Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten, a member of Australian professional team Orica-AIS, lay motionless with her body sickeningly contorted after losing control after she had gained a marginal solo lead with 10km to go to the finish.
Advertisement
Ria van Vleuten told RTL News, “I thought she was dead”.
Annemiek van Vleuten on the attack before the treacherous descend.
Before accepting the gold medal for the race, Van Vleuten’s teammate Van Der Breggan was crying, reportedly over her teammate’s crash, and had to be consoled by fellow medalists, Emaa Johansson of Sweden, who won silver, and Italy’s Longo Borghini, who won bronze. “We do our utmost to design safe, challenging courses but unfortunately crashes do sometimes occur due to a combination offactors”.
– Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016 I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine. “Knowing that this chance is 1 in 4 years, doesn’t make it easy”. As it turns out, Annemiek van Vleuten cracked three vertebrae and sustained a concussion, reports Reuters.
“Still in the hospital”, she wrote Monday morning.
Her incident, coupled with the many in the men’s event, has led some to criticise the descent for being too risky.
Cycling’s governing body the UCI defended the safety of the course as it was labelled risky by former Olympic pursuit champion Chris Boardman.
“The people who designed the course and said what safety features were needed had seen it as well and left it”, Boardman said. Thankfully her message to fans let everyone know that she was recovering, despite the devastating loss. I saw Annemiek lie and that did not look good.
Advertisement
If we ignore that Van Vleuten is one of the world’s top female cyclists or that two men, Geraint Thomas and Vincenzo Nibali, crashed the previous day on the same descent, then this is some top advice. “The peloton is so small and we all know each other very well”. Last August, she suffered three broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung after being hit by a vehicle in Italy during a training ride.
