Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jens Voigt

There's been a lot of talk of Jens Voigt's crash today during Stage 16 of the Tour de France. He took a really nasty spill during a high speed descent and hit the ground at 40+ mph. I'm not posting some of the more gruesome photos that are available (you can find them elsewhere if you're inclined), but Jens face got pretty beat up in the crash.

Tour de France 2009 Stage Sixteen

A statement on the Saxo Bank team website says Jens Voigt has a broken cheekbone and a concussion, and quotes Voigt as saying he got off lightly from this crash. Voigt is out of the race and will stay in the hospital at Grenoble for observation.

Early speculation focused on equipment failure, but in the video below you can see the riders in front hitting a bump right where Jens hit the deck.


Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

** SPOILERS **

Stage 16 was won by Spaniard Mikel Astarloza of Team Euskaltel-Euskadi. Team Astana's Alberto Contador retains the yellow jersey, with team mate Lance Armstrong in second place and Garmin Slipstream's Bradley Wiggins holding on to 3rd place in the GC.

Tour de France 2009 Stage Sixteen

Tour de France 2009 Stage Sixteen

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5 comments:

  1. RonJuly 21, 2009 at 3:46 PM

    Thanks Fritz for the link. We were able to do away with a bunch of hogwash (from twitter), that Jens' bike broke and that caused him to crash. Although it did bring images of Hincapie's steerer tube breaking at the Paris Roubaix (when was that, 2006?), I was pretty suspicious from the beginning of these rumors.

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  2. WayneJuly 21, 2009 at 3:54 PM

    It looks like the bump combined with slightly less traction on the painted strip was to blame. That's a pretty horrifying way to crash out.

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  3. bikesgonewildJuly 21, 2009 at 4:20 PM

    ...heart goes out to jens voigt w/ best recovery wishes...one of THE good guys in the peleton & an indefatigable & selfless team rider when it's required...

    ...you hate to see anyone crash, ever, but a guy like jens, damn but it hurts a little more...& he's been there for the awesome shleck brothers all through this & many other races...
    ...bjarne riis is prob'ly chewing on old tires tonight reformulating his team's plans...

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  4. AnonymousJuly 21, 2009 at 5:03 PM

    Andy is reporting that Jens is doing OK - talking to the team and smiling:
    http://twitter.com/andy_schleck/statuses/2764920358

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  5. Erik OrgellJuly 21, 2009 at 11:18 PM

    Wow, that looks really awful. It made my jaw hurt just watching it. Glad that he's already on the mend.

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