CYCLING: The Spaniard fell on the wet roads in Dusseldorf on the Tour de France prologue on Saturday …
We feared the damage is considerable. Alejandro Valverde, who fell heavily in the 1st stage of the Tour de France on Saturday , suffering a double fracture (patella and astragalus) and was operated in Düsseldorf, announced his Movistar team. The season for the Spaniard ended. “The recovery time makes it unlikely that his return to competition this season,” said the Spanish team about Valverde, who is 37 years old.
The first examinations had found a broken left kneecap. Other then revealed a fracture of the talus. Valverde, who also had a deep cut to the left tibia, underwent surgery for patella in the evening at the Düsseldorf University Hospital where he was taken after his fall.
” The Tour de France in 2017 lasted just 7 kilometers to him,” said the Spanish team, which lost the outset the chief lieutenant of his Colombian leader Nairo Quintana, along with its iconic racer due the winners of the Murcian.
#TDF2017 @alejanvalverde será operado esta noche de fractura de rótula. Roto también astrágalo + corte tibia. Info: https://t.co/rs2AXx5pIK pic.twitter.com/u6WkSaAsKe
— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) July 1, 2017
Valverde slipped from the front wheel in a right angle turn and hit the barriers violently. This is the third abandonment of Valverde in the Tour de France, he had not finished in 2005 and 2006.
Third Edition 2015, his best result, he finished five times in the top ten. Valverde must remain in Germany in the coming hours. The date of his return to Spain is not yet determined.
Esta noche me han operado la fractura de rótula en el Hospital Universitario de Düsseldorf. Todo ha ido bien. Gracias a todos por estar ahí pic.twitter.com/Ks2uNKCVUp
— alejandro valverde (@alejanvalverde) July 2, 2017
Winner of several stage races this season, including the Tour of Catalonia and the Tour of the Basque Country, he was also imposed in the two Ardennes Classics, the Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Late in the season, the Spaniard would have been one of the favorites of the World Championship scheduled in Bergen (Norway), for a title he has never won.
