henrythenavigat

What a horrendous crash.

Does anyone know what happened? I read -- already -- a few different versions (fork failure; bump in the road; hand slippage).

I hope he gets better soon.

erader

horrible crash for voigt who was riding like superman today. here are some pics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTJMjiBKw0

ed rader

XTR

Looks like it was just a bump in the road. Think about it. Long decent and a lot of weight on your hands, maybe they get a bit numb, hit a bump and knocks you a little wobbly and boom you are down.

About 13 yrs ago I made a bobble like that as a passed a line of cars at a light. Ended up doing over $1200 in damage to a Honda after I finished removing the passenger side power mirror with my bars and eating up the door with a pedal. Oh yea, I cleared the hood and landed on my nugget. Good thing for my old Giro Ventoux and the fact that it was in the high 30s and I was completely covered up or I'd have probably needed a ride. At the speed he was traveling I can completely see it.

Allen H

What a horrible, horrible crash.

I hope he recovers fully. I think he's the heart & soul of Saxo Bank - he's always been one of my favorite riders.

kimconyc

***** ACHTUNG! Graphic! *****
https://www.steephill.tv/players/tiny...ash&id=33n926f

The road is clearly bumpy and he sees riders in front of him going over the bump.

To me, it looks like he took off weight (partially out of saddle) going over the bump but his back wheel hits the bump, locks up, and goes out from under him. They are going so fast I can understand the danger of that small bump. Imagine snowboarding or skiing down what you think is a blue square and then all of a sudden there is a patch of moguls.

I have to say though that there was some serious momentum as the bike traveled fast enough where the skewer/derailleur created sparks on the road.

julian

Tough luck. I think the downhills are the worst part of racing. Remember Simoni (spelling?) going down years ago. I don't think he ever got it back.

kimconyc

Let's just hope Jens is doing alright where he can live the rest of his life with his family.

He wasn't at a point in his career where he had much more to prove regardless.

lotek 

the thing that is so surprising to me is that Jens has such good handling skills.
He is arguably one of the true hard men of cycling and I hate to see him go out
like that (of the tour, not career ending)

chrisvu05

yikes....were those teeth flying out at the beginning? looking back it looks like just sparks.

telebianchi

It may just be coincidence, but it also looks as though his front wheel follows the white stripe pulling it to the left causing him to fly off to the right. So maybe the bump plus the more-slippery paint stripe?

yes

It looks to me like his left hand slips off the bars on the bump. Immediately after that, his wheel turns left. That would seem a natural if all of his weight is suddenly on the right side of the bar. The tape looks like a coincidence to me, b/c the wheel turns left rather than slides out.

Rancid

ugh. I'm at work and just saw the crash. The slide is just brutal. Looked like a slight bump in the road to me that he wasn't ready for

bitterspeak

Yeah it's just sparks.

joe@vwvortex

If you look at the video - focus on his rear wheel - when it comes back down it appear to collapse internally. Man I hope he's ok.https://www.steephill.tv/players/tiny...ash&id=33n926f

msh1283

From Armstrong's Twitter:
"Just heard from Frank Schleck that Jens is doing ok. Good news."

GV27

Even Valentino Rossi goes down sometimes! That's racin'.

I doubt it's career ending. He went down hard but he's a tough dude and still plenty of miles left in the legs.

z415

Apparently he just fractured his cheekbone and had a concussion.

Rancid

good to hear!

daxr

Merckx fractured his cheekbone in a crash during the '75 tour, said it was one of the most painful things that ever happened to him...

Best wishes for Voight though - one rough tour for him.

bikinggrrrl

So sad.
Not hijacking your thread, but I found this response from the Tour regarding the incident:

from: https://www.bicycling.com/tourdefranc...0165-1,00.html
The three official Tour regulators--those who position themselves behind different groups within the race to monitor the racing--were very critical of Voigt's equipment. "They are using deep-profile carbon wheels and they are just too stiff," said Francois Lemarchand, a one-time teammate to Greg LeMond and now one of the Tour's three regulators. "You combine that with the stiff carbon frames and it is just too rigid. They can't absorb any shock."

bhamlax

It does look like his rear wheel collapsed, he's not riding r-sys's is he

Brian Ratliff

1+ You can see pretty clearly on the video that his left hand comes completely off the bars when he gets bounced. He just wasn't ready for the bump, got bounced and lost his grip. I've done that before too; I've been lucky in that my hand has always, up to this point, found it's way back to the bar before the fall. His didn't and you can see the outcome.

Look at the video here: https://cyclocosm.com/2009/07/breakin...e-voigt-crash/. Read his editorial comment; the rest of the post is speculation which his later comment completely negates.

chrisvu05

sounds like a statement made by a Lemond cohort. It was simply an accident...the stiffness of the wheels and frame had nothing to do with it.

Rumpled

Looks to me that he hit the bump and lost his left hand grip. Front wheel left the ground/became unweighted and landed/reweighted right on the white stripe.
Bad fall however it happened.
Facial fractures and a concussion; he'll be feeling that.

haimtoeg

Fingers crossed for Jens' rapid and easy recovery. He is one of the few that make cycling entertaining.