Just watched the highlights, and his crash was a corker.

Has anyone said what caused it yet? To me it looked like he went over a small bump in the road, and then maybe the right fork failed ?

Dunno, they reckon he was doing around 80kph though, lucky boy to only have a fractured cheekbone and concussion

watch it frame by frame

looks like he took air and landed front wheel first on the white line with his hand off ….

front end slid out i reckon.

Doesnt look like a fork failure to me – although in looking to see how he was earlier i did see all the conspirousy about fork failure on other forums ….

btw some nobber will be in shortly shouting about spoilers etc …

There certainly was a transition from one patch of tarmac to another.

The ever-present danger on a road bike is that you are leaning on your hands, unless you make a conscious effort to rock back onto your feet. So if anything lets go up front you are all ready to go with it.

back wheel skipped round, left hand came off the bars, face/ right arm took the impact. OUCH!
Get well soon Jens, that was a bad one!

Quick, change the thread title, they'll be along in a minute…..

yeeeeeowsers!

Was he trying to hop the white line?

looked a bit like he was either just resting on the tops or else moving left hand from top/hood to the drop, when he hit a hole/bump

broken cheekbone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V0VsKznyzA

No one can complain about that title? it gives nowt away.

SPOILER!

I wanted to find out for real!! 😉

There was a change in tarmac but I reckon this instigated a real wheel blow out?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd5k8TaAJk8

has better slow-mo and highlighted area

this instigated a real wheel blow out?!

That wouldn't have brought him off like that.

Here's a slo-mo clip with close-up. You can see from that that his left hand came off the bars on the bump – seems likely that had something to do with it.

Just watched it back again, and rather than looking at him and the bike just looking at the road, it appears as though he does actually just tramline on the white line…. oops

it looked at the time like he missed the drop bars with his left hand and maybe a wee bump contributed as well………..ouch!

Looks like bars where knocked out of his hands, lets hope it doesn't end his career, top rider, always pulling on the front.

roades cant jump that's the bottom line

This just in from cycling news

'Voigt was taken to the University hospital in Grenoble and diagnosed with a fracture of the right cheekbone and a concussion. He will remain in the hospital for observation.

The father of five sent a message to his teammates from his hospital bed: "I think I was very lucky not getting severely hurt from today's crash. Now I hope that you can focus on the race and I wish you all good luck with the hard stage tomorrow”.

The crash, which occured near the beginning of the final descent of Tuesday's stage, could have had much more severe consequences. Voigt landed hard on his shoulder and head and slid several metres along the road. The race doctor who attended to him at the scene said that Voigt briefly lost consciousness.

"He is seriously injured, but conscious. He was able to move," said a visibly shaken team manager Bjarne Riis to the German press agency dpa after the stage.

A motorcycle carrying a photographer narrowly avoided hitting the fallen 37-year-old. "I saw him laying there with closed eyes and blood on his face," the driver said, adding that he had suspected the worst.

Voigt's fellow German Linus Gerdemann of Team Milram said "When you see a crash like that, nothing else much matters. It gives you goose bumps."'

I wish him a speedy recovery.

Jens is a true champion, one who is willing to bury himself for his team leader and always was smiling

Roadie full face helmets should be obligitory for these mountain stages, big fat wide tyres and stabilzers too. Roads should be surfaced with sponge. 😀
I really can't be 100% sure looking at these clips what happened.
He's a top dude, hope he recovers well.

Jens Voigt doesn’t read books. He simply attacks until the books relent and tell him everything he wants to know.

Waldo can’t be found because Jens dropped him on a hill training ride… on K2.

Jens doesn’t spin or mash the pedals… he kicks them into submission.

Jens Voigt puts the “laughter” in “Manslaughter.”

Jens Voigt climbs so well for a big guy because he doesn’t actually climb hills; the hills slink into the earth in fear as they see him approach.

If you are a UCI ProTour rider and you Google “Jens Voigt,” the only result you get is “it’s not to late to take up kickball, Fred.”

Jens was a math prodigy in elementary school, putting “Attack!” in every blank space on all his tests. It would be the wrong answer for everybody else, but Jens is able to solve any problem by attacking.

Jens’ testicles are bald because hair does not grow on a mixture of titanium, brass, steel, and cold, hard granite.

Eddy Merckx was actually a neo-pro at the same time as Jens, but Jens dropped him so hard that he shot backwards in time to the 1960’s, where he became a great champion.

Jens once had a heart attack on the Tourmalet. Jens counterattacked repeatedly until he kicked its ass.

Jack was nimble, Jack was quick… and Jens still drove him to quit racing bikes and become an ice dancing commentator on Lifetime.

If Jens Voigt was a country, his principle exports would be Pain, Suffering, and Agony.

If Jens Voigt was a planet, he’d be the World of Hurt.

Jens Voigt doesn’t know where you live, but he knows exactly where you will die.

Jens Voigt doesn’t have a shadow because he dropped it repeatedly until it retired, climbing into the CSC team car and claiming a stomach ailment.

Jens Voigt once challenged Lance Armstrong to a “who has more testicles” contest. Jens won… by five.

When you open a can of whoop-ass, Jens Voigt jumps out and attacks.

You are what you eat. Jens Voigt eats spring steel for breakfast, fire for lunch, and a mixture of titanium and carbon fiber for dinner. For between-meal snacks he eats men’s souls, and downs it with a tall cool glass of The Milk of Human Suffering.

Jens Voigt believes it’s not butter.

Jens Voigt can eat just one.

The first time man split the atom was when the atom tried to hold Jens Voigt’s wheel, but cracked.

Jens Voigt doesn’t complain about what suffering does to him… but suffering constantly complains about getting picked on by Jens Voigt.

Jens Voigt can start a fire by rubbing two mud puddles together.

Guns kill a couple dozen people every day. Jens Voigt kills 150.

Jens’s tears are so tough they could be the world heavyweight mixed-martial arts champion. Too bad Jens never cries.

Jens Voigt rides so fast during attacks, that he could circle the globe, hold his own wheel, and ride in his own draft. At least as long as he didn’t try to drop himself.

Jens Voigt nullified the periodic table because he doesn’t believe in any element, other than the element of surprise.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Unless Jens Voigt has been riding on the other side in which case it’s white with the salty, dried tears of all the riders whose souls he has crushed.

When Chuck Norris tried to roundhouse kick Jens Voigt, he missed because Jens was going too fast.

Oh man that looked a sore one. certainly looked like an unfortunate combo of moving hands, bumpy road, braking and tarmac/white line. Lucky boy in so many ways. Get well soon, he has been awesome in Le Tour this year absolutely awesome.

roades cant jump that's the bottom line

Thats a bit harsh, would love to see you attempt a bunny hop on a road bike at 40+ mph. Most of those pro's have exceptional bike handling skills from what I've seen. Its just a different set of skills to what you do out from the trail, thats all.

yeah but a bit of offroad experience wouldn't do them any harm. I know some of them do it. They're the ones you see riding over the hump without falling off.

If I was Jens Voight, I'd spend my entire time trying not to think about how sexy my daughter was and I'd probably crash.

They're the ones you see riding over the hump without falling off.

I'm sure he fell off because of a lack of skill 🙄

yeah, me too.

I hope your trolling samuri.

no. He's crap and I could kick his ass in the mountains.

Well that's ok then, sorry for doubting you! 😆

If anyone reckons they could've held that together in the same circumstances they're a moron! Looked harsh. Glad he's alright.

There's some no nothing morons on here. He was at the back of a group, no doubt near exhustion and didnt see a bump as he was changing hand positions. Could happen to anyone including Steve Peat got nothing to do with skill. These guys would leave anyone on here for dead on a descent and are amazingly skilled.

You forget that there are some on here who are better than the pros – at least when sitting behind a computer screen 🙄

I thought most people on here were pros?!

I thought most people on here were pros?!

Or if you read certain threads on BikeRadar, semi-pros. 😉

As a_a says ^^, back of a fast moving bunch, altered hand positions and the bike just jerked fractionally as it hit a slight bump. Nothing failed, just a case of bad luck. Down before you even know you're falling. 🙁
Good to hear he's basically OK.

If he was doing the claimed 50mph I don't think it would take much to go down.

I've only ever done 47mph on my road bike and that was tucked and on the drops and I very quickly went for the brakes as the wobble was starting to kick in…

Wtf use would offroad experience offer in terms of descending on the contact patch akin to the edge of a 50p piece at 50mph? 🙄

Jens Voigt rides so fast during attacks, that he could circle the globe, hold his own wheel, and ride in his own draft. At least as long as he didn’t try to drop himself.

Made my head hurt. But excellent.

I just watched an italian youtube of it and you can see the guy in front hits the same bump and has a little bit of a moment too. It looked as though Jens was just about to change his line as he got bumped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6B-ucBpdg4&NR=1

Or if you read certain threads on BikeRadar, semi-pros.

Bike Magic, aah happy times! Maybe time to rekindle that thread! He doesn't seem to have done any more racing sadly, I hope we didn't scare him off!

It's true though, there's clearly sod all window to try and recover it, you can't see the bump in the road, he was just really unlucky. At least it wasn't worse, had it been on a corner he could've gone head first into the barrier. That would have been nasty.