fractured two vertebrae in his stage 9 crash at the Tour de France in 2017, though he continued in the race, placing 6th into Paris, despite being so badly injured he had trouble walking as this video from the time revealed.
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