The curse of Christian Vande Velde

If Garmin-Transitions rider Christian Vande Velde didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck at all. It's as if he was hexed by a wandering gypsy, forever cursing him to start Grand Tours with short-lived hope and promise. This is a list of his injuries so far this year: a broken clavicle (Giro d' Italia), three broken ribs (Tour du Suisse) and now during stage 2 he crashed on the Stockeu suffering a left eyelid laceration which required multiple stitches. The damage didn't end there, he alsobroke two ribs. The extent of these injuries has forced him out of the Tour de France. Can't a brother catch a break?

It's not like Vande Velde hasn't had solid results at the Tour: he was fourth in 2008 and eighth in 2009. He's been a professional cyclist for thirteen years so it's not like this was a case of rookie-itis. The rain coupled with a dangerous descent - described by Radio Shack's Chris Horner as dangerous in the dry, and in the wet: suicidal - made it a crash-fest in the making.

His turn of bad luck didn't even start on the now infamous descent of the Stockeu where so many riders piled it in.

"I crashed once right before the Stockeu. Riders crashed in front of me and I wasn't able to avoid them, so I went down. We all knew it was important to be at the front over the climb and at that point, I felt okay and I got back on and made it back to the front to get up Stockeu."

This was the smart move - get to the front where the risk of crashing due to someone else's mistake is minimized. However it still didn't prevent Vande Velde from once again coming ‘to grief'.

"Then another rider lost control in front of me and again, I couldn't avoid it. I crashed and landed in a ditch. I'm not sure what I hit; I think it might have been a pole. At that point my eye was bleeding pretty badly and the pain in my side and my back was excruciating. I got back on the bike though, and was coming back with Andy Schleck. I tried to stay with that group, but the pain was too much and I couldn't get out of the saddle to make it back on."

Vande Velde was Garmin-Transitions' guy for the general classification and director sportif Vaughters now has to focus on possible stage wins and getting lucky with breakaways. However their most obvious stage winner and possible green jersey contender, Tyler Farrar, also threw an impromptu yard sale on the descent. While he finished the stage, the damage was a sprained left elbow, road rash and a fractured left wrist.

" I rode the last 30 k with one hand. I laid my left hand on the handlebars but that's all I could do," reported Farrar. With this type of damage it would be a miracle for him to finish the 13 kilometers of cobblestones included in stage 3 let alone bump elbows in a field sprint.

As of now David Millar, David Zabriskie and Ryder Hesjedal are still in the mix and could be relied to mix it up for Team Argyle. Julian Dean is also an experienced sprinter and may have to step up and try to fulfill that role. The New Zealand rider also crashed, however his injuries are not that extensive.

With time to heal, Vande Velde could re-boot his season at the Vuelta a España. Tyler Farrar might be on that program as well and with the World Championships just a few weeks later, that might be a perfect build up for him. So let's turn those lemons into lemonade - World Championships here we come!