Lance Armstrong crashed out of the 1st stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon in Spain yesterday. It could spell disaster for his comeback plans. He will miss at least two weeks of training and racing. Most people take 4-6 weeks to race again after a broken collar bone, though some say that Lance could be back within two weeks to prepare for the Giro and the Tour de France.
Broken Collar Bones are the most common injury in road racing (other than road rash). When you go down in a fast paced race there is little time to react. Someone crosses wheels and you all fall down. If you don’t have time to drop a hand or twist your body to change the path of your fall, you’ll go down on your shoulder and brake the clavicle. You’ll sit on the ground for a while, head in hands, one shoulder a bit lower than the other. Somehow Lance had managed to avoid this common injury until wheels crossed in front of him and it was his turn to sit on the side of the road. In all of Lance’s time racing bicycles his worst accident saw him go down and fracture a vertebrae in his neck. He quickly got back on the bike and won Tour again that year. I predict that his second comeback of the year will be closer to two weeks away than six.
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