Team Astana’s Sergey Renev suffers from a fracture of the right clavicle (collar bone) after a crash in the first stage of the Critérium International (France). At five kilometers from the finish in Charleville-Mézières a massive crash occurred in a peloton getting nervous for the bunch sprint. Four Team Astana riders were involved in the accident but Jani Brajkovic, Steve Moravito and Andrey Zeits were not injured. Kazakh rider Sergey Renev had to be transported via ambulance to the hospital of Charleville-Mézières. Team Director Alain Gallopin and the Team Doctor went to the hospital where it was confirmed that Sergey Renev did suffer a break of the right clavicle, the same fracture as teammate Lance Armstrong earlier this week.

Afterwards Renev was transported to Belgium where he will spend the night in the house of the Team Doctor. On Sunday morning, March 29th, Renev will undergo an operation by Dr. Sioen of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Lourdes hospital in Waregem (Belgium). Sunday afternoon Renev will travel back to his residence in Italy. One day later, the Kazakh rider will travel to Kazakhstan where he will recover in his family environment. For the moment it is impossible to tell when Renev (24), silver medalist in last year’s Kazakh elite road championships, will come back to competition, but the first diagnosis revealed a “nice” fracture.

While Sergey Renev suffered a crash in France, his friend and teammate Maxim Iglinskiy captured a podium place in the E3-Prijs Vlaanderen (Belgium). “I first planned to go to Tenerife after Milano-Sanremo to do some altitude training,” explained Iglinskiy, “but the team directors convinced me to start in Belgium. Now I don’t regret this any more. Dirk Demol was so helpful. It was the first time that I’ve done this race. I missed some knowledge of the course, but Dirk gave perfect instructions. I knew that it would be difficult in the sprint. (Filippo) Pozzato and (Tom) Boonen are so experienced and fast. The last four, five kilometers I did not work so hard anymore and hoped to surprise the two, but Boonen was so smart. He saw immediately what I was planning to do. Anyway I am happy. I can look forward to the next races. Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem but especially the Amstel Gold Race.”