The medical report on stage 10 of the Tour de France had Wout van Aert down as having "contusions left elbow and forearm" after crashing at speed on a corner. The damage was bad enough that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider went to the medical truck after the stage for x-rays to check for fractures.
“Luckily I have no fractures," Van Aert said in an interview broadcast by FloBikes. "We came here to be sure that I didn’t have any fractures in the arm because that was quite painful after the crash but luckily that’s not the case, so good news.”
Van Aert is known for his excellent bike handling skills but he crashed as he led the peloton into a sharper than expected bend as he was positioning team leader Jonas Vingegaard, ahead of the steep terrain.
"It was my own mistake, I overcooked the corner," said Van Aert, who fortunately didn't take any other riders with him.
"I was really not aware it was so tight and then I crashed quite hard on the sidewalk.
"Afterwards it was quite painful on every downhill so I was a bit afraid for the arm but apparently there are no fractures so I hope to recover from it and that I can continue.”
Crashes, he acknowledged, didn't make the task of trying to support Vingegaard to a third Tour de France victory any easier but there was one thing that momentarily dulled the ache.
"The last 15 km when we heard that Jonas had won – both for Christophe [Laporte) and me in our group – was less painful,” said Van Aert who finished the stage in 111th place and more than 30 minutes after Vingegaard had claimed victory.
Vingegaard sits in third on the general classification after stage 11, 1:14 behind race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and now just eight seconds behind Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep).
The Visma-Lease a Bike team supporting his chase for yellow is still at full strength, with all eight riders, but if Van Aert did have to abandon due to injury they would lose an extremely valuable player.
When Van Aert was asked if he could bounce back from the crash and get back to work for Vingegaard he said: "We'll see. That's of course my goal."
"So far its not been really lucky this year for crashes but we will see how I feel tomorrow. I’m just happy that I don’t have something serious where I have to abandon, so that’s the most important for now."
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