Wout Poels 'getting used' to riding Tour de France with broken rib

The Dutchman's mood is impenetrably positive despite riding the Tour de France with an injured lung and fractured rib

Wout Poels at the 2020 Tour de France (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

(Image credit: Getty Images,)

Every year the brutality of the Tour de France ensures there is one rider who suffers painful injuries early on in the race yet battles through to the end, soldiering on over HC climbs with physical ailments that would see mere mortals like you or I bedridden for weeks.

This year the unofficial 'hardman of the Tour' award seems to be heading the way of Wout Poels, the Bahrain-McLaren rider suffering a broken rib and injured lung after coming down on the slippery opening stage in Nice.

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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.