Wallays finished Vuelta a Espana with multiple fractures

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Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal) finished the Vuelta a Espana despite breaking two ribs and his right wrist, after two crashes in the first week. Wallays crossed the line in Madrid 151st in the general classification, almost five hours down on winner Christopher Froome.

Wallays wrote on Instagram on Thursday morning, "@lavueltaaespana was mentally very hard for me but I did it. Yesterday I go for a second check of my body and result was broken wrist and 2 broken ribs. We had 4 victory's with my hero's @lotto_soudal but I won also a war. Thanks everybody for the past 3 weeks."

The team latter confirmed that he had a fractured scaphoid in his right hand, "as well as two broken ribs, the sixth and the seventh, on his right side. This means that Wallays will stay off the bike for a few weeks and possibly for the rest of the season."

Wallays crashed with just over three kilometres to go on stage 4, along with Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dani Moreno (Movistar), finally finishing six minutes down. The team reported that he had "bruised his right wrist and some ribs."

On the very next stage, Wallays fell victim to a water bottle in the feeding zone, giving him "abrasions on his back," the team said.

While Wallays suffered a lot of bad luck, the team enjoyed one of their most successful Vueltas a Espana with four stage victories thanks to two from Tomasz Marczynski and one apiece from Thomas De Gendt and Sander Armee.