Damn, I hate calls like this. Johnny Weltz called to let me know that Steven went down in stage 3 of De Panne and landed badly on his shoulder breaking his clavicle (”collar bone”). The x-ray showed a crack near the end of the clavicle where it joins the scapula (”shoulder blade”). For a refresher course on clavicle fractures.

We tease Steven about crashing a lot. In fact, he does seem to be a bit “vertically challenged”. I don’t mean he’s short (he’s not). Rather he seems to have some difficulty staying vertical. He’s not the first young rider with that affliction. It’s something that some have to learn - the fine art of staying out of mishaps and therefore vertical.

Steven is so aggressive and focused on his riding. Despite this relapse into horizontality, he is making good progress in this area. He is one of the toughest guys I know, plus this is a very stable fracture. So look for him to back at it before you know it.