Yesterday, Frederik Frison was involved in the big crash at Les 4 Jours de Dunkerque. Further tests yesterday evening and this morning showed that Frederik doesn’t only have a fractured pelvis. He has several severe injuries.
Frederik has multiple pelvic fractures and it will take time and a lot of rest for this to heal. New scans showed that his chest intercepted a big part of the crash. On the left, Frederik has three broken ribs and two fractures to the transverse process on his vertebrae. Further examination also showed he has a small pneumothorax. Frederik doesn’t need to undergo surgery.
The second stage at Dunkerque, with start and finish in Saint-Quentin, was 169 kilometres long. Just like yesterday a break was established early. Five escapees got a maximum advantage of eight minutes, but were caught in the last kilometres without too much trouble. Jens Debusschere got beaten in the sprint by Arnaud Démare, but Jens remains GC leader. Marc Sarreau is second at ten seconds.
At the Giro a short sprint stage of 159 kilometres was scheduled, from Pedara to Messina. The teams of the sprinters had their sight on a bunch sprint so a two-man break had no chance to survive. Lotto Soudal with Bart De Clercq and an Orica-Scott rider helped Quick-Step Floors to control the race. Lotto Soudal and Quick-Step Floors fiercely increased the pace going into the last five kilometres. André Greipel lost the wheel of his teammates in the penultimate kilometre and had to start the sprint from too far behind. Greipel finished fourth, Fernando Gaviria won the sprint and takes over the points jersey from Greipel.
André Greipel: “The team prepared the sprint perfectly. We came to the front of the bunch at the right time. Tomasz Marczynski did a very strong turn just before the roundabout on the local circuit. Unfortunately I lost too many places on the roundabout and had to start my sprint way too early. There are still some opportunities in the Giro, but I don’t know if tomorrow is one of them. We will have to wait and see how the race will unfold.”
