Cycling: Injured Henderson finishes stage

Greg Henderson.
Greg Henderson.
He broke two ribs, bruised a lung and gashed his hip to the bone in a horror high-speed crash yesterday, but former Dunedin cyclist Greg Henderson finished his stage of the Tour de France overnight.

"Not ideal but the reason I try is in case I don't make it ... I can't say I never tried,'' Henderson tweeted last night (NZ time).

The Lotto Soudal rider was one of 20 riders who crashed while travelling about 80kmh during the third stage of the classic race. He rode on for another 60km to complete the stage.

The crash, on a straight section of road about 100km into the stage, was so serious organisers neutralised the race for a short period to allow medical staff and officials to help the injured.

Henderson crashed out of the 2014 event.

The 38-year-old whose role is to lead out the team's main sprinter, Andre Greipel, showed grit to finish the stage in just over 3hr 41min, more than 14min behind the stage winner, Joaquim Rodriguez.

''He was going 82kmh when he hit the deck. That is the speed they were doing,'' his brother Chris Henderson said.

''I thought he was going to get out of it for a minute. He did pretty well but he just ran out of room.''

French rider William Bonnet clipped the wheel of Warren Barguil and the riders directly behind the pair were powerless to avoid joining the pile-up.

Bonnet was one of six riders who pulled out of the tour after the crash, reportedly needing urgent surgery for a broken cervical vertebra, although his condition was not serious. Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara also withdrew.

He started the stage as leader but fractured two vertebrae in the crash. He soldiered on but finished nearly 12min behind the stage winner.

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