Nicolas Roche’s Team Sunweb squad has suffered a number of bad mishaps of late and the Irishman very nearly added to that tally at the Tour of Basque Country.
On Thursday’s stage 4 he crashed coming
off a climb in the rain, landing some way off the road down into a field.
It was marked out with a barbed wire
fence, which Roche flew into. However, a combination of the kit he was wearing
and his cousin’s team mate, Rory Sutherland, got him through.
And while he took a serious bang and
could play no further part in the race, he told stickybottle he would be back
on the bike today.
“I’ve been pretty lucky,” he said of the
crash and the serious damage it could have done to him.
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“I headed into a field protected by
barbed wire. Luckily I had glasses on and obviously a helmet.
“I went head first and as you can see
the cuts are very close to my eyes,” he added.
However, while the wet conditions resulted
in a number of falls, it also meant Roche was protected against the barbed wire
he met with at speed.
“I had both rain jackets on at the time
so it prevented me from getting too many cuts,” he said.
Aside from some facial cuts he also had
another on his quads. But after taking yesterday off, he said he would be back
training today.
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When he went down he was clearly shook
for a moment and was attended to at the scene by the race medics.
He had the presence of mind to wave one
arm about in case he was not noticed as he had fallen down from road height.
“I was one of those scary crashes but
somehow you end up being lucky,” he said.
“I had my hand up because I was afraid
no one would see me. Luckily Rory Sutherland saw me and he had also crashed.
“He waved his hands to make sure to
point me out which was nice of him,” he added of the Australian and Dan Martin’s
UAE Team Emirates team mate.
“In the panic of a crash he could have just jumped on his bike and been gone as soon as possible.”
Team under pressure with injuries
The fact Roche has not broken bones and
can get back out on the bike immediately will come as a relief to his team.
It is preparing for the Giro, won two
years ago by team leader Tom Dumoulin. And the Dutch rider heads into this next
month’s race looking to podium.
However, his domestique Wilco Kelderman
suffered fractured vertebra in his neck in Catalunya. And Martijn Tusveld is
sidelined with a broken jaw.
Sam Oomen has pulled out of the Basque
race with illness, though he and the team have said his withdrawal is
precautionary.
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