Injury update: Wout Poels in a serious but stable condition
White jersey candidate abandons after stage six crash at the Tour
Stage six of the Tour is one which many of the riders would happily forget. The mass pile-up which occurred inside the final 30km of the stage involved approximately 100 riders. Some were merely held-up by the riders sprawled across the road but others like Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) were not so lucky.
Poels had been sitting in 20th place at the completion of stage five but all of this hard work was undone in the high-speed crash. The 24-year-old was rushed to a local military hospital in Metz where his injuries were diagnosed with a ruptured spleen and kidney, bruised lungs and three broken ribs. This is the second year in a row that Poels has been forced to abandon the Tour due to injury.
A spokesperson for the Vaconsoleil-DCM said: "His condition is stable, we have learned from team doctor Peter Lagrou".
It’s another disappointment for Poels who had been touted as a potential winner of the young rider classification at the Tour. He proved his worth in the list of favourites after a top-20 finish at the Vuelta a Espana in 2011, highlighted by a second-place one the brutal stage to Angliru.
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