Jens voigt crash 2009 tour de france

Jens Voigt of Team Saxo Bank is doing "OK under the circumstances" after his Tour de France-ending crash on the final descent of stage 16, his team announced late Tuesday.

The German appeared to lose his grip on the handlebars after hitting a bump in the road on the descent from the col du Petit Saint Bernard and he fell to the ground while going an estimated 80kph.

Voigt was taken to the University hospital in Grenoble and diagnosed with a fracture of the right cheekbone and a concussion.

He will remain in the hospital for observation.

The father of five sent a message to his teammates from his hospital bed: "I think I was very lucky not getting severely hurt from today's crash. Now I hope that you can focus on the race and I wish you all good luck with the hard stage tomorrow”.

The crash, which occured near the beginning of the final descent of Tuesday's stage, could have had much more severe consequences.

Voigt lande