Video: Sanchez suffers extreme (all-over) road rash in this crash
Samuel Sanchez was sprinting downhill when he came down hard. He's in ribbons, the poor divil.
Alejandro Valverde was the victor yesterday on stage 5 of Vuelta al Pais Vasco. But it was Samuel Sanchez who was at the centre of the real drama.
The former Olympic road race champion came down hard in the final kilometre. And as the pictures reveal, he was left in ribbons.
The Spanish rider suffered road rash to his buttocks, legs, arms, hand and upper body.
He was leading the charge in the breakaway as they hurtled downhill into the finish when he came down.
Valverde was left to take the stage, with Sanchez limping home dripping blood in Elbar.
He underwent a surgical procedure on his hand last evening. Yet his BMC team was last night not completely ruling out him starting today.
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“Samuel Sánchez sustained multiple superficial injuries in a crash in the final kilometre,” BMC’s Dr Max Testa said.
“He has extensive abrasions all over the body including his hands. He has a contusion on one of his knees. But luckily he didn’t sustain a head concussion in the fall.
"The X-rays at this point are all negative so we don’t think there are any broken bones.
“But Samuel had a laceration of one of the extensor tendons of his fourth digit on the left hand.
“They are currently treating that surgically to re-attach the tendon and luckily it was a partial lesion.
"The plan is to take Samuel back to the hotel tonight and re-evaluate his condition on Saturday morning before the final stage.
“Given the degree of his injuries it is very unlikely that he will start but we will make that call then.”
Valverde leads overall with just today’s 27.7km stage to come.
Samuel Sanchez’s team mate Nicolas Roche is also in the race. He was 23rd yesterday and is 37th overall.
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