Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) suffered a serious crash in the Vuelta a Espana that left the three-times winner with a series of scrapes, cuts and bruises down the lefthand side of his body - and furious at what he felt was a crash caused by another rider.
The first sign that something was wrong with Contador at the finish of stage 7 came as Tinkoff staff stood on a roundabout after the line in Puebla de Sanabria, waiting for Contador, previously well positioned at the front of the pack right into the final kilometre, but who - for reasons initially unknown - failed to appear amongst the knots of riders coming through.
The explanation for his not being present with the other favourites came when Contador crossed the line a few minutes down, the lefthand side of his kit ripped, bloodied and torn, and TV camera crews and radio reporters haring through the crowd in hot pursuit as Contador picked his way past the fans.
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When he finally stopped a few hundred metres after the line, Contador was visibly furious, saying, “I was really well positioned, but suddenly somebody who doesn’t like using their brakes pulled across and I went down. Right now my left side is cut up, so is my wrist… things are getting really complicated.”
The Tinkoff rider then pedalled on, but not - in a very rare public show of anger and frustration - before pulling a bidon out of its cage and hurling it to the ground in rage.
Contador’s latest spill comes after his abandon in the Tour de France because of crashes causing injuries and after dislocating his shoulder in a bunch sprint in the Giro d’Italia last year - which he went on to win.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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