Tour de France: Voss breaks nose and finger in final kilometre crash

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Stage 7 of the Tour de France saw NetApp-Endura again make the breakaway with Bartosz Huzarski representing the Pro-Continental team as he survived with Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) up until the start of the penultimate climb, the Cote de Maron.

However a crash in the final kilometre of the stage into Nancy brought down Paul Voss who broke his nose and fractured his left little finger and ended any chance of the team claiming a maiden Tour stage win.

The 28-year-old is now in doubt to continue in his debut Tour with team management to decide on the morning of stage 8 if he is able to contest the first foray into the Vosges.

"We had big plans for today," the team's sports director Enrico Poitschke said after the stage. "We definitely wanted to have someone in the group during this long stage, and Bartosz did a very good job implementing that plan. He really had a strong race. The final part of the race was going well for us, and that's why we focused on Paul. And that, too, went exactly according to plan. The entire team worked very well, with the result that we had three riders in the lead group."

While happy with how the race played out for 233 of the 234 kilometre stage, Poitscke explained the plan was derailed with the mass crash in the last kilometre.

"Unfortunately, with 900 meters to go, there was a crash involving all three of our riders [in the front group], and so the dream of a great result came to an end," he said. "I hope Paul will be able to continue riding because he's in really good shape. The other two are okay, so we're very optimistic for the coming days."

Voss managed to remount his bike and finished the stage before heading to the Tour de France mobile medical clinic for an x-ray which revealed his broken nose and a fractured finger.