Jerome Pineau was set to play a key role for IAM in their debut Tour de France but the veteran Frenchman may have to watch the race from the sidelines. Today he crashed out of the Criterium du Dauphiné with a broken metacarpal but he refuses to give up the hope of being at the start of La Grande Boucle in Leeds.

The 5th stage of the Dauphiné Libéré, which was won in a solo effort by Simon Spilak (Katusha), did not end so well for IAM Cycling after having had to deal with the heat and a bit of adversity. 

On the bright side, Stefan Denifl (33rd) managed to slip into the day’s breakaway before being tailed off the back in the final, and Sébastien Reichenbach continued to impress by finishing well in Christopher Froome’s yellow jersey group and regaining a place on the GC (12th). 

Unfortunately a large pile up shortly after the start in Sisteron brought Jérôme Pineau’s plans to a screeching halt.  The French rider on the Swiss Pro Continental team needed to leave the race in an ambulance and was taken to the hospital in Gap. And the diagnosis was not comforting. 

In addition to some pretty serious bruising on the left side, Pineau suffered a fracture of the 5th metacarpal of the left hand and will undergo surgery as soon as possible at the University of Geneva Hospitals (HUG) in order to recover quickly and return to his racing schedule. 
 
After arriving at the team hotel, Jérôme Pineau expressed his eagerness to make a full recovery while explaining what happened. 

“The peloton was travelling at a very high speed on narrow roads.  I wanted to get into the break and found myself in 15th or 20th position.  It got very narrow and my front wheel hit another guy’s wheel and I was not able to stay upright. 

"I want to have the surgery as soon as possible to fix this break to my metacarpal.  If all goes well, I should even be able to be back on the indoor bike next week. 

"That thought gives me good morale and I am confident that I can be in shape for my next races.  Even if medicine is not an exact science, I have not given up on my chance of being selected for the team to ride the Tour de France.”