Monday 4 February 2013 17:04, UK
Johnny Hoogerland is "relieved" not to be more seriously injured despite fracturing five ribs, breaking bones in his spine and suffering a bruised liver after being hit by a car in training.
Hoogerland was was riding downhill in front of the team scooter when an unsighted car turned into him. The incident came 18 months after he and then Team Sky rider Juan Antonio Flecha were hit by another team's support vehicle at the Tour and propelled off the road. Hoogerland was thrown airborne and needed 33 stitches in his leg after landing on a barbed-wire fence. His latest accident is the second serious training incident sustained by a professional rider this winter, after BMC's Alessandro Ballan ruptured his spleen, broke his leg and punctured a lung in a crash in Spain just a few days before Christmas.
