Twenty stitches for Luis Ángel Maté after fall in Tour de Pologne

The Marbella road racer's fall preceded the death of 22-year-old Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht, which followed a collision at another stage of the tour

PEDRO LUIS ALONSO

Friday, 9 August 2019, 13:48

Cyclist Luis Ángel Maté, from Marbella, is already back on the Costa del Sol where he is continuing his recovery from a serious fall last Saturday.

The fall happened during the first stage of the Tour de Pologne in Poland in which Maté made his first appearance following weeks of altitude training with his team, Cofidis.

Maté was involved in a collision with teammate Filippo Fortin and fell from his bike only 20 kilometres from the finish line in Krakow. The huge impact to Maté's head resulted in serious bleeding and the cyclist was rushed to hospital in Poland, where he spent Saturday and Sunday night.

Despite not suffering a single fracture and not losing consciousness at any stage during or after the fall, Maté required more than 20 stitches in his head. His teammate was not so lucky, however, and had to undergo an operation.

The fall happened only two days before the tragic death of young Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht, who crashed into a concrete drainage tube in a roadside ditch at another stage of the tour.

Maté described his fall on Saturday as the "ugliest" he has experienced in a race, and said: "The helmet saved my life." He also argued that "the Polish roads were not in suitable conditions" for racing.

The crash came at an unfortunate time for Maté, three weeks to the day before the start of the Vuelta a España in Torrevieja.

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