Jake Stewart, the 21-year-old British rider who has made such a strong start to his WorldTour career, will be forced to miss the Tour of Flanders after being diagnosed with a broken hand.
Stewart (Groupama-FDJ) believed he may emerged from his incident with Nacer Bouhanni (Arkea Samsic) at the weekend relatively unscathed but now he has been diagnosed with a broken bone in his left hand.
And that will halt the rapid progress he has made of late, denying him a ride in the Tour of Flanders, a race he rode as a stagiaire last year. He was also 3rd in the U23 version of the event before moving up to the WorldTour for his first full season in the top tier this year.
On Sunday Bouhanni significantly moved to his left in the final sprint at Cholet-Pays de la Loire (1.1), pinning Stewart to the barriers, which he brushed off at high speed. He was very critical of Bouhanni, who has since apologised.
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And now X-rays have shown Stewart suffered a broken bone in his left hand which will mean missing the Tour of Flanders and a period on the sidelines. Bouhanni, meanwhile, faces a UCI disciplinary process over the incident - captured in the video below.
"We thought and were hoping that it was just superficial, but this morning's X-ray showed a fractured second metacarpal after Sunday's Cholet Pays de la Loire," Stewart said.
"Gutted to say the least to be missing De Ronde this week, but full focus now for recovering and getting back on the bike."
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