Julian Dean's Olympic dreams possibly dashed

Rotorua professional cyclist Julian Dean's Olympic hopes maybe over after he broke his leg in the Tour of Cataluny overnight.

The 36-year-old, who has competed in seven Tour De France was involved in a pile up about 5km into the 210km stage in the Pyrenees.

It was the first race of the season for Dean, considered one of the best lead-out riders in the world. He is now facing an operation on his leg which could put him out of action for some time and has put his dreams of riding in a fifth Olympic Games in jeopardy.

Dean swerved to avoid riders who had crashed in slippery conditions in front of him hitting a parked car in the process.

The Greenedge rider has only just recovered from a broken shoulder sustained in a training crash in New Zealand before Christmas.

Greenedge spokesman Neil Stephens said the team was "distraught" about the loss of Dean.

"From a sporting perspective, it's terrible to lose a rider to a crash. From a personal perspective, we really feel for him. He has had a lot of bad luck this year and Catalonia was his first race back after a previous injury.

"He'll have an operation tonight in Valencia - his home base in Europe. We preferred for him to have surgery at home to make things easier for him and his family," Stephens said.

Prior to the race a number of riders pulled out of the tour including RadioShack-Nissan's Andy Schleck and Moviestar's Alejandro Valverde. Organisers cut short the stage before the final two climbs of the day as snow, wind and rain hit the peloton.

Dean won a bronze medal on the track at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and also competed at Atlanta in the team's pursuit but switched to the road for the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

He had been expected to team up with Greg Henderson or Hayden Roulston for the road race at London but his probable unavailability might open the door for someone like Jack Bauer or allow BikeNZ to enter one of the track riders to beef up their track team.

Fellow Kiwi Sam Bewley tweeted: "Heart sunk as I just read a tweet that Julian Dean has broken his leg. Too many bad things happen to too many good guys! All the best Jules!"

- APNZ