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Laura Sweet Milk on the first stage of the Tour de France
Photo:
Arne Mill / frontalvision.com / IMAGO
After her serious fall shortly before the end of the second stage of the Tour de France Femmes, Laura üßmilch seemed to have been lucky.
In a first diagnosis, two broken vertebrae were found, even a start at the European Track Cycling Championships in Munich in August was in the room.
That's done now.
Sweet milk is much more seriously injured than initially thought: As the 26-year-old track cycling team world champion announced on Instagram on Monday evening, a third vertebral fracture, a broken rib and a fracture in the back of the head were found after being transferred from the hospital in Saarbrücken to the Tübingen clinic.
"The last few days I've been through hell," wrote üßemilch a week after the fateful fall in France.
"Now I can say: Thank God I'm still alive and will be 100 percent healthy again in a few weeks," wrote süssemilch and added: "I can currently get out of bed and go with someone.
The plan is to leave the hospital in a few days.” An operation is not necessary and the injuries can be treated conservatively.
There were serious falls almost every day
Sweet milk fell on the second stage a good 22 kilometers from the finish in Provins.
Then she lay motionless on the ground.
The Tour de Frances Femmes was overshadowed by a series of violent crashes.
There were several reasons for the many accidents.
“The strong wind certainly played a role, as did the fighting for positions in the field.
Everyone wanted to be at the front,” said Dutch top driver Marianne Vos.
The Swiss Marlen Reusser, on the other hand, questioned the quality of the peloton.
»There are also female riders at the start who make you wonder why they are there.
That makes the field very heterogeneous,” she said at the beginning of the tour, before she had to give up after a fall.
Ronny Lauke, the boss of the German racing team Canyon SRAM saw another reason for the many falls in the excitement of his team boss colleagues.
»You can already see the unrest in the convoy of escort vehicles.
Some keep leaving their position and then do gymnastics in front of you.
And this nervousness, which some team managers and sport directors bring with them and which is really visible, then transfers to the drivers,” said Lauke.
The negative highlight was the crash of the Spaniard Mavi García, who was brought down by her own team vehicle.
After a 13-year break, there was a women's Tour de France again this year.
Annemiek van Vleuten from the Netherlands won.
kjo/dpa
