Dutch Vacansoleil-DCM rider speaks for the first time about his horrific Tour de France crash injuries
Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) was released from hospital last Tuesday, but has now spoken to the press for the first time about his Tour de France crash. The 24-year-old Dutchman, riding in his debut Tour, was one of many riders to come down hard in the carnage of the crash-strewn sixth stage; he fractured three ribs, bruised his lung, and ruptured both his spleen and one of his kidneys.
He actually remounted and continued for a few kilometres, but quickly realised that there was no way he could finish the stage.
"That was not very smart,” he admitted, according to Sporza. “The doctor pressed on my ribs and I was dying of pain. But I gritted my teeth and said I felt nothing.
“The [race] doctor let me go on.” he continued. “I didn’t make it any worse, but I quickly realised that something was very wrong. I rode at just five kilometres per hour.”
Poels is now recovering steadily however, especially since he returned home on Tuesday. “I’m a bit more mobile and so I feel a lot better,” he said.
This is certainly an improvement on his time in hospital, where he was unable to do anything for himself.
“I had a week and a half in bed,” he explained. “I was unable to do anything. When I got out of bed my whole balance had disappeared. If I got out of bed I fell over; it was scary. Two weeks before the crash I was riding races of 200km, and in the hospital I couldn’t walk ten metres.
“Fortunately I can now get up the stairs myself,” he said. “Although it may not be quite as fast.”