American Education First-Drapac rider fractures shoulder blade
Image 1 of 4
Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac) crashes but finishes stage 1 at the Tour de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Lawson Craddock (EF-Drapac) in the blue jersey as 'most courageous rider', race leader Egan Bernal (Team Sky) and 'king of the mountains' jersey winner Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) after stage 6 of the 2018 Tour of California(Image credit: Getty Images)
Lawson Craddock is auctioning these custom Lake shoes to benefit Houston cycling(Image credit: Twitter)
Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, Solutions Credits), Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Samsic), Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac) in the breakaway during stage 1 at Criterium du Dauphine(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Craddock, who won the mountains classification at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali stage race in March, finished stage 1 on Saturday in last position, 7:50 behind winner Fernando Gaviria.
The American, riding his second Tour de France, crashed into a spectator when avoiding a dropped water bottle at the feed zone in Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard, half-way through the 201km stage from Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile to Fontenay-Le-Comte.
After bravely hobbling the 100km home to the stage finish, Craddock was assessed to have sustained a small fracture of his left shoulder blade, and also required stitches to his left eyebrow, having been left covered covered in blood from the crash.
"Right now, it's extremely painful," Craddock said on the EF-Drapac team website. "It was really painful out on the road just trying to manage it as best I could. I got incredible support from the team to help me to the finish."
"It's difficult. A lot of work goes into these races, especially the Tour," Craddock continued. "Mentally, it's almost harder than physically. I'll try to stay positive, manage the pain as hard as I can. I'm not just going home at the first sign of adversity, so I'll see how I feel tonight [Saturday], how I sleep, how I feel in the morning and get on the bike and see if I can manage it."
"I'm so gutted for Lawson," his Australian teammate Simon Clarke said. "We did all the preparation together for this Tour de France, all the altitude training together. Not only am I rooming with him here at the Tour but we've been living and training together for the last month or so.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"To have this happen to him, I really felt bad for him. I dropped back to give him some words of motivation and support. I encouraged him to get to the finish, cross the finish line and then we could assess things after that, and figure out how bad the damage is."
Craddock added on Twitter on Saturday evening that he would "fight as much as I can to continue", while also pledging $100 for each stage that he could finish to Houston's Alkek Velodrome, which was flooded and damaged as a result of Hurricane Harvey last year.
Cyclingnews is the world's leader in English-language coverage of professional cycling. Started in 1995 by University of Newcastle professor Bill Mitchell, the site was one of the first to provide breaking news and results over the internet in English. The site was purchased by Knapp Communications in 1999, and owner Gerard Knapp built it into the definitive voice of pro cycling. Since then, major publishing house Future PLC has owned the site and expanded it to include top features, news, results, photos and tech reporting. The site continues to be the most comprehensive and authoritative English voice in professional cycling.
