Injured Reserves Report: Christophe’s broken ribs

Christophe Laurent was involved in a routine crash a few days ago in the final stage of the the Tour of Denmark. He sustained an injury to his chest in the crash. As is often the case, it didn’t seem like a serious problem at the time, so no detailed medical evaluation was undertaken. However when Christopher returned home and began training again, the chest discomfort persisted to a worrisome (and painful!) degree, so x-rays were done which confirmed fractures of four ribs. There is no apparent injury to the underlying lung which is the real issue when ribs are fractured.

Christophe will be able to train gradually back to race level as his ribs heal and the pain subsides. The frustrating fact about fractured ribs is that there’s no way to immobilize them to allow them to heal since they must move a bit with every breath (breathing not being optional). So this will be more of a painful annoyance than anything and Christophe will soon be back racing.