Annemiek van Vleuten crashed her bicycle less than seven miles from the finishing line in the Rio Olympic Games road race on Sunday, breaking her back in the process – and her heart because she was leading for the gold.
Advertisement
The race came to life on the final climb, the Vista Chinesa, when Abbott and Van Vleuten took off, leaving Van der Breggen in a group desperately trying to stay in contention.
Writing through her Twitter account, van Vleuten said: “I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine”.
The Dutch cyclist, 33, was seemingly on her way to a gold medal before going over the handlebars in Rio – suffering three fractures in her spine.
The Post-Star was not able to talk to her after the race, but leading up to the Olympics, Guarnier said the course was one of the hardest she had seen in her 10-year career.
Annemiek van Vleuten’s mother, Ria, was celebrating her birthday on the day of the race.
Sunday’s road race was won by Van Vleuten’s compatriot Anna van der Breggen in three hours, 51 minutes and 27 seconds.
“I am past commenting – I am angry about it”, the 1992 individual pursuit Olympic champion said. “So after, Emma just said, ‘Do it for Annemiek, ‘ and I said ‘Yeah, that’s right”‘.
Ch-ch-check out the terrifying crash (below) as we continue to send good vibes Annemiek’s way. We knew it was way past being technical; it was unsafe.
Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali suffered a broken collarbone and Colombia’s Sergio Henao broke his pelvis. The season is now over for both men.
There has been widespread criticism of the road. “It is an absolutely incredibly unsafe course”, said Britain’s Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton.
The Daily Mail reports that cyclist Chris Boardman, who serves as a commentator for BBC, later said that he was upset about the unsafe conditions of the road.
The carnage and its occurrence on the same road has led some to point fingers in the direction of Union Cycliste Internationale, cycling’s governing body.
Advertisement
“The Rio 2016 road race course was carefully designed and was extensively tested at the test event and in training”.
