French champion Dorian Godon has revealed he rode the final nine stages of the Tour de France with four broken ribs.
The Netcompany-Ineos rider crashed in the final meters of stage 12 into Chalon-sur-Saône, won by Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep), flipping over another rider who had fallen ahead of him, but continued the race.
However, having experienced ongoing discomfort since finishing in Paris, he consulted medical staff and a subsequent MRI scan revealed the injuries. He also has edema to the L1 vertebra.
"Once I got back home, I took a few days to rest," Godon explained in an Instagram post. "But as I was still feeling some pain, my medical team and I decided to run additional tests to understand what was going on.
"Earlier this week, we discovered on the RMN that I had suffered four rib fractures during the crash on Stage 12 which did not show up on the XR or scans at the time.
"I’ve started riding my bike again, with the approval of my coach and medical team. For now, I’m listening to my body and taking things one day at a time."
Despite being more of a classics rider, with a fast finish in tough races, Godon was deployed by his team to compete in the bunch sprints at the Tour. Eighth place on stage 7 into Bordeaux, also won by Merlier, was his best result. Unsurprisingly, his results tailed off after his crash, with 87th place in the stage 16 time trial was the best he could manage with the injuries.
Godon is listed as starting the GP Cycliste de Québec on September 11, a race ideally suited to his characteristics, though it is unknown whether he will be ready to do so.
Netcompany-Ineos suffered a torrid Tour, second place on the opening day Team Time Trial their only stage podium and Egan Bernal’s their best finish on GC, the 2019 winner finishing in 20th place, 1:47:58 behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
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