Rafal Majka, has decided to leave the Tour de France following his bad crash yesterday on a descent where he suffered heavy contusions and lost a lot of skin. After taking some time to recover, he will refocus and prepare for the rest of the season.

“I have pain everywhere today, but I was lucky to have no fractures at all,” confirmed Majka. “I cannot explain exactly what happened when I crashed. I didn’t break or anything, but my front wheel slipped away. Also Risto, our mechanic, almost fell when he arrived with the spare bike. There must have been some oil or something similar on the road.

“However, after the crash I suffered a lot. I want to thank my whole BORA – hansgrohe team, everybody waited for me first, but we told Emanuel to go and save our chances in the GC, then Jay was with me and brought me up to the next bigger group. Also thanks to Michal Kwiatkowski who helped me in the end.

“After this heavy crash, it does not make any sense to keep on fighting. I can hardly breathe because of the pain. We had to take a wise decision, for my health, but also for the rest of the season. I’ll take some rest now, then I will start preparing myself for the rest of the season.”

Jan-Niklas Droste, Team Doctor – Directly after the stage we went to the medical truck of the Tour, but decided to go to the hospital for further examinations and to be sure that especially his spine is ok. He suffers from heavy contusions and can hardly breath because of the pain. He also lost a lot of skin and has some deep excoriations. From a safety perspective it’s best to leave the Tour now and take some rest to recover.”

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