Daniel Viegas fractures his left collarbone after a crash during a training

Portugal’s Daniel Viegas will miss this week’s Portuguese Cycling Championships after fracturing his left collarbone after a crash during a training session. The rider from Faro had to undergo surgery to reduce the fracture and will be out of action for an undetermined period of time.

Viegas was preparing these days for the upcoming nationals of his country, where the Algarve rider had planned to participate both in the time trial on Friday, in Vila Velha de Ródão, and in the road race on Sunday, on a demanding circuit in the town of Castelo Branco.

“I was coming out of an urban section, in Loulé, on a narrow road, with kerbs on both sides. I was training with the time trial bike on a stretch of uneven road. The bike made a strange movement, I couldn’t control it, I hit the ground violently and I hit my shoulder hard. A very painful blow. The doctors operated on me that night”, he explains.

After taking part in the Nationals, Viegas had foreseen to return to compete with the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team in Italy, on the occasion of the next Giro dell`Appenino, which is celebrated this next June 24, and later in the Swiss Grand Prix of Lugano, on June 27.

“I still don’t know when I’ll be able to race again. I was really looking forward to continuing the good image of the team that was seen in the last Giro d’Italia. Unfortunately these things happen, they are part of our job and now we have to recover as soon as possible to come back stronger and do a good job in the rest of the season”, he concludes.