‘It feels like one thing after another’ – Spratt out of the Tour
'It feels like one thing after another' – Spratt out of the Tour
Amanda Spratt’s frustrating run of bad luck continues. The BikeExchange-Jayco rider didn’t start Tuesday’s stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after a nasty crash on Monday’s stage 2.
On a crash-marred day of racing, Spratt hit the ground with around 25 km to go before being hit from behind by compatriot Nicole Frain (Parkhotel Valkenburg) who’d also just collided with Marta Cavalli (FDJ Suez Futuroscope).
Spratt managed to continue on but finished the stage almost 10 minutes behind stage winner Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma). Spratt was then taken to hospital to assess her injuries.
“Amanda had lots of pain at her right ribs, knee and wrist,” team doctor Damien Bertrand said on Monday evening. “At the hospital she had X-ray and CT scan and luckily nothing is broken. For this reason we will evaluate tomorrow morning her situation in order to understand if she will be fit to race.”
When morning came though, it was clear Spratt wouldn’t be able to continue on.
“We had a hope yesterday that she would be OK,” said BikeExchange-Jayco sports director Martin Vestby. “Luckily no broken bones, but with the pain she’s in and lack of movement, she’s not capable to go on the bike today.
“It’s really sad for Spratty. She has had a lot of bad luck lately and this [comes] on top of it in the biggest race of the season.”
Spratt had iliac artery surgery in late 2021, necessitating a long lay-off for recovery. After a gradual build-up through the early part of the season, Spratt was sixth overall at the Giro d’Italia Donne in June when she was forced from the race with COVID.
Her Tour de France Femmes started in frustrating fashion, too, with a crash in the closing kilometres of stage 1, followed by her race-ending fall on stage 2.
“Not how I imagined my TdF ending,” Spratt said on Twitter. “Feels like one thing after another at the moment. I finished the stage after a crash and hard impact but woke up not being able to move well or breathe properly. I need time to recover now.
“I hope everyone who crashed recovers well.”
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