Spaniard crashes on Eneco Tour’s stage 1 finale, joins Plaza as non-finisher in the first road race of the Benelux event

The race of misfortune for Movistar Team in the 2011 season seems not to have an end. The turn was today for Fran Pérez, forced to withdraw the 7th edition of the Eneco Tour as a result of the crash he got into with 40 kilometers from the finish of the first road stage in the race. The Spaniard was soon assisted by the medical services from the race, which put a bandage in his head to block the hemorrhage caused by a wound in his head making him bleed abundantly. Moved to the Amphia Molengracht hospital in Breda, where he got stitched in the wound, the first radiological checks revealed a broken right collarbone.

The abandon by Pérez was second to Rubén Plaza’s, the allrounder getting completely out of energy and leaving the Eneco Tour at the feed zone into the stage. Sporting matters were clearly aside as Greipel (OLO) took the first mass sprint of the race, with all Movistar Team riders into the main groups of a race maked by numerous crashes that the telephone squad could not avoid once again. The second stage, over a similar route, will be done on Wednesday with 173k from Aalter to Ardooie, back on Belgian soil after two Dutch stages.