McEwen: I will be back

May 30st, 09. Robbie McEwen has undergone successful surgery and is looking to be back on the bike in 3-4 weeks. Can he really come back again?

McEwen fractured his tibial plateau in Stage 2 of the Tour of Belgium when we jumped up on the footpath and ended up crashing into a stop sign.

A tibial plateau fracture occurs at the top of the shin bone, and involves the cartilage surface of the knee joint. His team, Katusha, announced that surgery was successful with two screws inserted. 

"The surgery was successful, the alignment was good and there was no joint damage," said the statement.  

McEwen an Australian favourite (c) Katusha

2009 a year of crashes and wasted form

Injury at Tour Down Under (c)RoadCycling.co.nz

2009 has been a particularly bad year for crashes for McEwen.  His season started on a high when he won the Cancer Classic circuit race, the opening event for the Tour Down Under in January.  

The crowd favourite went from high to low the very next day when in the final sprint he connected with a camera from a spectator's outstretched arm.  McEwen didn't pull out of the Tour but his heavily damaged arm meant he didn't repeat the from he showed in the opening race.

In April McEwen was in the Belgian Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen (also known as Grand Prix de l'Escaut) where he crashed again in the final sprint when another rider's front wheel touched his back wheel.  

McEwen's career was in serious doubt after this crash, he was concussed and coughing blood which the team thought meant he had punctured a lung.  Fortunately, x-rays excluded fractures and lung perforation.

After the improved diagnosis McEwen was expected to join his team at the Giro d'Italia but after analysing his performance in the Tour of Romandie the team decided he was not completely recovered and chose not to include him in the Katusha Giro line-up. 

"Robbie has not yet completely recovered from his fall at the Grand Prix de l'Escaut," said the team's sporting director, Serge Parsani. "So after a rest period he will come back at the race and will prepare himself at the best for the next Tour de France."

McEwen was looking in form again when he won a stage in the Tour de Picardie earlier this month.  "I am very happy to return on good shape after my crash in Belgium," said the sprinter.

Unfortunately that good form is wasted again. No Giro d'Italia and now no Tour de France, 2009 has been a rough year.