Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten had the lead with just six miles to go Sunday when she came flying down a curve in the final descent.
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American competitor Mara Abbott zoomed past van Vleuten seconds later, but she lost steam in the final leg of the race and van Vleuten’s teammate Anna van der Bergen took home the gold.
Annemiek van Vleuten said she was fine and hoping to leave hospital 24 hours after her horror crash in Rio.
The 33-year-old was 10km from Olympic gold when she tumbled over her handlebars and crashed into on a concrete curb on tricky descent that some have said was too unsafe for the Games.
Nibali’s coach, Davide Cassani, said that the Italian broke his collarbone in the fall.
RIO DE JANEIRO -Cycling’s governing body the UCI said the Olympic course was not to blame for a series of bone-crunching crashes during the weekend’s road races around Rio’s stunning coastline.
The 33 year-old played down her injuries when she took to Twitter later Sunday to reassure her followers she was “fine” and expressed her disappointment at crashing out of the most significant race of her career to date.
Our thoughts are with Annemiek as she continues to recover. “We just want to know she is OK”, she said.
Former cycling gold medial victor Chris Boardman said he recognized before the crash that the course was too risky.
Van Vleuten suffered concussion and three spinal fractures as a result of the crash, but tests gave her some shred of good news.
It’s unclear when van Vleuten will be released from hospital.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics she along with Ellen van Dijk, Marianne Vos and Loes Gunnewijk represented her national team, the Netherlands in the Women’s road race at the, which was won by Vos.
“We do our utmost to design safe, challenging courses but unfortunately crashes do sometimes occur due to a combination offactors”.
Katrin Garfoot withdrew early in proceedings as expected, given she has the individual time trial on Wednesday.
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“I saw the 300-meters-to-go sign and I thought”.
