Feillu fractures collarbone in final Tour of Poland sprint

Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil) crashed out of the Tour of Poland just 120 metres from the finish line of the final stage in Kraków, fracturing his right collarbone and threatening his hopes of leading the French team at this year’s world championships.

Feillu was critcised by Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel for his erratic sprinting style during the Tour de France, with Cavendish calling him a kamikaze for the way he jumps around from wheel to wheel. The Frenchman revealed on his website that he was following Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervelo) as he tried to move up for the final acceleration to the line in Kraków. It is not known what caused the crash but Feillu went down at high speed and also suffered numerous cuts and bruises.

“I’m leaving for Belgium today and I’ll have an operation on the fracture tomorrow (Monday). It’s a clean break with an easy displacement to operate on,” he wrote in a message.

His Vacansoleil team suggested Feillu would be out of action for some weeks in a Twitter message, which would seem to end his chances of being the leader of the French team for the world championships in Copenhagen on September 25. However Feillu is determined to try and recover as quickly as possible and has already identified a possible date for his return to racing.

“I think I’ll be able to get back to training in four days on home trainer and then on the road in about 15 days. That would allow me to return to competition and be on form for Paris-Brussels (September 10),” he wrote.