Dutchman recovering from massive pileup on Friday’s stage to Metz

Badly injured in the big crash which happened on Friday’s sixth stage of the Tour, Vancansoleil’s Wout Poels is in danger of losing a kidney as a result.



The 24 year old Dutchman was one of the most severely hurt in the fall, which occurred at approximately 70 kilometres per hour and reportedly started when a Lampre ISD rider was unable to brake in time when there was a stall in the bunch. He had been putting overshoes in his back pocket at the time, and had one hand off the bars.



Poels suffered a ruptured kidney and spleen, a bruised lung and three broken ribs. He was taken to the miliarty hospital in Metz and then later transferred to a hospital in Nancy.



“We cannot currently rule out that Wout Poels going to lose a kidney,” said his Vacansoleil – DCM team doctor Peter Lagrou, according to De Telegraaf. “The structure of that body is broken, I can’t deny that the situation is worrying. Within a few days we can say more, though we are still hoping that he can keep both kidneys.”



Medical staff will today see if he can be transferred to the Academic Hospital in Maastricht. Lagrou said that his condition was currently stable and that he is in regular contact with the doctors looking after the Dutchman. He’s hopeful that there will be no long term implications.



“As far as I can tell now, Wout should physically get over this. Even if is missing a kidney, he can be at the highest level. He is a young man and has good health, which will help the recovery process.”



He added though that one concern is that if he does lose a kidney, the implications of a blow to the other one would be serious.



Other riders have however competed in the sport with similar conditions. Greg LeMond, triple winner of the Tour de France and double world champion, is said to have had one functioning kidney.



Poels is a talented 24 year old rider who this year won a stage and finished second overall in the Tour of Luxembourg, and also won the best young rider classification. He was second on two stages of last year’s Vuelta a España.

