Surprise Angliru winner currently living on soup and smoothies after heavy crash

Petra Stiasny, the surprise winner of the stage finish at L’Angliru in the Vuelta a España earlier this month, has crashed heavily in training. The 24-year-old Pole from Human Powered Health gave a medical update on social media.

Stiasny shocked friend and foe on 9 May by outsprinting all the big names on the feared L’Angliru, in the final stage of the women’s Vuelta a España. The lightweight climber from Poland simply climbed better than Paula Blasi, Anna van der Breggen and the rest.

For now, though, she has had to watch the races rather than take part herself. “Last Monday I crashed heavily during training. I suffered a double jaw fracture, a fracture in the ear canal and a shoulder fracture,” Stiasny said.

“Fortunately, I was finally able to have surgery on my jaw on Thursday. The road back will be long, but I will come back stronger. In the meantime, all recipes for soups and smoothies are more than welcome,” Stiasny added with a joke.

The next major race for the women is the Giro d’Italia Women, which starts on Saturday. Among others, Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) will take part.