In the meantime the Dutch cyclist is in intensive care right now after a horrific crash near the end of the Rio Olympics’ women’s road cycling race on Sunday.
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“Heavy concussion and three small fractures in her lumbar spine”.
Van Vleuten was well enough to provide an update on her condition on Twitter, insisting that she was “fine”. The peloton had already dwindled down to a tiny selection of five riders with compatriot and race favourite Anna van der Breggen among them.
Mara Abbott did everything in her power to squeeze out a victory in the dramatic ending to the women’s road race Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.
While Van der Breggan won gold, Emma Johansson of Sweden won silver with Elisa Longo Borghini coming away with the bronze medal. Her fiancée had a bad reaction [to me speaking out] and sometimes people are unusual.
Van Vleuten’s teammate from the Netherlands, Anna van der Breggen, ultimately finished first and took the gold medal in the race after van Vleuten’s crash, and told The Guardian, she was rattled by the terrible wreck.
Their careers are at stake if they err and Armitstead has accepted that her reputation has been tainted by this episode.
“I’m actually quite angry because I looked at the road furniture and thought nobody can crash here and get up”.
– Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016 I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine.
Dutch rider Annamiek van Vleuten, who rides for Australian team Orica-AIS, was motionless after she crashed about 10km from the finish.
Past year she was left with three broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung following a training accident with a auto in Italy. When I went past her she looked dead, so I’m just really grateful to hear that she’s conscious because it looked like it was solidly broken.
“We passed Annemiek on the road”.
While Van Vleuten’s hopes ended suddenly, Abbott seeped away and she was tearful at the finish after losing a 28-second lead in the last three kilometres of the race, her pursuers working together to relentlessly reel her in. “She’s super-tough, she was almost killed previous year when hit by a auto…she recovered from that and is a really tough lady”.
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“Annemiek was leading but I realised I was now first in the team”.
