There will be even more “fragile” tape in use at the US Postal Team headquarters after their French sprinter Stephane Barthe failed to take notice of the “this way up” stickers.

Barthe was forced into the barriers by a peloton sweve 200m from the finish of stage 4 of the Four Days of Dunkirk. In a terrifying crash his head and left arm took the full force of the 40 mph impact. Luckily his helmet kept head injuries to serious cuts, but his left arm is reportedly multiply fractured.

This crash follows those of Tyler Hamilton and Dylan Casey, and though both riders are on the mend Postal must be hoping that everything will now go smoothly for the rest of the season, espescially the crucial Tour De France build up of the next couple of months.