Slovenian national road race champion Borut Bozic had some very promising results this spring, with his solid form earning him second in both the Dwars door Vlaanderen and Gent-Wevelgem, but his momentum has been jarred by a bad crash in Paris-Roubaix.
The Astana rider was riding prominently in the race when he hit the deck on a left hand turn. He quickly realised that something was wrong and received treatment from the race doctors after abandoning the event.
However it was only later that he learned of the severity of the injury.
“This is the first time I have ever broken my wrist, and it's quite painful,” he said. “I was okay to travel home Sunday night, but on the plane I began having really bad pain. My wife picked me up at the airport and we went immediately to the hospital for x-rays.
“On Wednesday I went in for surgery and I will go back on Saturday for a follow up consultation with the doctors here in Ljubljana.”
Bozic’s crash is unfortunate, not least because of his good form. He’s shown well this spring and will hope to get back up to speed quickly, although he’s facing several weeks out.
“The doctors put some metal pins in me, because the break was very complicated. At most they say there is a six-week recovery process, but we will come back after one week for more consultation before we can make any decisions,” he said.
“The most important thing is that everything gets fixed and that my wrist is going to be ok.”
The timing of the crash should in theory give him a chance to be back in decent shape for the Tour de France. It begins in 78 days time on June 29th, eleven weeks from now.
Bozic is a past stage winner in the Vuelta a España, clocking up victory on stage six in 2009.
Also see: Borut Bozic Interview: After quiet 2012, Slovenian is ambitious with Astana