Simon Carr holds on to his Tour de France dream

British climber tells Tom Thewlis he needed knee surgery after a training incident in Spain

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A Tour de France debut for Simon Carr still hangs in the balance after he was struck by a vehicle during a training ride in Calpe, Spain, in January which left him with a damaged patella. The Hereford-born climber ultimately required knee surgery to correct the problem, which derailed his new contract with Cofidis, the French WorldTour team he joined this year. Carr was told at a winter training camp that a Tour debut was possible, but after the injury he hasn't raced at all.

“A car pulled out pretty much right in front of us and then immediately did a U-turn,” Carr explained, recalling the incident. “I basically just hit the car on the side when they turned, I couldn’t get around it in time.

“It wasn’t a really bad crash,” he added, “but it was enough for me to cut the ride short and go back to the hotel due to the pain. My knee was pretty sore but nothing was broken, so I just thought it would be a few days with a sore knee and then I’d be back at it.

“I stayed in Spain to start the season the following weekend, but I was never able to ride without pain after that as I had a large swollen lump on my knee.”