First ever women’s Tour de France winner Marianne Martin seriously injured in high-speed cycling crash

A crowdfunding appeal has been launched to support the recovery of Marianne Martin, the winner of the inaugural Tour de France Féminin in 1984, after the American cyclist suffered several serious injuries in a high-speed crash on a descent in Colorado earlier this month.

The 66-year-old US Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee was descending Sunshine Canyon, a popular 10-mile climb just outside Boulder, on Sunday 6 October, when she overcorrected on a corner at high-speed and crashed.

She suffered a collapsed lung, a fractured collarbone in two places, 12 broken ribs, concussion, and lots of road rash in the fall, and was taken by ambulance to hospital, where she spent several days in the intensive care unit.

Last Thursday, Martin had surgery to install pins and plates to properly align multiple broken ribs. The following day, she was moved to a standard hospital room, but with an epidural to manage the “not insignificant” amount of pain she was still in from the crash.

Sunshine Drive, Colorado (Google Maps)

According to Lindasue Smollen, who set up a GoFundMe page to assist with Martin’s medical bills and recovery, she is expected to return home soon, with her sisters staying with her to provide necessary support.

Following her surgery, Smollen said: “She was able to do a short walk, unassisted, around the ICU yesterday and she promises to post it on Strava.

“She is in a fair amount of pain and grimaces at almost the slightest move. The road rash on her face is healing quite well. She’s very, very tired, but that’s to be expected. Overall, after a week, I think she’s doing great.

“If you know Marianne (and you do), you know she prides herself on her resourcefulness and independence. She has been reluctant to accept support (other than kind words and visits) from her friends, but has come to the realisation that it could be quite a while before she can return to working or deal with life’s many obligations.”

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Set up last week, the GoFundMe page has received over $16,500 (around £12,600) in donations.

“This is a chance for ‘many hands making light work’ to relieve the stress her recovery downtime puts on her,” Smollen said of the crowdfunding campaign.

“She has received a tremendous amount of moral support from the cycling community, and it means a lot to her. Marianne wanted to make clear that she has Medicare and most of her hospital bills will be covered, though there will plenty out of pocket expenses as well.

“This fund is to support her ongoing living costs while her income is cut off and let her focus on healing.

“The long road to full recovery has just started for her, with your contribution she’ll have an easier time dealing with the many issues she faces. And I’m sure we’re all looking forward to Marianne being back on the bike and kicking ass!”

Martin climbing in the polka-dot best climber’s jersey at the 1984 Tour de France, which she also kept to Paris

In 1984, Martin etched her name into cycling immortality when she won the inaugural edition of the Tour de France Féminin.

The first true crack at a women’s Tour – if we don’t count the short-lived five-day stage race held entirely in Normandy which bore the same name almost thirty years previously – the Tour Féminin took place over 18 days and ran concurrently with the men’s race (which lasted for 23 days), the women riding shortened versions of the men’s stages, including the iconic Alpine and Pyrenean passes such as the brutal Col de Joux Plane, earlier in the day.

26-year-old Martin – who had suffered from a bout of amenia which cost her a spot at the first-ever Olympic women’s road race that summer – played it cool during the opening, flatter stages dominated by the Dutch, before striking in the Alps, eventually beating Heleen Hage by three minutes to become the first ever American Tour winner, two years before Greg LeMond repeated the feat in the men’s race.

“I think the 1984 Tour de France Féminin was a little bit before its time, but lucky for me,” Martin said last year about her win. “It shouldn’t have been before its time; the attitude about women’s sports should not have been any less than it is now, but realistically human nature changes slowly.

“I loved that we did 18 days. We didn’t have huge mileage, but we did have the big climbs.”

Martin was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and was a 2020 inductee to the US Bicycling Hall of Fame.