I woke up this morning to learn that Tom Boonen did not start Stage 12 earlier today. BBC Sports reported that Boonen was suffering from an effusion of the knee, resulting in 80 centiliters of blood being drained. A can of soda is 35.5 centiliters.
Boonen crashed a total of three times in this years Tour, with the last crash occurring on a dangerous stretch of the descent out of Courchevel early in Stage 11.
I wasn’t really surprised to hear that Boonen didn’t start. The really surprising news was that Manuel Beltran had to abandon today after crashing early in Stage 12.
Several reports indicated that Beltran had injured his knee in the crash, but his left knee had been wrapped for previous stages due to tendonitis. Johan Bruyneel said on OLN that Beltran had crashed due to a touch of wheels and he hit his head on the pavement. Bruyneel said that Beltran was forced to abandon by the team and race doctors because he had become disoriented.
Bruyneel went on to say that Beltran was evacuated to a hospital in Gap and that he will be kept overnight for observation.
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