The BMC Racing Team will start Stage 1 of the Tour de France without Mathias Frank, who suffered a broken right thumb, a torn muscle in his left thigh, and a badly cut lip in a high-speed crash during Saturday's Tour de France 2010 prologue.

Racing on rain-soaked streets in his first Tour de France, the 23-year-old Swiss crashed in a broad-sweeping, right-hand curve on the 8.9-kilometer course. "My back wheel slipped away on the painted lines," Frank said. "I thought I could get control again but I was too close to the barriers and hit the barriers going pretty fast." He is expected to be off the bike for at least a week.

BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said losing a rider in the Tour is always big, especially so early in the three-week race. "It's a loss for the team and a loss for Mathias because the Tour de France is always a dream for every rider," he said. "We know we still have a strong team around Cadel Evans and we are already focusing on the next stages."