But her dreams of winning gold in the race were dashed when she was left injured, with fans fearing the worst as she lay motionless on the ground. Her bike flipped over along the side of the road; her head hitting the pavement, her back crushing along the curb. At least that’s what this guy thought judging by him mansplaining how to do so…
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The crash happened on the Vista Chinesa, the same descent where the leaders of the men’s race were wiped out on Saturday. And another had a dare suggestion…… “Terrible, it scared me senseless”, she said to the broadcaster.
“I’m actually quite angry about it because I looked at the road furniture and thought: ‘Nobody can crash here and get up, ‘” Boardman told The Guardian.
“Of course if you are riding out front, then maybe you take too much risk, I don’t know”, she said.
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. 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.
She led 10 kilometres from the end of the 137km race before tumbling to the asphalt as her compatriot Anna van der Breggen went on to win at Copacabana beach. “We just want to know she is OK”, she said.
“I went down and had a look at the course and saw those edges”.
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.
Van der Breggen, Johansson and Borghini all clocked the same time of 3 hours, 51 minutes, 27 seconds in the 137-kilometre race.
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“I’m happy with the tactic I had, I just simply wasn’t good enough at climbing, so I can be proud of the effort I did”, Armitstead said. The Dutchwoman later insisted she “will be fine” after it was revealed she had suffered a concussion and three minor fractures to her lower spine.
