Nine months on from the stage 4 crash that ended his 2026 season and almost took his life, Damien Touzé is still not racing, and his contract at Cofidis runs out at the end of the year.
The French rider lost control at around 60 km/h on 10 February on the Tour of Oman, after his front wheel skidded on a raised road marker as he reached for his bottle. He slammed into a roadside barrier.
Cofidis later listed the injuries: a ruptured spleen, a fractured tibia, and complete tears of the medial and lateral collateral ligaments plus the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. A perforation of his intestine was initially missed by doctors in Oman.
‘I saw the man next to me die’
Touzé told Vélo Magazine, in an account relayed by CyclingUpToDate, that the fear really set in at the hospital in Sohar, where he was first taken.
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“It was carnage. As soon as I arrived, I saw the man next to me die of a heart attack.”
With the intestinal perforation still undetected, his condition deteriorated. He told Ouest-France from his hospital bed in Menen that he had lost 10 kilos during the ordeal and feared he would not get home.
After about ten days in Oman, he was repatriated to Belgium, where further surgery revealed that his abdominal wall had never been properly closed. His organs, he told Domestique Cycling, had been in contact with his skin.
No contract, no answers
Touzé has not raced since the crash. More operations and months of rehabilitation have stretched across the rest of the year.
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His contract at Cofidis expires on 31 December. He told Vélo Magazine he is looking for any team willing to wait while he rebuilds.
“Who’s going to take me on? I know I’ve still got the engine. What I need is a team willing to take a gamble on me and give me the time I need to get back to my previous level.”
Touzé, 30, turned professional in 2017 with the French Continental team HP BTP-Auber 93, before spells at Cofidis, AG2R La Mondiale and a return to Cofidis in 2025. He has lined up at five Grand Tours, with his Tour de France debut coming in 2025 on top of three Vueltas and one Giro.
He has ruled out dropping back to amateur racing just to prove he can still ride, and no WorldTour or ProTeam signing has been announced for 2027.
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