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. “I am past commenting – I am angry about it”, Boardman said during his commentating duties for the BBC. “Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career”, she wrote.
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British cyclist Lizzie Armitstead said that seeing her rival lying motionless on the roadside was a “very hard thing to pass”. “We do our utmost to design safe, challenging courses but unfortunately crashes do sometimes occur due to a combination of factors”.
“This was way past technical, this was risky, and it means people who designed the course have seen it and left it”. “This was way past technical, this was unsafe”.
It had originally been hoped she would be discharged on Monday after Sunday’s crash but no time has been set on her release from hospital. Waiting for some research&hope I can leave today.
Eventual victor Anna van der Breggen, van Vleuten’s teammate, was in tears, being consoled by silver medalist Emma Johansson of Sweden and bronze medalist Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy before she stepped to accept her gold medal.
“We saw Annemiek at the side of the road; it was very unusual because it just looked not good”, the gold medalist said, according to the Guardian.
Exactly a year before the Olympic road race she was hit by a vehicle while at her pro team’s Livigno training camp in Italy.
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A year ago she was left with three broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a collapsed lung following a training accident with a vehicle in Italy. “I don’t know. It’s still a bike race and everything can happen, so it’s maybe just bad luck that it happened to her”. The pair had gone over the top together, but van Vleuten quickly dropped her companion and appeared to be en route to Olympic gold when she crashed.
