Infection of the sacral bones had already begun and would have been almost impossible to treat.

It is attached to the triangular-shaped sacral bone above it.

The sacral canal runs throughout the greater part of the sacral bone.

A quarter-sized eye of sacral bone stared sightlessly outward from the center.

Runner-up Andy Schleck (and later declared 2010 winner) was not in the Tour due to a fracture of the sacral bone of his pelvis at the Critérium du Dauphiné.