Saturday 2 July 2016 20:39, UK
Alberto Contador said he will focus on recovery for the next few days of the Tour de France after crashing heavily on Saturday's opening stage.
The 33-year-old Spaniard, who is the third favourite for overall victory, fell and slid into a traffic island with 79km to go following an increase in pace in the peloton.
He was able to finish the stage and escaped serious injury, but he admitted he will now have to nurse bruising and road rash down the right-hand side of his body.
He said: "All my right side is injured, from the knee to the shoulder. Fortunately nothing is broken and I'll try to pass the next few days the best I to recover before the mountains. X-ray examination isn't needed.
"My shoulder hurts depending on my position, but the Tour de France doesn't end here. I want to be optimistic, thinking of taking a maximum profit of the hours ahead of tomorrow's uphill finish to recover.
"There was a lot of tension because we were fighting for positions at the front to avoid the wind. We were paying attention, but I saw a central reservation too late and the front wheel went to the side. It's bad luck."
Geraint Thomas suffered a puncture while jumping a kerb to avoid Contador's crash, and he later fell himself when he was brought down in a pile-up in the finishing straight.
The Team Sky rider admitted his relief that he had avoided injury.
He said: "There was a crash in a corner just after a bit of a crosswind section, and there was a lot of stress because Contador and one of our boys came down in the group.
"I just came up to it fast and went on the left, tried to jump over the kerb and clipped my back wheel and punctured. So I kind of had to wait for a wheel and stuff, but that was OK. Contador seemed OK. He was pretty cut up, so I'm sure he'll feel that for a while.
"Then obviously there was a big crash at the end. I got caught up in that as well, so hopefully that's all my luck out of the way now on the first stage."
The Tour continues on Sunday with a 183km second stage starting in Saint-Lo and ending with an uphill finish in Cherbourg. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the stage with our live blog from 12pm BST.
