Tanja Erath needs spinal surgery after Women's Tour crash

Tanja Erath will undergo spinal surgery after crashing out of the Women’s Tour on stage 1. The Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank rider was initially taken to a hospital in Banbury on Monday before being transferred to the much larger John Ratcliffe Hospital in Oxford. 

The team confirmed the news of Erath’s surgery needs to Cyclingnews after the finish of stage 2 in Walsall.

“It happened near the beginning of the race yesterday, just a touch of wheels I think that caused the crash,” the team's owner Linda Jackson told Cyclingnews.

“It happened on a straight section of road. It was pretty frightening when we got up to her. She was off the road a fair ways, in a ditch full of nettles, conscious but in a lot of pain. She was complaining about back pain and the diagnosis is a broken rib, broken collarbone that needs surgery, two broken vertebrae, one unstable ... (a 3 column fracture of [fifth thoracic vertebra] and 1 column fracture of [T-6]) and possibly a broken finger.

"She does have to have spinal surgery due to the fractures.”

The 31-year-old German came into the race after helping Germany to a silver medal in the team time trial mixed relay at the World Championships in September.

Erath was a practicing doctor before winning the 2017 Zwift Academy to secure a contract with Canyon-SRAM for the 2018 season. She spent three seasons with Canyon-SRAM before she signed for Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank at the start of this year.