UPDATED: Alberto Contador has abandoned the Tour de France this afternoon - after riding 18 kilometres with what turns out to be a broken tibia in a desperate attempt to remain in the race. The Spaniard pulled out of today's Stage 10 with around 80 kilometres left to ride after a heavy crash earlier on as he descended in the wet.
In a statement issued this evening, his manager at Tinkoff-Saxo, Bjarne Riis, said: “Alberto crashed on a fast and straight part of the descent. He was reaching for his pocket and the bike was swept away under him probably because of a bump or hole in the road.
"Alberto was in the shape of his life and the entire team had our eyes fixed on the podium in Paris and the work we would have to do to get there.”
Some riders who saw Contador crash gave their own version of what had happened. According to a tweet from Danish journalist Mikkel Condé, Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang said: “Contador took a big risk. On a descent with bad asphalt, he passed us, went 10-15 km/h faster. 1k later he fell on his ass."
Meanwhile, the Dutch journalist and commentator José Been said on Twitter that Lotto-Belisol’s Jurgen Van den Broeck had told Sporza: "It was Contador's own fault. He stepped on the pedals to overtake and rode in a hole."
Following the crash, which happened with around 100 kilometres still to ride of the 161.5 kilometre stage from Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider waited as the race doctor strapped his right knee.
He also had tears to the left hip of his bibshorts as well as the rear of his jersey, and seemed to be in pain from a wrist injury.
Ironically, given the vast media presence at the Tour nobody was pointing a camera in Contador's direction when he crashed. Social media rushed to fill the void, rumours swept the Twitterverse that the frame of Contador's Speicalized had broken in the impact. Certainly a picture from AFP, tweeted by Telegraph Sport journalist John MacLeary shows a bike with the Spanish rider's frame number clearly snapped both on the downtube and where the top tube meets the seatpost.
However, some claimed that the picture is of Contador's spare bike, said to have fallen from his team car's roof rack and then have been run over by another vehicle, Dutch website Nusport.NL was later reported to be quoting Belkin's team manager Meerijn Zeeman as saying that a Tinkokff Saxo bike did fall land on a Belkin team car after bikes became entangled following a close pass from a Tinkoff - Saxo car, he doesn't appear to mention any damage though.
To further add to the fog of rumour and counter-rumour, Danish television channel TV2 says Contador was actually riding a bike lent to him by Nicolas Roche following an earlier crash - and pictures of the bike beside the rider at the roadside as the doctor treated him suggest that one was undamaged.
The picture cleared only somewhat during the evening when Specialized released a statement wishing Contador a speedy recovery and pulling together all the strands of information available to them about the crash.
"All of us at Specialized are devastated to see Alberto Contador withdraw from the Tour. He is a true champion with the heart of a warrior and he had a great chance at Yellow this year. We have spoken to Alberto's brother as well as his personal mechanic (Faustino Muñoz) and the mechanic who was at the scene (Rune Kristensen), and contrary to some early, unconfirmed reports, frame failure was not involved in Alberto's incident today. Nicolas Roche was involved in a separate incident today and while his bike was laying on the road it was run over by a car causing it to break, potentially giving rise to the initial inaccurate reporting. Live race reporting is difficult and sometimes mistakes are made. We are continuing to research the events of today and will share any further details as we learn more."
However, the bike pictured in John MacLeary's tweet clearly bore Contador race number - 31, not Roche's and is certainly not Roche's first choice bike he's on the new McLaren Tarmac SL which has a distinctive paint job (see pic below) - and at $15,000 a pop isnt' the sort of bike you'd want to make a habit of running over
.
Yet another version of events was supplied to Cyclingtips.com - who were told that the bike pictured was indeed Contador's but was his spare (and yes, his mechanic was enough of a perfectionist to have a race number on both of Contador's bike). The spare had been inadvertently run over by the team car after the mechanic got it down for Contador, at which point point presumably Contador was given Roche's bike instead.
Following the crash Contador, clearly in pain, eventually remounted with a 5 minute deficit on the group he had been riding with including his chief rival for the overall victory, Astana's Vincenzo Nibali, who went on to win today's stage at La Planche des Belles Filles and is back in the race leader's yellow jersey.
“After the crash, Alberto got back on the bike and we tried for about 18 kilometres to keep him in the race," continued Riis. Despite his best efforts and an impressive show of willpower, he had to abandon the race.
The rider was taken to the finish in the team car and his leg was x-rayed, revealing the fracture, as Riis explained: “Alberto has broken his tibia just below the knee. It’s not a complicated fracture but it probably requires surgery. He will stay with us tonight and tomorrow he will travel back to Madrid to undergo further examinations and a surgery if necessary."
His absence from the race means that there are now no former winners left in this year's Tour de France after Andy Schleck and Chris Froome abandoned last week. The Team Sky rider was quick to tweet his commiserations to Contador.
However, Riis made it clear that it's premature to talk about when Contador might return to racing. “We will naturally have to look ahead," he said. "But right now it’s to early to say anything about the possibility of Alberto riding Vuelta a Espana. It depends on his recovery and on how fast he can get back on the bike and start training again”,
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Are you sure about that? pic.twitter.com/1xyy1ww0Ay
The moment he went down people were saying that his frame had snapped.
I'd love somebody to analyse what the odds are of people seeing something that makes them come to that conclusion on the exact same day that his spare bike happened to fall off the team car and break in the same fashion that people thought the bike he was using happened to break in.
Seems a bit too coincidental for me, but sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.
It is pretty simple. Contador wasn't on his 31 bike when he crashed. Look at the pictures BEFORE he got medical attention. It was Roche's bike beside him. If you watched it live, you will know that NO riders waited behind with him.
He was riding Roche's bike after an earlier mechanical or crash and it was Roche's bike he crashed on. That is it sitting behind him in the picture without the bandage on his knee. If you see the picture where he is changing his shoe, He's jumping on his spare bike.
Bjarne Riis says Contador was reaching into his pocket and the bike was just 'swept from under him'. How very vague. Simon Clarke was right behind him and saw the crash but won't give details.
Edited to add: Riis' TV interview just then contradicts his Sky one. Now he says his hand slipped on the handlebars due to him being on Roche's bike following a different crash.
Van Den Broek says he hit a pothole.
The plot thickens.
20kms with a broken leg? Immense...
To be honest - the frame is rather clean for a bike which is supposed to have been ridden in the wet..
I think it's far more likely that the frame simply buckled under the weight of 5'6", 60kg Alberto Contador, and that you're a corporate shill to be defending it.
If that was the bike he crashed on, what did he do for the next 18km hold the front end to the back end whilst also riding with a broken tibia?? Come on use your heads haha
Wow.
Here's a precis of the greatest unsolved mystery of our time:
Specialized, Tinkoff-Saxo’s bike sponsor, initially denied reports that Contador’s bike had broken at all, either resulting in or as a result of the crash, or via some other externality. The company first stated that a bike had fallen off the roof of a car. That story was then amended — it still involved a car, but instead stated that Nicolas Roche’s bike had been run over earlier in the stage. This broken bike was the start of the rumors, it said.
“We have spoken to Alberto’s brother as well as his personal mechanic (Faustino Muñoz) and the mechanic who was at the scene (Rune Kristensen), and contrary to some early, unconfirmed reports, frame failure was not involved in Alberto’s incident today. Nicolas Roche was involved in a separate incident today and while his bike was laying on the road it was run over by a car causing it to break, potentially giving rise to the initial inaccurate reporting,” the original statement read.
But the photos do not lie. Contador is #31, and his race number is on the broken frame. The Roche incident relayed in this statement may be entirely factual, but it is clear that Contador’s bike broke as well.
Specialized later corrected itself again, stating that Contador’s bike that had been run over as well. A source within the team who was present at the scene of the crash explained that Contador’s mechanic, Faustino Munoz, grabbed his backup bike off the roof, then, seeing the condition of Contador, rushed to his aid, leaving the bike against the team car. The team car drove off and crushed the bike. Photos were taken, and the broken bike story took off.
The alternative potential explanation, of course, is that Contador’s bike broke on impact with a large pothole.
Source:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/07/news/timeline-details-alberto-con...
gotta love an internetz comments mystery
Whilst I like the theory - the bike in the photo is a clean bike, and does not look like it has done 60K in the wet.
I know if I do 60k in the wet, then there will be lots of dirt splattered up the back of the seat tube, and across the seat stays and forks... the bike in the shot does not show any of this.
Which either means that the roads in France are much cleaner then round here (possible), or the mechanics were polishing it up while bertie was being tended to by the road - or its not the bike he was riding.
The seat is also out of alignment - not something you would expect in a crash - but it does lend credence to the 'run over by a car' story.
Frame looks fine if you zoom on this image.
http://images.smh.com.au/2014/07/15/5595588/1405349443814.jpg-620x349.jpg
Had a moment of utter idiocy there and forgot about the cars/spare bikes scenario! Duuhhh
Either way, bike definetly looks clean considering conditions...
Ah, if only Holmes and Watson were still around!
Aye, they'd probably have bloody good experience of riding on cobbles too...
Spare bikes don't have numbers on, do they?
Don't need Holmes, a frame doesn't break in that way from any forces normally associated with riding or crashing, even if it were a shitty Chinese copy it would have failed further up the top tube. It's quite possible to break one of these in a crash but the frame in the pic was most likely run over.
" Alberto Contador has abandoned the Tour de France this afternoon - after riding 18 kilometres with what turns out to be a broken fibia in a desperate attempt to remain in the race. "
Where in the body is this fibia? Is it near the fibula or closer to the tibia?
@nick t
Corporate shill?
Its not a conspiracy and I don't work for Specialized and never have
concept stores are not owned by specialized .
I actually work in a Giant brand store if that helps clarify your concerns
Specialized posted this a little while ago. We've made contact with them and they're getting back to us soon, once they've got to the bottom of what actually happened
"We are concerned about the well-being of Alberto and will be keeping you up to date on information from the incident here. This is DS Bjarne Riis description of the crash, "“Alberto crashed on a fast and straight part of the descent. He was reaching for his pocket and the bike was swept away under him probably because of a bump or hole in the road. Alberto was in the shape of his life and the entire team had our eyes fixed on the podium in Paris and the work we would have to do to get there”. Reports from Tinkoff-Saxo are saying the team car drove over the frame and Alberto was given a new bike but, after riding 18km further with a broken leg he had to abandon. Please check back here for the most up to date information. "
http://www.iamspecialized.com/news/get-well-soon-alberto/
Can't believe I'm the first person to point out there's no such bone as the fibia.
I think your Sarco-Matic 5000 needs a bit of fettling there, buddy
Neither can the author of the post 3 up from yours.
@nick t
Written attempts at sarcasm never translate well?
Unfortunately intonation gets lost in the written word...
Can't believe that ITV4's prize this week is a Specialized bike!
Just to add more fuel to different fires, why did Riis look so suspicious when removing the gilet from Contador's jersey pocket? He seemed to pull it out dead quickly, then almost hid it behind his back.
That was weird wasn't it? "Haha, I'm such a cunning pickpocket that he will now restart without a gilet! Serves him right for having hurty knee!"
"Just going to swipe this whilst everyone is distracted and then I'll...Balls! There is a cameraman, erm, hide it behind my back and walk away, just walk away".
Everything was just so odd.
Its a shame to loose the 'Bad Guy' of the tour. No drama on the climbs or Contador taking time back on the TT.
ITV4 confirmed there were two crashes, which explains why he was riding Roche's bike and explains why he was riding fast to catch up before the second BIG wipeout. As for the broken frame. The second big crash we can see the bike is pretty fine even after he slide for 100m, there is no need to doubt the 'car ran over it' story (except for a bit of internet forum fun.)
Is a conspiracy. I see triangles.
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