jurgen, van, den, broeck, 2013

Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) today became the first GC contender to abandon the Tour de France as his knee injury proved too painful to continue.

"He was crying like a little child this morning," General Manager, Marc Sergeant said at the team's bus. "It's not only today, you work for months to achieve something in the Tour and it's all taken away in a split second."

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Gregor Brown

Gregor Brown is an experienced cycling journalist, based in Florence, Italy. He has covered races all over the world for over a decade - following the Giro, Tour de France, and every major race since 2006. His love of cycling began with freestyle and BMX, before the 1998 Tour de France led him to a deep appreciation of the road racing season.