New Zealander Paddy Bevin was making his Tour de France debut this year and the Cannondale-Drapac rider got off to a bad start when he crashed on the opening stage in Dusseldorf, sustaining multiple injuries, including a sprained ankle.
Initially Bevin’s sprained ankle seemed the worst of the injuries, but as the ankle healed, a foot injury lingered. Cannondale-Drapac’s Doctor Kevin Sprouse, who arrived on the race on the first rest day in Dordogne, used a portable ultrasound device to look at the bone in his foot, which was when he diagnosed the foot fracture.
Bevin had already raced more than half the Tour with a broken bone, and he wanted to continue if he could. The team allowed him to make this choice, and Bevin opted to hold off on an x-ray until the final stage time trial.
The x-ray in Marseille confirmed the fracture. Bevin rode into Paris with a broken foot, having completed 20 stages of the Tour with the injury.
“Personally, finishing the Tour regardless of the injury was a top priority,” said Bevin. “I didn’t want a crash on stage one to define my Tour. Riding on as a functional member of a team that fought to win the Tour de France was an honour, and it is a memory I will have for the rest of my life.”
“It’s a long hard three weeks regardless of how it unfolds. To be a part of a team that fought for the general classification win was a lot of fun. We didn’t expect this, and the momentum with Rigo, it built over these last three weeks. You know he won the stage, and then he was there on general classification. A few more days pass by, and he’s still there. He passes this test. That test. Three days to go, and he’s still in with a shot. That feeling, it was really fun. It’s a long time though, man, Dusseldorf feels like it was months ago not weeks ago.”
Tough humans only please. When you get to realize your dream of riding in the tour, and after a lifetime of work, a broken foot might not be enough to make you drop out. Serious respect.