Basque sprinter suffered his third broken collarbone in less than one year at the Ruta del Sol
Euskaltel fast finisher Koldo Fernandez de Larrea will undergo two separate CAT scans on his broken clavicle and wrist on Monday to determine whether he'll need surgery. He suffered damage due to an improperly-secured barrier in the windy finishing straight in the final one hundred meters of the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia.
The 29 year old rider, who was slowly building back to form following an injury-plagued - but nevertheless exceptional - 2010 season, netted an eighth place in the first day of the Challenge Mallorca and looked set for a solid finish in the fourth stage of the Ruta del Sol when disaster struck.
Fernandez spent the morning in the hospital in Bilbao, but will need to return at the beginning of next week. It has already been determined that the beleaguered sprinter has suffered his third broken collarbone in the last two seasons. This time the fracture is the middle third of the right clavicle, along with a broken fourth metacarpal in his right hand, and a possible fracture of the hamate bone in the wrist.
The crash was an unfortunate continuation of the terrible luck that has plagued the rider since last year. Fernandez's list of injuries and ailments from last season is nothing to scoff at: an ear infection, a crash in the Tour of Bavaria, which resulted in a broken collarbone, all topped off with a horrible crash in Paris-Bourges, which left Fernandez with cranioencephalic trauma, a fractured left clavicle, broke metacarpal of the right hand, broken right cheekbone, and the loss of several teeth. Despite the bad luck, Fernandez still managed victories at the Tour de Vendee and a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos.