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Six defining moments from the Rio Olympics women’s road race

Annemiek van Vleuten suffered three fractured vertebrae and a concussion after a horrifying high-speed crash in the Olympic women’s road race on Sunday but the Dutch rider said she will be fine and was more disappointed at missing out on a medal.

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With the race continuing despite the crash, viewers were left concerned for Annemiek when no pictures of her or news of her condition emerged.

“Thanks for the all the messages”, she posted with the photo.

Instead of a flawless present – seeing her daughter win an Olympic medal – van Vleuten feared that the crash might have taken Annemiek’s life. The American was overtaken by the rapidly advancing pack as she headed toward the finish line.

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.

Former Olympic individual pursuit champion Chris Boardman told the BBC the course was unsafe.

“It’s a hard descent because you can go really fast but you also have to corner”, she said.

While three spinal fractures are not insignificant, Van Vleuten talked mostly about disappointment.

“I wasn’t comfortable holding her wheel and the pace she was holding on the descent”, Abbott said, “and unfortunately she crashed”.

“I’m actually quite angry because I looked at the road furniture and thought nobody can crash here and get up”. We knew it was way past being technical; it was risky.

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 risky for the Games.

The Dutch team said van Vleuten was conscious when she was loaded into an ambulance, and Chef de Mission Maurits Hendriks and team doctors said she was stable and speaking Sunday night.

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“Of course if you are riding out front, then maybe you take too much risk, I don’t know”, she said.

Anna van der Breggen