Despite a broken rib and a bruised lung, Wout Poels is still at the start of the second stage of the Tour de France today. “It’s quite painful, but I hope to come back fighting,” the Bahrain-McLaren rider writes on Instagram.
32-year-old Poels was one of the victims of a crash just before the finish on the wet Promenade des Anglais in Nice on Saturday. His Spanish teammate Rafael Valls broke his right thigh and had to undergo immediate surgery.
“It was quite a hectic start to the Tour”, said Poels. “We managed to avoid the crashes, up to 1.8 miles from the line. A broken rib and some bruises on a lung. Let’s see how it goes today.”
