The concierge lady at the hotel this morning said her husband used to be a pro cyclist but he crashed in a race and fell down a ravine, being so badly injured that he almost lost his arm.

She told me his name but I have forgotten it. The story seems really familiar tho – can anyone help?

You might have to be a bit more specific, country, nationality ?

Oscar Perieio had a nasty broken arm the other year

British, I assume. The lady in question is Scottish, but I dunno if her husband is because she lives in Farnborough.

Not massively famous, I'd have remembered if it was David Millar or Alberto Contador or someone.

How old was she?

There is a famous incident in the Tour a long time ago when the guy had to be pulled out of a ravine with inner tubes/tyres strung together from his team mate but that was in the days when you carried your own tyres strapped around your shoulders like real men….

The best known ravine crash in the tour de france was a dutchman wearing yellow, the 60's I think. Someone will be along to tell us who in a minute. In the 90's Johann Bruyneel also rode down a Pyrenean ravine in the tdf, got up, finished the stage.

More recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O5d94P6JGo

1951, Vim Van Est:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/tour-de-france-an-alternative-view-of-the-ultimate-road-race-456215.html

Arthur Metcalfe?

She must only be late 30s at most.

What was the one recently where the bloke flipped over a crash barrier and down a hillside?

Fränk Schleck in the Tour de Suisse – link above? or do you mean the crash in the tour a few years ago, was it Mick Rogers?