Samuel Sanchez cracked bone in Tourmalet

From the main page:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sanchez-cracked-bone-in-tourmalet-stage-crash

I gotta say, I'm impressed. Usually you can finish the stage pretty decently even with a heavy injury. But the worst day comes 2 days after. That was the time trial, and although Sanchez lost 2 minutes to Menchov, he was still the 3rd best rider of the top 10 in the time trial..

I wonder what he could have done without that cracked bone. A lot of (severely) injured riders or ill riders finished the Tour this year... Sanchez, Gesink, Evans, Basso (bronchitis), Petacchi (bronchitis)
We don't see that much in other sports now do we?
Respect for these hard men :eek:
 
Jul 25, 2010
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Yeah, I was amazed at him getting on the bike as well as Andy after slip-n-slide day, I thought both were gone. Much respect for SS in not only finishing, but holding it together for a few more days and not just falling down to 50th or something.
 
Jul 22, 2009
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it's a testiment to the respect for hard work the entire team puts into a high GC placement, that these guys are willing to soldier on with terrible pain.
 
Sep 21, 2009
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It's curious that he only told in an interview just after the Tourmalet stage that he had hit hard his ribs on the stem and the handlebar. Very unfortunate.

He also crashed last year in the Vuelta, losing over 1 minute to Valverde, Evans and co. the day after.
 

Daniel Benson

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Mar 2, 2009
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I was a bit surprised that he lost so much time to so quickly to Menchov. However 21 seconds probably wouldn't have been enough even if he hadn't crashed. The question is certainly whether he would have taken more time on the Tourmalet had he been firing on all cylinders.
 
Sep 21, 2009
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Daniel Benson said:
I was a bit surprised that he lost so much time to so quickly to Menchov. However 21 seconds probably wouldn't have been enough even if he hadn't crashed. The question is certainly whether he would have taken more time on the Tourmalet had he been firing on all cylinders.

We'll never know, but he said at the finish on the Tourmalet that he would have attacked before if he hadn't crashed, cause he wasn't sure how deep he could go. Riding on the numbers of his power meter was of no help in that situation.
 
Jul 25, 2010
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I don't think a healthy SS could have held off Denis in the TT so it likely didn't matter as far as that goes, he needed more than 21 seconds to stay on the podium going in to Saturday.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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Angliru said:
I was an admirer of both Sanchez and Gesink before and even more so now. I hope this puts to rest the ridiculous statements posted here in the past about Gesink being "soft".

it's more gesink being very limited