Many riders had a bad day on today’s short, sharp 17th stage of the Tour de France, between Bagnères-de-Luchon and Peyragudes, but few can have come off worse than Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank’s Chris Anker Sørensen. The Danish rider - who has been in breakaways in most of the race’s recent stages, and finished in second place the day before - was part of an eleven-man counterattacking group on the descent of the 2nd category Col des Ares shortly before the halfway point when disaster struck.
A newspaper, offered to riders to stick up the front of their jerseys to keep the wind off their chest, became entangled with Sørensen's front wheel. As he tried to remove it, while travelling at some speed, the Dane accidentally put his fingers into his spokes, sustaining some deep cuts. He was treated on the road by the race’s medical staff, but lost his place in the break.
He did however, manage to stay with the peloton until the early slopes of the Col du Peyresourde - the white tape on the left side of his handlebars stained pink with blood - and limited his losses to stage winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to just 4’10” at the finish.
The Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank rider managed to hold on to his 14th place overall, as the best placed rider in the Danish team, but may lose that if his injuries prove too great.
“Chris had the misfortune of getting a newspaper stuck in his front wheel and as he tried to get rid of it with his left hand, he had some deep cuts in his ring finger and little finger that were bandaged during the stage,” explained the team’s press officer Anders Damgaard. “After consultancy with the race surgeon, we're now rushing to the hospital in Toulouse where he's to undergo surgery on his fingers. It's still too early to determine whether or or not he'll be on the start line tomorrow.”
Should Sørensen be forced to withdraw it would be a blow to the Danish team, which has been short on results since the suspension of Alberto Contador. The next best placed rider on the team is Portuguese Sergio Paulinho, who sits in 52nd position, 1h 40’01” behind yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins.